Welcome to Mommy’s El Camino.

I couldn’t have scheduled a better week for having covid. Not that this bout with covid, my second, was scheduled. I moved into my office in the backyard last Sunday night, when my partner came home from work (yes, on a Sunday) feeling unwell. When she tested positive, I packed up a few things and prepared to sleep in the office.

Last summer, when I had covid for the first time, discovered around midnight when I woke feeling feverish and took a test, I slept in our tv room and the next morning, my partner moved into the office. I took over the bedroom, quarantined there, for what turned out to be two and a half weeks. Now it was my turn to move into the office.

I thought I escaped in time, because I felt fine on Monday. I tested negative. On Tuesday I felt more tired than normal. Tested negative. On Wednesday I was feeling more under the weather, and tested negative again. Three tests, each 24 hours apart: negative.

I woke up on Thursday knowing for sure I would test positive, otherwise, what the hell could it be? A coincidentally timed sinus infection? Sure enough, the test was positive.

It’s Sunday, and I’m a half-hour from my self-imposed deadline here, with you. I’m feeling a lot better already—extremely different than the first time I had covid last summer. But back then I took Paxlovid, which I did not take this time. Anecdotally speaking, I think it has helped to not take it (my partner also did not take it, and she too was feeling better after a few days). I’m writing from my office, in the dark, with the air conditioner on. I’ve spent most of the last couple of days in the tv room rewatching and watching new things (we have a whole quarantine protocol to keep the kid as safe as we can in these circumstances—which has meant that we get full reign of the tv room, and we clean it up before we leave it for the next day). Last year, alone, I watched things like the tv show The Purge (sorry, I can’t even explain yet why this franchise appeals to me, but it does), so this time I watched the recent movie The Forever Purge (this one feels eerily prescient, more so than the others). I finished the rewatch of Mad Men that I started before I got sick (god, those last couple of seasons are really weak).

I really could not have scheduled a better time to be unwell. I saw my last clients of the week, remotely, on Tuesday; I have no deadlines for anything not self-imposed; I don’t have to work until Tuesday and can work remotely if I am up to working; it’s a holiday weekend and yet we had zero plans. We have this office to use as an extra bedroom—it’s a studio, with a kitchenette and bathroom, and I’ve been falling asleep on the pull-out bed each night listening to “sleep stories” on the meditation app I use.

Of course, some mid- to long-term plans have been thrown off a bit.

For now, the focus is on resting. See you all next week. Take good care.