It’s hard to believe that one day can be “busier” than the next when you’re quarantining. Yet somehow this weekend was busy enough that I neglected to post updates on Friday and Saturday nights. I went for a quick 5k run on Friday morning, but my day was mostly spent working on writing and research projects. Maybe that’s why I neglected to post? Either way, at night we were invited to play some games online with friends. The difference between playing with my group of friends and this particular group of friends is that they’re almost all creative types in the movie industry, so the games where you have to use your iPhone screen as a canvas meant everyone (except for me) had some kind of stylus with which they could create amazing drawings.
We were comfortable enough to imbibe a bit more than usual, so we stayed up pretty late drinking Highland Park Brewery crowlers and bottles (Pinnation Pils, High 6 West Coast IPA, and Bourbon Barrel-Aged Griffith J. Griffith with cinnamon, chilies, cacao nibs, and coffee) while munching on Porto’s Bake At Home pastries (potato balls, meat pies, empanadas, and cheese rolls). I have to admit, the social distancing virtual hangouts definitely help take my mind off the fact that I’m barely leaving home these days. Other than my morning runs, I’ve really only had to leave “home base” like 4 or 5 times during the past 10+ days.
On Saturday I decided not to take my usual morning run, choosing instead to take an extended lunch-break walk around the neighborhood to get my daily exercise. At the end of almost every driveway in Beverly Hills sits an untouched copy of the Courier. It’s a very creepy sight. Breakfast was mini quiches with broccoli and onion and frozen mini sausages. Dinner was smash burgers with leftover mashed potatoes and asparagus from the other night. After dinner, we had a virtual birthday party to attend. There was a “cocktail hour” at 7:30 pm, so I had to don my finest quarantine attire (a free Baltimore Orioles t-shirt I cut the sleeves off of for optimal white-trashiness). Then the evening devolved into more virtual video games. Since these were my friends, the drawing games basically consisted of penises and vaginas oozing technicolor fluids, and the Cards Against Humanity style games included the phrases “horse cock” or “goat fucking” in every group of answers. I guess chatting incessantly about the documentary Zoo during the cocktail hour really left a lasting impression.
We also watched Tiger King on Netflix from start to finish yesterday. Maybe that’s the real reason I chose to wear my sleeveless t-shirt to the birthday party last night.
This morning I woke up and went for a run, then made myself more breakfast quiches and sausages. I played a quick game in MLB The Show ’20 and talked my sister through the process of printing a FedEx label (insert eye roll emoji) before committing to working on one of the jigsaw puzzles we ordered to keep us from boring ourselves to death. We had to run two quick food-related errands in the late afternoon. A local restaurant is selling boxes of produce and supplies, so we ordered some baking items and breakfast foods, and a box of fresh fruit. Then we swung by a local Chicago-style pizza place for some pies. I’ve cooked every dinner for the past ten days, so it felt really good to have someone else prepare a meal for us tonight. It was also way tastier than anything I’ve made in the past week-plus. After dinner, I joined a Google hangout with a couple of friends while watching “The Platform” on Netflix. It’s supposed to be this ultra-violent, grizzled, fucked-up movie. It started promisingly enough, but the last twenty minutes or so were absolute dogshit and wiped out any enjoyment I might have felt during the first half of the film. Bummer.
If any of you have any recommendations for ultra-violent, grizzled, fucked-up movies, by all means, let me know. I’ve probably seen them all already, but I’m happy to hear your suggestions.
And, while on the topic of recommendations, I need a savory dish that includes pineapple. Neither of us really eat a lot of it, and there was one in the fruit box that we picked up today. I assume there’s some kind of chicken thigh and pineapple thing I can do, or I can slice it and grill it and put it on a burger…but I’m definitely open to alternatives if you can think of any. Tomorrow’s goal is to plot out food for the week. I also have to send a buddy a box of beer — hopefully without having to travel to a FedEx store or depot. Wish me luck.
As always, stay healthy and stay safe.
