Hunker Down Thoughts

Hunker Down Thoughts? What is this about?

by Megan Taylor Stephens

You like to write? they asked. You should have a website and start a blog, they said. It will be easy, they said. It’s good to write every day, even if no one reads what you write, they said. So I listened to what they said and here I am. Blogging. I’m a blogger. Blog is short for weblog. It means writing your deepest, strangest thoughts and putting that journal on public display for eternity. Could be embarrassing. (There’s a reason I locked up those childhood diaries: to keep them out of the public eye. And private eye. All the eyes.)

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I decided to write about my anxious, absurd, trifling thoughts about this scary and significant time in history. So I doubled down on my Facebook posts and ended up writing a series of posts that I called COVID-19 Hunker Down Thoughts aka Totally Privileged Problems. I’ll put a few in the Blog section so you get the sense of what kind of unstable genius you’re dealing with and decide whether or not to continue reading.

Anyhow, now that the fog of pandemic is lifting, I realize that I still feel like I’m hunkering down and I’m lost in my thoughts. Is it because the pandemic has turned me in to a complete misanthrope? Maybe. Is it because my anxiety button has been activated and can’t be returned to its factory settings? Perhaps. Is it because some days my hectic life beckons me to stay in my pajamas, binge Netflix, prepare for the apocalypse, and scroll through interesting cocktail concoctions on marthastewart.com for an ungodly amount of time? Most likely.

Self-Introduction

A self-introduction is probably in order. My name is Megan. I know there are lots of Megans, but I swear I didn’t meet any until I was at least 10 years old, about 1980. Because I am an old Megan, I must be a cool Megan, or so I tell myself. Or maybe there were lots of Megans already on this earth before 1980, but my little town was simply uncool and didn’t have any.

Who am I? I am:

an Oregonian (moved to Salem in 1st grade; resident of Portland since 1999)
a mom and sometimes malevolent overlord to two teenagers (S & S)
an obedient servant to a dog (Rocket) and cat (Fred)
a ~~doting~~ ~~stable~~ ~~decent~~ entertaining wife to my childhood friend (John)
a school-based speech-language pathologist
a middle aged gal, or Lady of the Middle Ages, as I prefer to call it
a traveler and lover of language, culture, and the human condition
an enjoyer of reading and dabbler in writing
an educator of students who are neurodivergent and/or nonmainstream
a liberal, irreverent, sarcastic, ~~deep~~ ~~shallow~~ mid-level thinker
a podcast listener (look up My Favorite Murder)
a speaker of English, Japanese, French, and Spanish (in descending order from great to meh)
an imbiber of cocktails, consumer of seafood, lover of salad