Notes from a Self Quarantine

That’s another good thing about long weekends — the following work week is so short, it just flies by! But you still have to get 5 days worth of work done in 4 days…

And here we are already on Wednesday evening — still in the middle of a pandemic, still working from home. My husband got his hair cut yesterday, he’s thrilled with his new suave look. I planned to drive somewhere today (anywhere actually just to say that I did), but didn’t end up going anywhere. There’s just nowhere to go…how many times can I go and walk the empty paper products shelves at Target? Sure it’s laughable at first glance, but even that gets old.

I did take some work outside again this afternoon. I sat on my back patio (with sunscreen!) and enjoyed the warm temperatures and the sunshine. I would like to tell you that I got a ton of work done, but I might have only read newspaper articles. But I was educating myself, right?? Sigh.

After work, my husband and I took a really long walk through the center of our town. We were gone almost an hour — it was hot, but it was worth getting the exercise. And tomorrow is already Thursday, which is pizza night in our house!

And that’s because I was supposed to be at work, right?? It was absolutely gorgeous today — 76 – 80 degrees, full sun. The sky was so blue.

So I took my work outside today! I sat on our back patio and got some work done while enjoying the nice weather. And I also got a sunburn! Even though I slathered on the sunscreen before I went outside, my left shoulder is pretty burned. Hopefully it will be better by tomorrow, because if it’s nice again, I’m heading back outside! Because I obviously do not learn things the first time around…

It was so nice to sit outside and enjoy the nice weather — to be out of the house, not wearing a sweatshirt and fuzzy socks, to actually be warm! I loved every second of it and hope that we get more of this tomorrow! Because quite honestly — if we can hang out in the backyard when we are supposed to be staying at home, it makes all the difference. My whole attitude changes (hopefully for the better!) and I smile and breathe deeply (until the spring allergies get me!) and I am OK. The nice weather makes me feel like I’ve got this, that I’m doing the best that I can in this situation and that is totally fine.

Please be sunny again tomorrow — I’ll put more sunscreen on and sit outside and just be happy. And somedays that’s all that we need.

Seriously, I have no idea what day it is! I do love long weekends, but they always mess me up during the following work week. But now — what the heck do we do? So we are now on the Monday evening of a long weekend, it’s Monday, but it really feels like a Sunday night. Tomorrow is actually Tuesday, but will feel like a Monday. I am not evening going to start talking about how Thursday will feel…

Tomorrow is supposed to be absolutely beautiful weather. I know I just had 3 and 1/2 days off from work, but I really want to take tomorrow off too. And if I do, will anyone even notice?? This is the problem with working from home — is anyone even aware of what I am doing?

I definitely don’t want to take advantage of the situation, but honestly, if it is 81 degrees and sunny tomorrow, there’s a bigger chance that I will be out working in my garden instead of working inside at my computer. And is that really wrong?? My job would probably say yes, but it’s just so beautiful outside guys…

I always want to sign up for painting classes. Back when the world was normal, our local Irish pub would host paint night classes a couple times of year. I would always try to go with two friends. Sometimes my finished product came out OK, sometimes they were a little “meh”, but I save them all and line them up on the chair rail in our spare room. My husband always refers to them as my “paint-by-numbers”, but it’s one of those classes where you start with a blank canvas and the instructor leads you through each step of the painting.

There’s one of these studios in Boston and I have always wanted to go, but for whatever reason I just haven’t. They started offering their classes online a few months ago and I finally signed up! They even shipped all the materials including a tabletop easel right to my house.

The class was this afternoon and this is my finished painting:

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It’s not that bad, right?? And I am starting to like it more now than I did when I just finished the painting. Sure, it’s not perfect, but it’s not supposed to be. I followed the instructions, learned how to paint it, and mine still looks a little different than everyone else that took the class. I think that’s pretty cool!

And I still have supplies left over if I want to try this one again. I wish I didn’t squirt so much paint onto the paper palette — I didn’t even use half of it and had to throw it out. Oh well, I now know for next time.

And I think I’m going to sign up for another class soon — it was a fun thing to do on a Sunday afternoon. And right now I’m going to go add this painting to my line up in the spare room.

Happy Self Quarantining 43rd birthday to me! I absolutely love birthdays — mine, my husband, my friends, yours — any birthdays, I just love them. Maybe it’s because I am an only child, raised by two only children, I just love birthdays. I love the celebration, the cake, OMG, if there are any balloons — I am in heaven if there are balloons! I just love birthdays.

I am a Memorial Day Weekend birthday girl who uses her birthday to throw a big BBQ every year because she just wants the excuse to see everyone she knows in the same weekend. It is a hard weekend to have a birthday. It is even a harder birthdayto have in the middle of a social distancing quarantine.

Today was hard for me. It was just my husband and me all day. I went for a walk (why was it so cold today??), I did a yoga class with my favorite instructor, I read, I enjoyed texts, phone calls, Facebook messages and Facetime calls. We drank in the backyard and chatted with our neighboors over the fence.

But what I really wanted was to have all you guys here — in my backyard, eating, drinking, the kids running around throwing lacrosse balls, listening to music. I missed it this year. Maybe that means we will do it even bigger and better next year.

But my husband made an excellent dinner and he surprised me with a collection of good beer and a cake from our local bakery:

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How fabulous is it that they misspelled my name?!!?

It looks like its a chocolate cake. I might just eat the whole thing myself!

I always enjoy baking — I find it really relaxing, unless it’s two days before Christmas and I am stressed because I haven’t baked enough Christmas cookies yet and I’m still wrapping presents and I should bake another pie — but typically I just enjoy putting ingredients together and coming out with something that smells and tastes so good. Sometimes my baking creations don’t look the best, they lean towards the messy side usually, but they taste good, so I really don’t care.

Anyway, I finally baked today for the first time since I have been at home. I meant to a few times, but then just didn’t. Plus it’s just my husband and me and I don’t want to have a ton of baked goods in the house if we are stuck in the house, who else would eat the stuff I baked?? Probably me because my husband has much more willpower when it comes to sweets. I have absolutely none.

So I had a bunch of ripe bananas and some eggs that were going to expire in a few days, so I made two banana breads. I used my favorite recipe and it was just so fun and relaxing and now I wonder why the heck I wasn’t doing this before?? Oh yeah, because we couldn’t find flour for awhile…

But now my house smells fabulous and I’m wondering what I will bake next. Now how will I get at least one of these banana breads into our freezer…this freezer is so packed with all our quarantine meats…

Thank goodness! Hair salons can open back up for business on Monday here in Massachusetts. My stylist called me today to rebook the appointment that they had to cancel back in April and boy, do I need this appointment!

The last time I had my hair cut and colored was around March 5, my next appointment was scheduled for April 28, but all salons were shut down due to COVID-19. My hair looks OK — it’s getting pretty long, but it’s also getting pretty gray. My husband reminds me everyday about the amount of gray hairs on the top of my head. He’s just the nicest person, isn’t he?

If I could have hugged my stylist through the phone today when she called, I would have! Yes, I realize that wouldn’t be social distancing, but I was just so darn excited to get an appointment. Yes, that appointment isn’t for 3 more weeks, but I have one! I see the light at the end of my gray hair tunnel! Yes, my husband will remind me for 3 more weeks that my hair is gray at the roots, but I can ignore him for 3 weeks. I’ve been ignoring his comments for 11 years now, what’s 3 more weeks?!?

And the funny thing — he was able to book an appointment today at his barber shop for next Tuesday. We both got appointments today! Sure, his is much sooner than mine, but at least now I don’t have to figure out how to cut his hair. That probably wouldn’t have ended well and he’d just complain…

But now I am wondering — how do I get my hair cut and colored if I am wearing a face mask? The straps go over my ears. How does that work? Will the hair on the side of my face just be gray for the next few months??

It wasn’t too bad, but there was definitely a line waiting to go into the main store. I got in after 5 minutes of waiting and headed over to the garden center area to look for seeds. I found what I needed and pushed my cart toward the outside section of the garden center, because what I really needed was plants. But if you go out into the outdoor section where all the vegetable and flower plants are (which is really in their parking lot), they mark you as exiting the building and then you need to go back in line to re-enter the store to pay for your plants. It makes sense, but if I’d known, I would have gotten my outside plants first and then waited in line to enter the store. Whatever, now I know!

And they were picked over because everyone is at home and planting vegetable gardens! They didn’t have any marigolds which are my go-to summer flowers — I put them in pots all over the patio and in the garden area. I’ll have to go back next week to find them, but I’ll go on a weekday morning next time.

I dropped off my new pepper and tomato plants in the enclosed garden when I got home and guess what — more of my seeds that I planted last week have sprouted! I now have lettuce, radishes and two little carrots! I’m excited to see what happens tomorrow.

I can’t believe how ahead of the gardening game I am this year! I now have all my seeds planted in the raised garden beds and today I planted the seeds for my container herb garden. All of this before Memorial Day! That is a record for me. I’m usually raking up fallen leaves and twigs left over from the crappy winter weather on Memorial Day Weekend.

Now I just have to get over to Home Depot to pick up some tomato and pepper plants and maybe a few extra seed packets. I definitely don’t want to go there on a weekend because it will be way too crowded and I so do not want to wait in line just to get in the store. And now you need to go in through the front door of the store instead of just into the garden area. Oh, the stress of plant shopping during nice weather!

I added a few things to my garden this evening:

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Just how long do you think it will take my husband to notice my new stone bunny garden sculpture?? He always says I am cluttering up the yard — this one will totally annoy him! Is it wrong that this makes me happy??

And in other good garden news — my arugula has already started to sprout! I planted the seeds on Friday and they are already coming up! See — it’s going to be an amazing garden!

And I have no idea why! It seemed like a perfectly ordinary Monday during the COVID-19 pandemic. I got up, worked out, grabbed a cup of coffee while I checked my e-mails. A few people needed info, I sent it. And then the phone rang, and then it rang again. And then I had a quick meeting. I finally sat down to lunch and my phone rang again and it was a call I HAD to take. We all have those calls.

Then before I know it, it’s 4 p.m. and what did I really accomplish today?? I went into today knowing I had three projects to work on — I didn’t have to finish them, I just needed to dedicate some solid time to them. I got to work on one.

Sigh.

And now I have another project that just got assigned to me that needs to happen first, which is fine, I am good at time management, it’s just those other poor projects that are not getting any of my attention…

But I did get some personal stuff done this evening after work! Yay! And tomorrow is a totally new day! Maybe I’ll get to work on original project #2 out of 3!