I haven’t been able to sleep so well lately. When you wake up at 4:30 in the morning and realize you’re still lying in bed like a zombie when the local paper arrives outside at 5:45, you know it’s a problem.
The isolation issue really just started to kick in for me in the past couple of weeks. That’s because I have a pretty definite return to work date and my sixty projects are still in limbo. I have a pile of stuff to go through, plants to re-pot and a front yard needing tending to. On the other hand, I have managed to perfect my chocolate cake and have started working on vanilla, plus I have a great banana bread recipe to go to in a bind.
I hope binds don’t come up any time soon, because I already shared the banana bread with my neighbors, and I don’t want to bore them with more.
I also broke down and finally bought a microwave. It’s a 1000-watt behemoth taking up prime kitchen space, but it will help me once I begin my commute again. The frozen dinners don’t cook the same in a microwave as in a regular oven, but I have found it’s okay to sacrifice a soggy Hungry Man brownie if I manage to nab Mister Softee instead. I’ve yet to do a bag of popcorn, but I suppose that is part of the new microwave initiation process, so I’ll have to make a note to do that. Also need to remember where the popcorn aisle is.
In the past week I also got two new doormats, and consigned the old front doormat to the side door. The problem with doormats is not realizing how much gunk collects under them when you lift them up. The dust from that task, along with the time I took to fix a storm window and encountered more dust, got my allergies acted up something terrible. No matter what direction I swept in, the dust came back to get me. That’s what I get for trying to change something.
Meanwhile, the act of tidying up is troublesome, because no places are accepting plastic bags, shredded paper or clothes. What does de-cluttering produce? All of those. So now I have piles of organized stuff I can’t do anything with, probably until it’s time to return to work, at which time the places accepting these won’t be open outside normal work hours.
Last week I managed a Zoom style meeting with the supervisors, managers and senior staff at the office, but I realized to my horror that I had the only room in the group painted in a color other than white or beige. That was depressing: I’m out of date.
Maybe that’s why I can’t sleep: I need a makeover. I need to finish my projects and then re-paint a room.
I’ll just pop a melatonin.
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