This blog is meant to be personal. It is meant to chronicle one person’s experience through the pandemic. So there will be days where it’s mundane and days where it’s more interesting. I’m just writing about what it’s like to stay home and lose the routine of life. It’s about figuring out what it means to exist without the daily reminders that I am a competent and effective person in the world, with knowledge, authority and wit. It is about long stretches of solitude, which are foreign to me. I don’t like solitude. The cocktail recipes are the impetus for writing and the draw for the audience. And fun.
Yesterday I did a yoga practice and a walk/run. The running part was easier and felt good. The day started gray, but the sun burned the clouds away in the late afternoon, and the day turned blue and gold, with gray puffs sailing off to the east.
I cleaned the house. I determined, through careful study, that the optimal minimum number of toilet sheets needed after a pee is four. I have begun to ration the toilet paper, not out of necessity, but out of an abundance of caution and a sense of the zeitgeist.
I ranted on Facebook at people who don’t seem to be taking the advice to stay home seriously, and was dismayed to hear that the school in my tiny town would not be closing. This was agitating at bedtime, and although I have pledged many times to keep away from my phone late in the evening, I ignored my own good advice. Hence, I didn’t fall asleep until after midnight.
I am noticing, too, that it’s unwise for me to eat cinnamon rolls and have a cocktail every night, even with a run during the day. The scale is warning me.
This is the morning when many people across the US will wake up to find that they and their kids are going to be home together for a long time. I’ve been an empty-nester for several years, and there are many helpful mom and dad blogs out there, so I won’t pretend to have parenting advice or repeat what others have already said. But I heard from my daughter that the mothers in her office are not looking forward to saying home with the kids. It’s never been their plan.
But there you are. You’ve got to get through it somehow. Celebrate the first night of your family togetherness with a treat. After dinner, which could be pizza from the freezer, or, hopefully delivery, since you’d be supporting a local business, or whatever you want, make something delicious:
grown-up milkshakes for the adults in the house, and a kid version if you have kids. Even if you’re alone, put on karaoke, or your favorite movie musical and sing along.
The Work From Home inspired by the Grasshopper and the Brandy Alexander.
For the adults:
1 pint of vanilla ice cream
2 ounces of brandy
1 ounce creme de cacao
1 ounce creme de menthe or peppermint schnapps
Put all the ingredients in the blender like a milkshake and blend until just combined and smooth. Pour it into two glasses and sip through paper or reusable straws. Do not share a glass like you’re at a 50’s soda fountain.
For the kids, omit the brandy, substitute chocolate syrup for the creme de cacao and add a few drops of peppermint flavoring.
If you don’t currently have the alcohol suggested, don’t worry about it. Vanilla ice cream blended with anything will be delicious. Bourbon and vanilla ice cream? Hell yes. Maybe not gin though. I don’t know about a gin milkshake.
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