Month in Review: March 2020

Yeah, so remember last month’s Month in Review? I listed the million things I had on my calendar for March and said I was feeling really anxious about how busy March was going to be. Well, the universe laughed and sent the Coronavirus and canceled nearly all of those plans.

Books Read

Reviews to come next week, but here’s what I finished in March

• Wilder Girls by Rory Power
• The Shawcross Letters by John Paul Fay
• The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton

Movies Watched

Jerry and I love movies, but there a lot of months where we watch ZERO because life is so busy. Again, life laughed at us in March and we got through quite a few because we’ve been home.

• 3 From Hell: I love Rob Zombie’s film, but they’re really hit or miss. They’re either amazing or horrible, and this one landed in the horrible camp.
• The Joker: finally watched the new one and it was as great as everyone said it was! Super sad but compelling.
• Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark: a disappointment, for sure.
• The Hunt: very different than I expected. I expected straight up horror, but also got satire, politics, and dark humor. All in all, it was good.
• The Invisible Man: I was supposed to see this in theaters with my friend Margaret, but obviously that got canceled, so Jerry and I watched it at home and it was so good.

Shows Watched

Again, we’ve been home, so I’ve been able to watch a lot of TV and start to catch up a bit!

• American Idol
• My 600 Pound Life
• Girl Scout Cookie Championship: a local baker was on this so I wanted to see!
• Love is Blind: so bad it was good! Jerry and I watched the whole thing in about a week.
• Unpolished: just another TLC reality TV show.
• Don’t F*ck With Cats: I read a book about this case last year, so it was interesting to watch this documentary.
• Tiger King: best show ever. I watched the whole series in less than 24 hours and am now obsessed, like the rest of the world. Joe Exotic is NO angel, but I loved him. He’s such a character, hilarious without meaning to be, and just fascinating to watch.

Happenings and Tidbits

Well, we got hit with a pandemic and life has been very odd, as we all know. That’s pretty much been all of March, but we did do a few things prior to that happening.

• Caleb had his pre-k Olympics at school. It was very funny and cute. Caleb was very enthusiastic and constantly squealing and clapping for his classmates.
• We got our taxes back. We paid off some debt and finally got a new couch / loveseat set from Big Lots! Our living room looks the nicest it has in a long time.
• We had an author visit scheduled for this month for work, which we worked hard on for many months. It got canceled because it was unsafe for her to fly, but before that, we held a big book discussion at a local cidery. It was AMAZING and went so well. It was a great night that made me love my career.
• I started a meal delivery service through a healthy food company. I get five meals delivered a week and I’m really loving all the food so far. I even got a free roll of toilet paper with last week’s delivery!
• Caleb had a field trip to the planetarium. We went on a field trip there last year too and it’s always fun for the kids.

• After the field trip, the world imploded. People started hoarding groceries, and work went up in the air. We experienced a lot of kindness, when my coworker found us diapers, a friend got us pull ups, and another friend got us milk. My aunt, who just opened a cookie business, also dropped some off on our porch. People have been so kind, but luckily, stores seem to be pretty well stocked now.
• I worked all day on Saturday, March 14, and this was when things were getting weird. On this day, the first case was announced in our town and has been spreading ever since. All day long, we were very nervous at work, hearing things from patrons, watching the news. We started to feel unsafe being out.
• I went to work on Monday, March 16th and things had really started buzzing. Some people got sent home to quarantine, and we were assigned to two groups of staff, who would alternate every day. I was off Tuesday because the other team was assigned.
• I went back on Wednesday, March 18th because it was my team’s assigned day. By afternoon, the staff was sent home. I quickly grabbed some books and DVDs to stock up on for myself, friends, and parents, and left. That’s the last time any of us have been at work. Due dates for everyone in the county have been extended to mid-May, book drops are closed, and all county libraries are closed.
• That said, I’ve been working from home and trying to find a routine. I’ve been staying busy because I do all of our social media marketing. I try to get some time in every morning when the kids allow it. We also launched several virtual book clubs that have been a major success, and I’m running the mystery book club.
• I had SIX medical appointments for the month (bariatric surgery is intense) and every one of them has been canceled. Luckily, I was able to do one nutrition visit over the phone, and my psych evaluation over the phone as well (and I got cleared – yay!)
• Life at home has been both awesome and challenging. I’m an introvert, so it’s been awesome to spend time at home without any plans. We only leave for food, for the most part. The school district has lunch and breakfast for the kids that you can pick up every day, so I leave for that, and Jerry leaves to go grocery shopping. Other than that, I’ve been keeping busy working remotely, reading, watching TV and movies, napping (ha!), and trying to do some organizing around the house. All of this has been awesome! The hard part is just time away from my friends and family, especially my parents. I miss doing random things like going out thrift shopping with my mom and the boys. I know that I will look back one day though and remember this time fondly, albeit scary. It’s also been challenging with the kids because they’re going stir crazy, and therefore driving ME crazy.
• Small businesses and restaurants are hurting, so we’ve been trying to support them, and have ordered food / desserts from: Papa Joe’s, Something Delicious Bakery, Krazy Cakes (a new donut shop / bakery), Chef’s Catering, Carmine’s, and more. I also have 2 friends who work at Wegmans and therefore have still been having to work during this craziness, so I sent them both Starbucks gift cards as a thank you and encouragement.
• I’m sad about some of the stuff that had to be canceled like our author visit, a murder mystery dinner, Hello Dolly, appointments, etc., but at the same time, I really needed to slow down anyway. I am always busy and stressed and I have been forced to take step back.

Coming Up

I honestly have no idea what’s coming up. I have appointments on the calendar for my bariatric surgery, but they’ll likely be canceled again. Jerry and I will probably both be home from work for all of April too (though he has been getting called in once every week or so). Cats the musical has already been canceled for April, and I think everything else will too. Easter is coming up, so hopefully we can still have a nice day at home.