Is it just me, or is anyone else wondering what Isis is up to these days?
They're probably sheltering in place, just as desperate for social interaction as the rest of us. But who knows. Maybe they're all reassessing their lives and deciding to pursue a higher calling when all this is over. Maybe the terror thing has lost its luster and they're looking for a career change.
Who knows. We shall see. They're certainly not in the news these days.
It's been that kind of virus. Me, I just take each day as it comes. Normally, I'm dogmatic about my work time. From 8-2 every day I am in my office writing. I get into the zone and don't come out. But all this makes that lack of flexibility look assinine. There will be plenty of time to get back to a rigid schedule, but now is for getting out whenever you can. Callie needed to run an errand to Huntington Beach yesterday and asked if I wanted to come along. Normally, that would be a courtesy request — her being nice, knowing I would never say yes. But not only did I change out of my sweats into something more presentable right away, I turned that 30-minute drive into a two-hour odyssey, heading south on Pacific Coast Highway just to roll down the window and smell the sea breeze on a stretch of road normally bumper to bumper but now deserted. The beachfront parking lots were all empty and barricaded, with cops standing guard in a few places. But it was a drive, and well worth the time away from the office. The one-on-one time with Callie was nice in a very simple romantic way. I drove past the spot at Laguna's main beach where I proposed so long ago and felt a spark, remembering the nerves and logistics of asking her to marry me — a question fraught with so many unknowns. We expected to have kids and raise a family, but the wild ride has been filled with so many more enriching nuances. If someone had told me way back when about the blessings our marriage would see, or even that we'd be taking a joyride down PCH thirty-plus years later in the middle of a global pandemic, I would probably been even more scared than I was that night I proposed — but I would have been even more eager to buy the ticket and take the ride, in the words of Hunter S. Thompson.
In the middle of all this, I can't imagine how anyone can go through it alone. There is distancing and there is distancing, and I am glad I am sheltering in place with someone I love.