staying in, week 5

End of week 5, and I'm sick of this weird life, you're sick of it, we're all sick of it. But what really made me sick this week was the protest that happened this week in Michigan's capital, in clear defiance of shelter in place orders and what seems to me fundamental misunderstanding of the dangers of the situation at hand. We're lucky that the numbers seem to be decreasing - but we can't fail to see that it's BECAUSE of these strict orders and closures. Letting up now, with no other changes in place, just puts us back on our trajectory of cases increasing - and just extends the necessity of shelter in place orders.

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Good things

That said, this is not easy on many levels, socially, economically, psychologically - but we've got to hang in there, and we can do it! So let's talk about some good things from the week...

Best book: finally got my library e-hold of The Antidote for Everything and it was exactly the kind of  brain candy read I wanted right now: juicy drama, outlandish medical scenarios a la some crazy medical TV show, a swoony but not overly steamy romance, and even a few real-world ethics to consider but not get bogged down in. Yes, please. (And if you haven't read this author's previous book, The Queen of Hearts, I recommend that for all the same reasons!)

Best TV show: also in the realm of total escape, check out 100% Hotter on Netflix. This show is completely ridiculous, and that's why I love it. A British team of makeup/fashion/hair stylists give participants make-unders - so they start with some absolutely outlandish look, whether it's using a full bottle of self-tanner a day or some over-the-top goth style, and they tame them to something "respectable." Doesn't give quite as much self-love/self-confidence as something like Queer Eye, but for a 1/2 hour escape, I'll take it.

Favorite Instagram deep dive: artist Adam Hillman's account is AMAZING. I defy you to scroll through and not smile. After Peter and Hendrik learned about him on their daily "wake up" video from the Headspace app.

Best delivery: brow gel in my Shipt delivery from Target. (Okay, also the lots of bananas that I also got in the delivery - this is the one area that brings out hoarding tendencies... Don't like the thought of running out of bananas.) I love my Glossier Boy Brow, but it was running low, and definitely I thought this was worth a shot for $4. Sometimes the little things just perk a girl up, you know?

Baking recommendations: finally tried the famous no-knead bread recipe and despite having only expired yeast and stale whole wheat flour, we thought it was quite good and actually pretty fool-proof - so I'm looking forward to trying again! We've also been making a lot of muffins, and Hendrik gave 5-stars to this whole wheat chocolate muffins recipe.

Most amusing Hendrik activity: setting up a "store" in the playroom to try to sell us random stuff in order to save up faster for the Lego Hogwarts great hall set that he really wants. He calculated that with his savings, his weekly $3 allowance, and an average of $1 per day in sales, he would be able to buy it by mid-May. (He has also started collecting the mail before we can get to it, and then charging us 2 cents per item for him to "deliver" it.) Though his customer base of 2 people is a little sick of his marketing efforts, setting things up and making art to sell occupied him for a LOT of hours this week, so that's worth a few bucks to me for sure. Even better: unbeknownst to him, my mom had already ordered it for him and it is going to be the best surprise ever given how obsessed he is with saving up for it right now.

Bummers

Even though I'm preaching the "stay home" and I know rationally that the closures and everything are how things need to be at the moment, that doesn't mean I don't have my totally over this moments daily. Acknowledging them helps a little.

What I miss the most: restaurants, Target, my parents' house/cottage, and the gym. Pretty much I could be a full-time homebody without these. But still, life is getting a little tiring without them.

Annoyances: the new big "plan" from the school district, now that school is cancelled for the rest of the year, is the expectation of 60-90 minutes of assigned school work a day. What?! Kids are not going to be learning enough, and also this stuff takes my kid less than 60 minutes and I need to work. And just have quiet in general! Bah.

Worst time of day: 4pm. I mean, 4-5pm is already the most blah hour of the day, but these days with everyone home full time with me when I am used to having the house to myself... I kind of lose all will to live. Thank goodness for grandparent FaceTimes, occasionally indulging Hendrik's MarioKart obsession, organizing projects, and the prospect of wine while I cook dinner. Ha!

Reframed bummer: I was NOT happy to see snow falling multiple days this week (at least there's nothing left on the ground by now) and temperatures mostly in the 30s. But actually I think it's been useful - when we had nice weather last week, people were out and about so much and crowding parks and such that I really started to worry that we were going to have outdoor restrictions


How's it going for you? Hope you're hanging in there, and also I'm glad you're hanging out here - definitely feeling grateful that even before all of this I already had such a nice little online community to connect with!