Apr 1, 2020 Society
Day 7. Things are getting rough. If you take it day by day, lockdown doesn’t seem so bad, but allow your mind to wander for even a second to the reality of three more fucking weeks of this and it gets pretty grim, pretty quick. And I don’t even have children. Parents, you are braver than the troops.
Anyway, because I’m in a ratty as fuck mood I decided to write a little posi list of pros about lockdown and working from home (WFH), to make myself feel better. But due to the previously mentioned RM (Ratty Mood), I added cons too. Hehe.
It’s called catharsis, ok?
Pro: WFH means I still have a job, which is obviously a huge pro and also a relief.
Con: Job means I have to do work all day >:(
Pro: Short commute! Sleeping in! Yay!
Con: Even shorter commute to my couch once I ‘leave’ the ‘office’, so all my work paraphernalia is still highly visible and there’s no clear delineation between bad screen and good screen any more, making online less enjoyable outside work hours.
Pro: Lots of time to cook and enjoy being in the kitchen again!
Con: This is actually mainly just a pro, although it is stressful when you realise you’re down to your last few bulbs of garlic and someone’s going to have to enter the disease vector of the supermarket again
Pro: Getting to go for my stupid little walk in the afternoon
Con: Scared to touch everything, always get a bit sweaty and touch my face then spend a lot of the walk worrying about whether the virus is attacking my cells and such.
Pro: No plans, baby! No feeling guilty about just blobbing about on the couch after work or on weekends, no getting to Sunday evening feeling like you’re only just relaxing as work looms the next day.
Con: Due to my allegedly “free” schedule I keep overcommitting to video calls/ regular calls/ texting etc, and the effort of keeping in touch with people to make sure I/they don’t descend into lonely madness is quickly becoming a chore.
Pro: Time to catch up on reading
Con: Somehow haven’t caught up on any reading
me: now I can’t really go anywhere in the evenings, I’m going to get so much reading done! Maybe I’ll finally read Wuthering Heights 🙂
My screen time app: Interesting
— the big gun herself (@tnichss) March 23, 2020
Pro: No more meetings which could have been emails
Con: During the necessary meetings I have to see my hideous face in the Zoom camera
Pro: Actually saving a lot of money at the moment due to there being nothing fun to spend it on.
Con: Getting all worked up with nowhere to go with regards to online shopping. I used to find this fun in a past life (three days ago) but now I hate it.
Con, part two: Realising you’re the kind of person who, in the middle of a pandemic, continues to want frivolous consumer goods you can’t even use or wear anywhere. Deeply existentially depressing. Should I get this swimsuit though?
sadly I continue to want things
— JP (@jpbrammer) January 4, 2020
Of course, the major pro is that so far no one I love or care for is sick, and I am relieved to live in a country taking this outbreak seriously. But four weeks is a long time in lockdown, and we’re all allowed to be an RLB (Ratty Little Bitch) from time to time. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a bottle of wine in the cupboard which isn’t going to drink itself.
READ MORE: Self isolation – the perfect time to cut your own hair?
