Who’s tired of quarantining?
Actually, not me! Quarantining has become my new normal and I’m ok with it. In fact, I like it. I no longer have to deal with people! I’m happy in my house – much happier, and less stressed and no longer constantly annoyed and frustrated by work issues. I no longer feel like I’m dealing with recalcitrant children. I can breathe, I can appreciate the fruits of my very hard labour and truth be told, I like it! Naturally it would be nice to have a pay cheque, but I’ll get there.
So what am I up to? I’m working on becoming the next JK Rowling! Ha! Well, I have no illusions of grandeur about the competitive art of writing children’s books, but it has been a great release and helped me escape the world of reality and immerse myself in a fictional town in Antarctica!
When I was a little girl, my dad used to tell me bedtime stories. He was great at making them up on a whim and kept me enthralled with the adventures of Percy the Purple Penguin. So, as a tribute to him, I decided to write them down and develop them into a book for kids. I’m no author, I have no training in writing (except for attending school because it was the law!), but I was a kid once with a very vivid imagination that blossomed into an adult-like vivid imagination. My mum once yelled at me saying “there are no bloody snow faeries in crocuses, so stop messing with the buds” but I still check them – just in case…
Percy’s story has been completed and I’m in the process now of tightening it up and re-reading it, and re-reading it again and again and again. I’m enjoying channeling Percy to see what he will be up to in the next chapter of his life. I’m sure that every person who’s attempted to write a story hopes for publication, but not everyone is that fortunate. I’m going to give it a shot. If it goes nowhere, at least I tried and at the end of the day, I have a cool little story written down.
I’ve been furiously reading a bunch of children’s books to try and gauge where my story would fit in and to see what age group the story would appeal to. My local library, Machacek Library, has been immensely helpful and recommended several books per school grade. I’m not trying to teach anything in my story, it’s not PC-related, it is just pure escapism. I don’t have kids and am not around kids, so I don’t feel I’m qualified to be the “heavy” and dictate anything to anyone. It’s just a story, pure and simple. It has British undertones, because my dad was British and that’s how he told me the stories and that’s how it is written. You will find that the letter “u” is used a lot!
It’s been 4 weeks today since I lost my job and despite the anger and disappointment towards those who helped make that happen, it’s given me a sense of freedom and the chance to do something I’ve always secretly wanted to do. In the meantime, I’m going to read more children’s books because, let’s face it, they’re so much more fun to read than a lot of adult books!
Tag: quarantine
Day 19,264…
So, today is day 19,264 of my life.
That translates to:
633 months old
2,752 weeks old
19,264 days old
462,336 hours old
27,740,160 minutes old
1,664,409,600 seconds old
Time is a strange thing. It takes time to grow, but it seems to take a longer amount of time to grow UP. You plant a seed in the ground, hope for rain, hope for sun, wait and voila, about 3 months later you’re eating home grown veggies. You try to sneak in a late planting and do everything in your power to protect the plants and hope for no early frost and you may be lucky enough to harvest for a second time. Then winter arrives and nothing grows. You don’t tend to anything so nothing grows… In fact, due to lack of attention (partly) things start to die.
This is my 3rd attempt at writing for the Roggie-Blog. The previous 2 times I had finished the blog and was ready to publish it and clicked on “save draft” so that I could check it, and it disappeared. No idea where it went, but it’s gone. Because I’m 19,264 days old, I can no longer remember what I was writing about so I’m not able to replicate it. The first Blog “almost post” was written by angry me. Too much going on, too much negativity on social media and the news and I was, as we say in South Africa, “gatvol” (fed up). The second Blog “almost post” was written by disillusioned me. A bad start to the week, a couple of days of “gatvolheid” (fed upness) and I just pounded out words. Both times it happened, it made me frustrated. Greg said to me “just redo it”. Redo it? Redo what? I can’t remember what I babbled on about. Something to do with jobs, cars, protests, quarantine, cats, sleep, and the lack thereof, walks, heat, gardens etc. Ok, so maybe it was a good thing those posts never made it to Postville. I am sure they were epic, but alas, we will never know!
This is my 12th week of quarantine! Greg started back at work last Tuesday after considering all the pros and cons and doing an excellent job of preparing his office for the “new normal”. He has been fairly busy and had real conversations with all his clients before working on them. They are all complying with his requests and he is comfortable with working again – for now. But, our local new case numbers are increasing again, which is to be expected with everything re-opening, protests, summer vacations etc. It’s almost like people think COVID-19 has vanished.
During these 12 weeks I have stayed home as much as possible. I’ve washed my hands A LOT, used an obsessive amount of hand sanitizer and cleaned everything possible – I’m still not done (are we ever?). I’ve managed to take care of several projects around the house and planted my garden and taken care of it unlike any previous year where I’d never be this far along. My body, mind and spirit feel more rejuvenated because I haven’t been so rushed to do everything. I needed it. I needed it A LOT. I still have a long way to go but as I find myself again, I’ll be sure to share it.