Isolation Hipster

As a freelance consultant, I was not expecting to remain employed throughout this pandemic, but I didn't expect the cutting off of my contract to hit me as hard as it did. I will admit that I had a couple of very, very rough days, perhaps wallowing in a bit of self-pity regarding how truly non-essential I am to society in a time of crisis. I felt like I'd been going along on a career path that put me in a good position to always have some sort of opportunity for work, and literally a month ago I was wondering if I might have to choose between several promising opportunities, which all abruptly disappeared in the span of about two weeks.

I am feeling better now though. I have come to terms with my "non-essential in a crisis" status - this is temporary. Eventually someone will need my skills again. And there are ways I can potentially be useful without working in a traditional type of job. Because I have a master's in population health, I was able to sign up for the federal volunteer database to do contact tracing or other support tasks if needed. My income was not fortunately not critical to paying our bills as long as my husband remains employed, and his job is secure.

Aside from that, things have been pretty okay. While I worry about my loved ones who live alone, or are elderly/high risk, mostly I have been able to keep my mental health in check so far. I joked to a former co-worker the other day that I'm sort of an isolation hipster because a lot of my hobbies and behaviours are becoming more mainstream. I had a sourdough starter BEFORE we ran out of yeast! Do you even know how to cook dried beans, bro?

(I just figured this post needed a cat picture)

If you haven't been reading this blog since the beginning, I thought I would do a flashback episode here to link several (pre-pandemic) posts that are about activities etc. that might be helpful in self-isolation. In chronological order, oldest to newest, here they are:

How I actually made daily exercise a real habit

Bird watching is the ultimate social distancing activity that you're all going to get really into this summer

Very glad I got into cycling the last couple summers

I am still going strong with Duolingo! It was so great to be able to communicate better on a recent trip to Mexico

Since we're all baking with sourdough and acting like pioneers, maybe now is the time to save and start cooking with animal fats?

The book clubs I'm in are giving me life right now. Any excuse for (virtual) human contact! (I believe the public libraries are still running book clubs online as well)

I am legitimately devastated that the library is closed, but here are some book recommendations

We are all grieving in different ways right now. Making soup from scratch is a comforting activity

Time to learn to make fancy coffee drinks at home!

Yoga is undoubtedly one of the things keeping me off the brink of depression/anxiety right now

It is DEFINITELY time to learn how to cook with pulses

Is your skin super dry from all the handwashing? Here are some alternatives to lotion (and I have also updated it to include pure shea butter)

Cabbage is the ultimate pandemic leafy green

Fermenting your own milk kefir will save you from making extra trips to the store to buy yogurt or buttermilk for baking and smoothies. While you're at it, might as well try making yogurt too


One other thing I have done recently is start a second (are you sick of me yet?) blog, because I am anticipating that this summer a lot of people will be getting into gardening for the first time. I have previously mentioned my great love of tomatoes and I wanted to focus it into a gardening blog. Feel free to follow along, and hopefully grow a couple plants with me! You can find it at toontowntomatoes.ca. Because I will be putting quite a bit of effort into the tomato blog I may not post as much here, but we'll see how bored I get...