One afternoon last week Jared was on a conference call in our basement/ workout room which is now also his office. While he was on his call, I was a few feet away doing yoga while Duke rode his tricycle under my downward dog. It was the new normal of making it work in very strange times.
We have been ‘staying home’ for about a month now and in a perfect world, I would be pumping out blog posts, new articles and book recommendation with all my free time but that hasn’t quite been the case. I could list some excuses to why I have not been actively writing (limited childcare is number 1) but at the end of the day, my creative mind has seemed to take a nap through this ordeal. I haven’t felt like I’ve had much to say except that everything feels ‘off’. I know I’m not alone in feeling this way and the pressure to do our best in very unfamiliar territory is exhausting.
I look at my sad blog which, until now, had not been updated since February and feel like I’m letting myself down. 2020 was going to be all my writing, but like all of 2020, it’s still happening just not the way I had envisioned. My part-time gig as a recruiter for a small consulting company has not had much work for me but they do welcome my submissions to their online blog and compensate me for each post so I’m technically working as a freelance writer which is amazing. Even more incredible is that I’m writing about the pharma and biotech industry which is way outside my comfort zone. So, while I had wanted to expand my portfolio to book reviews and mommy life hacks, it’s now more about virtual communication and clinical trials.
As for reading, I was feeling like I had hit a block there as well. I ripped through books the first few months of 2020 and then I picked up The Devil in the White City by Eric Larson which had been on my TBR list for years. Some of you are going to be so disappointed in me but I’m really bored with this book. The writing is beautiful, and Eric Larsen is clearly a greatly talented author. I absolutely understand why people enjoy this book, but I unfortunately am not one of them. Actually, I am enjoying the chapters dedicated to the serial killer but the story surrounding the challenges in producing the Chicago World’s Fair is putting me to sleep. I was given permission to put the book down from a dear friend, who is also an English teacher so it felt like I was actually been released from an assignment but I’m almost done so I will see it through and move on*. Meanwhile, on audiobook, I’m loving Beastie Boys Book and that’s been a joy so I can’t wait to share my review with you (I have about 8 hours left which is roughly 12 more runs).
As I am sure many of you would relate, during this time my priorities are hyper focused on my family. We have had limited childcare, so my days have revolved around entertaining a toddler without the resources we have historically relied on like playgrounds, play dates, local museums and the library. We go on a lot of walks when the weather allows, Duke participates in music class via Zoom, we have relaxed our TV rules a bit (Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood FTW) and the Easter Bunny brought a scooter. We are making it work. We miss our friends, we miss our families, we miss all our activities, but we are committed to staying healthy and helping our community do the same. Meanwhile we continue to do our best in these very strange times.
*Update: Less than 24 hours after I published this post I finished Devil in the White City. Admittedly, I flew through the last 100 pages – possibly due to insomnia. 3 stars.