I am a bit of a couch potato as it has been exactly 4 months from the last day I went to work. Staying at home isn’t hard for me since most of my friends and family live all over the world anyway. With friends and family staying more connected, my social life has actually improved virtually. For the most part, we stay home watching as the world outside seems to be getting stranger and stranger. It is a great comfort to find virtual places to keep myself both safe and sane at home.
1 MAKE A GROCERY LIST
We do go to the grocery mainly every 3-4 weeks with quick stops when a new recipe requires something we don’t stock.
2 DO TAKE-OUT & TRY NEWS WAYS TO ENJOY YOUR MEALS
Sometimes we do take-out. Fresh seafood I order for delivery once a month. I finally found neighbors (a couple) who also eat mostly everything and are not allergic to anything. By mostly everything I mean seafood, beef, pork, poultry, vegetables, sweets, pasta, rice, bread, coffee, wine, beer and tea. Planning celebrations and having people over always seems more challenging for me in the US, since you have to take into consideration food allergies and special diets. This didn’t seem a thing in the Philippines when I lived there. Even peanut allergies seem rare in the Philippines. I did not know a single person with one there.
To find this food kinship means a lot to me. Since we live side by side we can dine social distancing by sharing food. Eating can be more fun sharing what we eat. Maybe we will exchange photos of how we prepare meals. I plan to share sashimi with them later this week. If you live in Sacramento, you can order fresh seafood delivery from Sunh Fish here.
3 SCHEDULE ZOOM CALLS/EVENTS AND OTHER WAYS TO STAY CONNECTED WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY
Make it a regular thing. Preferably calendar it so you don’t forget to keep in touch.
4 STICK TO A PLAN FOR WALKS AND EXERCISE
There are lots of online exercise classes to try.
5 SHUFFLE DIFFERENT STREAMING SERVICES AND EVEN CHANNELS WITHIN YOUR STREAMING SERVICES
We shuffle watching Netflix, Hulu, Apple TV, HBO Max, Disney+ and Amazon Prime. Amazon Prime has extra channels you can easily add and remove like PBS Masterpiece, Britbox, Acorn TV and much more.
6 DO SOMETHING NEW
Recently, I just completed a course on Coursera. This was The Science of Well-being developed by Yale University. It was interesting, interactive, community-building and I learned so much. I recommend this course to every single person. They should teach it in every high school. You can find more about the course here.
7 TACKLE HOME IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS
8 SPRING CLEAN YOUR WARDROBE AND YOUR LIFE
9 TREAT YOURSELF
10 EXPLORE ONLINE
Here are some wonderful places I’ve found online.
RECREATION & ENTERTAINMENT
The most valuable resource I found is the support of other (mostly) women who share the same tastes and interests when I joined The Conversation. It’s a private global group so if you want more information email me here.
Then a lovely friend, Maria Perrine launched an amazing website from Mindanao (in the Philippines) with recipes from home. In it Maria showcases the homemade, the homegrown and her homestead. This is nothing like the store-bought products I ate while I was home. Maria is making her own versions using traditional methods. Her website is gorgeous and amazing. I am making some of her dishes myself. Not only delicious but helps me feel connected to my home country. You can find it here.
Things in the United States and in the Philippines seemed to take a bad turn last week. It was the first time I got sad during this pandemic. Something happened at home that was political concerning the biggest media company in the country that I once worked for. Now a former classmate is at the helm. I wish that he was my big boss since he is a principled person and rarer still a true gentleman. But we were both starting out then. It has been years since I worked there but it brought me unexpectedly down. I don’t even know why. I know from experience it was a flawed place to work. Still shutting it all down seems extreme. Things seem to have become so extreme here in America and back home. The world seems stranger and stranger. I needed a good laugh so I re-watched all the Dave Chappelle specials on Netflix. Dave Chappelle is brilliant. His comedy is intelligent. He can point out when something sublime happens from even ugly or stupid things people do or say.
Then I discovered, Sarah Cooper. Her work is ingenious in its simplicity. Her face and facial expressions married with another man’s words can tell us so much about the world we live in. No need to comment, complain or explain. Just her face and another man’s words. Watch her YouTube videos here.
I do love magazines so Monocle Radio: The Stack is one of my favorite programs. Listen to The Stack here.
PRODUCTS & SERVICES
Amazon Subscribe and Save has been a lifesaver. I save time and money. It is easier to find the things we regularly use, deliveries are usually combined, and I can keep track of how long it takes us to consume things like sugar, tea, detergents, cleaning products, etc. Learn more here.
The Laundress has changed the chore aspect of my home life or my “chore-life”. The Laundress products just work better, smell fresher and are easier to use. Somehow, I am color averse and having all these white products in clear packaging works brilliantly for me. I always used to get blue detergent on carpets and everything. Such a klutz that way. Shop The Laundress here.
I will update this if I find anything else to add.
NOTE ON THE WAY I DO THINGS:
Actually, none of the posts I write here are permanent. I come back, revise, add or delete as things change. I am aware this is not really the practice for websites and blogs but I think this is how I should do it if I am online anyway.
I need not aspire for the perfection of preserving a particular moment as a permanent record of our time. I leave that to traditional print media and the precious magazines I love.
