The Quarantine Meme

[chomiji]

This is only going to proved that I am (a) privileged, (b), grumpy, and (c) obsessed with food. Oh well, you might as well know the truth now.

1. Are you an Essential Worker?
Not by the current definition. During normal times I am essential enough in my organization that I get a copy of the Speshul Book with all kinds of phone numbers in it and am supposed to check my remote access working set up every couple of weeks. But now EVERYONE in our organization who possibly can is teleworking, so yeah, not so essential.

2. How many drinks have you had since the quarantine started?
One half one evening and another half some other evening. In each case, I had a small shot of hard cider because I like how it tastes. I don't drink as a reaction to stress; I do equally unproductive things like eating too much and staying up too late instead.

3. If you have kids... Are they driving you nuts?
No kids, no pets. Just me and the Mr.

4. What new hobby have you taken up during this?
Nada. Zip. Working full time and cooking a lot more than I normally do has left me precious little energy for such.

5. How many grocery runs have you done?
Same as usual, one per week. But I get up at 6 a.m. on Sunday to make Whole Foods' Senior Shopping time at 7. I *hate* getting up early. And I wear a mask. The Mr. fills in with runs to our eccentric little one-store grocery, Snider's, which has actually had TP recently because they've tapped into a commercial supplier somewhere: the rolls are labelled "Professional." Oh, and I've been hitting the Farmers Market, which is a lot less fun than it used to be because of precautions: they moved it to a parking lot with limited access and only let a certain number of people in at a time, and you wait in line -- 6 feet apart -- to look over the goods at each stall. It takes forever. But we're eating well.

6. What are you spending your stimulus check on?
We make too much money to get a stimulus check. Those who need it are welcome to it and IMO, deserve much more than they're getting.

7. Do you have any special occasions that you will miss during this quarantine?
Small things, starting with our 35th wedding anniversary next Monday. A festive meal out clearly isn't happening. And our twin niece and nephew, my sister's kids, should be graduating from high school next month. Depending how long this continues, it may affect our annual trip to Cape Cod, which would break my heart. And Lord knows what will happen with our in-planning house renovations.

8. Are you keeping your housework done?
Neither more nor less than usual. I'm a terrible housekeeper (we both are). Things may be marginally better than usual because I have to live with it all day, so I've been doing a bit more tidying up.

9. What movie have you watched during this quarantine?
Nada, zip, zilch. Not usually a big movie person.

10. What are you streaming with?
Nothin'. Not a big video media person in general.

11. 9 months from now is there any chance of you having a baby?
AH HA HA HA HA. I'm 61 and about 5 years post-hysterectomy (I had endometrial cancer).

12. What's your go-to quarantine meal?
See #5 about grocery shopping. Special quarantine cooking is not really a thing for us. I'm about to make my second meatloaf, though, and I usually only make it a few times a year, mostly in the winter. And we usually eat out a lot more than we have been, although we are getting some takeout meals. We have a number of good local restaurants less than 10 minutes' walk from the house, and some of them have gone to takeout only.

13. Is this whole situation making you paranoid?
Paranoid would imply that I think someone is doing this on purpose. The only "on purpose" about this is the way the Orange Menace and his merry band have been trying to make a buck even under these tragic circumstances. I am feeling depressed and lonely, but not paranoid.

14. Has your internet gone out on you during this time?
No, thank God, considering that both my work and much of my entertainment depend on it. We had big thunderstorms and a tornado watch yesterday, which worried me.

15. What month do you predict this all ends?
Our office is having a no-money-involved pool about when we go back to work, and I bet on May 4, but at this point I don't think so. I assume that the stay-home thing will last into the summer, and serious repercussions will go on at least 'til the end of the year.

16. First thing you’re gonna do when you get off quarantine?
Go out for a meal with friends, probably sushi at SushiKo (if they've managed to survive).

17. Where do you wish you were right now?
It's getting late and it's a weeknight, so maybe finishing the aforementioned meal out and basking in the glow of good companionship.

18. What free-from-quarantine activity are you missing the most?
Just wandering around our neighborhood, ducking into shops as we please, hanging out and talking to friends when we run into them, and deciding to meet up later for board games or dinner out or whatever. Deciding to go to a convention or something, Things like that. I lead a pretty low-key life, usually.

19. Have you run out of toilet paper and hand sanitizer?
So I don't generally believe in hand sanitizer. You only need it when you can't get to soap and water. They were spritzing our hands left and right on JoCo, which was just as well, but I'm not usually crammed into a cruise ship with 2000 other nerds. So, NO, hand sanitizer is not a thing. TP: we usually buy it in 20-roll bundles anyway. We had an unopened one when this started, and between that and picking up 4 rolls from time to time at the aforementioned little grocery, we're OK so far.

20. Do you have enough food to last a month?
Yeah, but it would get boring fast. My digestion would probably hate it: I'm used to eating lots of fresh fruit and veggies. We have pasta (which I can't eat), brown and white rice, cans of beans and some bags of dried beans, cans and packets of fish (tuna, sardines, salmon), some box juices (I should get some more next time I'm at the store) and such. We also have various frozen chunks of pork from our mini-sized farm share. I should probably lay in some more canned veggies, although I disapprove of them in general. Our freezer is kind of small and mostly filled with the aforementioned pork collection and the Mr's ice cream (Moorenko's in several flavors).

In conclusion, my only real privation has been lack of human interactions and variety of experiences.

Comments

[isis]

I am with you on the privilege (and grumpy foodiness). We actually just celebrated our 29th anniversary and I ordered delivery - I wanted real fancy delivery but got kind of semi-fancy Asian instead, and we drank champagne with it, and that was our festiveness.

[chomiji]

Yeah, I think maybe we'll look into whether any of the good sushi joint are doing carryout. But it's not the same: we were going to see about the Inn at Little Washington, which is both a B&B and a well-regarded restaurant, but nope. (Hmm, I need a sushi icon.)

Happy Anniversary!