Life in a Pandemic: 1 Year Later

A year ago today, on March 16th, 2020, I packed up my desktop work computer and headed home to start working from home. At the time, everyone was thinking we’d be back by the end of March…maybe summer at the latest. But something inside me knew that this wasn’t going to be a short-term situation.

I remember the two weeks prior to March 16th, when the threat of COVID started getting more and more serious here in the U.S., and I was closely watching what was happening in Europe. March 5th was the day of my last in-person event: Bachelor Live on Stage (I left a gymnastics meet early to attend). Early the following week, what remained of the college gymnastics season was cancelled.

The first COVID case in Idaho was confirmed on March 13th—a Boise woman who had just returned from a conference in New York City. I went into the office on the 16th and immediately asked my boss when we’d be all able to work from home—and after his morning meeting with his boss, he got the news that we’d all be heading home. IT had a truly enormous task to get everyone prepped to work from home! Since then, I’ve been back to pick things up a total of three times.

How Life Has Changed

WORKING FROM HOME

By far, the biggest change for me over the past year was the switch to working from home. I have my work desktop computer plus two monitors on my kitchen table. I love the lack of commute, but sometimes I feel like I can’t focus if my house is a mess. It helps that my schedule is relatively flexible, so if I have to take a few minutes to clean up before I can focus, I can add those few minutes back at the end of the day. (I will say that my house is still a wreck but doing one small task calms me down lol.) I also love that I don’t have to prepare my lunch the night before.

My current schedule works out better for my natural body clock; I’m a night owl, so it’s hard for me to wake up even at 9 am to start working. I’m most productive in the afternoons and evenings (and I work on the blog in the evenings/at night, which is when I feel like I can get the most done with the fewest distractions). I’m fortunate in that I had a flexible schedule when I was in the office too, but as I mentioned above, it’s so nice to not have a commute! I can wake up a little later now.

I don’t have the most ergonomic desk setup since I’m on the kitchen table, and since it’s counter height, I can’t use my office chair. After nearly a year of my butt going numb on the foam dining room chairs (of which I have to swap out so I don’t permanently indent them) and my back aching, I finally ordered myself a pressure relief seat cushion and back relief lumbar pillow from Cushion Lab. (Note: The grey colors are slightly different from each other. I wasn’t expecting that TBH!)

I should have ordered the seat cushion and pillow a year ago…or at least, over the summer! They make sitting on an uncomfortable dining chair so much more comfortable. Keep in mind that the cushion will lift you up a couple of inches; I can’t really cross my legs anymore because I’m too high under the table, but the trade off is worth it. (I would sort of like a step stool, though, haha; my legs now dangle and are too short to reach the chair rung!)

Virtual meetings have been the bane of all of our existences, but at least there’s the option now. I hope all meeting have a virtual option in the future. I’m able to “attend” so many more conferences and workshops now because they’ve gone virtual.

My day-to-day outfits changed a lot, too. Hello, loungewear! If it weren’t for this blog I’d be in loungewear and activewear 100% of the time probably. It’s been fun to keep my creative juices flowing by thinking up outfits to share here, and hopefully I won’t be totally lost on what to wear when I need to head back into the office, haha.

Since I don’t have a laptop, I won’t be able to work a hybrid telecommute schedule, so I’m holding out hope that I won’t have to go back into the office until I’m 100% required and there’s no chance that I’d have to pack up to go back home. It seems as though that could be as early as late spring/early summer but of course depends on vaccinations and if a fourth wave happens.

GOING WITHOUT MAKEUP

This might seem super random, but since I’ve been working from home for a year, I’ve really cut down on wearing makeup. I only wear a minimal amount to begin with, but now I’m going days without it. I only put it on if I know I’ll be shooting photos for the blog or if I’m going to be around other people, and even for the latter I usually don’t. Makeup is generally reserved only for blog shoots now. I appreciate masks for covering half of my face, especially if I happen to be breaking out from that time of the month! (Or if I have food in my teeth, haha!)

Do you also feel more comfortable going out sans makeup now? I’m sure I’ll start wearing it again daily when I go back into the office but for now it’s a nice break.

LIMITING TIME WITH FAMILY

I’m still not 100% comfortable getting together with people, but I’ll admit that I haven’t been avoiding my family completely. What used to be a one-a-week or one-every-two-week get-together is now maybe once every two months, if that. And we always wear masks when around each other. My dad is now fully vaccinated—and he was actually exposed by my brother a week ago before my brother knew that he caught COVID and luckily has not come down with any COVID symptoms. My brother got knocked down but didn’t experience any series symptoms so far, thank goodness.

My mom and step dad are also fully vaccinated, so I’m looking forward to the day we can all safely get together again! I have signed up to be notified as soon as I’m eligible for a vaccine, and it sounds like I could become eligible at the end of April. Fingers crossed!

FOCUSING ON THE BLOG (A.K.A. SOMETHING I CAN CONTROL)

Because I’m now home all of the time/not commuting and also not traveling (by that I mean spending money on travel), I’ve poured myself into this space. I figured I needed to take advantage of that extra time now before I’m forced to go back into the office. You may have noticed a few changes here and there, but I’m doing a bunch behind-the-scenes, too, and I’m actually planning on completely changing my blog template here in a few weeks. I’ve been listening in to rooms on Clubhouse and soliciting feedback from others when I can and that’s been super helpful. I have a giant to-do list and I hope I can knock most of it out/automate it before I’m commuting again! I want this space to be a helpful resource for all of you.

Positive Changes/Takes

1. I started reading more regularly again and hope to keep it up. (Check out Reading Lately #1, Reading Lately #2, and Reading Lately #3. I hope to have #4 up next month!)

2. I didn’t need an excuse to break/not make plans. I’m pretty introverted and love spending time at home, so I really appreciated the extra time I had by myself doing my own thing. I hope I can keep those same boundaries when things are safer again.

3. I so appreciated lots and lots of extra time with the cats, especially because they’re seniors. Rosie is coming up on 13 years old, and Sybil is 9. I’m so grateful for this time with them. It’s funny to watch their antics during the day, and I love all of the extra snuggles. It’s the best!

4. Green Chef is still the GOAT meal delivery service. Korri and I lived on Green Chef, which now offers up to four meals per week, and curbside grocery pickup. (I have free boxes of Green Chef—just email me with your preferred email address!) I’m now better at placing larger orders for pickup or delivery instead of needing to run to grab one thing. Our local farmers market turned into a drive-thru market with online ordering and it was GREAT! I’ve also significantly cut down on my number of Amazon orders and hope to cancel Prime this year. (I need to read the Kindle books I borrowed via Prime now!)

5. One of our favorite local ice cream shops now delivers ice cream to our doorstep. Also, I’ve loved takeout mimosas/cocktails/drinks in general and hope they stick around!

6. I spent more time outdoors. It’s been fun to get out of the house for walks by the river (sometimes with the cats in tow; last time we went out, we chatted with so many people about them, haha!) and for hikes in the foothills. Getting out of the house was one of my main coping mechanisms when shit hit the fan a year ago.

All that said, I still feel daily anxiety about all of the negatives—the loss of life, the absolute disdain the Idaho and other state elected officials feel towards leaders just trying to do the right thing (there is currently a bill to ban mask mandates making its way through the Idaho legislature; yup—you read that right…). I’m disgusted by the total lack of respect shown to small business owners who are trying to keep their staff safe and healthy.

I feel so fortunate that my family and friends have remained (mostly) healthy through the past year, and my heart goes out to those of you that are dealing with loss or suffering through extended COVID symptoms.

It’s a lot of conflicting and bittersweet emotions to reflect on this past year. I highly recommend also reading Anne’s thoughts, and a reader in her comments recommended this podcast featuring 10 questions to ask yourself as you reflect on one year of the pandemic. I touched on some of those here. Fingers crossed for better days sooner rather than later!

Related: Our best pandemic purchases (so far)