Multipurpose

When I was in elementary school we had a room rather unimaginatively called the 'Multipurpose Room'. that always sounded a bit like a broom closet, but it actually served as an auditorium, a lunchroom and occasionally a theatre. I mostly remember it as the place where they served food I could not make myself eat. I especially remember the hamburgers made with 'mystery meat' with matching sauce which I hated. Although I asked if I could get a hamburger without the sauce, that seemed impossible, as did heating the hamburger before putting on the lettuce.

Pictured today is our 'multipurpose room' otherwise known as our shared office. It has three desks...one for me, one that goes around a corner for John and a third one that is up for grabs. Today it has become my sewing room, as I have finally worked up some enthusiasm for making a quilt. 

Tomorrow it will become my workout space as I tune into my Zoom Pilates class. 

The good part is that the workout space is the floor, the only part of the room not covered in quilt making paraphenalia. I can aim my computer camera at the floor so that I will be the only one distracted by the ironing board, the sewing machine, the boxes and piles of fabric, the scissors, the cutting board and rotary cutter and all the other stuff that comes out of the closet when I start a project.

The bad part is that I will have an unimpeded close-up view of pins, thread, scraps and dog hair, unless I clean it all up and get it all out again after I vacuum the floor. That probably won't happen before 8am....

I have been interested in what people are calling this new existence we  all find ourselves living through. In Spain, according to Barrioboy and Digitaldaze it is called 'Lockdown', my Italian niece calls it 'Castigo', in France it is called 'Confinement', and here it is called either 'Shelter in Place' or simply 'Stay at Home'. Finding the right word to describe such a unique situation seems to have taken on grave importance in my mind. It's all semantic and cultural, but that is what makes it so interesting because it is such a  uniquely cultural experience, yet it is happening everyplace.

I feel that none of the terms really describe it well. 'Lockdown' is what happens in schools when there is an armed shooter on the loose. 'In Castigo' is also an Italian term for the naughty corner or 'timeout', Confinement used to be a term used to describe the condition of being in childbirth. Shelter in Place comes as close as any of the terms to describe the current conditions, as it used to be used a lot when John was an OilMan to warn the neighboring communities to stay inside when there was an accident affecting air quality at the refinery. But it's a mouthful to say as often as we seem to be saying it these days....

I think I prefer to be sequestered, The act of keeping a group apart from other  people or the state of being apart from other people. It still isn't quite right because we're all being kept away from each other, but for the common good. 

Reading this, you would think I have nothing more important to do  than figure out a word that best describes my circumstances. And you would be right....