Monthly Archives: April 2020

A Virtual Musical Night (or Trying To Replicate My Routine)

With everything except for essential businesses closed in Los Angeles, anything that I had on my calendar has been canceled. This includes going to the shows that I have tickets for. Obviously, this isn’t the most important thing and I know that having places closed is necessary. But even though I know those things, it is still disappointing when things I have been looking forward to aren’t happening anymore.

This past Sunday, we were supposed to see “Spongebob The Musical”. Originally, when things started we were told that the show we were going to was canceled but we could move to another night. Then, all dates for the show were canceled. So there was no chance to reschedule. Since then, the entire tour was canceled so there wasn’t going to be a way to see it at a different venue in the future. I was sad because I was really looking forward to seeing this show. Dani was sad because we both knew it would be a fun night out, even if she didn’t know if she was going to like the show or not.

Somehow, I remembered that there was something about the musical being filmed and being on tv recently. I have no clue why I remembered that, but I’m so glad I did. I did a little research online and found how we could register to watch it! So Dani and I decided that we would each order in some food to our own places and we’d watch the musical online at the same time. And we could text our commentary to each other while we were watching.

We had a few technical difficulties when trying to start it, but we figured out a way to make it work and we were watching the musical very close to the time that the show would have started if we were seeing it at the Dolby.

And I’m so glad that we did this! The show was so cute and fun to watch, and it has some really snarky moments! There were also a few things about the story that felt a little too close to home with some people seeing a problem and others thinking they can ignore it and it will go away. But overall, it was a positive and silly show. It was exactly what we needed to watch. And Dani agreed with me that it was a really great show!

After we finished watching it, we decided to video chat. We could have just talked on the phone or texted, but anything that feels more like a real conversation is good right now. And we had a nice long chat about the show and lots of other random things. I didn’t realize how much I needed to talk to a friend like that until we had our talk. I’m still struggling with feeling isolated, but having someone else who understands helps me feel a little less alone. And having a communal experience with someone else, like watching a show online together, is one of the best things I can do right now. It’s not as good as the real thing, but it’s close.

We are hoping that things will be back to normal by the time our next show is supposed to happen, but we also know that it might not be that way. As of right now, the other shows we are scheduled to see have not been filmed so we might not be able to do this again. We were so lucky that this one was so we could at least experience it a bit. And if other shows get canceled, maybe we will luck out again and will find a way to see it together virtually.

An Isolation Monthly Challenge (or Just Trying To Keep Things Going)

When I set up my monthly challenge for March, I had no clue what the month would end up being like. I really had all the best intentions to work on my budgeting and to get back on track with where my money was going every month. I know that this is something I need to do and that’s why I created the challenge. And for the first week or so, I was doing ok with trying to figure out a good plan for myself with what I wanted to do.

But then everything went crazy. I’ll do another post another time about my mental health right now because it’s been a lot. I’ve written a few things about it, but I feel like how I feel is swinging back and forth a lot. And part of the struggle with mental health has meant that I have neglected to do some things that I wanted to do. And budgeting did slip off my radar.

I have tried to catch up this month with getting back on track and I know I am making some good strides toward it, but there is a lot that I wanted to get done this past month that I didn’t even get close to doing. I wanted to do the online classes with how to use the software the best way possible and I never did that. I occasionally had to look up how to do something so I did learn a bit, but nothing like what I wanted to do. I still feel like there is so much I need to learn in order to feel comfortable with budgeting things the way I was able to do it before.

But I had to be gentle with myself because I know that I had the best intentions going into the month and I didn’t have any control over things going crazy. I know that maybe some people would have been fine and able to continue working on the goals that they had set up for the month. And maybe under other circumstances, I would have been able to do so. But that’s not how things worked out this time for me and I am ok with that. We are all dealing with something that we have never experienced before and we don’t know how we will react or deal.

And being in an unknown situation is what made me think of my monthly challenge for this month. I know that there is a chance that I will settle into how things are right now, but there’s a good possibility that I will be struggling the same way that I am now. Things keep changing so there is no way for me to feel settled or like I can be comfortable with how things are. I cannot control the world around me, I can only control my reaction to it.

And that’s what my challenge is for April. I want to stay more in control of how I’m dealing with everything. And the main part of that for me is trying to maintain a somewhat normal schedule. I do still have 4 days a week that I have to get up at my usual time to do work, but I have 3 days a week that I can sleep as late as I want. I did take advantage of that last week, and it’s thrown off my sleep schedule. Things aren’t my normal schedule and I can’t always do everything when I’m used to doing them, but I can create a new schedule for myself that is as close to normal as possible.

And along with that schedule, I can get better about regular meals. I have been cooking more, but I haven’t been great about eating as often or when I should. Having dinner at 9pm isn’t good for me, but it’s happened more than once. I usually don’t eat breakfast, but I have been doing that lately and I think it is out of boredom. I need to plan meals the best that I can and work on scheduling when I am going to cook and when I am going to eat.

The only thing I have been ok at trying to maintain is having a few fun things in my life. They are limited to things I can do on my computer or phone, so that is a bit of a struggle for me mentally. But it does help when I have something to look forward to in the afternoon or evening. I’ve mainly been doing movies with friends, but I should try to find other things that I can do virtually with friends. This will be over one day, but it might not be soon. I need to get to work on adjusting my life so I will thrive during this time. Surviving isn’t enough for me right now. I need to find ways to continue pushing forward and working on myself. And I think figuring out a plan for this time is the best way I can do that right now.