Tags
BevMo, cocktails, Cooking, Coronavirus, CostCo, crossword puzzles, cursive, electric keyboard, groceries, gym, handwriting, karaoke, organizing, partial lockdown, postcard, quarantine, San Francisco, shelter in place, ukulele, working out
After anxiously waiting for April 7th to roll around, I found out yesterday that San Francisco’s partial lockdown and shelter in place has been extended to May 3rd. Barely two weeks have gone by and I’m already bored out of my mind. How will I make another 30+ days?!
What have I been doing for the past two weeks, you may ask? First off, I was lucky enough to have already gone to CostCo and stocked up my usual groceries, including toilet paper, before the partial lockdown announcement spawned all of the panic shopping and hoarding. My refrigerator and freezer are full of groceries – chicken, steak, pork, ground beef, eggs, milk, carrots, green onions, onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, butter, cream, cheese, etc., etc. and so forth. In addition, I have rice, pasta, pasta sauce, canned beans, canned tomatoes, packaged ramen and tons of spice mixes. What I do NOT have is my biggest vice – potato chips! My alcohol stash is fairly well stocked, too, though I could use a few more mixers.
Since everything has been so well stocked, I’ve been cooking and eating at home every day – chili, spaghetti, scrambled eggs, rice, beef panang, parmesan crusted chicken breasts, a Cajun spiced pork chop, a garlic and black pepper pork chop, macaroni and cheese, white bean/mushrooms/garlic/rosemary/sage soup, chocolate chip muffins and a strawberry cake with fresh strawberries in the batter with milk chocolate frosting. Of course, now I’m sick of eating my own cooking and felt like eating junk food today. My lunch this afternoon was two slices of pizza (meatball and black olives, plus mushrooms and ham) and 1/2 a slice of chocolate eruption cake. I had to go stand in line at Whole Foods for the cake, only to discover that their fresh pizza section was closed. Immediately after, I ordered from the pizza joint a few blocks in the opposite direction. That satisfied my cravings for today. I also picked up a couple of prepared sandwiches at Whole Foods, which will last me tomorrow and possibly the day after. Then it’s back to cooking.
As might be expected, I’ve had a few cocktails. Once I’d made several dirty martinis with pickle juice, my regular vodka ran out. A couple nights ago, I concocted something with a muddled sugar cube, fresh ginger, pear vodka and lemon juice. It was SOOO refreshing! Now, however, I was able to replenish my regular vodka by ordering on-line from BevMo, then going to pick it up at the designated time. So it’s back to dirty martinis with pickle juice. Tonight, though, I decided to have a chocolate raspberry martini with vodka, raspberry liqueur and creme de cacao. Believe it or not, I still have to do my at home exercises!
That brings us to the fact that the gym is closed. I go through gym phases where I work out like a dog, then take a month or so off. After getting back from Bangkok and Las Vegas recently, I was about to get in gym mode again. That’s when they announced that gyms would be closed. My two roommates are daily gym rats, so all of us were disappointed. None of us are very motivated to work out at home. Actually, one of my roomies is over at his girlfriend’s place for the duration of this lockdown and the other roomie went home to Portland until it’s over. Yet they’ve both expressed to me their frustration about not being able to really work out. Without the proper gym equipment, we don’t even burn half of the calories that we normally do. That being said, in addition to my normal at home exercises, I’ve been trying to do a few on-line workouts, both regular and dance-type ones. It’s going fine so far, but we’ll see how long this little burst of motivation lasts.
On the “fun” side, I’ve been singing karaoke badly to myself. The neighbors are no doubt quite tired of hearing me sing “Puppy Love,” “Close to You,” “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” “La Vie En Rose (in French!)” and other similar songs. They should thank their lucky stars that I haven’t attempted “Wind Beneath My Wings” (yet)!
Desperation even made me get out my ukulele and try to teach myself some chords. I bought that ukulele in Honolulu four years ago, yet this is only the third time I’ve ever attempted to teach myself anything on it. Growing up playing the piano, it’s strange to place my fingers on the frets to make chords, which all sound off to me! A friend told me to download an ukulele tuner to my phone and then I’ll know for sure.
There’s still an electric keyboard buried in the chest at the foot of my bed. There’s even a file of sheet music with it. If I get that out, I’ve really hit bottom! I DO play a keyboard MUCH better than an ukulele, though!
Somewhere I have a huge book of crossword puzzles. Now is as good a time as any to work on those. There are always my French and Italian language books as well; could always do a little refreshing.
I even started the HUGE process of organizing my extremely cluttered bedroom. After hearing about the extension yesterday, however, I was so disappointed that I basically laid around most of yesterday and today doing absolutely nothing productive.
Even more shocking than all of that, I handwrote a postcard, walked to the post office and mailed it. I have another one in the works, along with an Easter card. I even wrote the second postcard in CURSIVE!!! Even though it seems to be becoming a lost art, we old school people still remember how to read and write it!