This post is part of my Isolation Diaries. You can check the rest of them on the category page.
On the morning of Sunday, 27th December, 2020, I found out I was COVID negative. The first thing I did was take a thorough shower, with a lot of soap. The second thing I did wan sleep in my room , on my bed. That is the usual thing people miss in isolation. Other usual things were cuddling with my son, ability to go to the office, etc.
But there were a lot of things I didn’t even know I missed…
Petting our Kitten
In November, we got a white persian kitten. He was malnourished, weak, tiny and overall unenergetic. We named him Snowbell. We he is feisty now. I realized how much I missed petting him when I did it the next morning. It is a simple action, but it is very soothing.
Snowbell is teething right now, and there is a 50-50 chance he will bite than purr. I don’t mind. I am also trying to give him extreme reactions for the bites.
Video Games
I used to be an avid gamer. But over the past 5 years, I rarely got time to play. While Isolation was a great time to catch-up on this hobby, due to logistical issues it was not possible. Namely not having a functional controller available for my console and my gaming laptop being ancient(Over 4 years old).
I played about half-hour of Control, and found out how much I missed it.
Mobility
The idea that a person go anywhere they want, anytime they want is novel. Especially when you consider the history of human existence. My Great Grandfather maybe saw a ‘motor’ a handful of time in his life. In 2017, there 700 new motorbikes on Karachi’s roads every day, jamming up the traffic. We may have too much personal mobility.
To be confined to a few city blocks like even our recent urban ancestors, is unthinkable. I was confined to square room. For the most part. It became normal far more quickly than I remembered. The idea of just walking to the fridge was foreign. Post-Isolation, freely moving around became the biggest blessing. It is difficult to explain. It can only be experienced. It is as if I was becoming independent for the second time. It was quite elating.
Exercise
I started 2020 trying to realign my identity. One of the aspects of this new identity was supposed to be ‘A person that exercises daily’. This was going great until October, and a pandemic trip to the US. I was missing days. I felt I was getting over it. Then I got back on the treadmill.
It was the most fun I had since Isolation. I missed the physical activity a lot. I have slowed down a bit, but I am getting back into it. Now setting aside time for proper stretches…
Thank you everyone who followed along with me on this journey. Thank you for my peeps on Colony of Gamers discord, and the Slackfilmcast who gave great feedback. I still don’t have any analytics on this site and I don’t know how many people read these. I will keep posting on this site every week, and I will launch a email newsletter soon. I hope you keep reading.