Aaaaaand She's Back!

I am on week 7 of self-isolation and I've been going a bit stir-crazy. I am blessed to have a job that I can do from home, and I have been able to self-isolate in a safe place. I am grateful for the many blessings and comforts I have in my life during this trying time.

This afternoon Mel sent a text to the group chat blasting Stef's blog from 2007. I spent an hour going through the archives of my own blogs throughout the years. I was on the floor laughing at some of the experiences I had shared and I'm grateful that I have those memories to read all these years later. Writing brought me a lot of joy before going to BYU. Being a Sociology major meant that I had an insane amount of academic writing each week, so I never had time for fun writing. 

I feel hypocritical when I tell my students that they should be writing everyday, because I haven't kept up with my own daily writing. I am going to challenge myself to write a few times a week to keep my writing skills fresh. 

Funny Story:

A few weeks ago I recovered from the COVID-19 and I was excited to finally leave my apartment! It was a cold and rainy Tuesday, and I was completely out of groceries in my house. Obviously I wasn't going to walk 20 blocks to the grocery store, so I decided I would forage for food at the bodega. 

Let me set the scene. I hadn't showed in three days, my hair was a wreck, I had severe acne all over my face, and I had cried for an hour so my eyes were puffy and red af. I put a scarf over my face (thanks corona), put on a big sweatshirt to cover my ass because my leggings are low quality and pretty much completely see through. I was looking like a complete MESS. 

There is a bodega on the corner of 2nd Avenue. It is about 100 steps to get from my the front door to the front door of the bodega. I exited my building and as soon as I stepped outside a guy in a van whistled at me and said, "Hey mami, how's it going baby?" I looked at him like he was crazy, because let's be honest, he must have been, and walked a little faster toward the bodega. It seems like normal people are a little thirstier than usual. #isolationprobs

I walked into the bodega, ordered my burger and fries, and prayed that it wouldn't take a long time because this COVID thing has me stressed and paranoid about being outside of my house. I was wandering the store when the bodega owner called me over. I thought my food was ready so I was really excited. I walked up to the counter ready to grab and go. To my horror, my food was not ready and this man started telling me about his nephew in Yemen. I was trying to be nice as he regaled me about tales of this seemingly nice young man. He said, "He'll be in New York in August for school. You two should meet. You are a beautiful young woman and I think you would like each other." 

In my head I was like, "um...sir, I look like Shrek, and half of my face is covered with this god-awful scarf. Also, you don't even know me." He pulled out his phone and started showing me pictures of his nephew and listing all of his good qualities. He was really selling this kid, let me tell ya. Studying engineering? Ooooh, tell me more... Comes from a wealthy family in Yemen? I ain't a gold digger, but continue... Then by the grace of all that is holy, my burger was finally finished and I was able to run out with my food. I am just grateful that he didn't ask for my number, I've had some bad experiences with that recently.