Powering Up

I haven’t been feeling well for a couple of days now. I have a nagging headache, itchy throat, and been coughing and sneezing (not flu-like, but more like what one would have during an allergy attack). I think I even have a slight fever the other day which I nursed by sleeping it off. 

Under normal circumstances, these are not something I would call in sick or stay in bed for. Normally, I would ignore it altogether. But we are in a pandemic, and the smallest of symptoms is enough to get us all edgy.

My brother is on his last few days of self-quarantine, and now it would be his wife’s turn to do so after we found out that many of her workmates were also tested positive (a detail she kept from all of us). She may already be asymptomatic with mild or no symptoms, but you all have to agree with me when I say that such recklessness is stupid, to say the least. 

Frankly, I have had enough of worrying and giving myself anxiety attacks over family members’ lack of good judgment and common sense. I have gathered all my self-restraint not to wring necks that I chose to continue following recommendations, taking the necessary precautions, and staying healthy instead. 

Friday Feel Good

Here’s one Flashback Friday that I think would momentarily blast all your pandemic funk away.

This YouTube video was shared by my local celebrity crush, James Deakin (who had been replying to my IG DMs, FB comments and even greeted me on my last birthday), on his Facebook page today. 

Believe me, it did make my endorphins do the jitterbug.

It’s a tribute to '80s entertainment and if you’re a child of the '80s just like me, you’ll recognize most—if not all—the clips featured in this video and might feel old but very pleased at the same time to have been a part of it. Undeniably the golden age for movies, TV shows, and music (never mind the big hair and the big shoulder pads), it’s an awesome era where everything was much simpler and more fun. Watching this brings back happy childhood memories and it’s by far one of the happiest videos I’ve seen. 

So close, so real.

My cousin’s swab test showed that she’s positive for Covid. Her entire household is now on quarantine, including my younger brother who was forced to stay at the vacant house across the street to self-quarantine as he had close contact with her (he initially said he helped in rushing her to the hospital, but took it back when talks about my cousin being a possible Covid case came out). 

My kuya and I were so worried when we found out about it but we thought we can’t really do anything apart from disinfecting the whole house, loading up on our vitamins to strengthen our immune system and observing every family member. As of this writing, we are all fine—including mom and the kids, but this doesn’t mean we’re on the clear because we all know that the virus has an incubation period of 14 days. 

This only heightened the anxiety that I have been fighting for weeks now.