How are you?
I’m good! Right now I’m waiting for my tea water to boil.
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Where are you staying at?
I am at my apartment in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. I live here with my boyfriend. It’s small but cozy and we aren’t on top of each other, which is nice.
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What does your daily routine look like in quarantine?
Today was a bit different but I usually get up, eat breakfast, work on freelance work for BestReviews in the morning. Then I have lunch around 1 with my boyfriend and then I apply to jobs in the afternoon. When I need break I watch Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix and knit. I’m knitting a blanket.
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What has been helpful to lower your stress level?
At first, I was listening to the Daily in the morning and that really stressed me out. I would need to go on walks to walk off the stress. I’ve since switched from the Daily to Up First and WBEZ in the morning and then NPR’s Coronavirus Daily in the afternoon. I found that the straight news was a lot less anxiety inducing for me. Checking in with family and making sure they’re also taking precautions has been helpful.
One of the most stressful things for me is not being able to go to the store – grocery store, cvs, etc. I have a heart defect and need to reduce my chances of exposure so my boyfriend’s been doing all the shopping. I love grocery shopping and picked out all the things I want to cook. It’s a small thing but it feels like my independence is curtailed a bit.
As silly as this is, it’s been helpful for me to give my boyfriend really detailed lists and instructions for his shopping trips. I get to visualize what I would do, which gives me a little control back. Max and I also go on walks when we can.
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What do you miss the most? (Or what’s the first thing you want to do when this ends?)
I miss going on long walks and wandering around my neighborhood. Technically, I still do that now but I’d like to do it without being hyper aware of everting I touch and staying 6 feet away from everyone I see. And I’d like to see my friends!
When we were in school last quarter my favorite thing was running around the city for classes or interviews. I saw so many parts of the city I’d never been to. I can’t wait to go exploring again. Even if that means taking the CTA 3 stops into the Loop.
Photo: Balls of yarn needed to make a blanket, a quarantine blanket 🙂
we are all in this together 