Five for Friday: Quarantine Edition

Celebrations are in order, because we made it to the end of our two week work from home order. Business as usual come Monday, right?

Insert laughing-so-hard-I'm-crying emoji here.

It's insane to think not just how much has changed, but how quickly it all has. Just a few weeks ago, someone put out the memo about two weeks, which now seems laughable. Working from home, staying inside, virtual happy hours; this is the new business as usual.

I'm not here today to celebrate quarantine. I'm certainly enjoying working from home, mostly grateful for the fact that this is even an option for me, but I'm definitely missing the bar scene. 

Whoa, that sounds way sleazier than I intended; I'm missing the bar scene with Brent, obv. Our normal was grabbing after work drinks, trying new restaurants, eating our way around town, and now it's frozen pizzas, chicken nuggets and breakfast for dinner. We are flying through the list of shows we had in our queue. Haven't watched Tiger King yet, so no spoilers please. 

This isn't about celebrating this time in our lives, but learning to embrace it. Here are a few ways I'm making the most of it:

Sleeping In
This one is probably going to bite me in the ass when we have to go back to work, but for now I'm going to enjoy it. I've been sticking to my normal bedtime of 10-10:30pm so my sleep schedule doesn't get entirely wonky, but without the morning commute, we're both waking up about an hour later. It's amazing what waking up without the harsh alarm does for your day. 

Brown Butter Apple Blondies
Remember when this all started and everyone was like, I'm going to use this time to eat healthy and practice mindfulness and get my shit together. How naive we all were. I bought some apples as a healthy snack that were going soft and splotchy since I kept bypassing them for chips and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. So I made these brown butter apple blondies and am here to tell you to stop whatever you're doing -leave your Zoom meeting, turn off Netflix, abandon your child- and go make these. With or without the icing, they're insane.  

Jury Duty Cancelled 

My third time being called for jury duty, my first time having it cancelled. You finally did something right, Corona. Sidenote: how have I been called for jury duty three times while Brent never has? Exactly what is their system and how is it so flawed? 

More Time to Read
When I heard the libraries were shutting down, I ran to my branch to check out all the holds I had in. I started with 15 books and am a third of the way through. I'm currently reading Apeirogon by Colum McCann. It's so beautifully written and I'm glad I have the time to savor it. 

Saving Money

Brent and I aren't big shoppers. I feel like 90% of our disposable income goes towards eating and drinking out. Brent has a spreadsheet tracking our monthly expenses, so I could probably get an accurate percent, but the last time I walked into the bedroom singing a song I made up for the cats, he gestured to the phone call he was on and shut the door in my face. Rude. His loss, it was a really good song. Anyway, so yeah, we're saving money on all the drinks and meals we'd be enjoying out. We're doing our part to keep the neighborhood package store in business, but now we don't have to tip after every drink; we might even be able to retire early after all this.