Notes from a Self Quarantine

Is it bad that I ate a messy bacon cheeseburger two nights in a row?? I get that if my goal is to be healthy, then I shouldn’t be gorging myself on red meat, but there is just something about a beef burger. I do enjoy turkey burgers and once upon a time, I used to eat frozen veggie burgers from a health food store about once a week.

I ate a delicious burger at the local Irish pub last night when my husband and I went out for our weekly outdoor dining extravaganza. And he decided to make burgers again tonight at home. And I’m not the kind of girl to say no to a homecooked burger!

My husband purchased a contraption called a “patty press” a couple weeks ago. Basically it’s a stainless steel gadget that you put the ground meat on a circular plate and press down on a level to make perfect uniform burger patties. Since he purchased it, he’s made beef burgers 3 times and there was a night he made funky sausage patties, which were really good also, but I think we both liked the consistency and presentation of the beef patty better.

Tonight’s burger was a winner — Applewood smoked bacon, cheese, ketchup, mustard and a pickle. Yummy! And I didn’t have to change out of my yoga pants to go out to eat it! Yes, I know, this pandemic must be taking a toll on me if this is my second post about bacon cheeseburgers in two days…but they are just so good! Go try one, you totally should.

My husband and I are creatures of habit — well OK, it’s definitely more him than me, but there are sometimes that I’ll willingly go along with with his routine. And one of them is a Friday night bacon cheeseburger. There is just nothing more satisfying than eating a messy burger loaded with all my favorite food groups on the last day of the work week. I mean — what a way to start the weekend!

During “normal” times, we always went to the same local Irish pub on Friday nights — we’d sit at the bar, chat with the bartenders and other friends that we’ve made at the bar over the past 6 years, have some good craft beers, and of course, that gooey burger. I always make sure that mine has cheese, bacon and some kind of spice on it — sriracha, a spicy BBQ sauce, something. And I’ve never understood folks that don’t put cheese and bacon on their burger. It belongs there, people, like peanut butter and jelly (although I’m not a huge jelly fan…), bagels and cream cheese, or pizza and beer — they just all go together!

Now that we are in the middle of this pandemic, my husband and I rotate our Friday night dinner spot. We’re trying to make sure that we support our local businesses. So that means I only get my messy burger every other week. And tonight was burger night!

I was super excited — my burger had pepper jack cheese, avocado slices, spicy salsa, bacon (of course!) and a few French fries were stuffed under the bun. At first I was a tad weirded out by the fries, but it tasted amazing! I enjoyed my Friday night treat. My husband waited until I was done with my burger, and then he told me he was planning on cooking burgers for our Saturday night dinner at home. I guess he didn’t want to be a buzzkill. Thank goodness I like burgers!

Today is my 150th day at home. I can’t believe that so much time has passed, in some ways it feels like it was just last week that I was packing up my office plant and dragging my crap on the commuter rail train heading for home…

And today is also my nephew’s 14th birthday and to celebrate, we joined my husband’s sister and her family for dinner! And we did indoor dining too, which is a first for us, usually we only do outdoor dining — not because we are worried about eating indoors, I guess, we just like the outdoor atmosphere much better. Put a big white tent in a parking lot, and I immediately think I am on vacation! And that’s important right now!

Dinner with my in-laws tonight was fun. We haven’t seen them since Christmas — isn’t that insane?? But I haven’t seen my parents since Christmas either… What a strange year this is!

OK, back to dinner tonight. They picked an Italian restaurant in their town that my husband and I had never been to, we were excited to try something new. And they didn’t tell the birthday boy that we were coming, hopefully it was a good surprise. At 14-years-old, is seeing your uncle and aunt the best present you could get?? Probably not, but hopefully this pandemic year has dulled his expectations a little bit. I mean he didn’t seem upset that we were there… and it’s not like this was his 16th birthday and he expected a car (dream big, kid, dream big!) and he got us and some lasagna instead… Hey, at least he’ll have something to talk to a therapist about in 20 years!

Dinner was good — I didn’t mind eating indoors, it was a plus to get real glassware instead of the plastic cups you tend to get during the outdoor dining experience. I ate a ton of bread and pasta which is always a good thing! And I actually forgot that we were in the middle of a pandemic, maybe because we were with the largest group of people we had been with for a long, long, time (we had to split up between two tables) — I only remembered when our waitress showed up at our table wearing her face mask. Once she was gone, I forgot about the whole thing. Yay, for being oblivious!

And it was so good to hang out with family! And to hear new stories — my husband and I just don’t have anything new and exciting to chat about anymore, it’s one of the pitfalls of spending all your time at home with one person. And the birthday boy appeared to have a good time!

My husband and I were happy as we drove home tonight, until we got stuck in completely stopped traffic just south of the city. Even during the middle of a pandemic, the highway department is repaving the expressway at 9:30 p.m. on a Thursday night, adding an extra 25 minutes to our 45 minute commute home. I guess there are always things that you can count on — the phrase is “death and taxes”, but I’d like to add “road construction”!

Why don’t I ever learn?? Remember I mentioned last week about the painting group that I was thinking about joining? They started a yearly membership for $20 a month and they’d do virtual classes on painting techniques and other crafts. Well, tomorrow is the last day to sign up for the introductory price for $20 a month, then the membership closes until the beginning of next year, but of course at a higher rate.

I wrote myself a note at the beginning of the week to remind myself to check on the specifics before August 13. I am infamous for looking into things well after the window of time has closed. So I just logged into their website to read the FAQs and the little counter displaying how much time is left before they close the membership for 2020 said there was 4 hours left. And I had a little freak out moment — did they mean that you can only sign up BEFORE August 13, not through August 13??? If I waited and thought about it overnight, and made my decision tomorrow, what if the membership was closed?!? Then I’d have to wait until January to sign up for these classes and it would be MORE expensive!

So I just signed up. For the yearly rate of $200 instead of the monthly rate of $20 — because I get two months free for paying all at once, people!! And because I am the ultimate sucker, especially if it’s for a sale price. This place definitely saw me coming, my lights flashing, a blank look on my face. Sigh.

And I’ve already received the schedule for August — the first meeting is on Monday using my old friend Zoom. I already have my yoga class on Monday evenings. And some of the other events are during the day when I am supposed to be working. The studio said everything will be recorded and posted on their membership library so I can watch them whenever I have the time. But see, that’s the problem — when do I actually have the time?? And what does it say that I am already making excuses to get out of classes that I JUST signed up for 20 minutes ago. No one forced me to do this — I totally did this to myself. My husband is so going to laugh when I tell him….

But what if this will teach me to paint?? That’s something that I have wanted to do forever!! And not just the paint while drinking events at our local Irish pub, actually learning to paint — like how to mix paint, and to use different mediums like watercolor. They said they have abstract classes, which I would totally enjoy. Sure, I know I’m not the next Jackson Pollock, but how fun would it be to learn to paint abstractly!

This week’s theme for my 40 day yoga program is stepping out of your comfort zone. Well, I guess I nailed that one! Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go dig through my spare room closet — I know I have dusty paint brushes and old acrylic paint tucked away somewhere…

I had a two hour conference call this morning. And I honestly wasn’t looking forward to it, because two hours of anything is frankly just a lot, unless it’s two hours of wine tasting or two hours of floating in large inground pool while reading a book. But then it can go the other way — two hours of sleep just isn’t enough at all, unless it’s a mid-day nap and then I’m not going to be able to fall asleep at my normal bedtime…and now I’m off topic again.

So I had a two hour meeting today and I wasn’t looking forward to it because of the length of time, but also because I was charged with taking the minutes, which I absolutely hate doing. I’m always so anxious that I’ll mess up and miss something, or transpose a decimal point or a comma so the numbers we reported during the meeting will make absolutely no sense for anyone reading the minutes. It’s a very stressful situation for me and I know that I should just take a deep breath and let it go…I’m working on it.

The meeting went fine, thank goodness. And apparently this is what I was missing out on when I was shut in my home “office” for two hours furiously scribbling meeting minutes:

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My husband decided that today was the day to defrost our kegerator! I guess that it’s a quarterly event, at least that’s what he told me today. Just look at all the stuff I am learning being stuck at home during this pandemic!

And check out the excellent swaddling job he did on our current keg:

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How cute and tidy is that?!?! I get that he was trying to keep this keg cold while it was out of the fridge, but it just cracked me up.

I guess it was a good day — I survived my minute-taking meeting (although I now have to write up the actual minutes which has a whole other level of stress to it! I don’t even want to talk about it right now…) and our kegerator had been defrosted. And that means my husband is happy. With the keg, not my minute taking skills!

Our local library reopened back in June for pick up only service. It’s the easiest thing ever. You select the books you want from their website and when they are available they send you an e-mail with instructions to call the library and arrange for curbside pick up. You can even request books from other libraries and it will be delivered to your local library! It’s amazing!

And obviously I have been using this service way too often because these are the books I currenly have out from my local library:

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I’m almost done with one of them, but that means that there are still 5 more I have to read! And I am not even counting the holds for e-books that I’ve put on the library’s e-books app.

Basically, whenever I see a book I want to read, I put a hold on it. And sometimes the library estimates it will take several weeks for the book to be available, which I am totally fine with, I’ve got plenty to read already! Today I called the library to schedule a curbside pick up for two books. When I showed up an hour later, there were three books in my paper bag! Where did that other one even come from?? And I have so many books checked out at this point, why are they letting me still take out new books?!?!?! Who is controlling this?? And I have no idea how long it will take me to read all these books, so obviously I didn’t plan this well at all. I have been reading so slow during this pandemic, like painfully slow. I used to read a book a week on my commute, and now I am not commuting and that means I’m really not reading.

At this point, I’m just going to have to quit my job and read library books all day. And I would totally be fine with that, but I guess we do kind of need health insurance and that second paycheck…maybe I can find a job that would pay me to read books all day! That would be amazing! But I’m sure those types of jobs are hard to find, because who would ever leave them?? Not me.

Yes, they are!! Check out what I harvested today:

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How yummy do they look?!? And there are a bunch more that weren’t quite ripe yet, so I left them for a little bit, but I should get back out there and grab them before one of our furry neighborhood animals decides that they want a snack.

And I added some of that basil to tonight’s dinner salad and it was absolutely delicious with the tomatoes. My husband doesn’t like either tomatoes or basil — he just does not know what he is missing! And that zucchini/summer squash is still growing out there. I know that I should pick it, but I have a dilemma — let it continue to grow so it’s huge, or wait too long and then someone will eat it, or it will be all seeds inside and crappy tasting. I’m not sure what I am going to do yet. I will have to do some research.

And there’s four jalapeño peppers that are almost ready to be picked!! I am so happy that the garden is producing! Now we just need to remember to eat the veggies before they over-ripen!

My husband and I went down to the shore to visit some of his cousins today. This was the first time that we really have left our town and the other surrounding towns. OK, maybe not my husband, who has been practically any damn place that’s been open for business since March because he can’t sit still, but this was the first time I’ve been more than 10 miles from my home in almost 5 months. That seems so weird…

Anyway, we drive down to his cousin’s place. It’s right on the water, like honestly right on the water. There were seagulls and sail boats and a beautiful breeze. The sky was perfectly blue and it was hot in the sun. I loved it. We sat outside on their back patio and chatted for hours. It was a small group — six of us all hanging out in their backyard. No one wore a mask, but we kept a social distance from each other for most of the day. How weird is it that I can use that term to describe a gathering now??

They cooked a delicious meal for us — we had fresh corn on the cob from a local farm, a gazpacho soup that was so spicy from jalapeños and garlic that my mouth was numb for a good 20 minutes (I loved it and went back for a second helping!), skewers with grilled scallops, peaches and basil (yum!), a salad and there was a crab cake appetizer. It was an amazing meal. I’m getting hungry again just writing about it…

We chatted, we laughed, we stuffed our faces and drank beer right out of the can. It was a really nice day seeing some folks that we have not seen in months. And such a beautiful place!

And I didn’t take one damn picture.

My husband and I went out for dinner tonight — big surprise, it is a Friday! We are definitely creatures of habit and Friday night means outdoor dining at a local restaurant. We typically chose one of two restaurants that are doing outdoor dining in our little downtown area. I try to alternate each Friday — we want to make sure we support these local businesses during this crazy time. And who knows what will happen during the winter months again — I SO do not want to go back to take out food on Fridays!

Well, the restaurant we went to tonight had a nice little Friday night surprise for us:

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For those of you who are not beer geeks like me and my husband — that’s an excellent and highly sought-after beer from Vermont! And those cans made it about 250 miles to our little town! Every now and then, we might see a can or two at the local liquor store, but NEVER being served at the restaurant. I can only imagine that the Vermont brewery isn’t doing as much business in house and they can now distribute their extras to other states. We’ll take it!!

It was such a treat to sit outside on a hot summer night, enjoy a beer that we never get locally and have a good meal that I didn’t have to clean up after! See — silver linings during the COVID-19 pandemic! They do happen!

Seriously, just how badly do I want to learn to paint? I’m always making little promises to myself that I’ll find more time to be creative. I have bins in my spare room closet filled with paints, glue, mosaic tiles and blank canvases. And that’s not even counting the baskets I have filled with yarn — the year I quit smoking cigarettes everyone I knew got a sadly misshapen scarf for Christmas. It definitely wasn’t a good year for my friends and family, but just think what a bad year it was for me.

I’ve always considered myself a creative type, but daily life just gets in the way of all the projects that I’d like to be able to do. I figured that this quarantine would give me ample opportunity to get back in touch with my creative side, but sadly I haven’t even done that silly puzzle that I dragged out of the closet months ago. (My husband has set up his “office” on our dining room table, there is just no other surface big enough for a puzzle, don’t judge me!)

So here’s my new dilemma — one of those local paint and sip studios is offering a new membership option. You know — it’s a studio where you can go with your girlfriends, drink wine and paint the same picture with the help of the class instructor. They teach you basic painting techniques, everyone follows along and it’s cool that everyone’s painting comes out just a little but differently. I’ve done a few of these type classes at our local Irish pub and it’s always a good time. But obviously, these places are not open during our current stay-at-home situation.

Now this paint studio has been offering online classes through my old friend Zoom — I signed up for one back in May and it was fun. A little weird doing it by myself, but I learned some new things and I was pretty proud of my painting. It was a lighthouse and I thought I got the water on the shore to actually look like it had waves. My husband thought it was ugly, of course, but what does he know??

This studio is now offering a membership. They have been advertising it for weeks and I signed up to be on a waitlist for the opportunity to then decide if I wanted to be an inaugural member. They listed all the benefits of membership — discounts to virtual classes, access to a library of classes that teach technique, special members only classes, a forum to ask questions, access to a creative community to get you to start painting etc. But they never discussed the cost.

Until today.

So this new membership is $20 a month or you can sign for the whole year for a discounted rate of $200. Now when I did the virtual class in May I ended up spending $79 — $29 for the virtual class and then I had them ship the painting supplies to my home. I got a canvas, a tabletop easel, paint brushes, paint and some other items. That was for one class.

Now if I do a class every month, this would so be worth it. And they are talking about having multiple classes per month. But that means I actually have to DO the classes, not just see that they were posted and ignore them. If I pay the money, will it make me participate? Or will I just view it as another “chore”? It’s not that much money but if I never do a class?! It would be like having a gym membership that I didn’t use — been there! So what do I do??