Pandemic America – Day in the Life

Life in the United States and the world has been shaken by the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus and the ignorant responses to it. Is still being shaken.

Yet change is on the horizon. I’ve received my vaccine, more folks have or are doing the same. Private and social and professional affairs are in the swing of a new paradigm. Soon there will be a new ‘normal’ with the events of 2020 and 2021 quick to fade away.

Let’s save a sense of what things were like during this (hopefully) once-in-a-century event. Here I share with you my schedule, because it is myself, as we’re both creatures of habit and defined by our actions.

Context

Before we dive, here’s an overview of my stances:

• • Upper-middle-class thought worker with decade career.
  • Ahead financially.
  • Familial support system across the country.
  • No role obligations as guardian or otherwise responsible to others.

2020

There is some discrepancy between the years (it was cushy to collect unemployment through the first year of pandemic).

• • 0700 AM – Wake now or earlier, usually with the sunrise despite an eye mask.
  • 0730 AM – Begin the day’s work. Depending on the month, this would be driving, hiking, writing, reading, studying, or designing.
  • 0100 PM – Possibly earlier, I’d either continue the day’s work or get to chores or working out. Chores tended to be a workout anyway, as I was chopping trees, landscaping, and assisting in construction. Got lean-buff with a push-up routine that broached many hundreds of push-ups in an hour!
  • 0330 PM – Lunch! My only meal of the day (more on this in another post). This one spent with the fam.
  • 0430 PM – Playing a Halo 1:1 game with my dad for three rounds. Some of my most memorable times in 2020 as I was coming to grips with my workaholism and a depression brought on by the constant national news.
  • 0600 PM – Attempt to relax. Journal, respond to social media, etc. Often I’d take again to more work, but I tried to cap it.
  • 0800 PM – Gather up to head to bed by 9 at the latest. Read in bed until kaput.

Weekends and weekdays had no meaningful difference, except mail came some days and Tuesdays had the weekly 0600 AM grocery run to avoid pandemic exposure.

2021

Thus begins: The Day Job. My weekdays:

• • 0600 AM – Wake up, read social media and other channels in bed for about half-an-hour.
  • 0700 AM – Setup for the day. Respond to requests, journal, minor house chores, the works.
  • 0800 AM – Now I’m writing at this time, but for the first half of the year this could be anything 🤷‍♂️ Sometimes I’d start the day-job early because it was easy to give into the workaholism and I failed to give myself direction.
  • 0900 AM – Butt-in-chair for the work-from-home day-job. May also take this time for appointments because workplace culture didn’t need me to be at attention until 10 AM.
  • 0300 PM – Somewhere around here I’m working out, followed by my once-a-day meal. Often I’d be doing the job while eating, but sometimes I allow myself to relax with something simple, like Netflix or YouTube. Back to the job in one-to-two hours.
  • 0600 PM – If not out by 5, I’d be out about now, give-or-take (written on a day I was out at 0645 😂). Shower if I haven’t yet from my afternoon workout and manage a chore or two.
  • 0700 PM – Aim to relax! I had to schedule leisure in; it got bad. For much of the year I took this time to study code and design patterns.
  • 0900 PM – Bedtime / Writing time. Harder to do the latter when you’re very ready for the former! (Written at 0800 PM on a Thursday 🙃)

My weekends consisted of the same wakeup times, though sometimes I’d read for an hour in bed. Weekends were largely unstructured. Possibly get out to a skate park if there weren’t people around, go hiking up a mountain in fair weather, have a run, do chores, etc. Weekends during the 2021 pandemic remain(ed) fairly unstructured, a happy change from years of work-work-work plan-plan-plan.

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To you, reader, I trust this is lighter fare than my recent thoughts.

To my future self, I hope this brings back humble memories. You are likely farther than you were when writing this, but even if not, keep going 😉

Yep. Definitely a chill post. No worries – we’ll be back to more substantial content in a bit! Cheers till then!