Grounded, Goals and Growth

Despite a lack of sleep last night, worrying about my babies, considering the potential lack of human interaction for the next two weeks, and some minor issue about a deadly virus working its way all over China..., I woke up full of beans and decided to sort my life out. With only four more days until I was 'back at school' plus a potential two weeks of at home quarantine, I was being given a free pass to transform myself, emerging from my apartment like some beautiful butterfly emerging from her cocoon. Or something poetic like that.

Our first email from school on the 27th Jan had said we were going back to school without the students, and teachers would give online lessons from the classroom. Meetings would be cancelled, and no large gathering of teachers would be permitted. So far, so good. But a few days later, a second email arrived saying we would be now working from home. The workday would still be 7:30-4:30, but with no commute in the freezing cold, no school lunches, and the opportunity to wear my slippers at all times with Mao by my side, meant teaching online sounded good.

I danced. I baked. I sang. I put off lesson planning for another day.

My dogs looked scared and hid in the bedroom.

I contemplated all of the things I could do from home as I knew I was going to be sitting a lot - online workouts on Youtube with tins of beans for weights, yoga (Heaven forbid), pilates... I felt tired just thinking about it. But still, it's the thought that counts right?

I set myself a more realistic goal: I started on season 1, episode 1 of Friends. Many people are always horrified to find I've never properly watched it, and I always seem to miss references, so with 236 episodes over 10 seasons I figured it could keep me busy for a while. Plus, I have everything I need at home to keep me happy over the next few weeks.

As I near the end of my first week in relative isolation, I'm doing ok.

18 days to go...

As of Feb 6th:
1,384 unwatched YouTube videos on my 'to watch later' playlist.
490 unread emails.
7 unread paper books (+ 1 kindle).
2 avocados.
2 cartons of soy milk.
3 dogs and a hamster.
No more tins of baked beans (eaten in case any more desires to exercise surfaced).
234 episodes of Friends left to watch.