Time has stopped working. Or, at least, it has stopped working in the way I was accustomed to it working. Every day feels pretty much like the last, and I say that as someone who is (currently) fortunate enough to remain employed. Other than going to the doctor (more on that in a bit), I haven’t really been out of the apartment for anything beyond checking the mail or a brief walk around the neighborhood when no one else was about. We’re all trying very hard not to occupy each other’s space, which feels like something from a China Miéville novel more than anything Kafka ever wrote.
I won’t post any pictures here because I like the few of you that read this, but I was afflicted with a skin infection last week. At first I thought it was just an allergic reaction due to all of the various pollens in the air right now, but, given the meds I’m on, I really shouldn’t be able to have an allergic reaction to anything. It didn’t respond to anything, or rather it didn’t respond in a positive way to any treatments available to me, so I sought out my dermatologist.
Seeing a doctor was a little different than it was the last time I did it. We started with a video call and I tried, to the best of my ability to show her the affected areas on both of my arms. I did well enough for her to say “ew” and ask me to come in to see her. I put on my mask, grabbed a Clorox wipe like an 18th century dandy’s kerchief, and got n the car for the first time in a week.
When I arrived, the door was locked and the nurse came out an unlocked it and opened it for me. She then opened the door back to the exam room for me and guided me back to it. I was the only patient in the building. The doctor arrived, also wearing a mask, and did cultures on the sores, prescribed me some heavy antibiotics, and that was that. It turns out it was MRSA again. So, if I needed another reason to stay home, I had it.
That was the “highlight” of my week.
I have a side hustle, but it is sports-related and as it turns out, there’s not much going on in the world of sports right now. I produced three articles for them anyway, because why not? One of them was the single-dumbest thing I’ve ever written and I couldn’t be more proud of it. There’s no money in that gig, but it’s something to do.
We’re now to the point where everything feels pointless. I just don’t see any other people outside of conference calls.. I might as well be on a mission to Mars right now. The rest of the world feels more and more abstract.. Social media helps. It reminds me that people are still out there, still moving, still doing things, sharing lists and photos like it’s LiveJournal all over again. It doesn’t completely replace experiencing the outside world.