What I'm not doing

I am most definitely not watching the State of the Union address. It would not be healthy for me in any way. I'll write this and move on to knitting and reading a book. 

I'm thinking there may be others of you who also cannot bear to watch, so I thought it would be interesting to have a discussion. Or I'll just blather on and you can all read silently. I'm good with either. The topic for the evening is:  What weird coping strategies do you have when dealing with existential threat? This was a result of a text conversation between a couple of good friends and myself. 

Here's my answer, but probably nothing here will be surprising if you've been reading for any length of time. I have three main activities.

1. Stock the pantry. I admit to engaging in mild food hoarding when stressed. This is usually all about long storage staples, which is why bringing home fifty pounds each of wheat berries and oats gave me such satisfaction. If it were summer, I would also probably be engaging in obsessive canning. But early March is really not optimal in terms of fresh food to can. L. and G. and I did sit down and plan the garden today, though. (They both want to actually learn how to grow a garden, so we're calling it horticulture and they'll be pretty much in charge.) I have also started to plan what I want to order in my next Azure Standard order. It will pretty much be bread baking supplies and other staples. I was excited to discover they have bulk popcorn since I use that to grind cornmeal. I could go on and on because I don't seem to be able to turn my brain off about this, but you get the idea.

2. Stock the studio. This is my other type of mild hoarding, but this time it is all about essential sewing supplies... zippers, thread, elastic, etc. Once again, these are the things I would need to sew clothing. (I already have a fairly large supply of fiber and weaving yarn, so they don't play into it.) Joann's going out of business at this very moment has been both good and bad, in that the discount does act as an enabling factor. I now own probably a life time supply of zippers and thread. 

3. Stockpile information. You all know that I am a Luddite at heart, and though I use technology every day, I have a deep-seated distrust of it. I feel anxious when my sources of information are digital only. So my main book spending these days is buying books that could be a reference. I probably have physical books for nearly everything that we need to know. It gives me a feeling of security to know they're there even if I usually just look up information online. I'm realizing that I have a gaping hole in terms of foraging books, though, and have been contemplating doing something about that. I won't even pretend that this isn't on the very edge of rational. I do have more than a few books that are references for plants that give color when used for dyeing, it just seems like a good idea to also know what plants are edible, too. 

I'll also add that any external stress will cause these three tendencies to kick in. It always makes me wonder what epigenetic factor is in my biological history that this is how I experience stress. Okay, now your turn? Do you have any unique coping mechanisms?