Couch 213: The Tulip couch

I feel pretty much OK. I mean, not happy, but I know I can deal with whatever.

It occurs to me that what therapists have always insisted is a problem for me—not thinking enough emotionally—is a strength in a crisis like this.

Yes, I do. It probably helps that I am still going into the office (CA is on a Safer at Home order but my workplace is considered critical manufacturing so we stay open as long as it is viable for us to do so). So my days haven't changed too much. My case manager/care coordinator is worried about the lack of social interaction for me right now, which I see her point but I don't think I am nearly as bothered by it as she is. She also thinks I am sleeping too much which I probably am but I was doing that before COVID-19 anyway, just now there is even less of an incentive to get up on the weekends! I feel like I'm insulated in some ways emotionally because my day to day life hasn't changed a lot during the week even though by coming to work and such we are all probably at higher risk of getting exposed. Hard to say. The places where I'm noticing it is on the weekends when I can't attend Church in person and stuff but I don't feel particularly down about it or anything. I feel like my emotions are out of place considering all that is going on.

I usually don’t write in this thread, only read. Right now I find it interesting to read about how different it is depending on where you live. I live in Sweden. We haven’t closed our schools. We can go where we want to, even though it’s recommended that we stay at home or work from home if possible. All stores are open. We can go out for dinner. But - they don’t recommend it. My T still sees people IRL.

It’s so strange how different the world is compared to a couple of month ago. It’s scary and weird. A lot of people here want them to close the schools and be more strict.

In Sweden, everyone is entitled to medical help. You don’t need insurance. You pay your taxes and you get the help you need (if urgent). But of course, the hospitals are crowded at the moment.

I hope the world will recover from this! ❤️

I didn't buy their attempts at turning me more emotional either - I see nothing wrong with my reserved responses ever -but it does seem an actual plus in situations like this

I'm bored at work right now. I'm trying to read through some COVID 19 articles for small businesses but my concentration is shot.

It sounds like you mostly have a desk job. Are you not allowed to work from home? Everybody I know who has a desk job has been working from home for weeks, and we (allegedly) don't have as many cases as California.

Fuzzy, so sorry about your dog.

I do have a desk job--accounting and HR--and my work did set me up to work from home IF it comes to it--which so far it hasn't and I haven't asked what does that mean? I mean if it were me, I'd have as few people here on site as possible, but it's not my company.


Our sister company in NY is working from home mostly. They are rotating shifts coming into the office but only like 25% of the workforce at one time. Which is maybe like 5 people. But then again we have a small workforce. There are only 15 of us, two of which work remotely anyway, which leaves 13 on site. And today 4 of the 13 are off on some sort of PTO.


The main time we are together is in the morning for our board meeting, other than that I sit in my office or occasionally wander to the front office to go to the copier or something.

I think they are just waiting for one of us to get COVID 19. Seriously.

Our lives have been very much disrupted. My husband is on unpaid furlough. Hopefully unemployment will kick in soon. No idea how long the furlough will be or if he'll end up losing his medical benefits at the end of April. My college son is home because his college has gone fully online, but he's highly stressed because over half of his classes are essentially unworkable online because they are music performance classes. I'm trying to start teaching online. Our district is mandating contacting every single student (our district has 53,000); I'm responsible for my 2nd period, but just making those calls and documenting everything is extremely time consuming. The technology isn't quite working right (or at all actually today) so it feels a bit chaotic. Daughter-in-law was having asthma problems today and they had to be sure it wasn't COVID (very similar in symptoms). Husband and I are both high risk so we're doing our best to stay away from stores. My father is 89 and in assisted living. So far fine, but I dread any news that the status of his center has changed.

All that said, we're okay. But all combined it is a storm of stressors. We're doing a good job of talking to each other and listening to each other vent about what we are personally stressing over at any given time. Fortunately, we have really good communication skills in this family (thank you therapy).

I just cant believe how stupid govt are. We had a rush on the unemployment office because the govt said they would waive the requirements for it. They were totally unprepared for the numbers and the minister esponsible said he didnt realise that people would lose jobs if businesses closed. Wtf

Our overtime was canceled today, so I just gave some much-needed attention to cleaning (mostly decluttering) my house. It had gotten out of control with both of us working so much. I need to teach these cats how to clean, or something...

T emailed me that she has sewn some masks for me and my co-workers. She is so darn sweet.

Our family unit is still doing well in quarantine and getting along much better than usual. It has also helped open our eyes to how much work (outside work, cleaning, cooking, etc) we each do.

Anybody read any good books lately? I like mysteries and sciencey nonfiction the best, but I am open to any suggestions that will make the quarantimes go by easier.

Quarantimes.

I doubt our tastes are the same, but here are my last few 5-star ratings for fiction books on Goodreads:

Baudolino by Umberto Eco
Purgatory Bay by Bryan Gruley (mystery series)
Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
American Gods by Neil Gaiman

I’m almost finished a thick biography of David Ben-Gurion. If the libraries hadn’t closed, I would have had to return it by now.

now that it's looking even more likely that L has the virus (from her email earlier today, she didn't say it, but it sounds like it from what she said....) i'm starting to be even more concerned about h being out there every day. he's taking precautions of course and has limited the number of jobs he takes each day (he tries to do only one or two) and everywhere he delivers to is also taking precautions so there's no human contact at package handoff (like, they'll watch from inside a door through a window that he has delivered the package, then after he leaves they'll come out and get it, stuff like that) and he washes his hands a lot but with L being sick for almost 2 weeks now (she NEVER gets sick) and the number of cases in my county now over 100, I'm getting more concerned about him being out there even as little as he is.

I like mysteries but mostly the lighter/cozier sorts

I refuse to read the ones that have a recipe or knitting theme. Or that have cats for detectives.

Well, we all have lines we have drawn.
I tend to like historical ones - ancient greece and rome - I like Steven Saylor, Lindsey Davis and David Wishart for example. I also liked the SPQR series by John Maddox Roberts.

We have very similar tastes. Some of my favorite authors.

EM: Carlo Rovelli- Seven Brief Lessons on Physics is lovely, and I just ordered The Order of Time which I cannot wait to read.

Currently I am reading Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Houston, we have a problem!

You know how bleach stinks, bothers my sinuses and because of how allergic my daughter was we never kept it in the house. WHY is it so effective? I don't want to use it but it's the only disinfectant I could find in 10 stores. My kitchen sink is so sparkly!

My classmate is back home, I presume. She landed at the local airport a few hours ago. Wow, was this in anyone's yearbook, person voted most (or least!) likely to be stranded in a international pandemic quarantine?

Lying on the couch, playing fetch with my child. Where do I go to self-nominate for my parent of the year award?

H and I will be switching off with the kids for probably the next month. Not sure if we should do half the week at a time or a whole week...less switching back and forth the latter way. But I don't know if he'll be staying here with the kids or taking them with him to his mom's. It's not like we have our own separate places which would be ideal in this situation especially with the virus stuff. I don't know if I have anyone to put me up for a week at a time if he wants to stay here. But the kids would be in their own house that way. I hate this with a passion. Especially with the virus and trying to do tele therapy with kids screaming in the background and jumping off bunkbeds...happened yesterday while I was on a video with T1 yesterday. I apologized but don't have much control over that.

Reading those effers on another site just pisses me off at them so much. One just admitted the part he likes about being a therapist is that " I like getting paid to talk to people. I'm not a salesman; I'm not the guy who's going to go over the 120 page Excel sheet looking for transcription errors; and I'm not made for physical labor. So I like making a living and providing for my family with just the stuff between my ears: working irregular hours, going into an air conditioned office, .." So basically what I have been saying all along - they become therapists because it is indoors, with little math, and no heavy lifting, and you don't have to be very smart or actually do anything and people still hand you money.