Saturday night, huzzay.

My life is very unusual, and the sort of problems I have would seem like great advantages to others. Case in point: I’ve just realized that I suck at gaining weight. I started counting my calories and strength-training a few months ago, and really had to force myself to eat to meet my daily goals. (Daily metabolic rate +10% on top.) I started out being a bit more underweight than before the pandemic. Fast-forward to mid-November, and I’ve gained a total of 7 lbs after several months of deliberate overeating. That does not quite meet my definition of bulking up. Heh.

I might as well start a #GrigoryProblems hashtag, which would include being unable to gain weight, getting more vacation time than I know what to do with (altogether, about six weeks off per year if you include personal time off), and saving too much money. (Approximately 60% of each paycheck, after taxes.) I know, I know – I’m overprivileged as hell. I’m well aware of that, eh.

To give y’all a flavour of the biggest concern in my life right now: I spent another hour trying and failing to install the add-ons for my MMORPG, Elder Scrolls Online. Alas, nothing worked. Seeing as trading with other players is the main way of obtaining in-game gold, and trading without add-ons is more or less impossible, I’ve given up on the whole thing. After reaching level 150, there’s not a whole lot more to do, even though some of the in-game dialogue is occasionally witty and beautiful. It no longer brings me joy, so off into the bin it goes. On the upside, there’ll be a bit more free time now. (I know, my lockdown life is glamorous as hell.)

In any case… In covid news, there’s been more and more cases of tone-deaf politicians violating their own rules – or at least appearing to disregard them. The House Democrats had to scrap their big fancy dinner in the Capitol after the news (and pictures of the venue) got out. Pelosi claimed there was extra ventilation and plenty of space between the tables, but that’s not quite how that works. (All it would take single sneeze, or just one waiter who came in to work sick.) It’s unclear if their Republican counterparts are going to hold an in-person dinner, or if they’re just better at controlling their leaks. And California’s governor Gavin Newsom ended up attending a fancy birthday party hosted by his lobbyist friend, and seems apologetic only because the news got out. Either he was too incompetent to understand how risky that was and how bad that’d look, or he understood but didn’t care. Neither of those explanations befits a leader.

With leadership like this (and lots of similar stories from the Republican party as well), it’s no wonder regular people are giving up on following the official guidelines. Part of that is just the plain old pandemic fatigue. I’m more introverted than most people, and even I get mildly cabin-fever-y once in a while, in this self-imposed lockdown. If the Powers That Be don’t care, who will?

And on that happy note – have a fine weekend, y’all.