How’s Everyone Doing??

Tattoo parlour sign near Christie Pitts Park in Toronto

Let’s take a moment to hit pause on the techie posts. Because let’s face it, the world has been turned upside-down and then some. As much as I love coding, DevOps, and SRE, it’s not like things are business as usual, and I’m not going to pretend that they are. So how’s everyone doing?

Let me start.

First off, I’m tired of seeing people’s perfect-looking WFH setups on LinkedIn and Twitter. Looks like a goddamned interior design magazine. Puh-leeze! It’s probably covered in candy bar wrappers and cans of Coke. And that’s okay. Stop trying to pretend to be perfect.

I don’t know about you, but the last almost two weeks have been a roller-coaster. One minute, we’re looking forward to spring and summer. End of the school year. Summer camps. Family summer vacations. And then, it’s all gone, in one fell swoop. School closures. Working from home. Social distancing. It’s a big change to take in, and the situation keeps changing daily. Every time I think I’ve come to terms with the “new normal”, something else creeps up — a “new new normal”.

I’ll admit that I’ve freaked out a number of times in the past several days. Last week, I lost two extended family members living outside of Canada to COVID19. That, along with mounting bad news across the globe makes it hard to work at times. Even watching movies, watching TV shows, or looking at old photos stresses me. It reminds me of better, less stressful times. Times that I’ve certainly taken for granted. I mourn the life that I had before. Why did I take it for granted??

But this is the crap hand that we’ve been dealt, and we need to figure out how to make lemons out of lemonade. So in the interest of my mental health and to avoid having daily panic attacks, I’m trying to take it one day at a time and look at a bunch of positives in the midst of this crap storm:

1. We have FaceTime, so I can still see my parents.
2. My husband and daughter are home with me.
3. We’re eating healthier. We used to eat out and do a lot of takeout. We’re still doing takeout sometimes to support local businesses.
4. We’ve come up with stupid pranks to keep on laughing. We NEED to laugh. For example, we sneak-attack each other by throwing a stuffed stingray named Norbert. Glad he’s such a good sport.
5. We’re spending more time with each other. I can’t believe how crazy things had been before. It sometimes felt like we were ships passing each other in the night. Now we play card games and do more cooking together.
6. My daughter has turned into an amazing pastry chef, making macarons, cake, and other delights. Yummy in my tummy.
7. We’ve weirdly managed to connect with our neighbours more. Every night at 7:30pm we all step out on our front porches and bang pots together. It’s awesome.
8. I have taken the time to connect with friends that I haven’t spoken to in ages. Even if it’s to say hello and to make sure they’re okay.
9. My daughter continues to blow me away with her compassion. Every time I freaked out, she dropped everything to comfort me.
10. My husband continues to be a rockstar. No words. Much love. ❤️
11. I’m seriously enjoying our pet rat’s cuddles. Having a little furry friend during uncertain times is heartwarming.
12. My biz partner has been a ROCK. Listening to my freak outs and calming me down.
13. My sister has been a great sounding board, calming me with logic and facts.
14. We got a chin-up bar for our den, so I can continue upper body training until the climbing gyms open up again.
15. We have a little backyard to call our own, with a basketball net.

Finding the little joys in life in these uncertain times.

I keep waiting for Dustin Hoffman’s character from Outbreak to barge in and tell me that he’s found a cure to the virus. Or like when Bobby Ewing was, in fact, not dead, and it was all just a bad dream. But since neither of the above is likely, I must hold onto these little joys in my life, so that I can keep on moving forward in the best way that I can. These are uncharted waters, and we’re all coping in our own way to (try to) stay sane.

Bottom line: stay strong, my friends. We’re in this together. And also, it’s okay to lose your shit every so often. This is a crap situation and we’re only human, after all.

How are you coping with all this? What little things make you happy in these tumultuous times? Please share your stories!