in Hermit Truths on with 1 Comment by Jodi Chromey

The COVID Diaries: Move Over Typhoid Mary, Here Comes Covid Chromey

Darling Ones, Do you remember when I first thought I was infected that I didn’t think there would be any real value in getting a positive affirmation that I had COVID? I was wrong. Here’s the good thing about getting a positive result when you’re already sick: it’s validating as hell. I knew I was sick. Nobody in my life accused me of faking it. Yet, there was some tiny, weird, inescapable doubt in the darker corners of my mind…

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in Hermit Truths on by Jodi Chromey

The COVID Diaries: 18-Hour Headache

Hi Darling Ones, I cancelled the rest of the week because I feel like a saggy bag of garbage with an 18-hour (and counting) headache that no amount of ibuprofen & acetaminophen can seem to touch. This headache is so awful it sent me to bed at 9:30 last night and woke me about every two hours throughout the night. It’s the kind of headache that makes it feel like the top of your skull is gonna pop off every…

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in Hermit Truths on with 4 Comments by Jodi Chromey

The COVID Diaries: A Stranger Watched Me Spit in a Tube Today

Hi Darling Ones, There’s a delicate balance to answering the question “How are you feeling?” when you live all by yourself and have been stricken with the plague. It’s difficult to communicate how you feel like mold while trying not to alarm the asker. If you factor in my Minnesota stoicism, my bordering-on-psychotic need to be seen as capable and independent, and my phobia about being a burden to anyone for even one second. . . well, you got a…

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in Moodie Foodie on with 4 Comments by Jodi Chromey

The COVID Diaries: Tasteless

Darling Ones, I lost my taste!* My sense of smell went with it. When I read about this being a side effect of COVID I had no idea how jarring it would be. What is the point of eating if you can’t taste it? I’m torn between not wanting to eat anything at all, because why waste the food if I can’t taste it, and wanting to take one bite of every thing in my house to see if any…

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in Hermit Truths on by Jodi Chromey

The COVID Diaries: Infected?

Welp, Darling Ones, Did I 100% jinx myself by complaining about COVID the other day? Absolutely I did. No amount of logic or rational thinking is gonna convince me otherwise. While I won’t know with absolute certainty if I’ve been stricken with the COVID until the at-home PCR test I ordered arrives, I take it, send it back, and get the results, but I’m pretty sure I’m infected. It’s either that or a rotten cold. But it’s probably COVID. Please…

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in Books Writing on with 2 Comments by Jodi Chromey

On the Boards

Hello Darling Ones, I’ve been reading Nichole Perkins’ essay collection Sometimes I Trip on How Happy We Could Be, which is charming the daylights out of me. Despite being fiveish years younger than I am and a black woman from Nashville, Perkins and I share an affinity for many of the same pop culture touchstones. Namely, Janet Jackson’s “Control” album and what it meant for our self image when we heard her called “chubby;” what “A Different World” taught us…

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