Cribbage in the time of Corona

For those of you who may not have been watching the news, the world has been facing and is in the middle of a pandemic. On Sunday I was given the prompt to journal about what this time is like for me because it is, in fact, a historic moment in our lifetimes. Now, I do realize that it is Tuesday and I still haven’t written this down, but some journal prompts need to be thought about before the pen goes to paper… or the fingers go to the keyboard, if you will.

Isn’t it amazing when inspiration strikes? I have my cup of tea and collagen in hand, sitting on my yoga mat ready to start my daily practice when I was struck with inspiration! Technology, ladies and gentlemen. I find that technology seems to play a huge role in making the social isolation, social distancing, physical distancing, flattening the curve… whatever you want to call it, a doable exercise. I am sitting here on my mat able to do a led yoga practice because of YouTube. I started this practice 8 days ago, so I am guessing that’s how long the “shelter in place” has been going on. To be honest, I haven’t really been counting.

I haven’t been counting because I am one of those that is still going to work. That doesn’t bother me, in fact, quite the opposite, I am privileged to have a job to go to. If you don’t read my blog on the regular (how dare!), I am a nurse and I work with kids. The one thing I will say is that thankfully, for now, this CoVID19 or novel coronavirus doesn’t seem to affect my population like it does the adult population. The stories that we’ve heard from China and Italy mean that we are just in the beginnings of it here in the US. My heart goes out to the teams on the adult side of our hospital every time I hear a Medical Rapid Response and every single time I hear them call “Anesthesia STAT.” There is a newer mood to the hospital, an underlying fervor of stress. We are saving isolation gear that usually would be thrown away after one use. We are changing practice to decrease the amount of aerosolized procedures happening. Our emergency room has been changing how they intake patients and how they organize. One of our units is dedicated to admitting the kids that we are ruling out the virus for, and I can feel the stress on these nurses and their teams. Elective procedures have been postponed for now and we get daily emails about what this means for us and our practice. In a time like this, you’ve got to be quick on your feet.

When I am not at work, I am at home. Shelter in place means you stay inside unless you absolutely NEED to go outside, for example, grocery shop, go to work, or the depressing but approved singular outside exercising. So what does staying inside mean to you? In my last two days off, I cleaned my entire apartment (including dusting… DUSTING!) and went through both my closets and the under bed containers that usually hold stuff I don’t need regularly. I’ve now got two boxes of clothes/shoes to donate that I can’t take anywhere but that’s okay. I organized the kitchen and went through all of my clothes, refolding and organizing my dresser again. I default to cleaning and organizing when I don’t have something to do! But this kind of “work” can be very solitary and being a person who lives alone can be lonely in a time like this.

Technology, friends! I was introduced to an app called Zoom and I have to say, this was the easiest computer chat that I’ve used in a long time. Sometimes FaceTime is clumsy and you can’t talk to more than three people. I never seem to remember my Skype password, and does anyone even use it anymore? But Zoom! On your computer, you can make it so that everyone on the chat is visible. It makes me think of the opening of the Brady Bunch where every person in the family has a square and they all look at each other. So I hosted a Zoom meeting for my good friends Sharon and Danielle and we ended up talking for hours. We hadn’t seen each other in what seemed like forever and it was so lovely to catch up with them! There are two more Zoom calls in my upcoming days off that I am looking forward to immensely. I usually have a full calendar of events, but I seem to keep scratching them out one by one. Races, adventure hang out days, Broadway shows, baseball games, etc.

As a self-described gym rat, this has been a difficult time on the gains! But with the help of technology, I’m working on making sure that I move at least a few times a day. I start the day with my Daily Yoga Practice which I have to say, I’ve been missing. I used to have a solid yoga practice that sort of fell by the wayside when I got a smaller apartment. I’m sure there were other contributing factors, but that’s the biggest (or smallest) one, I think. So starting the day off with some cleansing deep breaths and moving the joints has been a lovely addition! All of my gyms are doing online workouts, which I have to commend them for. In this kind of time, I’m sure it is terrifying for them. How long will we be closed? How are we going to continue to engage with our clientele? I have a lot of friends who are artists, and I remember what it was like to hustle with three or four jobs so you can still rehearse and pay your bills, and now all of that has been taken away. How will I pay my bills? How will I keep up my skill? I send my love out to these artists, physical trainers, gym owners and I try my hardest to support them as much as I can. I also love all these Instagram live, Facebook live, YouTube workouts that I can do in my living room. Sorry downstairs neighbors, I try my hardest to be light on my feet.

I FaceTimed the Madre last night because I think it’s important to have some “actual” face time with people in this time. I am staying away from my family and my friends because being at the hospital means I am more prone to carrying this nasty disease. The people I love are all doing the right thing and staying home, so why am I going to jeopardize them by bringing my “cooties” to their house, and that includes my mom. So we were on FaceTime and I said, “I think I found a way for us to play Cribbage over FaceTime! Each person will need a peg board and you will just have to peg for everyone so you know what the score is.” I thought I was exhibiting the genius and prowess that is my mind. Hark! Look at this amazing idea I have come up with! Stop the presses everyone… I’m about to change your life! Of course, that is when she reminded me that Cribbage is played with one deck of cards. You aren’t supposed to touch your face, but I thought seriously about facepalming!

Keep up the good work people! Stay home, chat with friends and family on the phone or via some sort of chat. Keep washing your hands. Only go to the grocery when you need it. Limit your news time. If you are anything like me, just listening to the news over and over is detrimental to your mental health, so listen to enough so that you know what’s going on and then shut it off and put some jams on. Try to do some moving, don’t just sit all day. A friend of mine came up with an amazing idea. List three things you would like to get done a day. That means you will be productive at least three times in a day! If you are feeling lonely, reach out to me or someone you know. They are probably feeling it too.