well, i'm trying.

It’s not that they sometimes forget they put things away, they’re always forgetting they put things away. 

Saying things like “oh, that’s normal, everyone does that, you’re not special” genuinely undermines, devalues, destabilizes, and minimizes actual experiences that aren’t necessarily fun. Don’t do that. Don’t claim something is ordinary and normal just because your experience is occasional. The point is that we are divergent, we are out of the ordinary, we are not part of everyone.

Don’t force yourself to practice for too long right away. If you don’t already practice regularly, practicing for an hour or more every day probably isn’t realistic. Ten minutes per day is better than none.

Set a specific time for practicing. I found that one of my main problems with practicing regularly was motivating myself to actually get up and do it. I designated 3:00 as my practice time, and it’s a lot easier to see my scheduled time and go practice than trying to stop whatever I’m doing at a random time.

Decide specifically what to do with your practice time. I find it helps to make goals about how much I’ll practice each time rather than how long. If I decide I’m going to practice for half an hour, I’ll end up checking the clock so much that I get distracted. Instead, I decide that before I stop practicing, I have to play all of my scales and one or two specific exercises. This means you’ll be able to concentrate better on practicing, increasing the chances that you can get into Practicing Mode and have longer practice sessions without pain.

Don’t overdo it. If you force yourself to do way too much and use up all your energy, you’ll dread practicing and it’ll be harder to motivate yourself to do it. Choose your goals for each practice session based on how much energy you have that day.

Allow yourself time off. I try to practice every day, but I allow myself to skip two days per week in case I’m not feeling up to it or I end up being busy.

most of my customers are high risk and terrified to be there, but they have no other options and no family members to run errands for them. they come to retail pharmacies to pick up prescriptions and knock out grocery shopping in one go. i get it.

but we have SO MANY PEOPLE come and just wander! and they openly tell me it’s because they’re bored! and some even tell me they’re bored because they showed symptoms and were told to self-isolate!!

DON’T COME TO MY STORE THEN

my store has not given us adequate protective gear and i am unable to leave my register to wash my hands. i spend the whole shift dealing with customers who do not maintain 6 feet distance and who are out buying nonessential items. it’s stressful for me and for my high risk customers who have to be there.

“at least you’re paid extra” I’M NOT! walgreens offers no hazard pay, no PPE, no PTO for high risk folks self-isolating, and no paid sick leave unless an employee is able to access a test and tests positive. i’m sure most retail pharmacies are the same. this is better than no job but just barely.

please just think about others before going shopping to relieve boredom. you are putting others at risk with careless decisions like that. if you do have to go shopping at least be nice to the workers there. we are paid nothing and expected to be heroes.