The New Normal

Well, we are five weeks into our official SIP, seven weeks into when the SO and I started our own SIP. That's a lot of time working from home and changing our lifestyle.

I figured I'd do another update as to how life is going, just because it'll be interesting to read back in the future, so sorry for the boring post because I know we're all going through this and this is news to no one. But I do tend to go back through my blog at times and I wanted to continue documenting some of this craziness.

Any craziness that still involves trail rides is okay

The News

The big news this week was that they found that several people in Santa Clara County who died in early February ACTUALLY died from the virus. This all but confirms for me that I was exposed at the Mary clinic. Half of the people there were talking about having a flu that was "the worst flu I've ever had, I've never been this sick in my life" and obviously that didn't stop anyone from coming to the clinic because we're horse people. I remember thinking "oh god, I'm going to get this thing" while I was there and then I didn't and felt super lucky. But there's no way I wasn't exposed, especially given that I was inside the house for the instructor dinner with a few sick people, along with touching people during the hands-on sections. I talked to the SO and he remembers us being mildly sick in February, I didn't miss work or anything, but that could have been the virus. I'm still obviously operating as if I haven't had it and/or have it now, but it's definitely helped with the anxiety from the situation to remind ourselves that we are probably not in danger of contracting it.


Testing Positive

I feel lucky that my family members who tested positive in mid-March have all recovered without doctor intervention. They are all more than two weeks out from their positive test and are allowed to go out again (still SIP, but I mean for groceries/essentials). Knowing that they've already had it has been helping my anxiety a lot. I can at least not worry about them and can focus on the general state of the nation/world. I am still worried that they might get it again or that someone in my extended family will get it, but those are less anxiety inducing worries because they can easily be explained away.


Working at Home

I'm now on week seven of working at home and it's... fine. I definitely find myself being a little less productive at times and a little more productive at times. It's tough to differentiate between my struggles at work resulting from a) the impending doom of a global pandemic, b) the fact that I'm a titch burnt out doing my job, or c) work from home culture not being my jam. Despite all this, I do still have my job, for which I am lucky. One thing that is going surprisingly well is my remote teaching. April is actually looking like my best month so far this year and I didn't teach one in-person lesson. Weird how things work out. It's looking like clinics are starting to happen again VERY carefully, so I'll be heading up to teach in person for the first time in about two months in a few weeks as long as the government doesn't tighten restrictions.

Love this trail

Working Out at Home

On Sunday, I dropped my trailer and took my truck home. The reason was because before coming home with it, I stopped by Tractor Supply to pick up one stall mat for our new home gym. Boyfriend cycles and I ride horses, but both of us need to cross train for those activities. I have a training barbell and a couple of ten pound plates, but we wanted to be able to lift for real, so he ordered a bunch of plates and a real barbell and I snagged the stall mat for our patio. It fits PERFECTLY without needing to be cut. Everything should arrive this week, so we can start actually using it!

We still need a squat rack and there's no way to bench out there (oh boooo... jk bench is my least favorite), but we can deadlift and I can do some weightlifting (I've stuck with powerlifting recently) until we remedy that. In addition, we have some KBs, DBs, an ab mat, and resistance bands, so we're going to be putting together a workout plan. It'll be fun to be able to lift heavy again!


Family Time

Every Sunday night, my dad's side of the family has a zoom meeting set up so we can check in and talk. It's honestly the most I've talked to my extended family in a long time. In addition, my immediate family meets every week or so. Last time we had a meeting, we played some Jackbox games, which were really fun, so we'll be doing more of that.

I obviously haven't seen too many people in person, but because both my parents were diagnosed positive and have recovered, I've been stopping by the ranch occasionally. I don't go in the house or touch anything, but I've gone over there to pick some things up and we always chat in the driveway from about 15 feet away. The best part is being able to visit Rico and their dog, Ruby. Rico is doing very well and enjoying the green grass and all the cookies I give him when I'm there. Ruby is a little rusty on the tricks I insist on training her to do when I visit, so we practice those when I stop by too.


Friend Time

Every week, my friend group has a zoom meeting too! We usually talk for a couple hours and eat ice cream together. It's been SO MUCH FUN and I'm so glad we're doing it. We all live too far away from each other and/or are too busy to see each other all the time, so it's been nice to have some time every week to hang out. I'm definitely up for continuing this even when we can visit each other!


Stimulus Money

I qualified for the stimulus money so it got dumped into my account last week. That was cool. It's just sitting in my savings account right now, which is now back to where it was before the winter (horse trainer life, you know) after that plus the fact that I'm spending nothing right now and saving everything I don't spend. If the democrats get their bill through congress and money begins to come monthly, I have other plans for it. Mostly saving it for a house (hoping the housing market crashes) but also finally buying the saddle I want to buy. I've needed a new saddle for years now, I'm constantly fighting the blocks in my current saddle and the higher up the levels I bring TC, the more I realize that I just can't be fighting a saddle anymore. The plan was to save a few hundred a month until I had enough to get the saddle I want (because the saddle isn't hurting TC or I, it's not urgent), but I'm not opposed to accelerating the timeline.

Best pony

TC Time

I'm still going to the barn and that's been wonderful. I think I'm enjoying seeing everyone at the barn. I typically go in the early mornings and will maybe see one of the trainers there as I'm leaving and she's arriving. Then I sometimes see some mid-afternoon people when I work from home and ride later in the day. But I always miss the mid-morning and evening people. Now, everyone is there all the time! So it's been fun to chat with people I haven't met yet. In addition, TC has been doing well and Tanya is scheduled to come next week for a very careful clinic! So that will be a blast. I'm really excited to get some instruction and chat with her about everything we've been doing.


Immigration Issues

Welp, halting immigration SOUNDS like a good idea. No more people coming into the country potentially bringing disease (or, more likely, catching the disease here). Well, that could be accomplished by a travel ban. But, based on his tweet (oh my god I can't wait to have a president who doesn't randomly tweet shit out like this), the president sounds like he might be halting green card applications for people who are already here. Like the SO. He moved here from Canada for work and has put in paperwork to switch his work visa to a green card. So that's halted. Luckily for us, he is guaranteed to be here through mid-2022. I told him that I'd move with him to Canada if we absolutely had to. We had fun talking about moving to Vancouver. But let's be honest, it's too cold for me there (the other option was Waterloo, so at least Vancouver has better weather) and we both want to stay here. For now, it's a 60 day ban so he's more than fine, but we're obviously both a little concerned that if the election this fall goes a certain way, we'll be moving to Canada in a couple of years. Oh well, at least then maybe I could get my SI injury taken care of without paying so much money.

Just a bit of time on a single track trail

Generally life has been really weird. But at least for me right now, it's okay. I'm obviously missing horse shows and hanging out with friends and traveling and going to work, but I am so grateful that so far, everyone I know who has gotten the disease has recovered and my area is doing extraordinarily well. I hope everyone else is doing just as well, keep on keeping on and all that.