Sundays feel different too, don’t they? We are thinking of possibly taking a drive to get some takeout from another city. Just taking a drive these days feels good and that’s coming from a person who use to spend hours in traffic.
I’m starting to get the feeling that things could be normal again in the not-so-distant future but then I turn around and feel the complete opposite. I really don’t know what to feel these days.
Right Now:
- An abundance of coffee is being enjoyed
- Online Church
- Online Youth Group
This Week:
Nothing out of the ordinary. Last week I went to the office to rescue my office plants and now I want more plants. Maybe, I will get some if there isn’t a line to get in. There was a very long line when I tried Home Depot last week.
I need to organize my reading stacks. I have ebook review copies that I keep track of in a spreadsheet and they’ve been a little neglected due to my lack of focus. The books on my shelves are getting more attention because they are staring me in the face. I mentioned the possibility of doing an Instagram story on my stacks so maybe that will happen this week.
Reading:
Currently, Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult.
Watching:
I have never read a Harlan Coben book but his TV shows on Netflix are fabulous. We have watched The Stranger and Safe. Both have 8-9 episodes total and you will blow through them in one or two sittings. I highly recommend them. We are about to start his other show, The Five.
New Things I’ve Tried:
Thanks to a blogger friend, I ordered some wine from an actual winery and not from Trader Joe’s or some other store. I ordered a few bottles to try. I don’t know if I want to be a part of a club because I don’t drink often but with this pandemic, every other day I have been trying to enjoy a glass of wine but all the wine that I used to enjoy tastes bitter to me now. If you belong to a wine club, let me know your thoughts.
Grateful for:
- Riveting TV
- All of you. I love how we are staying connected through this.
Are you doing well? We are almost through April and I know at the beginning of April we were all dreading the quarantine but look, we’ve made it. So many of the states are opting to reopen but California has six areas that need to be met before a soft opening occurs. It will be awhile for us. It was really warm this week and a bordering county opened up their beaches so I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there is a surge of positives in 10-12 days time.
Be safe.
Book Chatter 
We will be having a soft opening too but my work can be done remote plus schools are closed for the next month or more, so I’m in here for the long run. Phase 3 may be when I get back to work, who knows? I’m comfortable with the arrangement, now – working and homeschooling is under control.
My reading is all over the place as well. One day I’m reading tons, the next day I pick some project and spend hours on it, then I pick some other book to read, and so go my days.
I’m good with my current arrangement too but I have a feeling we will be phased back into work by June in some fashion. I have an open work environment so no way to contain spread if someone is carrying the virus. I heard that the AC can further carry droplets so I don’t know how we can work over the summer without AC. We have no air flow in our interior office space.
Our governor keeps talking about reopening our state, but we’ve had a huge surge in cases at a local meat-packing plant. I can’t imagine reopening things right now. However, her talking about it does leave me with hope that maybe we will be able to go out and run errands and do a few more “normal” things in our near future.
And my reading…also all over the place. Some days I read a ton, other days I read almost nothing.
I keep seeing Tyson and Smithfield on the news. Meat suppliers here said this morning that their supply chain is intact so I don’t know where they are getting their meat. I used to be a vegetarian and even a vegan for awhile but if I tried to do that now I’d be going to the market so often since produce just doesn’t last. Although, my son, at school was doing a lot with frozen veggies. I have since started to buy frozen veggies and frozen veggies have come a long way. I can’t even tell that they were once frozen.
I took something to sleep last night and I did sleep but today I am more agitated than ever. Not sure why. I feel tightly strung like any little thing could set me off.
I’m only reading in snippets right now. That’s about all the focus my brain will allow…although the other day, I did find myself googling historical fiction set during pandemics…so there’s that…I’m glad we’re all here together as well.
I do think blogging helps during this time; we have people with whom to connect, others’ lives that we can observe, and good books to read. It all helps me not to wallow in the “Me-ness.” And time outside helps as well. I am avoiding the beaches here in SB because they are packed with people from LA and Ventura since the beaches down there are closed.
I agree. Living within a city that lies within LA Country makes me very aware of how dire our current situation is so I need that connection with people who live in other areas or it would be too real, and let’s face it, depressing as heck. I took something last night to sleep because I’ve not been sleeping and although it worked, and I did sleep I am more agitated today than any other day.
I think it’s going to be a while before I feel normal. Some business are starting to reopen here. We never had to close but chose to go to curbside sales and, to be honest, none of us are ready to go back to letting people in the store. What if they don’t wear a mask or practice social distancing? How do you enforce that?
We’ve started watching The Stranger, at your recommendation, and are enjoying it so far.
I don’t love Small Great Things like a lot of people did. I listened to it, though, and it took me a while to figure out it was going backwards in time, so it was probably just me.
Let me know later what you think of The Stranger. I have now watched all of Coben’s shows on Netflix. All were good but one was my fave (The Five). My friend said that he just signed a deal for 14 of his books to be made into Netflix shows so soon, I will have more to watch.
Here, businesses can refuse service if you aren’t wearing a mask. It’s no different than no shirt/no shoes in my opinion but I would post it, just to be safe. We picked up takeout from a place the other day and he had a barrier at the door and was taking our order from 20 feet away. We had actually ordered online but he had this whole setup to keep people out. Probably wise.
Some days I wake with renewed optimism. Today, is not one of them. I feel irritated and jumpy.
Hi Ti!
Glad you and your family are doing well. Same here. Where I live is going to be one of the last to work towards opening. There is a lot of virus. Figuring we will be doing this well into May. I have been spending my time organizing drawers and closets – something that needs to be done but probably would not have if I wasn’t quarantined. There is always a positive! I just finished The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman which takes place during WWII, so as bad as what we are going through, it pales in comparison. I am also listening to The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek, and enjoying it.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!
Officially we are locked down until May 15th but schools are out for the year and my university already has summer classes online. We are toying with fall classes being online too. Which is rather alarming if you think about it. LA County has over 20K cases and my city has over 500 cases but we border all the areas that have loosened the restrictions so with all the coming and going to beaches and the like, I’m sure our city will be hit with more positives. Plus, testing is still not consistently available. It all feels so strange. I woke up today in one of my dire moods. Some days I am optimistic, some not.
Nice to hear what your week was like. Isn’t it interesting how we’re all sharing the more mundane parts of our lives these days (or maybe what would have been mundane in the past)? Who would have thought that going to the office and bringing home your office plants would be an ‘event’. Ha! I’m going to fill my car up with gas when I go to the grocery store this week. It’s been almost a month and I usually have to fill up weekly. I was thinking about my week and saying that I have 2 things to do. Ha! We’ll see how things play out here in our state. I think sometimes people forget how very big Texas is and there are so many places that have had no people testing positive and never have. Our governor is supposed to give the next update tomorrow. As to regular life, I’m not sure when my normal activities will be possible again. Can’t think how my volunteering will work or my yoga class or even church. As I said, more to be learned. My husband thinks it will be at least June before his office might possibly have a few people there on a regular basis. He hasn’t missed his commute, but I think both of us are ready to be apart for a few hours each day again. 😉
My office is a good 25 miles away and on a good commute day, takes about an hour to get there. The day I went in to save my plants I got there in 15 minutes. Unreal. It was like a ghost town. An empty campus just feels wrong. I could not wait to get out of there, even though the change of scenery was nice.
I am having trouble envisioning what a return to work will be like. We work in an open office environment and I heard our Governor say that open offices will present challenges and also the use of AC in the hot summer months. We are an interior office with no air flow so without AC we pretty much cannot work there in the summer.
I heard that some areas of Texas are opening up their theaters this weekend even though there are no new releases since the movie industry is holding them back. We have over 20K cases in LA county, over 500 in our city alone so I am not anxious to be reopened but many are not following the guidelines.
I’m with you — I have noooo idea what to expect or hope for, as far as reopening. It’s a weird, scary time. So many of my family members are at high risk, and the last thing I want to do is be a vector of contagion to them. Agh.
Way to go trying new wines!! I should do something like that — maybe I’ll, like, call the wine store and ask them to pick me one red and one white and just SEE WHAT HAPPENS.
I heard quite a few people hit the beaches this weekend. I am suspecting you will be right about seeing a surge in positives as a result, unfortunately. When I walked out of my cool office Friday evening to head home from work, I was surprised to be hit by the heat. My car said it was 104, which probably means it was like 94. I hope you are enjoying Small Great Things. It’s been ages since I last read a Picoult novel.
We are spending much of today working on Mouse’s big school project which is due this next week. I miss having access to the library, but at least there were a lot of online resources she could use.
I hope you have a good week.
Oh sure, school projects without the library can be a challenge but I guess teachers have to allow for the lack of it too.
I do not like the heat so it being so hot, so soon, has not made me too happy. I know I was complaining about my cold living room during all that rain but I need balance. No extremes.
Also, I was doing well. I’ve been on Weight Watchers for awhile now and was close to hitting another milestone but now I am a good 6 lbs from it again. I am not eating bad things but definitely snacking outside of my normal routine. Just bored. Drinking more too. Which for me means, half a glass a couple times a week. I hardly ever drink but this pandemic makes me anxious and so does work.
Our beaches and parks are still closed but, hoping June may be a target date for lifting restrictions. Our schools are closed for remainder of the school year now.
Wish we had some warmer, sunny, days in store.
Some colleges here are moving Fall classes to online. Summer is already scheduled to be online. Waiting to hear what my work does as well as my son’s school.
If you want to see stupidity in action, Google Orange County beaches and see how many people were on the beach this past weekend.
Physically, well. Mentally, eh. Sorry, the wine is tasting bitter. So did you get takeout? What’d you get?
We ended up not taking a drive to where I had planned. I was dying for a good fish taco. Instead, we ended up at a Hawaiian BBQ place where I had a delicious chicken plate. We then went for iced coffees at a local place but man, they raised their prices! I can see why but I wasn’t expecting to spend that much on coffee. It was nice just to drive for a bit anyway. Even though it was only 6 miles away.
Hawaiian BBQ. Oooh sounds good. I just got sweet chili wings tonight from a local restaurant and they were very good.
It was good and the plate I ordered was quite large so I had the rest for lunch today.
Some days it seems the same( work at hospital), some days it just seems weird. I want normal. We all say at work we will never complain about our census again.
Ti, Jodi Picoult has a new book coming out later this year. She is one author I try to read asap.
Oh she does? The only other book I’ve read from Picoult is the one about the shooting. It was chilling. Nineteen Minutes, I think it was called.
I feel the same way about work. I get up, I dread it a little and then the day seems pretty normal. Every now and then I get a little sad or antsy, not even sure what to call it. Plus my eating schedules are weird now even though I am still getting up at the same time. Sleep, non-existent although I feel rested.
I signed up to get a box of wine from Bright Cellars, so we’ll see how that goes. The Merlot we got from CA was pretty good…not too dry, which makes me happy.
That’s pretty much it here…riding the emotional roller coaster with my daughter has been super tough…
Yeah I saw that it got hot there …. and they opened up Newport Beach which I saw on the news. Weird to see one’s beach on the news, the OC! I just hope the virus cases don’t spike too much. If you like red wines … my hub & I like Rioja wine … which is usually good & not too expensive … for white wine we usually stick with Calif. chardonnays …. we are in a local wine club here which my hub deals with but I think it’s easy.
I like reds and whites so I am taking note of your Rioja recommendation. I still haven’t received the wine I ordered so I broke down and purchased a couple of bottles from the market. One was pretty okay, the other not.
Orange County beaches have been pretty insane. I suspect a huge rise in cases next week.
Still coughing.
My nephew owns a cute little wine shop in Waco and he does monthly mailings. He selects all the wine himself, carefully, from small growers in France and Italy (and other places, too). Here’s a link to his shop: http://www.wacowineshoppe.com/wine-csa.
Thanks for the wine link. I will check it out. Still coughing. Wow. I sure hope you feel better soon.