Not the Weekend It Used to Be

This has been a tough week. Surviving it is a good thing, even if weekends don't mean what they used to.

The elephant in the room is of course the coronavirus, and I'm torn between trying to stay informed and not getting panicked. I've felt the literal weight of it on me this week, like a lead apron at the dentist's office.

Work was rough, for another thing, and it's hard not to think about COVID-19 all the time when half of what we're seeing come in these days is on the topic. Then, the report I had for most of the week was in PowerPoint. Editing in PowerPoint is maddening, almost as maddening as working on something by an author who doesn't care:

• about subject-verb agreement
• rules of punctuation
• getting drug names right every time, yes, every single time. 

I have never cared less about doing a good job--I still tried to do a good job as much as possible, but oh, it's a struggle to care about this right now. Hmm, your 140 slides on immuno-oncology simply must be published this month, eh? The demand is so high? Really?

Sigh. He cares. Maybe his manager cares. I can't believe anyone else cares much right now, but what do I know? If I'm right, it's even less likely than usual that anyone will notice mistakes I missed. It was better when I sent it back than it was when I got it, that's for sure.

I'm just so tired. I lay in bed Thursday morning before getting up, thinking how tired I already was.

I can think of a few good things that happened this week, so I'll end on those. My plan to reach out to someone every day did feel like a good thing to do. For a few friends who are doctors, I specified that I don't need to hear back from them, but wanted them to know I was thinking of them. Other messages turned into exchanges, conversations that helped my mood for moments, at least. Every little bit helps.

Getting the lanai function back was huge! The longer this goes on, the less we get out, the more it will help us to see out, see light.

I got a couple of books; I had a credit, and decided that I'd like to own the Murderbot books in hard copy (in addition to the ebooks and audio versions I already have), so I got the first two. The Martha Wells section of my bookshelf looks quite robust.

Last night I had my first Zoom get-together, organized by the knitting group down here. It was fun! Slightly chaotic, as we all learn how it works, but it was nice to see everyone. Other than a routine medical thing on Tuesday, I haven't been out of the house much lately, and in fact it feels longer than it has been really (time is all wibbly-wobbly lately, isn't it?).

And it took an email from Petsmart to remind me, but Maggie's birthday was this week. The process is now 8!

"Does this mean I get treats? More treats?"