Pandemic Shopping

January has been a long month. The holidays are over, a silver alert was issued for a family member and Jake passing away has taken it's toll, It's taken a toll physically and emotionally. Now my bank account has taken the biggest hit.

The pandemic has changed my shopping habits even more. Most of my shopping has always been online but it has gotten even worse. Outside of grocery shopping, it was always rare that I went to a physical store to buy anything. But the option was always there, if I wanted to get out of the house. When there was that lock down for two months, the only places that people could go was to a gas station or a grocery store. If you wanted to buy anything that wasn't groceries, the only option was shopping online. And I have been buying even more online.

For the longest time during the pandemic, groceries went up a little bit but nothing too horrible. Now the price of food has gone up but my paycheck has remained the same. What's good at this point, I haven't added any new candles to my candle collection or any new perfumes. It's amazing on how bad the supply chains have gotten and how expensive everything has gotten after 2 years. I'm still on for the Sephora VIB sale in April and I am hoping that from now until April, things will improve for me. All it can take is for one lousy paycheck and a unanticipated event can screw things up for a while.

Today was the day that I went to the vet's office to pick up Jake's ashes. Jake's ashes was another reminder that Jake had died and was coming home in an urn. On the way home, I was trying not to cry and it was the first time in over 20 years that I had to only get one dog license. I loathed the fact that I needed to run to the store to pick up a couple things for dinner. I just wanted to get Jake home and try not to think about  a lot of things. I would never be able to take Jake to the park for a walk and it would be his last car ride home and he wasn't in the land of the living anymore. The park that I've always taken Jake to was right next door to where I got Sydney's license. Even though Jake has been gone for 11 days, I still say good night to him and when I wake up, I still look for him to give him his good morning kiss and cuddle. I still look for him when I come home from work and but I know he's gone and 13 years of habit don't change overnight. A couple days ago, I picked up his food and water dish and put his bedding in the family room away. I still haven't picked up his bedding in my room and I don't think I am quite ready for that yet. Packing up Jake's belongings and putting them away, along with picking up his ashes makes everything so final. I'm not sure I am ready yet to put away his bedding from my bedroom. The bedding is probably going to be staying for a while.