For those of us who consider this Inauguration Day to be a day steeped in horror and disbelief, a day we were hoping would somehow be prevented at one of the many, Many, MANY points it seemed like it clearly should have been prevented—how are you planning to spend the day? I have been partly in denial/hope, and partly distracted by the knee surgery, and partly not WANTING to think ahead or make plans.

In fact, one possible plan is to have no particular plan and spend the day as we usually would. That’s still a frontrunner for me.

Another possible plan is to mark it in small ways that are more deliberate. For example, posting something on Facebook in commemoration of MLK Jr. Day, though I find it’s hard to get that right. I’m already incredulous that the day is the same day as the inauguration (and pre-mad at some of the things we might see and hear because of that); that makes me even more reluctant to seem to be using MLK Jr. Day as a way to make an “I’m ignoring the inauguration” point, if you see what I mean.

But it’s the KIND of thing I mean. For example, tomorrow would be a real good day to make donations to NPR, the ACLU, Alight, any other organizations that fight against the bad things we expect in this coming era. It would be a good day to order some Ruth Bader Ginsburg forever stamps, or a Dissent is Patriotic t-shirt, or an equality/rainbow yard flag, or a little spontaneous gift for a friend. It would be a good day to do some volunteer work, or to donate blood, or to write some postcards, or to bring treats to a place that’s open despite the holiday. It would be a good day to do anything that feels like Doing Any Small Measure of Good.

(image from usps.com)

(image from ACLU.org)

It would also be a good day to wrap up in a throw blanket and drink something hot and treat yourself like you’re ill, or suffering heartbreak, or recovering from knee-replacement surgery. Watch some riveting or soothing TV. Read a book you got for Christmas and have been saving for a special occasion. Eat soup and saltines and drink ginger ale; or buy a pint of some extra fancy ice cream, maybe get some Pringles too. Use any shampoos/soaps/lotions you save for special. Do some restorative yoga and/or meditation and/or witchcraft. Get take-out. Burn a nice candle.

Maybe that would make you stir-crazy. Maybe you need to take action. Sometimes when I feel crummy, I will tackle chores that make me feel crummy, since I’m already feeling crummy anyway. Clean the bathroom, maybe sob a little. Scrub that irritating mold in the shower that keeps coming back, with clenched teeth. Really put the arm muscles into scrubbing the kitchen sink. Use a toothbrush around the faucets. Do laundry, maybe do a few soak loads with stain treatments. Pay bills and use the RBG stamps.

After my first pregnancy, I knew from experience that when I got a positive pregnancy test, I was on the verge of two months of feeling too tired and sick to do anything, and so I would use those last few interim days to do all the things I thought I’d appreciate when I was feeling tired and sick. Nice clean toilet to barf in! Nice clean shower to cry in! Nice clean sheets to sleep in! Nice clean kitchen to eat saltines / walnuts / grapefruit juice / cold pizza in! What things do we think Future Us will feel grateful to Current Us for doing? (Or maybe you are already Future Us, and it is too late to clean bathrooms.)

Sometimes in anticipation of a storm or a trip or the collapse of democracy, I find it soothing to Get Ready in small assorted ways. I change the batteries in my little pre-lit birch trees and flameless candles, and charge up the batteries I took out. I plug in all our electronic devices, and the back-up batteries for those devices. I buy extras of groceries. I get caught up on laundry.

Maybe it’s time for a distracting project. One of my friends has committed to sending one piece of snail mail every single day for a year; she’s signed up for Postcrossing as part of this. Another friend has signed up for a group sewing class: she wants to learn to make quilts with a sewing machine. I’m planning to send Valentine’s Day care packages to the twins and several of their friends; maybe I will spend some time tomorrow shopping for heartsy things.