Report by Trentin Quarantino
I wake up at around 2pm with Harley asking me to please get her fresh fruit the next time I go to the store. We then have another blazing row - I make that 3 in 5 days, which is a record, with Harley accusing me of being selfish and only ever getting what I want from the store, and me pointing out that every time I go to the store I ask if she wants anything and when she says no she can't really hold me responsible for not getting her anything.
This fight seems ridiculous to me, and I really start to worry about Harley - worried that she's on the verge of a total breakdown, as this level of anger over something so small is just something I can't comprehend.
And then she completely breaks me when she tells me that after cooking for me the last two days she's gone to bed without eating and is absolutely starving hungry.
There is really no need for this - yes, I haven't been to the store for a couple of days, but we have food in the house. And it would never in a million years occur to me that she might cook for me and not eat herself. But in her mind I'm the one going to work, so I should be the one getting the lions share of the food.
We both come from dirt poor backgrounds, but where I grew up to be a person who sees money in his wallet and has to spend it, she grew up to believe that Every. Single. Penny. Counts. And so if there's enough of a particular thing for one person then it goes to the one who is working and the other does without.
This attitude devastates me. Completely. Yes, we're planning to move once the crisis is over and so will need money to pay for that, but there is absolutely no need whatsoever for either of us to EVER go hungry. This needs to be rectified.
So as is the pattern when we fight, we get everything out in the open, then sit down and have a long, much more rational discussion and try to work through it. Then I go to the store and buy a mountain of fruit.
Then I go to another store and buy more food from there. And a chess/checkers box set, so we have a couple of games we can play. I see a robot duster thing that I consider buying, but decide I can't be bothered carrying it. And my bag is full anyway.
When I get home Harley sticks the chicken I got a few days ago in the oven and prepares a fruit salad, and all is more or less back to normal. We try to play chess, but although I'm not a great player Harley is a total novice and we quickly decide this is no fun. Then we try checkers, and quickly get to a stalemate position that I didn't even know was possible. So that game is out too.
I mention the robot duster thing I saw at the store and Harley brightens up and decides she wants to see it in action, so back to the store I go to pick one up. When I get home we eat the chicken and have some vodka and cranberry juice while our newly named Dustin the Duster gets acquainted with our main room - he seems particularly enamoured with the legs of a chair that he keeps trapping himself in between for a while, and this is considered a successful purchase.
And then we go to bed, as we're both really tired and fragile. I really hope the next few days can be better. I worry about Harley - the isolation is bad for me, but even worse for her as she loves spring so much and is locked up watching the world go to shit.
Things have to get better. Please let things get better.
Additional reporting by Harley Quarantinova
I woke up hungry and depressed. Cried, woke Trentin up, made him cry as well.
Spent most of the day crying and wishing I was dead. Didn't talk to friends. Still managed to feed the hedgehog and the birds outside.
Trentin bought a lot of fresh fruit and other food. Also brought an automatic dust collector and games of chess and checkers.
We tried playing chess but he kept winning within 2 minutes and that wasn't much fun for either of us. Checkers weren't much better, we got stuck within 3 minutes.
Highlight of the day - drinking vodka with cranberry juice while watching Dustin the automatic dust collector travel randomly through the living room. Also eating chicken and fruit salad. Not at the same time.
Hate seeing myself in the mirror but have zero motivation to take care of myself. Still care enough to hate myself though.
Once again didn't do any of the crafty things on my list.
My back and chest hurt. Breathing is getting hard. It's not the virus, it's all the crying.
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