Pandemic Mornings

  • Posted by Sue Nador
  • in Blog

Here is what a typical pandemic morning looks like.

My husband and I get up early. He makes pancakes and lattes, and sets the table. I supervise. The moment breakfast ends, he gets to work. He opens his computer on the dining room table, arranges a pile of binders and a row of pens beside him, and starts writing. It is 7:30 a.m.

I go to my home office to stare at screens. This keeps me entertained till about 7:35 a.m., at which point I wonder: “How is my sister doing today?” So I call her. That kills about ten minutes. 

I return to my screen-staring and construct a few clunky sentences. Then I delete most of them.  This takes a lot of energy. By 8:00 a.m. I’m famished.  I slink past my husband, hunched over his laptop at the dining room table, hoping he doesn’t notice me heading to the kitchen. He doesn’t.

I head back to my office. For the next couple of hours I act like a yo-yo, alternating between staring at screens and procrastinating (re-arranging books on my tall bookshelf, re-arranging my office supply closet, re-arranging the chachkas on the shorter bookshelf). At 10:30 a.m., I head to the kitchen again, this time asking my husband: “What’s for lunch?” 

“It’s only 10:30,” he says. 

“I know,” I say, “but I’m hungry.” 

He tells me to get back to work. I stay out of his hair till about 11:50 (a respectable time for lunch). 

“Did you have a productive morning? I ask. 

He tells me he has written 6,000 words. (I have written about six.)

“Piss off,” I say.

Ok, so I do have a few things to show for the past year. 

  1. French.  Thanks to one-on-one remote classes twice a week with a patient instructor who lives in France, I am becoming bilingual. I watch most everything in French now, even stuff I should watch in the original English. My sister rightly pointed out that watching the Fran Lebowitz doc in French is silly given you miss her iconic NYC accent.
  2. Baking. I have creamed more pounds of butter and sugar this year than I can count but I’m still a hopeless baker. My husband can’t understand because I’m a darn good cook. The other day I made a lemon meringue pie but reached for flour when I should have reached for sugar so had to start over (there went a dozen eggs). 
  3. Grey. I wasn’t planning to stop dying my hair but the pandemic made the decision for me after my salon closed. My son’s girlfriend said it was badass which made me love her even more. There is something very empowering about owning my age. Badass, for sure. (Also pretty hot, if I say so myself). 
  4. Running. I used to hate running. Seriously hated it. But my sister and I started running virtually this winter (she lives in Toronto) and I’m starting to love it. I wrote a little story: “Pandemic Running with My Sister” for Next Avenue. Even if you don’t read the story, check out our photos with our matching pink toques (sorry, you can’t see my grey hair…).

Not that I’m not loving my pandemic mornings, but it is seriously time for this madness to end.

How are your mornings?  

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