I shaved my plague beard.
My last official day of work was on March 17th, so until this morning I haven’t shaved since then. Just about two-and-a-half weeks is the longest I’ve gone without a shave in, like…ten years. When did Nate and I grow our Lost beards? Between seasons 4 and 5, or seasons 5 and 6? Hang on, I’ll search the archives and figure it out. Okay, it was definitely between seasons 4 and 5, although the photographic evidence appears to have been (wait for it…) lost. I don’t’ remember exactly how long I grew the beard for but that’s not important right now. What is important is that this recent 17-day beard growth is the longest I’ve gone without shaving since 2008!
I looked gross, by the way. Even the girlfriend — who suggested this in the first place — looked at me this morning and asked if I was ready to shave. Ouch.
The past few days have been fairly uneventful. There have been no errands to run, thankfully. We’ve had to endure maybe one or two interactions per day with a delivery driver, but that’s about it. My stress/anxiety levels are still fluctuating drastically from day-to-day. For example, a couple of nights ago I couldn’t sleep and woke up feeling anxious. The sensation never faded, and the majority of the day was spent trying to talk myself down from a heightened state of worry. Yesterday, I was perfectly fine from sunrise to sunset. I even enjoyed two-and-a-half beers, which is the most I’ve allowed myself to drink in several weeks. This morning I woke up and went for a run (3.1 miles, or 5k). I returned home and started reading all these reports saying we should now be wearing masks when we go outside. Ever since I have been sitting here feeling terrified that I’ve caught it. For the last hour or so I’ve been experiencing “chills” even though the rest of my body seems to be functioning normally, and my temperature as of 10 minutes ago was 97.8 degrees. Brains, man. They can make us feel fucked up shit. At least I hope it’s an abberation. If my temperature spikes in the next couple hours I’ll be sure to come back and say, “WELP, I’VE GOT IT. TOLD YA SO!”
I’ve been keeping up with my cooking for the past few days as well. I made some pretty solid breakfast sandwiches the other morning. Dinner two nights ago was baked chicken thighs with pineapple. I found a good teriyaki-ish sauce recipe online made with soy sauce, rice vinegar, ginger, brown sugar, corn starch, garlic, and onion. I thought it turned out pretty awful, but it fed us for two days and I didn’t hear any complaints.
Seriously, though. I need to pay better attention to my plating technique.
Last night I made meatloaf with maple mashed sweet potatoes and peas. We’ll probably be eating leftovers tonight, and tomorrow it’ll be my duty to find a new recipe to make. I have a pound of ground beef and a pound of ground pork left to play with, so maybe I’ll make meatballs to go with some pasta. I could also make my favorite pork sausage sauce if I want, although I’d have to find something to sub for the heavy cream that recipe calls for. And we have two burgers buns left before we have to buy more, so maybe burgers will have to do. Either way, it’s almost time to think about our next grocery order.
I don’t think we have any exciting weekend plans lined up at the moment. We’re going to meet another couple for “Happy Hour” in a bit, and then probably settle in and watch a movie. Tomorrow night we might link up with some people for another Jackbox game night. As always, I’ll tweet out a link if you want to watch us on Twitch.
Beyond that, I’m already at work on another mixtape for you. It probably won’t have a theme like the last one, but at least you’ll have more music to listen to while you practice safe social distancing.
More now than ever, stay healthy and stay safe.
