I can’t believe I’m closing in on two months without work, travel, or seeing friends on a regular basis. In some ways, it feels like this “Safer At Home” ordinance has stretched for an obscenely long period of time, but it also doesn’t feel like it’s been two months. I suppose both of those can be attributed to the daily routines I’ve instituted since March 17th (or was it the 18th). I’ve done my best to keep a daily schedule so as not to treat this like a vacation. I wake up around the same time every day, eat lunch around the same time every day, go for walks either at lunch or before dinner, and try not to stay up too late — although I’ve been slipping up with that lately. I have some friends who are up until 4 am every morning playing video games or drinking. I’m usually in bed between midnight or 1 am. For the past two weeks, I’ve fit a small amount of work into my daily schedule, which is probably why I’ve found less time to blog this month. I also try not to post on the weekends because…well, it’s the weekend.
When I last wrote I was gearing up to watch the penultimate episode of Survivor with friends over Zoom. We ordered pizza from a local place I haven’t tried before, Vito’s Pizza in West Hollywood. It made Eater’s list of the 22 essential pizzerias in Los Angeles, which isn’t saying much when you come from New Jersey (like me) and generally like to shit all over this city’s pizza offerings. It was pretty good, although I think in the future we’ll stick to Prime for NY-style slices or Hollywood Pies for Chicago-style. The west side sure does boast less intriguing options than the east side. Remember the First Annual East Los Angeles Pizza-Off I organized back in the day? There were so many options!
The rest of the week involved watching Band Of Brothers and making dinner. One night I made ground beef tacos with flour tortillas, tomato, onion, crumbled cotija, avocado, and hot sauce. Another night I think we just heated up Porto’s potato balls and made a small salad. I’ve been making way more breakfast sandwiches as well:
We have frozen bagels leftover from my birthday that I’m doing my best to plow through in order to free up space in the freezer. Yeah, that’s it. I’m freeing up space in the freezer. It’s not that I’m obsessed with bagels and would eat them at every meal if I could. Especially when topped with cheddar and bacon and avocado.
The most exotic I’ve gotten with cooking lately was probably last night’s attempt at Brazilian coconut milk chicken. That dish involved rubbing chicken breast with a mixture of cumin, coriander, cayenne, turmeric, salt, and pepper. While it’s cooking in a skillet, in another pan you sautee onion, tomato, jalapeno, garlic, and ginger before adding in coconut milk and reducing. Combine with the chicken and serve over rice. I didn’t take a picture because it was not much to look at. It tasted fine if a bit underseasoned. I think the coconut milk dominated all the other flavors, so maybe if I made it again I’d use heavy cream instead. Like how I make my Italian sausage sauce. I don’t know what’s for dinner tonight, but I’ve convinced the GF to let me order Dave’s Hot Chicken tomorrow for the Survivor finale. Maybe I’ll make burgers tonight? We’ve got all the ingredients and I haven’t had one since the ones I made April 24th:
The weekend came and went without much to report. On Friday, though, I had to venture out and run several errands. I swung by “work” to say “Hi” to a co-worker. I had to pick up a prescription from Costco, which was an absolute shit-show. No social distancing, herding people like cattle into the tightest confines in the store, a huge bottleneck at the exit because they’re still checking people’s receipts on the way out the door (!!!). It was ridiculous. I was told over the phone that I could skip the line to get inside and go straight to the pharmacy, but when I tried that I was told I couldn’t. I told the door guy that I had just gotten off the phone, and when he refused me entry I called “Bullshit” and started to walk away. Thankfully another employee overheard and let me inside. Once there, I was horrified by what I saw. Even with a mask on, I felt unsafe. Foot traffic in every location, carts and bodies blocking aisles and walkways, it looked like every cashier lane was open so there was no distancing happening…if every Costco in the country looks like the one in Los Feliz did on Friday, I fear “opening” cities is going to be a complete disaster. After that, I dropped by a buddy’s apartment to throw a gift up to his 2nd story balcony while we chatted on the phone. That’s how social distancing should be done. None of this “We’ll walk in the park but a couple of feet from one another” bullshit. Just throw things on people’s porches or balconies, wave, and leave.
We had a Zoom happy hour with some friends on Saturday night. We mostly got buzzed on various libations and talked about TV and pets and stuff. It was one of the more relaxing Zooms I’ve had lately.
On Sunday we decided to venture out for a respectable, socially-distanced drive. After going for a long walk in the neighborhood we called Andrew’s Cheese Shop in Santa Monica to place an order. Andrew hand-delivered us some cheese and bread and beer very early in this “Safer At Home” period, so we wanted to continue to support his business however we could. This time we opted for curbside pickup. We then decided to take a scenic route to Santa Monica, driving north before coming back down the coast. We listened to podcasts and gawked at all the cars lined up along the beach (which is closed…so I don’t know what all the people were doing…sitting in their cars?). We took surface streets back as well to lengthen the amount of time we had to enjoy our freedom. Then we made a cheese plate and met up with friends for Zoom pub trivia:
I know I keep saying this and then not fulfilling my promises…but tomorrow I swear I’ll try to compile a new mixtape for you.
Stay healthy, and stay safe.
Pylon – Cool [MP3]
