The sound of crickets chirping on a summer night is unparalleled. Today is April 23.

My mind really must not want me to have a good night’s sleep. Following yesterday’s terrifying nightmare, I hoped I’d be able to have sweet dreams of fluffy clouds and cute baby animals. I had no such luck. I woke up this morning with an uncomfortable tightness in my chest and my blankets kicked in a mess across my bed.

I tried to recall what I’d been dreaming about, but all I could come up with was that it centered around the Red Cross. I think I had been trying to donate blood, but because I hadn’t waited the required time period before donating, workers turned me away. I’m not sure why that was such a stressful experience, but I felt unrested and exhausted as I got out of bed.

I tried to calm my nerves by watching some TV, which seemed to help. I can sit through 45-minute episodes of gruesome serial killers and murders on Criminal Minds and have no qualms. Psychological horrors, however, especially the ones in my subconscious, don’t agree with me. Once I wasn’t as shaken up, I decided to take a shower and shave.

I’d put off cleaning for a couple days too long. My hair felt stringy, greasy and gross. I could also see my face was breaking out a bit, which is another indicator I’ve not been too conscientious of my shower schedule. I love being tall(ish), but one of the downsides is that my legs take more time to shave because they are relatively long. That’s probably too much information, but oh well. The shower felt nice. Even though I might have used up lots of the hot water, I felt cozy and warm when I stepped out.

After eating an egg sandwich and some pomegranate seeds for lunch, I checked another item off my to do list: Rock Bridge Reaches Out (RBRO) leadership recommendations. The club’s sponsor had asked me to email her the names of a few rising seniors who I thought might be good candidates, but before I gave her my list, I asked out in this year’s RBRO leadership GroupMe to figure out who all was even interested. 

Once I’d gotten the students’ replies, I formulated an email outlining what the students had done this year, what they want to do next year, the position(s) they are interested in and my personal opinion on their leadership qualities, dedication, follow-through and commitment. I hope whoever takes over RBRO next year can continue the examples of organization and accountability as well as leadership and communication I’ve worked to set this year. 

For much of the afternoon, I watched more Criminal Minds (I’m on season nine now). Tomorrow is a fellow newspaper staff member’s birthday, so we are planning on having a quick Zoom meeting around 2 p.m. to celebrate her special day. In addition to probably way too much TV, I also found a few TED talks on various subjects and a “Jubilee” episode of a conversation about the middle ground between proponents of abstinence and those of premarital sex on YouTube. I find “Jubilee’s” videos interesting because of how they incorporate positive, open-minded conversations rather than argumentation or antagonism. I think the whole world would be a little better off if we all followed that example.

“Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.” ― Mary Oliver, American poet

How did you spend your 37th day of social distancing? Let us know in the comments below.