“I can’t breathe” is not what you want to hear when you open the door to let the long-awaited plumber into your apartment to fix the bathroom leak. The man is clutching his heart, gasping for air, with streams of sweat running down his face. “The elevator is broken” he manages to say.
My elevator could win the dodgiest-mechanical-solution-for-vertical-transfers prize. My Grandpa takes great pride for having designed/built an elevator in his building in Stockholm, but this contraption would probably have him laughing and wondering how it ever passed inspection. But Grandpa, this is Georgia!
While many of my visitors (back in the day when friends still came over) choose to take the four flights of stairs as a display of sensibleness, this man, with his Michelin anatomy, was fully dependent on the elevator working. Thankfully he survived. But oh god why didn’t he ask me for a clean towel to dry his sweaty face/head/neck rather than grabbing the damp towel that I’d just used for my morning shower?? If he knew what I had dried with that towel he would most definitely have gone into real cardiac arrest?!
I’m sad to realize that my limited social interaction these days also affects my story material, so my plumber encounter is as good as it gets. Thankfully I had an errand at the office which gave me a chance to see a few lovely faces and remind myself of my connectivity. While enjoying a cup of quality coffee with my delightful colleague in the yard she said, “Wow, these small moments are so precious, and with them we can survive anything!” And right on cue, as if in a cheesy 80s movie, a car drove by blaring….. “Oh no, not I, I will survive. Oh, as long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive”. Now my official soundtrack of 2020, thank you universe.
The theme of the week has been “Enough already – fuck Corona!”. The conversations I’ve had with friends echo strong emotions that shift from day to day, ranging from anger, frustration, stress and loneliness, to joy, pleasure, longing and giggles. Everything just seems more intense. The gloomy stuff
pierces through our skin more than usual, while the joyful moments are absolutely marvelous (it doesn’t take much to create memories these days).
The Georgian government just announced a new 2-month lockdown, and thankfully I had the day off yesterday so could “carpe diem” the last day of freedom. And what better way to celebrate freedom than with a drive through winding roads, a hike in the crisp sun, and a spontaneous tequila evening? and those of you who know me know that tequila is my secret weapon. I made it home in time for curfew, feeling strong, knowing that I will survive. Anything.
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