Day 110

Day 110, self quarantine:

Happy Thursday/Friday/July 4th weekend!

I really can’t wrap my brain around this.  The last time I was a “free” woman outdoors I was wearing a down parka and knee high boots and now it’s July 4 and I’m wearing light cotton pajamas and life as I knew it is completely changed.

Gary and I have lived near the Art Museum  since 1978 and this is the first year there won’t be fireworks or any celebration in the ‘hood.

I gotta say, I’m really not in the mood to celebrate America this year anyway so no real loss.

Also, the dog and I hate fireworks.  Gary was always the good parent who walked down to the museum with the kids.

“Mom, you don’t want to go?”

I’d rather be dipped in hot oil.

“Aw, no, I have to stay home with the dog.  The noise really upsets him.  Have fun, guys!”

I was like that when it came to any Monster Truck event, movies with names like Drop Dead Fred, or anything even remotely resembling an amusement ride.

Gary the super dad, the guy with the spatula who hid dead hamsters, always stepped up.

Though to my credit, I got Julie hooked on five star French meals at Le Bec Fin at age 12 and I wangled a private tour for 13 year old super fan Eric at Mad Magazine where he met all the artists and they were so taken with him they invited the two of us to their 50th anniversary cocktail party later that night at the WB store in NY and we went and we were so giddy, we couldn’t believe any of it happened.

Haha and now Eric is a star himself.  And so is Julie...and we all know about Julie’s cooking.  

Gary and I did alright.

Gah, I miss my kids.

Is 5:30 a.m. too early to eat the leftover blueberry cornbread sitting on the dining room table, calling my name?

I can’t believe Gary just threw that together while I was getting a haircut.  Who does that?

Naturally I had to ask.

“I was watching one of your goofy cooking shows and they were making it and I had a box of blueberries in the house we needed to use and...”

“Wait.  Excuse me? You were watching one of my shows? Which one?”  

Hey, I was pissed.  I tape my food shows and watch them alone at 5:00 a.m. because he hates them and makes fun of me and now he tells me he watches them when I’m not around?

Well that doesn’t seem quite fair.

“Which show were you watching?” I demanded again.

“I don’t remember,” he lied.

I grabbed our fancy Comcast remote which Gary refuses to learn how to use because he thinks it spies on him.  Ha! Just as he always feared, it told me exactly what I wanted to know.

“Martha Stewart?  You watched Martha Stewart? Omg.  Dude.  You have lost the right to ever make fun of my taste in shows,” I said.

“No, I didn’t,”

“Yes, you did!  Don’t lie.  You watched Martha Stewart.  I bet if I go online I’ll find the recipe!”

Gary glared at the remote like, “I’ll get you later, bitch.”

https://www.marthastewart.com/337782/blueberry-corn-muffins

Anyway, the cornbread was delicious.

And clearly the two of us are spending too much time together 😜

So one more thing before I go - Epix is running a documentary Laurel Canyon, not to be confused with the Jakob Dylan fashion show vanity puff piece Echo in the Canyon.  Gary and I watched episode one last night. AMAZING.  And we both heard stories for the first time that freaked us out because we’re both groupies and music nerds who think we know everything.

Like, Peter Tork and Stephen Stills were roommates and Stephen was the one who went for the first Monkees audition which he flunked because he had a snaggletooth.  So he sent Peter.

Or that Mama Cass invited Eric Clapton to her house for a barbecue where he was completely freaked out by Joni Mitchell who played a chord he’d never heard.

Hmm I thought I’d know that story but maybe I did and forgot.

Or that David Crosby had shoeboxes full of the world’s best pot...

Okay, we knew about David. 😎

We KNOW about David.

So an absolute must watch for fellow nerds.  Spectacular footage and music.

We’re watching episode two tonight.

And on that note, I’m gonna go upstairs and crush it so I can give myself early dismissal at the Casa Slick home office.

I must be slipping.  I haven’t made any holiday food plans yet.

Sigh...I won’t say it.

We’ll make the best of things.

Peace and love.

Day 109

Day 109, self quarantine 

Hey hey Wednesday, I like you today because you’re really Thursday as I have Friday off for July 4thweekend.  Yay Wednesday!

I’m just happy my weekends are real weekends again.  My boss and I are now like a well oiled machine working remotely during the week, and have even fallen into a regular daily schedule.  So Friday feels like Friday again, etc.

The last time I saw my boss in person was March 12.

That’s just crazy.

In other news, hallelujah I saw Sean, my hair stylist yesterday and we both agreed I should keep my long quarantine hair.  So I just got a trim and left his salon feeling like a new woman.

Before I got my haircut, Sean met me at the doorway and took my temperature.

I was startled.

“Omg, what if I have a fever,” I babbled nervously.

“97.5,” he said, looking relieved, although who can really tell when wearing masks.

“97.5?  I’m dead?” 

Sean laughed and assured me I wasn’t.

This was literally the first time I was less than a foot apart from anyone other than Gary since March.

I was Sean’s first appointment since he closed his salon in March.

Hey, I was all kinds of honored I was his first. 😜

Other than not being able to hear each other due to masks and jackhammers digging up the street outside (oh, yes, lucky me, I’m still vibrating), it was a chill experience.

Welp, I thought I was chill, but by the time I walked home and had to pass a crowd of mostly unmasked millennials drinking at a sidewalk cafe and not socially distancing, I was so nerved out I walked into the house shaking.

Gary was out back.

I tried to act normal.  Yeah, good luck with that.

“Ooh, Gar, can you take a picture of my hair?”

I handed him my phone.

“But...”

I sunk down in our snazzy new beach chair.

“Just take a pic.  I’m having an anxiety attack.”

Gary took a pic and handed me back my phone.

“Why are you having an anxiety attack?  Your hair looks good.”

I stood up and brushed off some leaves from my jeans.

“Not my hair.  Omg.  I have anxiety from being outside around people not wearing masks!  Wait...you just took a pic of me wearing a mask?”  I looked down at my phone incredulously.

“Rob, you just told me to take your picture.  I tried to tell you but I thought that’s what you wanted.  Am I supposed to dress you, too?”

“Oy, I’m so stressed I didn’t even realize I still had it on.  I’m losing my fucking mind.”

“Want me to take another pic?”

“Nah.  I really just wanted to see what my hair looked like.”

“And a mirror isn’t good because...?”

Grrr.  It makes me nuts he doesn’t have an iPhone.  He’ll never really understand.

Anyway, that was my excitement for yesterday.

Well, other than blueberry cornbread, which Gary decided to bake while I was out getting my hair done.

It. Was. Delightful.  Pictures coming.

Without masks, even.

So all in all, Day 108 was a good one.

Onward!