Lockdown: Am I awake or asleep?

If I go for a walk right now, at 10:30 in the evening, and if I make it a quick one, I can satisfy my need to get some fresh air and some blood flowing, but I’ll be back at 12:30, I’ll need an hour to unwind, and then I’ll need an hour to write this. I can’t write right after a long walk. Or even a medium walk. And I’d like to get the work week started sanely, without being up until sunrise.

So I’m writing this now. Then I’ll do my getting-ready-for-tomorrow stuff, then go for a walk, maybe. Then come home, brush my teeth, and go to bed. I won’t be able to sleep right away, but maybe I won’t need the whole hour to cool down since I won’t be sitting down to do any thinking.

So yeah. Let’s see how this works.

I slept weirdly. Woke up feeling kind of rested, but Darth Vader wasn’t on my face. I took it off and went back to sleep and remember none of it. The machine tells me how much time the thing was in operation, and it said something like four hours and fifteen minutes. Not long before I actually awakened.

I didn’t get up and moving until 1:30. Ate the beef stew for breakfast. It was gross. Did the NYT crossword, texted Ali, read the news, did the LAT crossword. Somehow it was suddenly 8:00 in the evening and I had nothing else to show for it. I seriously don’t know where the day went.

I drove down the L&L and picked up a kalua pig combo with laulau. I have leftovers. I also picked up a chicken katsu for tomorrow. So I ate takeout for every meal beginning Friday and extending into Monday. Not proud, but strangely pleased.

I really wish I woke up early enough to have breakfast and then call my parents. I try not to call them too late in the afternoon. I’m going to have to take a morning break Monday and give them a call. Just need to see how they are.

While I had lunch/dinner, I re-read the intro to Susan Cain’s Quiet, the fourth time I’ve read the intro. Trying to give the book an honest, thoughtful, slow read, but I keep getting sidetracked. I also read the intro to Susan Frier’s Unfiltered: The Inside Story of Instagram, which I purchased a month before it was released and am only getting to now.

I’m pleased that I spent the time. I’d rather be reading a novel but I guess this is where my brain is right now, so I’m going to ride it. I’ve been following Frier on Twitter for some time. She’s a tech journalist who does really good work. And she’s rather fetching. Which I didn’t know when I followed her, I’ll have you know. I’ll admit it factored into my pre-ordering the book, though.

I didn’t listen to much music Sunday. A little bit of power metal as I was up and about. Nothing while I read. I’m spinning the Choir’s Bloodshot Eyes (2018) now, mostly because it stimulates my Sunday mood really well. Something wistful about this album that reminds me of my Sunday evenings when I was still teaching.

AJ texted me while I was typing yesterday’s entry, to see if I was asleep. She guessed wrong. I was awake. We chatted a little before I went to bed. Jennifer and I talked a teeny bit about the sourdough starter article she sent me. Silly shenanigans in the engineering group text. I sent Ali a couple of texts but she did the touch-respond to each, without actually texting me back. What’s the word for that? When someone ha-has your text message? Oh, I forgot she actually texted me when I was asleep — sent me a photo of a guy on 90-Day Fiance who goes everywhere carrying a cat. I responded with, “That’s me in six months.” Sylvia sent me a link to a recipe for rolled hoagies. It looks pretty involved, I said, but it looks delicious.

Feel a little yucky, physically, which I think I predicted sometime Saturday. At least right now, I regret nothing. I have to say the national news about COVID-19 is really, really bringing me down. I listened as usually on Sunday mornings to NBC’s Meet the Press via podcast and that made it worse. Then, unusually, I listened to ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopolous and that made it worse. We gotta get this guy out of the White House.

I’ve been staring at a blinking cursur for ten minutes, which means it’s time to just go. So let’s go. It’s three minutes to eleven, and I’m putting the odds of my taking a walk before bed tonight at something like 1.5 to 1 in favor.

Reach out if you need some connection. I can’t say I’ll be the cheeriest company, but I’ll be company. Leave a message in this space.

Here’s to a good week.

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