Dispatches from a Pandemic: Nonsensical

This monochromatic sameness of days. Life feels colorless. Dull.

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I hate this edgy restlessness. The dogs constantly scratching at the door.

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Lack of focus. I’ll be making scrambled eggs, then zone off, thinking about the island, thinking about where I bought my spatula, wondering if Cindy’s okay. Then return to the eggs like, what the fuck am I doing right now? What was I just thinking about again?

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My world is unbalanced, teetering on a one-legged yoga pose.

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The tentative “you okay?” texts to friends I haven’t connected with in months. The random memories that pop into my mind.

“Remember that time we were so hungover I puked in the ficas tree at Denny’s?” I text Cindy.

“Nope,” she responds.

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Run the dogs. Walk the dogs. Walk the neighborhood under the stars. A neighbor smoking a cigar, smoke curling in the moonlight. Someone doing laundry.

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On the kitchen counter, two recipes: Rice Krispy treats and my cousin’s Cape Cod chicken. Comfort food I’ll never make.

Note: I made both.

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I can’t explain why I find Wednesday morning trash pick-up soothing. Because it’s a routine carried over from The Before? Or the marking of midweek gives us a forward push as we move closer to The After? Does it matter?

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Dreamy sunshine. The thoughtless tease of an endless summer.

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At what exact moment did showering become a major life event?

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The pandemic: An entire season of snowdays. With power.

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None of this makes sense. “They opened the beach at Coronado yesterday, but no boating allowed,” my husband reports. “I don’t get it.

Bartlett Lake allowing boats, but no swimming.

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Nothing makes sense and nothing makes sense.