#CovidCatLady Day 1005

I’m still counting because the Covid cat lady-ing adventures are far from over. I’ve been reluctant to bring myself to the keyboard. After this lockdown, I’m a little scared of what I might say. I landed in Taipei on October 25, 2 weeks ago, cried in my mother’s arm at the airport for a good long while, and then spent most of the first week either sleeping or crying or eating. I needed that one week “self health management,” as I was far from ready for human consumption. All of my cats and my things are still in Shanghai. I have been living out of a suitcase for 3 months. My plans to relocate to New York is now further complicated by the fact that I need surgery on my foot. My mother had booked me a string of appointments at my beloved General Veterans Hospital after reestablishing my 戶籍 (household registration, basically a registry of residence) and National Health Insurance. Essential, I’d come home a broken woman and asked NHI to #plsfix I had thought a 3-week visit home would serve as a makeshift rehab for the #ShanghaiLockdown trauma. Turns out, life had other plans. I have what is called an accessory navicular bone. A bonus bone in my ankle that is now threatening to f—k up my tendon. So that’s surgery with a 2-month recovery. This effectively prevents me from flying back to Shanghai to execute the feline extraction plan I had in place. But maybe it’s a blessing. Between my mother and nationalized healthcare, where else would I be in better care?