Day… 128 of Covid Isolation / Quarantine / Lockdown / Whatever. It is probably safe to say, in a non-hyperbolic way, that America is rapidly deteriorating. Like, to the point where I’m engaging immigration attorneys in the antipodes to see what the likelihood is that John and I can get out of here. There is no way this country survives another four years of this administration, it’s barely survived the first.
I’ve been on a yoyo of habits and laziness, focus and neglect since all this began. It’s amazing to me that I rowed a half marathon the last day of February this year. I could probably not row 2000m right now without major chest pain. We’ve been in this limbo for long enough that whole initiatives have risen and fallen. For a while there, John and I were hiking the stairs around our neighborhood. For a while I was hiking the trails myself. For a while I was running/sunning on the river trail.
I’m cancelling my gym memberships this week. I held on for the first 100 days on a maintenance membership to stay enrolled, assuming that re-opening was feasible in the near future. We re-opened, sloppily, irresponsibly, and our COVID cases shot through the roof. Everything is closed again.
I’m seeing my body change quickly. Too much solace in food. Too much take out. For a while there I was taking refuge in mixing my way through the Smugglers Cove cocktail book, learning to make tiki drinks. Did I mention that already? I don’t remember.
So I’m cancelling my gym memberships, and doubling down on what I know best: just walking more often to places, yoga, and Kalari. I’m really tucking into these virtual Kalari get togethers based out of Thailand, taught by one of the colleagues of my former teacher in Utah. The meypayattu exercises are more challenging than ever, but but I find them as mentally stimulating as they are physically. It’s a strange sensation to feel something… deeper change in tandem with your body. The energy is different.
So yeah, taking Kalari 3-4 times a week, with yoga and yogic stretching/skill sets in between. I have a silly goal to get into the splits before the end of the year. It’ll help with my kalugal kicks, but I’m hoping it’ll also just loosen my knees up, and get rid of the pain there. I want to be able to jog a day or two a week without being essentially immobilized with knee pain for the rest of the week.
I’ve been digging into the “theory” of the body as I get back into practice. Just another step deeper into my LA hallucinations.
A few weeks ago we established a “bubble” with some close friends who all tested negative the same weekend as us, and who observe the same rigor when it comes to distancing, hygiene and covid avoidance practices as us. Having people to be around has literally saved our sanity if not our relationship. Just being able to touch another body, embrace another person, talk to someone from outside your own walls is… amazing.
Last week we rented a house in Palm Springs together to get out of the city. We did nothing but hang out in the pool — it was record breaking heat, well over 120F. Tomorrow they’re coming over for drag race, we’ll see them again on Saturday, and then John and I are re-isolating for two weeks in preparation to visit friends in Sea Ranch. These new patterns of isolation, testing, bubbling. How crazy this all would have seemed in January.