Ramadan Quarantine

Today begins our 10th Ramadan in the Middle East. Usually Ramadan brings sweeping restriction to our normal lives, such as not being allowed to eat or drink in public during daylight hours, no chewing gum or music, shortened school days, and closed restaurants and cafes. Basically life comes grinding to a halt for 30 days.

Today I woke up and thought, “Ramadan. Huh.” Not one thing about today was different from the 5 previous Fridays. We woke up, dragged ourselves to the couch for pre-church prayer meeting. Woke the kids up 10 minutes before the live stream and attended Cornerstone CouchChurch.

She’s not normally this tired for 10am church, but playing Fortnite until midnight every night adds up.

For our game time last night, Caleb and Camille tried to teach me how to play Fortnite. I’m terrible at it because I turn right when I’m trying to turn left and I can’t manage to move my body and my head at the same time while choosing weapons and shooting at a target. Camille was in hysterics over my ineptness. Their ability to multi-task at lightning speeds is pretty impressive.

So our Ramadan day . . . Carter went back to sleep after church since he’s become nocturnal over the past 3 days. He’s pulled a few all nighters for school and then has been sleeping during the day. He says he works better that way and since he’s 18 and going to be on his own in about 20 minutes, I’m happy to leave him be as long as he’s getting everything done. Pretty soon he’ll have plenty of people up in his business as the Navy dictates his every movement so I’m happy to give him a tiny taste of college life before he leaves home.

What else did I do today? A lot of watching Psych and knitting. Some lying on my bed and the couch while doing those activities — gotta change the scenery a bit. I went up to the 3rd floor and worked on my toes to bar skills for 10 minutes (as assigned by my coach). Deciding if I’m going to post the video here or not . . . eh, why not?

Almost 4 reps. Woo hoo. Not a big deal/yes it is.

(It’s annoying me that I can’t turn off the suggested videos at the end of my video — a feature that YouTube used to support, but now doesn’t. Supposedly you can link to another playlist on your channel instead, but after 40 minutes of attempts, I haven’t gotten that to work. Boo. Be forewarned that the suggestions are based on your viewing habits, so if you get inappropriate suggestions, it’s not coming from me!)

I’ve been working with a personal trainer for a few months (Since January, once or 2x a week) on things that I can’t quite get the hang of through coaching in a normal class. We started with pull-ups and have added hand stand pushups, toes to bar, and some barbell work. Since we’ve been on home quarantine she has been coming to our house twice a week to make me work out since she does a much better job keeping me moving than if I’m left to myself.

The way I would work out is to do something for a bit, feel mildly winded and then think, eh that’s good enough. When she comes for our sessions I’m in the middle of a workout thinking, “I’m going to die. Literally I’m going to pick up this weight and then crumple to the ground. There is no way I can keep going.” And then she says, “3, 2, 1 . . . let’s go. Enough rest. Keep going!” And somehow I do and then she leaves and I think it’s a miracle that I’m still alive.

Twice a week we’re dead.

Oh to be a cat! Ramadan Kareem in this time of RamaTine!