1.  We’re all about looking for the silver lining here.

2.  Homebound for months at a time? Togetherness! Activities cancelled? Time to explore new interests!

3.  Sometimes it veers dangerously close to Pollyanna-ish.

4.  I reached next level last night with “Corona days will give you great stories when you’re old.” The kids just blinked at me.

5.  “You know, like our grandparents talked about the Depression.” [blink, blink]

6.  “Trust me, this will be parenting gold. When your kid moans and groans about not getting to blah-blah-blah like all their friends you can hit them with well, at least you haven’t been trapped in your house for four months.”

7.  My genius is under-appreciated at the moment.

8.  But what else is new.

9.  Bear and I have completed two – count ’em, TWO – Couch to 5k sessions now. Three by the time this posts but whatever.

10.

12.  I’m proud that I’m sticking it out so far. That stubborn Italian streak is coming in handy.

13.  I’m curious about something, though. People keep talking about how running releases endorphins, that it’s supposed to be some sort of energy boost.

14.  So why do I come home, cool off, then pass out for a thirty minute nap?

15.  Here’s hoping that energy surge shows up soon.

16.  I’ve started my mandala coloring pages again. They do wonders for my blood pressure.

17.  You know what didn’t help my blood pressure? How I managed to shake blobs of pink ink onto my carpet.

18.  I got this new pack of 100 gel pens. ONE HUNDRED. It’s like the grownup version of finding a bike on Christmas morning.

19.  Anyhow, the annoying things about gel pens is that every once in a while there’s a dud.

20.  I’d tried some tricks – scribbling on an envelope, touching the tip to my tongue, and blowing into the tip of the pen.

21.  No, I’m not sure if that last one really works but I read it somewhere so I tried.

22.  This left me with option four: shaking hard to jostle the ink.

23.  This worked on my old pens but this one still refused to write. I took the loss and moved along.

24.  Imagine my shock when BrightSide called thirty minutes later and I looked over to find my phone covered in pink splotches. Crap.

25.  I wiped it up and answered, but as we talked I noticed other spots on the table. And one on the armchair.

26.  But nothing sent me over the edge like finding a string of pink splotches dotting our cream colored carpet.

27.  CRAP.

28.  I cleaned it up as best I could but even the magic cleaner could only do so much against magenta ink sinking into carpet fiber.

29.  So now I’m staring at a series of nine spots bleached slightly lighter than the carpet, some with a light pink spot in the middle.

30.  For someone as OCD detail oriented as me this is gonna be a tough one to shrug off.

31.  Which sort of defeats the purpose of relaxing with mandalas.

32.  I’m just trying to breathe my way through it.

33.  Guess you can tell I’m not exactly meditating over here.

34.  What else, what else…I’ve been revisiting E.R. on Hulu and it’s cracking the kids up.

35.  They’re like That looks SO OLD and I bust out laughing because yes, it does, but it was cutting edge at the time.

36.  Since I’m sure you’re wondering here are a few other things I’ve loaded into my Hulu watchlist: Little Fires Everywhere, Prodigal Son, Lie to Me, The Handmaid’s Tale, Killing Eve, and This is Us.

37.  And in a nod to the late ’90s, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. No, I have no idea why I pulled it, guess I just wanted something brainless.

38.  Watched the first episode of The Handmaid’s Tale this week and holy f*ck it scared me to death. I’m remembering why that book made such an impact.

39.  But it’s different as an adult. When I read the novel it sounded dystopian, like an impossible future born out of nightmares.

40.  There’s something about the last few years, though, that makes scary impossibilities seems disturbingly within reach.

Edited to add: No, I have no idea where 10 and 11 went. I’m leaving the post like this because it captures exactly how my day went yesterday. EXACTLY. Sheesh.