MaryChristine.Me

It’s been well over a year since we retreated to our homes and struggled to understand the invisible enemy that seemed to have imprisoned the world at one fell swoop. We learned to cover most of our faces, rub hands with sanitizers every hour or so, watch our temps, stand three feet away from others, and stifle sneezes and coughs in public places.

The first few weeks found many of us experiencing fear of the unknown but somehow welcomed the unplanned break from our daily work routine. A part of me wanted to believe the virus would pass after a few weeks. Days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months. In my part of the world, we seem to be in the same starting point where the world found us last year. And at the rate vaccinations are slowly coming along, it’s realistic to say that we won’t get over this fear until 2023.

We can whine and complain about government inefficiency, as we should, but the wise would couple that with taking personal action for one’s own survival. This means adapting and changing the way we perform our usual responsibilities at home and at work.

At home, I stay outdoors mostly to have my meals, do work from home, play the piano ( I have a digital piano), take calls and breath breaks. If my meals were healthy before, they’ve been tweaked to become much more nutritious for the mind and body. I did this by replacing many of my staples with smarter choices and gradually removing whatever didn’t fit in my health plan. The change did not come in a snap. I didn’t even realize it until last month as I found myself weighing 5 kilos lighter than before. Gone were the periodic migraine, the sluggishness after meals, and the general feeling of guilt over consuming the usual poison.

As expected, we now keep a regular supply of high quality masks (vis-a-vis surgical masks), medical face shields, cloth masks for double masking, gallons of isopropyl alcohol (70% content, nothing less), Lysol spray cans in various scents and anything Lysol (think disinfecting solutions, cleaners, alcogels, wipes), disinfecting guns, UV disinfecting lamps, wearable air sanitizers, wearable air purifiers and ionizers– the list can go on. It’s easy to understand my compulsion to use anything that might remotely reduce risks of infection if you saw me wearing face masks months before the mandatory requirement set in, at a time when COVID19 was referred to as NCOV.

Social media habits have also changed. Updates center on things that matter to me the most: COVID19 info, legal notices, food, memories on Facebook, my boys, my work, and my lovie ( who must be mentioned for inspiring many changes in my life). I’ve reviewed my ‘friends’ on Facebook, weeded and blocked some, and kept privacy settings tight without shutting out the world. Security settings are constantly reviewed as well, given the rise of cybercrime during the pandemic. Do I get trolled and harassed online? Let’s just say my spam and filtered inbox are overflowing with unread messages. Notifications of reactions to public comments that I make on political soundbites are just ignored. You’re free to express whatever just as I’m free to speak my mind over current issues.

Toxic messages from insignificant persons are ignored, too. My advice for people who are bothered by haters? Choose your battles. Engage only those in your league. Don’t elevate those beneath you by engaging them in verbal warfare. Imagine the nosebleed on the other end and your double headache over their limited vocabulary. <toothy grin> I’m only condescending if you pick on me; otherwise, I believe in “Live and Let Live”.

Work habits have also changed. I work through lunch time and avoid personal meetings with clients. Zoom, Google Meet and other online meeting options should be in every business person’s toolkit. Emails are still the preferred mode of communication, as are text messages. A scanner is also my best friend at work. It’s used for evaluating requirements, securing compliance, and keeping documents in a cloud. For consular work, we’ve been actively using Facebook for receiving requests for appointments following our policy of “no appointment, no entry”. Work schedules are adjusted depending on the government restrictions which change every 15 days. Most days, we allow staff to shut down their PCs at 3 p.m. while I pack up to go home around 4 or 430 p.m, a far cry from the pre-covid days where my lovie would be concerned about my ending work at 8 or 9 p.m. He’s breathing much better these days, for sure.

This post could go on for more than a thousand words with notes on changes brought about by the lockdown. But duty calls. It’s Netflix time with lovie every night. Did I also mention I’ve become this mushy potato lately after we found each other at around the time Wuhan consumed bats? And the rest is history.