Out of the Mouths of Gamers' Babes: Coping Better than Anticipated

It's... weird. Surreal? I'm not sure. And your mileage will almost certainly vary; this is just me in my reality and to a lesser extent my daughters as they live in my household with me.

I was quite concerned - although my therapist probably even more so - that I would dip into serious depression (as opposed to my usual low-level depression since Laston's death) while being ~~required~~ strongly urged to keep my asthmatic ass home.

What neither of us realized fully is that - although I'm not an introvert by nature - I've learned a bunch about coping mechanisms safe at home from her and from life in the past few years. So here are the things that make me feel secure / keep me sane right now. Along with my comments 😉

I still have work; we are doing all our annual classroom training online. Which means I'm still getting paid. And since we're not going anywhere but down the street to pickup locations and spending far less money on just stuff, bills should be easier in April.

Which totally speaks to privilege, I'm aware. Trying to use my privilege for good, by helping out neighbors and friends (from at least six feet away!) by creating a couple assistance groups/pages, school the kids at home, keep my slice of the internet as upbeat as I can manage, and keep me and mine out of harm's way so we're not using up valuable medical resources.

My pantry, fruit bowl, fridge, and both freezers are full. So is the baking cupboard so we can make a lot of our own stuff. Friends and family and neighbors who are at lower risk, delivery options, and pickup options - though everyone still out of toilet paper - are key here.
Many of my local businesses - from grocery to food banks to restaurants - are adding delivery/pickup or stepping up their delivery/pickup options/times. These are considered essential services as they keep folks fed. Even my pharmacy delivers through NimbleRx. And though it doesn't apply to me, Total Wine and More also delivers through Instacart. 😉 Your orders might take a few days longer than usual, but things will eventually be available.
Joy in the little things. All it cost me was a replacement charger and two little single-snap SnapCircuits ordered online and my 12yo is happily playing with educational toys and personal electronics we haven't used since she was in kindergarten! And it's not like they're all "little kid" things either - just because it's an older form of a handheld console doesn't mean the Nintendo DS is useless; it just means she's old enough to play my old games in addition to the preschool ones she's revisiting.
MyChart is amazing. I had a non-urgent but important-to-me medical thing, and I don't want to either take up valuable resources or risk contagion. So I sent my primary care doctor a message through the MyChart app, she sent me a response with a few questions regarding my family history and - after my reply - prescribed what I needed, and is now sending the Rx directly to the pharmacy. I will have a teletherapy session next week.

Again, privilege, first world country, etc. Even if though our health care system is a gouging piece of shit, we do still have some awesome tech!

Speaking of, Zoom and other group technology. My children have had virtual field trips, lunch dates, music lessons, and ASL practice in the past week. We have the technology. For instance:
I can do things like last night's hour-plus audio-and-video conversation with a friend on The Other Side of the Planet on the spur of the moment because neither of us has to be anywhere at any specific time. This was so lovely; I've known him online for at least two years but only spoken to him by voice once before. The same goes for conversations across my very large covered front porch (it's nine feet by twelve) with neighbors.

I know that Facebook (and by extension, Facebook Messenger) has a huge number of issues, but I treat it as I treat other problematic companies, because there is no ethical consumption of goods OR services under capitalism such as we have it here. Use what's available and block or ignore or discard the rest.

Over the past several years, I have learned the valuable lesson of letting shit go, not sweating the small stuff, and setting (and keeping!) healthy boundaries. This has assisted in these times in such activities as cleaning out my Facebook friends to folks I actually interact with, 30-day-snoozing Facebook friends I like but can't cope with right now for whatever reason, blocking assholes I only hadn't before because we belonged to the same groups, trying to find the silver linings no matter how small (of which this post is an example), and - when making sarcastic and snarky remarks - punching up instead of down.
Oh, and as to that last. I had already made a few small memes like "Fluttershy 2020: Beware the Nice Ones," but I discovered a heretofore untapped joy and skill in creating memes for life both online and off in this mess.