Last Saturday, early in the morning when I checked my email and found my positive Covid-19 test result, I skittered around the empty downstairs (all the kids still asleep) gathering up everything I thought I’d need. Laptop and charger! Library books! Rocking chair and footstool! The bills I pay on Saturday nights! Snackies! Water cup! The load of clean clothes from the dryer! Allllll the stuff I’d brought downstairs from my room when only Paul was isolating and I was camping out downstairs! I also did a bunch of hasty downstairs tasks: brewed coffee; gave the cat his pill; started the dishwasher; gave the cats a fresh water dish. And I refilled my weekly pill container, and today I’m taking the last set of pills, so here we are, nearly a week in my room.
The first day was GRIM, mostly because I was so upset with Paul (who seems to have finally understood why, and has admitted to wrongdoing), but also because I was adjusting to the news (being negative on so many tests for so long! and then suddenly the word POSITIVE), and also because I was worried I would be getting sicker (that has not come to pass, as of yet). Days 2-5 were pleasant: I enjoyed the forced downtime; I enjoyed nestifying the room (laptop HERE, charging station THERE, a pad of paper for making lists of things I need from downstairs HERE…); I enjoyed watching TV. I did not enjoy feeling like I had lost connection to the kids (I have been text-nagging them, but it’s not the same), but I did enjoy not making their dinner.
Days 6-7, I have been getting a little restless. I’d thought I didn’t like having Paul as a roommate, but once he was gone I felt lonelier, and more cut off from the household. The novelty of being in my room is wearing thin. I’m feeling some dread at the put-off tasks that are building up. But I know I am very, very, very, exceptionally very lucky to have had so few symptoms and to be spending this time getting a tiny bit bored of phone games and Office re-runs, rather than feeling terrible and trying to take care of small children and/or other people feeling terrible—or, of course, worse, being in the hospital and so on.
I am so grateful to all of you who, on the last post, mentioned that actually 10 days of isolation is not the Absolute All-Clear I thought it was. This is one of the things I SO VALUE about this group: it can be hard to process the ONE MILLION INFORMATION that’s out there, and it is much, much easier to hear someone just say the one relevant thing: in this case, that it’s after 10 days AND A NEGATIVE RAPID TEST—or better yet, two negative rapid tests on two consecutive days. When Paul, who was going on the “5 days all-clear but 10 days if your wife is a paranoid weirdo” advice of the CDC and his workplace, came home from work after his first day back, I gave him this new information, and he was…surprisingly resistant. But did eventually take a rapid test, and it was negative, and I was glad, because I would not have wanted to isolate with someone who was clearly thinking “BUT WHAT IF THIS MEANS I HAVE TO GO BACK INTO ISOLATION??” instead of “Oh no, what if this means I came out too early and have been endangering others??”
This sentence is so good and I read it several times for the sheer pleasure of it:
“When Paul, who was going on the “5 days all-clear but 10 days if your wife is a paranoid weirdo” advice of the CDC and his workplace, came home from work after his first day back, I gave him this new information, and he was…surprisingly resistant.”
I, too, am someone who is on the ‘paranoid weirdo’ spectrum of things (also, I work in healthcare) and my husband is…less paranoid.
OMG. I don’t think I am a paranoid weirdo (nor are the rest of us), I think everyone else is nuts. But, otherwise, yes to all of this.
I think we are so conformist to our souls (as a species? People?) that it is super hard for most of us to go against the grain. I don’t seem to have this problem. I’m all go with the flow until the flow seems headed for a waterfall. My husband would likely sail right over and wonder why he was in the air/crashing towards earth.
I had Covid about three weeks ago now- as in I tested positive twice, but had very mild symptoms. My husband refused to quarantine from me. He’s now the only person in the house who hasn’t gotten it (the three kids have had it at various times through the past 18 months). My husband works fully from home, so he was actually trying to get Covid just to get it over with. Ironically, my parents, who live 2000 miles away, got Covid at the exact same time I did. We joke that it was transmitted by phone.
My daughter and husband have had Covid since last Tuesday and Sunday, respectively. (We think my daughter got it at prom and then passed it on.) And coincidentally, my brother and his girls, a plane ride away, had it at exactly the same time! The moment I told my brother about my daughter, he said, “Oh no, I hope I didn’t give it to her!”
My husband is immunocompromised and has had antivirals. He’s still sick but who knows what would have happened if he hadn’t had them.
I’m so glad you’re doing well and sending vibes that this continues (which I imagine it will at this point fingers crossed).
This has nothing to do with this post but I had to mention it anyway. Last night my neighbor asked me if I’d ever had a See’s chocolate. (No.) I remembered your love for them and when he asked if I wanted one I replied enthusiastically YES. He gave me two – Bordeaux (I think) and chocolate buttercream and WOULD HAVE GIVEN ME MORE if I’d let him! I had the Bordeaux immediately (yum) and am eating the buttercream (even more YUM) right now. You weren’t over hyping them!
Marry that man.
Oh, AREN’T they yummy?? The price keeps going up and up, and I keep thinking “That’s it, I’m not buying them again”—and then I DO buy them again.
YOU GUYS. https://www.food.com/recipe/chocolate-bordeaux-490824
Here are some tips:
1) Use Guittard chocolate because that’s the kind See’s uses and it’s amazing. These are my favorite to bake with: https://www.guittard.com/our-chocolate/detail/akoma-semisweet-chocolate-chips
2) Don’t make 2″ balls, those are absurdly huge. I did 1″ and they were fine.
3) Don’t use waxy cake sprinkles. Go to World Market or wherever and get the De Ruijter sprinkles (either milk or dark) that are actually made of chocolate (like the ones See’s uses) and are also delicious on ice cream. Laugh at the idea that you are supposed to eat them on bread. https://www.worldmarket.com/category/food-and-drink/food/baking-products.do?template=PLA-2&plfsku=458570
4) I rolled the balls in chocolate and then in sprinkles, so they were entirely covered. This is not as faithful to an original Bordeaux, but it made them easier to handle. However, I thought they weren’t quite chocolate-y enough, so next time I would roll them twice in the chocolate before rolling them in the sprinkles.
!!!
Don’t laugh at that (no. 3)! I grew up in the Netherlands and we ALL eat them on bread. For breakfast and lunch: first a slice of bread with cheese or peanut butter, then a slice of bread with hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles). It’s about the only national dish we have ;)
So relieved your experience has been mild. Keep hanging in there, Swistle!!! <3
I’m so, so glad everything worked out. The most main responsibility of the CDC should be clearly communicating the best practices to protect our families and loved ones, and YET. I will never get over this abdication.
The ultimate “YOU HAD ONE JOB” meme, is what I keep thinking of. The Center for DISEASE CONTROL!! FOR DISEASE CONTROL!!!
My suspicion after obsessively reading everything possible on covid and testing last winter was that the CDC (1) knew rapid tests were really hard to get at the time and (2) for some people it really is a hardship to isolate 10 days, so they provided the “5 days and then mask for another 5 and test out of isolation if you can find a test” rule. But because they never SAID “hey we are only providing this early release possibility from isolation (a) if you really have to and (b) if you can’t access a rapid test,” many many people just think it’s 5 days and done. And so confusion reigns!! I think they could clear things up a bit now since rapid tests are much easier to come by, but apparently they aren’t going to.
“I would not have wanted to isolate with someone who was clearly thinking “BUT WHAT IF THIS MEANS I HAVE TO GO BACK INTO ISOLATION??” instead of “Oh no, what if this means I came out too early and have been endangering others??”” Because… you would have had to resist smothering him in his sleep? Like I would’ve?
I mean, it’s good that he seems to have finally understand what he did wrong and admitted to it, but his attitude could still use some shifting it seems to me.
I feel like I never understood until now just how self-centered he is—even though, looking back on it, the signs were FULLY THERE even in our dating days.
I am very relieved that you continue to have mild symptoms.
And glad that you seem to have gotten through to Paul.
The loneliness and disconnectedness is hard — I isolated for a mere three days a few months ago and it was DEEPLY depressing. So I feel for you, and I’m glad it is really only setting in now.
You mentioned watching Office reruns — what else have you been watching and reading? Anything super good or awful?
Okay I will confess I am also trying to figure out WHAT IS THIS THAT I AM WATCHING?? with a set of shows called 90 Day Fiance and 90 Day Diaries, which seem to be about people from the U.S. meeting people from other countries (usually online) and then bringing them to the U.S. on a special 90-day visa that is just to give them time to get married, and sometimes they really don’t know each other well at all, and sometimes the pairings are very squicky (40+ man with 20-ish woman is more common, but 40+ woman with 20-ish man also happens), and sometimes they get married and sometimes they don’t; and either way there is DRAMA!! I would not say the shows are GOOD, but I would say they are riveting in their own way.
I am also reading books by Becky Chambers: The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet; A Closed and Common Orbit; and now, Record of a Spaceborn Few. They are science fiction but with relationships and non-men and emotions. They are just a little too excited about themselves (a tone of “And also there are THESE aliens who are LIKE THIS!! And space food is like THIS!!!”—as if world-building was the fun part, and the plot was secondary), but fun to read, and the plots do eventually kick in.
I just read my first Becky Chambers book – A Psalm for the Wild-Built – and I loooooved it. It is definitely not really heavy on plot, nor on realism, but it is very human and character-complexity-and-growth-y and delightful and also chill. If you have also read that one, I would greatly appreciate knowing which others are most chill/human. (I am also not super-interested in space food or aliens; I mean, sure, have them, but I don’t really *care* until I have a reason to care.)
If you are at all interested in trashy reality TV, I can recommend Selling Sunset on Netflix. It’s ostensibly about a luxury real estate agency in LA (OMG the houses), but it’s mostly about the completely ridiculous lives the people who work there make for themselves. Cattiness, unwearable fashion, and immortal lines like, “I didn’t say you WERE a bitch, I said you were ACTING like a bitch.” It’s basically Shakespeare (“I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir”).
Love seeing all the shoes that match the fashion…crazy, crazy, crazy fashion.
That’s my favorite line with my middle school students… “I’m not calling you dumb, but you’re sure making a dumb decision right now.”
I have heard that the 90 Day Fiancé franchise is quite enthralling but haven’t yet given it a try. Sounds like it would be easy to become obsessed with it.
And yay for fun sci-fi! And time to read!
So VERY thankful that your symptoms continue to be mild and that, so far, the children are okay.
At this point in the pandemic, the CDC has lost ALL credibility for me with all their mixed messages. I mean, if you can’t trust the CDC messaging then who CAN you trust?
So relieved you never got symptoms and still enraged at Paul. The selfishness. The GALL. I’m glad he seems to have gotten a clue, but seriously???
I’m glad you’re nearing the end of the isolation; if it were me, the thing I would enjoy the very most is not making dinner/ cleaning up from dinner. Sadly, since we all had Covid at the same time, at no time did I get to NOT make dinner.
I’m glad you’re almost done with isolation, and you never got seriously ill.
After avoiding it for so long, we all got sick a few weeks ago. My husband got it first (because he wasn’t masking at work), and isolated by himself for the first day or 2. Then I got it, and tried isolating, but it was tough because my sons aren’t old enough to cook dinner/look after themselves, etc. I was kind of relieved when we all got it and didn’t have to isolate/mask inside the house. (And none of us were seriously ill). But I was SO annoyed that my husband got a couple quiet days to himself, while I still had to take care of the boys and get everything done around the house. Even when I was sick, I couldn’t get a day to myself.
So frustrating.