MONDAY

The Long, Long Workday.

TUESDAY

Today was A Big Day. I drove eight miles to KFC for a big bucket of chicken to last me all week. Woohoo.

WEDNESDAY

The second work was over today I got AWAY from the computer. I did some “art-ish” things. I just felt compelled to smoosh paint around on paper. I’m horrible at it but at least I was not sitting at the computer.

THURSDAY

Drippy. Dreary. Grey. Sore throat.

I made a lemon cake. I could only find one square cake pan. I really wanted a layer cake as I have a nice lemon ginger jam I wanted to put between the layers. OH WELL WHATEVER. It’s still good and I’m glad to have it.

FRIDAY

It was announced today that schools would be closed across all of New York State through the end of the school year. Waiting now to see how that will affect the school where I work.

I got a nice reach-out from the company that produced the Arnica I bought last month for my elbow pain. She explained that the form I bought was for more general pain, and I should probably have tried the form for more specific area pain. She also offered to send me some of the topical cream that she says works well on this sort of pain. I thought that was very good customer service. She also said whenever they have a customer complaint about a product they have to report it…somewhere – I forget right now – and she asked for the remaining product back for testing so they can check to see if the product was, indeed, working correctly. I really appreciated the follow-up.

I had to go out to the bank to get rent money. Many of the branches of my bank have been closed so I had to go all the way back to the area where I work and it was especially crowded because so many other branches are closed at this time. They were literally letting only one customer in at a time. So that took awhile. Some bank person came out and cleaned the sliding door edges three times while I stood in line waiting to go to a teller. I had on my bandana and plastic gloves. She had on her mask and plastic gloves. And there was a big plexiglass screen in between us. The post office just has clear plastic sheets taped up. I’m sure they’ll eventually upgrade to plexiglass like the bank. Some Starbucks are closed altogether. When I passed the one that still has an open drive-through, there were two people in bright yellow reflective vests with light wand things (you know like at the airport?) managing the line because it was too long to be contained in the parking lot. Just some of the changes I’m seeing Out in the World as a result of the coronavirus.

I took a look at my pansies in the back seat, ha ha. Yes, the ones I bought at the market last Friday.  Amazingly, they still look pretty happy. I’ll plant them tomorrow.

SATURDAY

I woke up way too early so I listened to podcasts about coronavirus and Joe Biden and cooking, specifically a little piece about cinnamon toast which the person did all wrong.
The right way is to soften butter (or in my case, Earth Balance), and mix in sugar and cinnamon to taste. I like a LOT of cinnamon, so the mixture is more brown and cinnamon-colored, than pale butter-colored. Toast whatever kind of bread you want and while it’s still warm spread the sweet cinnamony butter mixture on the bread so that it melts. Be sure to put on a thick enough coat that it doesn’t just disappear into the bread.
This is how my mother did it and how it should be done.
So now I have a little container of butter softening on the counter to make some cinnamon toast in a little bit. I have Earth Balance but with replenishing supplies such an inconvenience at this time, I don’t want to use that up for this. This is also a little paler than I like it, but trying to conserve the cinnamon.
Earth Balance is a holdover from when I was vegan, and as much as I love butter I found I actually liked Earth Balance even more. It’s instantly spreadable right out of the refrigerator and sometimes now when I do eat butter it seems sort of oily to me.
To go with my cinnamon toast I heated up some of yesterday’s McDonald’s coffee and added some amaretto. I’ve taken to when I go out for some other errand, driving through whatever is on my way (Dairy Barn, McDonalds, etc.) and getting one or two large black coffees. I put them in the fridge and can make them last two to four days of smallish cups of coffee at home. Four-day old real coffee is still better than fresh instant.
Alcohol has been a very real part of Quarantine. And not an unpleasant one. I have thoughts on “Drinking at Home Alone” (generally considered Not a Good Thing), but this post is already getting pretty long, so I’ll set that aside for another time.
Linda, I saw your suggestion about doing a wish list and talking through how I decide what should go on my shopping list. I will do that later this week. I did a similar post a few years back but it could stand to be updated, I’m sure. Plus, I have a whole new take on Cleaning Out Your Closet, and that’s Step One of creating a Wish List.
I feel like I made my spring/summer shopping list for this year long before we knew there was going to be a pandemic and lockdown for most of the spring and maybe even into the summer, so I’m sure my list could stand to be revised. The thing is, even though I may not need the things for this summer, the sales now are so good that I want to take advantage of those where I can so I have the things for next year.

Re: the back-seat pansies. I got them out of the car and onto the patio. I set them in the birdbath for a drink overnight and I’ll plant them tomorrow.

SUNDAY

This morning I stayed in bed and for once didn’t feel like scrolling through Instagram or email, so I listened to a podcast called The Daily which is a New York Times stories podcast, sort of like what This American Life Is to NPR. This one was by the woman who wrote the book Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef. The podcast is about how she had to close down her 20-year-old restaurant Prune in New York City due to the coronavirus. It was a good listen, though sad because she was having to give up her dream.

But it sort of pointed out to me how sheltered I have been from the whole coronavirus thing. Even living in New York I feel apart from it. I’ve had no personal direct connection with it…other than doing my job now from home. This might sound ridiculous with things being worse there statistically, but I wish I was still in Brooklyn now.

I see videos of people on balconies and rooftops sharing music and shouted conversations across empty streets. On the news I see crowds outside hospitals applauding front-line workers. There’s so much camaraderie there even in this time of isolation.

That’s what I loved about being in Brooklyn. You could Be Alone (not lonely, just…by yourself) while in the midst of masses of people. I like that feeling. I can imagine right now sitting out on the stoop of the building where I lived, along with all the other people sitting out on their stoops, just seeing people, hearing people. Seeing LIFE.

It’s one of the things I most dislike about this apartment. I see no one ever. I don’t see the street, I don’t see people walking their dogs, I don’t see the mail-carrier come and go. I don’t see kids playing basketball or riding their bikes in the street or driveway. I don’t hear the garbage trucks or the ice cream man in summer. I know it seems ironic that someone who so likes to be alone also likes to be where there are a lot of people or where I can hear or see people but that’s how it is for me.

I’m not lonely. That whole concept is foreign to me. But I miss seeing signs of life. Always. But especially now.

And in case you were worried, I did plant the pansies.

WHAT I’M READING

Something surprising that’s come out of all of this…SITUATION…is that I’ve been reading newspapers, which is something I never ever did before. When I say newspapers I mean online papers. The NY Daily News, which is sensationalistic but sort of fun when you’re just trapped in the house all the time. The New York Times, of which my mother was a big fan. She would read it from cover to cover every day. And then save them in piles and piles in her bedroom. Why? She might need to refer back to something someday. Sigh.

I never understood how people had the time to read the whole newspaper every day. Or how they knew what was going on in all those stories. In the past when I’ve tried, it was frustrating because there were so many things going on in the world, it seemed impossible to just jump in on the middle of those stories and be able to follow what was going on, and I would give up. But right now most of the stories are about coronavirus and related topics and I know what that story is about, so I can read the different stories and understand in an outward direction rather than trying to trace things backwards to their origin and what they’re really about, if that makes sense.

Now I spend a good deal of time first thing in the morning and last thing at night reading the news, following the links to supporting articles, even doing the crossword puzzles and little games in the NYTimes. This morning I was excited because I actually completed the spelling bee game. I found all the words and made the genius level which, in a world where not much else is going on around me inside these four walls, was sort of exciting.

Another thing I want to say about the New York Times, at least online, is that the photography is really, really good. I’m referring to the pictures online. The shooting angles, the use and awareness of light and shadow, the tones in the color images… It’s really good photography. And I never would have known that just from reading the actual paper where the pictures are black and white and sort of grainy and shadowy because newsprint is not the best medium for photography.

WHAT I’M WATCHING

Afterlife: A really endearing Netflix series in its second season. Ricky Gervais stars as a man who has recently lost his wife, the love of his life, to cancer. And now he’s so so sad that he turns into a crotchety curmudgeon. But in a sweet way. I laugh and cry at every episode. Sadly, the seasons are SO short – like six episodes. So you wait like a year to watch three hours of shows and then it’s over again. Two thumbs up. If I had more, I’d give more.

The Half of It: A new Netflix original movie. And another endearing watch. It was really very sweet. Yes, about high schoolers but not really what you’d expect. Two thumbs up.

OKAY. That was my week. Onto the next one!

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