My New Normal

Is it odd to say life as we know it is beginning to feel...normal? As in, it's been normal to wake up late. It's been normal to take very, very long walks while listening to multiple episodes of whatever Podcast I am currently listening to. Normal to bake at odd times of the day. Normal to figure out you don't have a muffin tin or muffin cups so you Google what to use when you have neither and figure out foil and mason jar lids do the trick. Normal to cycle through only a few clothing items (ahem, leggings and big ass sweatshirts) in my closet/dresser. Normal to not do my hair or put on makeup. Normal to sit on my couch and read blogs, and to scour the internet on what to bake next. Normal to connect via FaceTime and Zoom and normal to have turned my living room into my at-home gym. Normal to play music really loud and have an aggressive solo dance party just because. Normal to need to get the fuck outta the house to just walk! Or sit in the sun! Or something! Normal to eat pasta every night and drink wine/tequila/alcohol every night cause why the fuck not! Normal to crave all the salty bad things. Hellooooo stress! Normal to make cheese and bread and butter???? from scratch cause I've only got time! Normal to not feel inspired and sad a lot of days and then normal to get a burst of energy and say I'm going to do all. the. things! Normal to want to make cocktails cause I've always wanted to. Normal to go on walks with booze, aka the Booze Cruise, cause it makes life more fun. Normal to cry. Normal to have anxiety about the future. Normal for feeling guilty for doing nothing. Normal for feeling guilty for doing anything that brings me joy. Normal for feeling nervous about the health and well-being about my friends and family. Normal for feeling nervous about the financial health and well-being of my friends and family and Chris and me. Normal to want to paint the whole house. Normal to feel too lazy to want to paint the whole house and then feel guilty cause I have the time. Normal to want to be productive. Normal to want to be lazy. Normal to want to be creative. Normal to tell myself, but where do I begin? Normal to feel happy. Normal to feel sad. Normal to appreciate. Normal to miss work. Normal to miss my old routine. Normal to begin to appreciate my new routine. Normal to miss all the parties we've hosted and how we really want to go back. Normal to miss sushi. Normal to ponder a backyard wedding in our very own backyard? Normal to see all those lemons on our lemon tree and feel guilty I'm doing nothing about them. Normal to wanting to eat healthy. Normal to want to eat all the carb loaded things cause I'm bored. Normal to want to do anything! Something! to not feel bored. Normal to understand that it's quite the privilege to feel bored. Normal to make homemade burrata just because. Normal to not have driven in weeks! Normal to go to the grocery store and wear the mask and the gloves and feel sad and a little depressed this is the new normal. Normal to continue having hope that things will go back to normal and this will be a stint in our lives where some of us are like, "Remember when COVID-19 happened and all we did was bake and scour flour and have all this time to experiment and feel weird for doing nothing and doing everything and we had this force time to slow down? Remember that?"

What's your new normal?