Reinventing The Wheel

Lately I've been busy...

Like strange busy. While quarantining at home I thought I'd have all this time to do all the things I like to do, like read, blog, do laundry, etc. But I find that I don't have time because lately, I've been doing a lot of reinventing. Social distancing policies have forced me to reinvent how I do my business in the midst of a pandemic, but it's not just work. I find that I'm reinventing different things every day.

Text and FaceTime with my friends and loved ones are the new normal in touching base and letting people know you care thereby reinventing my social interaction. While It's easy to change from your day pajamas to your night pajamas, I choose not to, so I'm reinventing my daily look. I also haven't been loving the lunch that I used pack from home and more often than not and eat on the fly, so I've been reinventing cuisine around here daily. I've become the Rachel Ray in my house and the family dinners have been epic! I forgot how much I like to cook and that I'm good at it because I used to eat out almost Every. Single. Night. The refrigerator is jam-packed like never before, and I keep watch on the food and leftovers so that nothing goes to waste, ready to pounce when something has passed it prime. A TOTAL reinvention, since I used to be never home to notice.

Supermarket, pharmacy lists and filling on-line orders at my store have become spread sheet worthy tasks as necessities are rationed and carefully planned. Trips are shortened and far more productive and deliberate. When completed, I always to then return safely home and wash my hands thoroughly. No detours.

But this one's the shocker.
I've even reinvented my TV habits.
I have hardly watched Netflix, (except for Season 3 of Ozark-loved it!) or Bravo. CNN is my constant companion and its becoming the soundtrack to my quarantine days. Everything lately is a complete reinvention from whom I used to be.

And it's OK. Because although we've been forced to look at life differently in this historic moment in time, it's given me the opportunity to be more thoughtful, more aware and more careful about my choices. It's always been me-but the me who was on the fast track and probably a bit more quick and carefree doesn’t have the same options. It's not that I have really changed who I am, It's more like I've reinvented what and how I navigate through everyday life.

I'm still me. I’m still the same person I was before the pandemic. I just need to pivot and adapt to this strange thing that has hit us all, hard. So I count my blessings and forge ahead. I really don't need to reinvent the wheel.

What Would Carrie Do?

Let's take a different angle on all this Covid-19 perspective today. While watching my favorite go-to on TV, I decided to think about what this apocalyptic world would look like for the girls from Sex and the City. How would they handle this Social Distancing when their entire existence is centered around Sex...in the city? And just like that, I had my blog post.

I'm going to start with Miranda.

She's the sometimes angry corporate lawyer who is a cynical spit fire with a soft side. Steve, her husband and Brady, her son complete her world. But what about Miranda pre-marriage? I wondered what would this NYC lock down look like for her?

Miranda, I think, would be spending her quarantine days at her well appointed dining room table covered with legal briefs, zoom conferencing with her partners and clients. She'd be calling Carrie, after a long day of work and possibly meeting her for a clandestine walk, six feet apart, down the deserted streets of New York. While all of her possible suitors would be contacting her for booty calls, something tells me that Miranda would cautiously selective, or practicing abstinence for the good of all.

Then there's Charlotte

She is the gorgeous WASP with the Cinderella complex. Charlotte did get her fairy tale ending when she fell in love with her divorce lawyer Harry and had two beautiful little girls; one adopted and one conceived after a struggle with infertility. But what would Charlotte be like pre-fairy tale? Charlotte never gave up on the prospect of true love so what would she do if her all important search was suddenly put on pause?

Charlotte, I think, would spend her days, since her gallery is closed, cleaning out her closet of her Lilly Pulitzer and matching headbands, organizing her designer purses, by color, and watching romantic old movies on TV. Charlotte would not be meeting up with the ladies for a 6 foot walk. No, Charlotte and her Rabbit would be spending quiet nights home  alone.

The one and only Samantha

She is a true original. Samantha the sex-obsessed, brash and straight forward successful PR agent, moved out to the West Coast with her love Smith. She then moved back to the city because she "loved herself more" and we could all use a little more of that in our lives. Samantha was never one to shy away from confrontation, so what would a little self-isolation do to Samantha's never satiated sex drive?

Samantha, I think, would not take this Covid-19 crisis lying down, or maybe she would? Literally. Samantha would be forced to keep her sex line up to a select few. Preferably the ones with a house in the Hamptons and the ones she deemed "clean", because there is no way Samantha would stop having sex. With the prospect of no premiers, restaurants and parties to dress fabulously for, Samantha would be breaking the rules and having safe sex parties in her fabulous apartment in the meat packing district. And that handsome stranger she met while picking up her takeout? Oh Samantha, she may not be able to abstain. " Honey, it's all about the phermones We are all just reacting to each other's smell."

And our girl Carrie

She is our protagonist. Her nervous and self-deprecating personality belies her true intelligence. She is the supremely insightful author of her newspaper column "Sex and The City", and fiercely loyal to her girlfriends.  Carrie finally got her man, and she and John Preston, aka "Big" made it legal. But pre-wedding days, I found myself wondering what a self-quarantine would look like for Carrie?

Since sex is her business, I think Carrie would be spending her days Face-timing her friends and sources looking for leads and delving into what happens when sex is not an option. Then she would be spinning the tale of what Sex in The City looks like without the prospect of sex and the city.

She would be publishing her column daily, and since she was still working, she would definitely be shopping online. A lot. Sales on couture and sales on shoes all with free shipping, Carrie might find herself in a financial frenzy. After long days of writing and scouring unique sex stories, she might possibly invite the girls over to defy the shelter-in-place order to eat take-out and drink cosmos around her circular coffee table at least six feet apart. As for sex, I'm quite confident that during this unusual time in the history of our world, Carrie would be comfortable being an observer, chronicling the trials and tribulations of being a single in the new social-distancing age.

One thing is for sure, with all this uncertainty out there today it's unnerving to have to consider whether having single sex today is safe. Better we tune into our girls from Sex and The City to contemplate the meaning of our sex lives in this new normal.

While the world we live in has changed dramatically, I couldn't help but wonder, "What would Carrie do?"