On Life in Lockdown and Stimulus Checks

At this point, we've all been doing the lockdown thing so long, I think a lot of us have forgotten what life was like before. Or at least I have. At this point, I'm used to this virus being a thing. I'm used to having to plan ahead more when buying groceries to make sure we have the things we need when we need them. I'm used to thinking twice before I consider going out in public (on the rare occasion it even crosses my mind).

I stay home all the time as a rule. I work at home for myself, I entertain myself at home, I pay other people to do all my shopping for me, and my social life starts and stops at social media, so the whole social distancing thing hasn't been hard for me at all. My life as a whole is largely unchanged from what it was. In fact, I could do this whole social distancing thing indefinitely, to be really honest.

Other people are another story though. They don't know how to cope with not being able to see their friends in person, go out for drinks, or spend time in public whenever they feel like it. Most of them are going stir-crazy, half from cabin fever and the other half from genuine stress over coronavirus and the very real risk of serious illness it brings with it. Some are deeply depressed and others are climbing the walls like little children.

I have to confess that the snob in me isn't impressed. As an extreme introvert and long-time voluntary recluse, I've always had people telling me how weird I am for finding it hard to fit into the rest of the world as easily as everyone else always has. It's nice (not to mention interesting) to be the one who's handling everything fine for the change. It's been very nice to be in a position to tell others to just suck it up and do what's necessary for a change.

It's not exactly earning me any friends though. In fact, it's lost me a few so far -- no one noteworthy or important so far, just more hopeless loser types leftover from my LiveJournal days whom I won't miss.

As far as the reasons, I'm guessing it's my lack of sympathy for people who aren't really using this time away from work and their usual social life to do anything worthwhile with themselves. This should be a time to learn something new, be creative, or work on self-improvement of some sort. Instead, everyone's sitting around like the wastes of space they are. When they're not complaining about having to be home with all the modern conveniences we're so spoiled by these days, they're being self-destructive. They're binge-drinking, and doing drugs, and stuffing their stupid faces with way too much food.

I guess that's their prerogative, but it's also my prerogative to feel however I want to about it. I've had to put up with everyone else's judgment as far as how I choose to live. Other people can damn well do the same now that it's their turn.

........

On an interesting financial note, the government has been depositing $1,200 stimulus checks into people's bank accounts to help boost the economy and see people through who've lost income because of all this. At first, I wasn't nuts about giving the IRS my bank information, since they don't already have it. It took me a long time to get back to a place where my credit's good and I have real bank accounts with actual balances in them, so I'm persnickety about how they're used. 

I eventually saw the light and went through the proper channels to request mine though. I mean... it's $1,200. I'm not out of work because of everything going on, nor am I even struggling much more than I normally would be, but I could definitely use that money. That's a lot of sales copy and web content I won't have to write, not to mention a lot of groceries I could buy. It's a nice little cushion to fall back on while I continue to establish myself on Medium and seek out new freelancing opportunities as well.