What a strange world to wake up to. Am I the only one who keeps pinching themselves to see if this is all real? I’m fortunate to have a job where I can still work from home. My life continues with my waking up weekdays at 6:30am and commuting down my hallway to the desk set up in my dining area. I can almost pretend that the world is normal. Almost. The first week I couldn’t stop checking the news and taking temperatures, mine and the temps of my two littles. They both had a cold, with coughs and my son had a sore throat… but no temps and they could breathe fine. By the second week I was mostly concentrating on researching who (age, location, etc, etc) was getting sick and what being sick would feel like. Even though most people were saying it’s only older people, I noticed that there was plenty of documentation of people in their 40’s getting it. That’s when the panicky feeling started to creep in. What would happen if I got IT and the kids dad got it at the same time? It was frustrating because even if I was social distancing (I could totally win gold medal status in social distancing), I couldn’t really have a say in how the kids father social distances since we are divorced. My previous post about the Seattle Gum Wall… that was totally inspired by a phone call I had with the kids dad, where I lost my sh*t and spontaneously came up with that metaphor. I was yelling at him on the phone, “YOU ARE GUM!!! YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!!” I’m sure my social distancing neighbors enjoyed hearing that one through the adjoining apartment walls.
Lately, the only thing that is getting me through is my obsessively posting meme’s on Facebook or coming up with the perfect playlist over on my Spotify account. I think this pandemic has accelerated the morphing process of my turning into my future identity of “Little Old Dog-Lady” who listens to the same song over and over, while rocking in my rocking chair, petting my lap-dog, with a far off look…
When I was 18 I lived in an apartment complex filled with old people. Of course, my definition of old was coming from the perspective of my then 18-year-old self and not my present I’ve-been-around-awhile world view. I’m pretty sure some of the residents were legit old, including the one who would play the same record over and over, almost daily. Old people were a mystery to me and they all seemed strange. And now, look at me…. My neighbors could say the same thing about me. “HOLY F*CK, not that song again!! “ I’m finally getting why someone might want to play the same song over and over again, for days on end. Music has the capacity for time travel. Put on a song, close your eyes, and the memory associated with the music starts playing in your head. I’m at an age where songs from my past are no longer “just songs”, they are magic time capsules with memories contained within them. My 18-year-old self could not comprehend a song having that much power. I enjoyed music, but the music I enjoyed didn’t have all the years of emotion attached to it.
I wish I would have asked my elderly neighbor about the song she played on repeat. Why that song? Where did it take her? I bet there was a great story attached to that song she used to play.
And now for some memes….
Sandy's Short Story Long- This is where I write. 
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