Pandemics i.

 Asparagus and Tomatoes, KB-style

Brussels Sprouts and Tomatoes, KB-style

Thanks to my Dad, loving on me from Michigan during this mess I'm about to portray (in my own words and experiences, obviously) I have a new (to me, refurbished) laptop to kick start what will become my 9th week under "house arrest"...and hopefully assist me in rediscovering my OCD, and gainful employment.

That all said, this is an intro entry to my personal series of The Great Pandemic of 2020, which has caused more emotional and physical upheaval than anything I've seen (and many others) in this lifetime. 

I'd like to record what has happened and is happening to us now as a globe, as a massive community of humans suffering from either the virus itself (it's called COVID-19, or Corona Virus) or unsolicited malaise from being sentenced to not leaving our homes unless stocking on essentials. I laugh at this somewhat, considering booze stores are considered essential right now. Plenty of newly born alcoholics may emerge from this raging planetary bullshit.

It all began mid-March. I remember jokes about this thing among coworkers, the Corona Virus, don a face mask to protect yourself and others! Turns out, this was no joke material, as it became a reality almost slammed at us overnight. 

So, I got laid off by the small GC where I had basically just started months prior, as were many, many Americans laid off from their respective positions. And then the domino effect occurred: the diagnosed infected, hospitalizations, overcrowding of hospitals, continued loss of jobs, and finally, around late-March, a mandate that non-essential workers remain in their homes.

The dates are groggy, to me. I know there are documented records of when specifically we were instructed to "stay the fuck home" but it's a blur, to me.

I spent the first couple of weeks in shock. My apartment is the size of a shoe box and while it's just me in it...that's the thing. It's just me in it. Good, bad or otherwise, it was feeling like the walls were moving closer and closer to me, menacing and growing sharp fangs.

Mind you, that was the tail end of March. Part i. of this series has barely broken the surface of what has elapsed in my overwhelmed and terrified mind. 

Alas, I'll shift to a few tied-to yet semi-unrelated topics.

I've been in and out of my kitchen quite a bit more frequently, which has had its highs and lows. Above depicted are two vegetarian dinners I made for myself to satisfy that void of nutrients that had begun to form. Food, in general, lost its lustre during a period (last week) which I will address in another entry to this series (I got extremely sick, not COVID sick, though I never was formally tested to say either way?) and could not keep even water down. I was drinking no fewer than 8 huge thermos volumes of ice water a day and none of it wanted to stay inside my little person therefore I was losing electrolytes and body weight at a record-breaking speed.

Again, I will readdress this experience. Other apocalyptic side effects joined hands and kicked me repeatedly in the empty gut. 

April was a calendar month that may has well have been yanked off the year, wadded up and thrown in the trash. Rob and I had 3 major events planned: The Airborne Toxic Event, Hades Town (surprise birthday gift he got for me) and Beetlejuice. None of those panned out, all canceled to protect the safety of the public. And my birthday (43rd) smack in the center of April turned into a surprisingly pleasing event, despite circumstances, which consisted of my Boettger contingency on a conference call along with Gale, Rich and Tyler, and I arranged it and requested in the invite that everyone bring a "poem for KB" to the "table," and all of my people complied and even went above and beyond what I could have anticipated. 

More on that to follow, as well. 

Rob: that topic (of us) also to follow in additional entries to this series.

He is currently watching The Crimson Kimono at his home solo, assuming drinking booze that he told me he bought today.

RW: "I'm watching a good old movie now - The Crimson Kimono."

KB: "LA Detectives. You love LA."

(I'm listening to Tori as I type this...)

KB: "Baker Baker on, he's gone to LA...we are wrapped in a theme geographically."

RW: "You love being wrapped in LA."

Ah. Well. I believe we are going to have to fall for one another all over again if this is meant to be. Of course, I believe in us and in this, but emotions have been dicey for us both for weeks, based on a state of figurative viscous mind-numbing events that have staggered us, caused us to stagger respectively, and which remain without a predictable new beginning.

Not that I would mind experiencing Rob for the first time all over again. However, that isn't to say I would not give anything in the world to just throw my arms around him for 20 seconds right now.

Off to sleep for this unemployed, broke and fragile girl.