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rlyqueerJust Little COVID-19 Things
Starting tomorrow, LA county is officially in "Safer at Home" mode, which is basically a soft lockdown. That's a good thing.
Also incredibly surreal, but it's a solid step and hopefully these efforts are successful in protecting the community. Officials were so slow to move at the start of things, but now it seems they're speeding up action, which I can appreciate.
Birthday Celebrations On Hold
A lot of people are dealing with big plan disruptions, but I procrastinated my birthday planning so I don't actually have anything to cancel on Wednesday.
I guess I'll just take the day off work, putz around the apartment, and order some takeout! I was starting to make my big plans to celebrate for the summer, because I'd really wanted this year to be the one I finally traveled overseas, but that's definitely on hold.
Car Troubles & Bad Ghosts
Months ago, someone came into the neighborhood and keyed a bunch of cars—mine included, on both sides of my windshield.
I didn't bother with it for a while, but when I finally submitted a claim, I ended up totaling the car because all the estimators went higher than its value (it's a '97, an "old" car). I've been fussing a lot about it to be honest, despite the fact that my insurance sent me a big fat check for way more than I paid for the car or expected to get from them. Like, it's a good sum of cash they've sent me.
The trouble is, I find it extremely difficult to believe in good things coming out of my shitty situations. I used to absolutely believe that I could make lemonade from lemons, but... Almost 10 years ago when I tried to do just that, it backfired horribly and it was certifiably traumatic. I thought I was being smart and rigging a system that owed me better. Everything was very awful for a while after that and I still feel it like a gut-punch when I think about it. So now, I'm extremely wary about things that look like lemonade recipes when I'm holding all my damn lemons. Is it really a good thing? Should I accept it? Is everything going to go horribly wrong once I have?
But I finally made the decision today. I'm cashing the insurance check and getting a salvage title to keep the car, bless her. The guy I took her to ended up telling me that his glass guy said he could fix it for a very reasonable price, after I'd already totaled it with the insurance company of course lol. But maybe that's for the best since it puts good money in my pocket and it'll still be covered for comp and collision.
pats myself on the back!
Wri...Words...Writing Words is How?
I wish I was having an easier time getting back into my groove. Still experiencing troubles in this department. I've done a bit here, done a bit there, and I did fix a plot hole after at least a week of brainstorming (AKA head scratching).
So the well hasn't totally dried up, which I am grateful for, but... I really want to be doing more. I just don't have the energies lately.
Maybe I need to start a new project to get things flowing again. Not that I need another WIP, but the high my Aries ass gets off starting projects is a sick wave I can ride into working on the other WIPs once my attention span splits from the new project.
Adding to List of Good Things
Music—
Perfect tunes to start your morning with (cafe mix with jazz/bossa nova)
1-hour chillzone mix (chillhop/jazzhop)
Fly Me to the Moon but it's playing in a different room and it's raining
Binging—
The Great Pottery Throw Down, all the charm of Bake Off but with pottery instead of food
Portrait Artist of the Year 2020, where painters are challenged to paint a portrait in 4 hours with beautiful process shots and gorgeous results
The TRY Channel, just Irish people trying various things and being hilarious—I highly recommend any of the alcohol tries, but the Moonshine tries are my absolute favorite (bonus booze tries from their old channel)
Henry the PaleoGuy, who goes pretty in-depth about his paleontological topics
Starting tomorrow, LA county is officially in "Safer at Home" mode, which is basically a soft lockdown. That's a good thing.
Also incredibly surreal, but it's a solid step and hopefully these efforts are successful in protecting the community. Officials were so slow to move at the start of things, but now it seems they're speeding up action, which I can appreciate.
Birthday Celebrations On Hold
A lot of people are dealing with big plan disruptions, but I procrastinated my birthday planning so I don't actually have anything to cancel on Wednesday.
I guess I'll just take the day off work, putz around the apartment, and order some takeout! I was starting to make my big plans to celebrate for the summer, because I'd really wanted this year to be the one I finally traveled overseas, but that's definitely on hold.
Car Troubles & Bad Ghosts
Months ago, someone came into the neighborhood and keyed a bunch of cars—mine included, on both sides of my windshield.
I didn't bother with it for a while, but when I finally submitted a claim, I ended up totaling the car because all the estimators went higher than its value (it's a '97, an "old" car). I've been fussing a lot about it to be honest, despite the fact that my insurance sent me a big fat check for way more than I paid for the car or expected to get from them. Like, it's a good sum of cash they've sent me.
The trouble is, I find it extremely difficult to believe in good things coming out of my shitty situations. I used to absolutely believe that I could make lemonade from lemons, but... Almost 10 years ago when I tried to do just that, it backfired horribly and it was certifiably traumatic. I thought I was being smart and rigging a system that owed me better. Everything was very awful for a while after that and I still feel it like a gut-punch when I think about it. So now, I'm extremely wary about things that look like lemonade recipes when I'm holding all my damn lemons. Is it really a good thing? Should I accept it? Is everything going to go horribly wrong once I have?
But I finally made the decision today. I'm cashing the insurance check and getting a salvage title to keep the car, bless her. The guy I took her to ended up telling me that his glass guy said he could fix it for a very reasonable price, after I'd already totaled it with the insurance company of course lol. But maybe that's for the best since it puts good money in my pocket and it'll still be covered for comp and collision.
pats myself on the back!
Wri...Words...Writing Words is How?
I wish I was having an easier time getting back into my groove. Still experiencing troubles in this department. I've done a bit here, done a bit there, and I did fix a plot hole after at least a week of brainstorming (AKA head scratching).
So the well hasn't totally dried up, which I am grateful for, but... I really want to be doing more. I just don't have the energies lately.
Maybe I need to start a new project to get things flowing again. Not that I need another WIP, but the high my Aries ass gets off starting projects is a sick wave I can ride into working on the other WIPs once my attention span splits from the new project.
Adding to List of Good Things
Music—
Perfect tunes to start your morning with (cafe mix with jazz/bossa nova)
1-hour chillzone mix (chillhop/jazzhop)
Fly Me to the Moon but it's playing in a different room and it's raining
Binging—
The Great Pottery Throw Down, all the charm of Bake Off but with pottery instead of food
Portrait Artist of the Year 2020, where painters are challenged to paint a portrait in 4 hours with beautiful process shots and gorgeous results
The TRY Channel, just Irish people trying various things and being hilarious—I highly recommend any of the alcohol tries, but the Moonshine tries are my absolute favorite (bonus booze tries from their old channel)
Henry the PaleoGuy, who goes pretty in-depth about his paleontological topics
no subject
Date: 2020-03-20 02:03 pm (UTC)With you on the making lemonade thing. If I want lemonade, I'll buy me some lemonade, you know? Because sure someone might've dumped a bunch of unwanted free lemons, but then I gotta go buy sugar, too, and sometimes I don't have the energy to juice the lemons so WHAT NOW, KAREN? (apologies to the Karens who aren't like that but you know what I mean) Anyway, yeah. Solidarity.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-20 06:43 pm (UTC)And yeah, when people are aggressively positive, it can be equally exhausting as the bad situation itself. It's important to let people process feeling bad about their shitty circumstances, KAREN!
For me, I don't really struggle with that internally because it's something I've already processed having grown up with That™ kind of mother—and I'm fairly adept at tuning it out when it's foisted on me. A lot of my struggle stems from not trusting myself to make the "right" decision when face with something that COULD be good but it COULD also be a TRICK that RUINS MY LIFE. And the trouble is that there are actually good things that come from bad situations, but my brain is immediately distrustful and goes into panic mode. It's very rude.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-20 06:25 pm (UTC)Happy early birthday! I hope you have a wonderful day.
ETA: All of California locked down last night...I've already been living like that for six days, but it's both a relief and very stressful that it's now 'official'. I know what you mean about things being surreal.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-20 07:03 pm (UTC)And ahh thank you!! I'll make sure I do!
Re: California lock down, I just saw that this morning which was pretty wild! I've also been doing the same for about a week and a half now, but I definitely have mixed feelings about the news. I know it's the right call and I'm grateful for it, but there's still a real weirdness to it.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-21 04:50 pm (UTC)Yeah, it's surreal - I'd been doing this for a week anyway, but making it official made it feel so different. *sighs* We're okay for all the necessities, but it's just sinking in that it's going to be a long time before we can see our friends in any kind of group capacity.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-23 04:34 pm (UTC)I also feel you on the friend thing, especially because we all had plans to get together for consecutive birthday celebrations. I miss their faces but at least we've got technology to keep us in touch and share information.