These are 9 stages of isolation:
1. I borrowed some rocks from the River Dee a day before lockdown started. I will give them back when everything goes back to being a little less terrifying, which I hope is soon.
2. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to stay, so I took everything from the studio with me, in case I had to leave. I unpacked and moved it to the desk I share with my husband. We also have breakfast there.
3. Some days I get sad and frustrated, but I have found comfort thinking about my mother’s house in Mexico and its rooms. Every now and then I imagine what she is doing in the living room and wonder how she is sitting on the sofa.
4. People send me photos of jacaranda trees. In return, I draw their portrait badly.
5. I sing to my plants now.
6. I do my makeup sometimes just to recognize m face in the mirror.
7. During an anxiety attack, I felt like I was going to die and confessed to my husband that the tomato juice he loves has, indeed, clam juice.
8. Amongst the things that quarantine changed about the things that connect us, my joints are killing me.
9. We bought plane tickets and boxes to pack our many things. Sadly, not our plants.
Maxim Zaragoza 