Happy Turkey. Turkey.

11/26/2020: This marks the first Thanksgiving since 2001 that I was not with family for Turkey Day.  This brings my total of non-family Thanksgivings to 2.  In normal years I'd be in Indiana with Dad's side of the family having part American food and part Italian feast!  This year, I got a care package from a dear friend/awesome chef and had Mom and Dad on Facetime. The three of us realized we don't have "our" Thanksgiving tradition. So, I decided we say the Prayer for Protection. That's us. 

11/27/2020: First Friday after Thanksgiving that I've worked as a social worker.  Ever. Y'all.  I'm so happy to report it was super boring.  No one wants to talk to social work on the day after Thanksgiving.

11/28/2002: A friend texted me: "I wanted to walk, so I'm by your house" and I ran outside like "hang on, I'll grab my mask".  This friend actually had COVID and has recovered.  She was all "I knew you'd be okay walking with me".  (Meaning 'I knew you'd understand science and that I'm not contagious').  It was LOVELY.  Since we're in lockdown, I can't walk with Dungeon Master, nor Olive.  And I can't play with Pooky Bear and Baby Pooky at the playground.  Want to know my main social contacts? So, I'm so happy for the limited options.

COVID Diaries - Lockdown 2.0

 Today is Thursday.

Wednesday night the Governor announced a new lock down.  This one will be similar but not exactly the same as the original show.  Churches are going to remain open (which I think is kind of ridiculous but no one asked me).  Restaurants, bars, gyms, schools, youth sports, all shutting down.  Restaurants do get to keep carry out and delivery service.  All retail is staying open. 

The one that hurts the most, and is the same, is the "no social gatherings of any size, inside or outside".  Which means, if I don't live with you I can't visit you.  Y'all, I live alone.  My pandemic partner, Captain Smiley, is actually unavailable for the foreseeable future so I am legit all by my lonesome up here.

I am continuing my avocado farm.  I planted 1 yesterday and 2 more today.  I need to go to Costco soon for more. 

My foot is feeling significantly improved from the day I stepped on the horse, so I am running a bit more.  I got back up to 3 miles today. That was nice.  Plus it was the best weather ever.

I have perfected my Salmon Poke bowl.  I follow this recipe almost exactly. The siracha sauce is super important in the marinade.  Absolutely makes the dish as far as I'm concerned.  I've been practicing making the Japanese pickled veggies, so I've been using those a lot in this bowl.  

I am planning a passion fruit farm, but have not made the leap yet.

I will be alone for Thanksgiving, for those doing the math.  I'm hopeful for a Facetime or Zoom call with lots and lots of family members.  And a friend (who is an even more excellent chef than I) said she'd make me a care package.  I may also get a visit from Dungeon Master where she stays in her car and I sit on my porch with the heated blanket plugged in.

I was surprised at how exhausted and bummed I was last night.  Even though, yo, we should've been locking down two weeks ago.

Also, apparently we're going back into toilet paper hoarding mode?

COVID Diaries - I guess I finally got sick of writing every day?

 I'll just do a little catch up here.  Apparently half my movements are now tracked with my credit card, btw.

Monday: I must not've gone anywhere, because I didn't buy anything other than a lid for a pot on Amazon.  Side note here, it's good I looked at my credit card because I thought I'd set up payment for this month's statement and I had not. (I'm still a week or two before due date, so all is well.) 

Tuesday: My foot still hurts, but I'm like "I may, at some point, recover from this".  Also, snow day? 

Wednesday: Foot is slowly improving.  I am running so freaking slow.  But, I have not given up the streak.  So, there's that.  Also, more snow?

Thursday: I had to actually leave my house, so I legit made the most of it. I had to go to one of my satellite office locations, which is on a hospital campus (though nowhere near the main building.)  The work I needed to do lasted a full two minutes.  And then I switched into running gear and ran my mile on campus where the plowing is absolutely legit. 

Then, I went to the main attraction of the day, which is the Asian grocery store. (I'm okay calling it that right?)  There's also a lot of African imported food and Mexican/south American food, but it's mostly targeted at South East Asian immigrants.  I got my passion fruits (always my main motivator).  I got a few new kinds of mushrooms to try.  (Yum!)  I picked out oyster sauce, fish sauce, and what I later learned was not the right kind of soy sauce but not the worst guess in the world either. 

Also, you know, I worked all of these days.  Even a little bit on Monday.

Friday: I don't know what my issue was.  

Let's start with the true COVID dream I had. "Work" was a place I actually went to and our COVID tests in dream Liz world looked suspiciously liked a breathalyzer or something in awake-land. (You blew into it to get a reading.)  Somehow I came up positive.  But y'all, I didn't leave work.  Or I did but I lived upstairs?  And then it's like "I'll go to the grocery store".  That's not allowed. So I went back downstairs to work. To help with dishes?  Or clean my dishes?  And one of the supervisors (who is a real life person I know) was like "can we at least keep the COVID+ people out of this one space?"  But, yo, I kept forgetting I had COVID. So they tested me the next day and poor Supervisor was like "this is worse than before, go away". And I went back into the room where I wasn't allowed, to help with dishes or whatever, before trying to get groceries again.  And I wasn't the only work person that kept trying to come in, and forgetting we were sick.  We were all asymptomatic.  I told real life supervisor what Dream Liz put Dream Supervisor through and she thought it was hilarious.

I had a Teams training from 8am-10am.  And it's actually a training I enjoy and a subject I love. I ended it 20 minutes early.  (That part I'm okay with.  I will force role plays in person, but I won't over teams.)  A colleague was on just watching, and gave great feedback.  I told her it felt like I had backup for the training!

Next up I had to work for a while.  I was like a freaking zombie.  I don't know what my problem was.  I liked the training.  The work calls I made were positive and I felt relatively helpful.

Around noon I told my colleague I needed to take a break and was that okay with her.  Mercifully she was like "I get it.  Go."  I ran my mile and did some clean up grocery shopping including yeast and bread flour.  How did I not know that was a thing? 

I came back feeling refreshed and started the weekend on a relatively high note.

Saturday: (That's today y'all.) I woke up for reals a little before 10am.  And had junk food.  And then napped.  Not gonna lie.  

Somehow around 2pm, I got off my ass and did all the things.  I ran my mile.  I took out the garbage.  I legit cleaned my kitchen.  I rode my exercise bike.  I made bread.  All the things.

For supper, I had much better luck with a new Naan recipe (and improved ingredients on my end).  And I had better mushroom luck than one other night this week that we don't need to talk about. 

And now my kitchen is clean again, so, there's that.

 

COVID Diaries - Nov 8

 From COVID world:

Today Pooky Bear, Pooky Baby and (I'm sorry, I can't call him Pooky Dad, can we have another name for him?) came up my way and we walked to a new playground.  In COVID world, I was like "Pooky Bear is standing too close to me".  For everyone's information, Pooky Bear has NEVER been accused of invading personal space.  Ever.  

Next up <a href="https://www.axios.com/george-w-bush-biden-election-599b0ce7-5278-438c-8b68-e5d1052e9e6d.html">I'm over here agreeing with Former Pres G.W. Bush</a> and watching <a href="https://ijr.org/romney-trump-losing-election-dont-expect-him-go-quietly-night/">Mitt Romney quote Hamilton</a>.  

So, yeah, we're still in the COVID time and reality warp over here.

COVID Diaries - November 7. #46

 So, I  took a long time off the COVID diaries, because, I was so over... everything.

I'll also point out I totally slept through my eight year running streak anniversary.  Next big milestone is 3,000 days, so maybe I celebrate more then, if I make it? 

Election night, I had a small but might contigent of friends on Zoom who did Taiji or Qigong every hour on the hour that the polls closed across the mainland US.  (Sorry, Hawaii and Alaska, but I was legit toast by the west coast.) The next day, Dad called to tell me how much he enjoyed the exercises.  Dad.  Who is not a gusher.

Wednesday morning, I did finally get the nerve to turn on my phone and look at the results. At that point things were slightly leaning towards Biden but in no way certain. 

The calling of Wisconsin and Michigan for Biden are a blur.  Was that Wednesday?  Thursday? I can't remember.  And why is Arizona light blue? Also, Nevada had been light blue by like 6,000 votes at that point, which had me super nervous.  Until I understood all the outstanding votes were in Las Vegas. 

Friday morning, I woke up to the headlines that Biden had somehow pulled ahead in Georgia by 900 votes.  (And then several articles about Stacy Abrams roll in the election.)  Sometime on Friday they also seemed to turn the state of Pennsylvania blue. And it was like "is this real?"  and "can I trust it?"

Today is Saturday.  I woke up and looked at CNN.  The headline was roughly "Biden's really close".  Shortly after that I was talking to Dungeon Master on the telephone and it was she who told me they'd called the election.  She also told me all of downtown was boarded up and many stores in south were boarded up as well. And she then clarified, these are new boards.  These are not related to the George Floyd murder.  One of my neighbors up here confirmed.  I'm unclear if things were boarded up in case the election was called, or in case it was not.

I talked to Mom and Dad for a while.  Neither of them are real gushers about this kind of thing, but they were obviously touched by the celebrations in the streets. I was too. Some of my friends are getting together in person later to celebrate. I am too COVID aware (5400 new cases in the state yesterday?!?!) to go.  I'm celebrating from here.

2020 has been a real shit show, from wild fires to COVID to the economy to the state of my own mental health (and waste line?)   I feel like I'm taking a break from reality over here.  Sitting in my backyard on a record warm day, celebrating 46!