Pandemic Week 2

Whew! What a week. I’m very much struggling mentally most of this week. I just need things to settle into place and I don’t even know where to start telling you all about my week.

I’ve spent way more time than it should have taken trying to get EI set up.  First, the website was having technical difficulties so I couldn’t get in to get it started.  Then, once I could get in, as I’m putting in my info to get it started, it tells me that it’s re-opening my previous claim from when I was on EI last year when my work closed for construction.  The end date of that claim is April 14, so if I continue with it, I only have 3 weeks of coverage.  So they say if I want to cancel that claim and start a new one – to call.  I dialed the number 402 times Tuesday.  No lie.  And I never made it through to talk to a person.  Wednesday I called close to 200 times and still didn’t get through.  Thursday I called about 20 times and finally got to the point that I was to be put on hold with an estimated wait time of 2 hours that turned into 4.5 hours.  All to find out that I don’t have to cancel the previous claim.  That they’ll pay me out the remainder of those 3 weeks and then I it will roll into the new claim.  Or maybe it will roll into the CERB?  I’m confused based on the press conferences.  I wish the website wasn’t so unclear about needing to cancel the previous claim because I read it that if I re-opened the claim that I wouldn’t be able to start the new one, but that’s not how that works.  So I’ve learned something new and at least the 4.5 hours on hold and the hundreds of times I dialed the number wasn’t for nothing.

This means I’ve been doing some thinking about whether or not I should look at getting my mortgage deferred.  My goal since buying the house has been to pay it off as quick as possible (single mama with a paid off house that I did all by myself would make me so proud of myself!) – but with this situation I just might have to put it aside.  Everything in the store is just going up in price and you just kinda have to grab what you can, when you can find it in stock.  So no sale shopping to stock up now and once I get my EI claim to go through, I’ll be back to earning just 55% of my income again until this lock-down ends and I can return to work. I’m going to try and avoid deferring as long as I can, so we’ll see how that’ll end up.

We’re also getting prepared for another person in the house for the next bit.  My son’s grandma on his fathers side called me as her last resort for somewhere to stay.  Her flight back home to Hawaii was cancelled with the borders closing and she can no longer stay where she’s been staying.  This means my little 2 bedroom/1 bathroom house will have 4 people in it for the next while until she can get a flight back.  I could never leave her without a place to be, but this means more people in the little space – especially when we’re mostly introverts here – and more food to find when shelves are scarce and more potential to come in contact with illness when there’s more people.  We all know that I’m the most paranoid and cautious one of the house, so it’s freaking me out a little but I’m confidant it’ll all work out (trying to stay positive!).

On a more positive note, I’ve been a little productive.  Doing some baking – and I love that I can do it any time of the day now that they’ve made the energy rate the low rate at all times of the day for the next 45 days. I also took the time to do my nails and I filmed the application for another tutorial video.  I just need to film the removal when I’m ready to take it off so I can put up another tutorial blog post. I’ve also started writing in some cards to send some random happy distraction mail out when my bro does the next grocery run.

With cash being more strapped again for the next while, I cancelled some subscriptions that I had.  Canva and Amazon Prime.  I also got my Origins Game Fair pass refunded because Wizkids announced that they’re pulling out and Heroclix US Nationals won’t be there.

I did end the week with some fantastic distraction time of playing in an online ROC Qualifier.  Stay tuned for that tournament report!

My goal for this coming week is to try and watch the news a little less and focus on self care more.  I’m sure watching the news the way I am isn’t helping my mental health.  But like a deer in the headlights, I just can’t look away and find that I have it on for multiple hours and not just the daily Trudeau update.

Until next time, xoxo