I’ve been thinking a lot about 2019.

2019 was a tough year for us. We lost my mother-in-law. We knew we were selling our home, but we didn’t know if we could easily sell it or where we would go next. We had a lot of expensive home repair projects before selling the house and it was stressful. We both kept getting sick and going to urgent care. We traveled, too much. Dan and I were apart, too much. It was all jarring. By contrast, 2020 has been good. We are settled in our home and we are together. Even though the world is a mess, we are doing well. I’m happy.

It’s hard to believe that it is week seven. I found out that my best friend’s aunt has Covid-19. I think that I’ve met her, but I don’t know her, still this is hitting close to home now. The aunt is the care taker for my friend’s grandmother, who is still healthy. Her aunt is asymptomatic, so that’s positive news as well.

On a personal level, this week was both productive and exciting. I found out that a non-fiction piece that I wrote will be published in Intima: A Journal of Interpretive Medicine. I was also asked to write a blog entry for the publication. I’m beyond thrilled at this opportunity and still shocked that my story is going to be published. I spent most of the weekend polishing the first 46 pages of my manuscript and sent it to my new writer’s group for feedback. This is another area where 2020 is going well for me, I feel settled enough in my home life to focus on my writing. More great things are coming, I can feel it.

Landscapers began working on our back garden, which until a few days ago, was a dirt lot. They did the framing for a path on the side of the house and our deck, concrete was poured. Hopefully it will be completed in a few weeks. I can’t wait to have lazy days in the sunshine and backyard bbq’s. We also did our first front yard maintenance: Dan mowed our lawn and I watered the plants. I just ordered garden tools so I could weed. Growing up in Los Angeles, I could never have imagined that this would be my life.

I love to organize! Dan bought me racks to organize our pots/pans/lids.

He also bought and built a shelf to organize our powder room.

The kitchen experiments continued. One evening we had a very British dinner: jacket potatoes (baked potatoes for Americans) smothered in Branston baked beans. Beans on potatoes is a little odd, but it is growing on me.

Dan made an English trifle with Bird’s custard, fresh strawberries, angel food cake and blackberry jello- topped with fresh whipped cream and sprinkles. Yummy!

Our biggest experiment was with our newest kitchen gadget: tortilla maker. We watched a few YouTube videos to learn all about tortilla making and then used the bread maker to make the dough for flour tortillas. They were tasty, but we need more practice. Maybe a different dough recipe. This new skill is coming courtesy of tortillas being sold out at our local store. We can master this!

Last night, Dan made homemade mac and cheese. It reminded me of my favorite mac and cheese that I used to get at the employee cafeteria, “the Dinosaurous” back in the late 90’s when I worked at Universal Studios Hollywood. I used to love it and then they changed the recipe or brand, it wasn’t the same. Until they changed it, I ate it pretty much every single shift.

Falling in the category of both organization and food, I wanted to share the most amazing product that we have recently purchased: Rubbermaid Fresh Works Container. I have them in a variety of sizes and use them to store produce. I used to have a problem of produce rotting before I could use it all and that is no longer an issue. Lettuce lasts about three weeks! We have saved money and reduced waste. It has been especially important as we are trying to avoid trips to the grocery store. It is easy to go two weeks and still have plenty of fresh produce. I highly recommend them.

We finished the third season of West World. We loved the first two seasons, but three was a let-down. The story was a muddled mess and it lacked the creativity of the first two seasons. Some of it was downright silly. Yes, we will watch season four, but if it doesn’t improve, we might ditch it.

We also watched the HBO movie, Bad Education with Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney. It’s based on a true story about of a high school scandal in New York. it’s a crazy story and Hugh Jackman is unrecognizable. He’s great. I highly recommend it.

A beautiful sunset picture from one of our walks. The weather had been warm and lovely. We keep seeing cows in our neighborhood!

And finally, the cute cat pictures. The last one was taken when they both saw a plastic bag that was blowing in the wind and it captivated them for about an hour.

It’s week four of social distancing and things have become routine. It’s nice to have a sense of routine. Dan and I are both still busy with a full work schedule and our weekends have become a good mix of projects, down-time, and catching up with loved ones, especially my step-kids in Sweden.

As the number of infections and deaths increases, we feel relatively safe here in Littleton. A news report last night said that our local hospitals still had 70% capacity available and plenty of ventilators. This made me feel less stressed. Our healthcare professionals are definitely working hard, but it is not as dire here as it could be. I hope that doesn’t change. As far as we are aware, we still don’t know anyone who has become infected. I did have one student cancel a class due to a high fever and I had not heard back from her, so that is worrisome. She is Taiwan.

Generally, I’ve felt less stressed this week. I did have one stressed induced nightmare, where I had to
”scrub the virus” off of my body and I woke up with scratch marks all over my arms. Otherwise, I’ve been sleeping well. We have a week-night routine of the 10pm local news, followed by Stephen Colbert’s monologue, and then bed. We wake up around 6:30am and get our morning news at 7am with CBS This Morning. I am mesmerized by Gale King’s colorful wardrobe.

My biggest concern at the moment is actually Sweden. My step-kids live in Sweden and Sweden isn’t enacting strict social distancing measures. As far as I understand, they are recommending it, especially for older people, but they are not closing most businesses or schools. I’m not sure if their strategy will work and I see their infections/deaths climbing. I worry about my step-kids and their family in Sweden. On a less important note, I’m also worried that our upcoming summer vacation with them will have to be canceled. It’s not only about having a fun vacation ( and we have an amazing one booked, that we are holding-off on canceling), but it is mostly about missing the time with them. We don’t have very much time with them, so losing it, will be very hard. I do feel grateful that we live in a time when technology makes it so easy to connect virtually, but it isn’t the same.

So much virtual connecting this week. I’m a bit exhausted by it, but also grateful. I had a virtual happy hour with my friend Melissa in Oregon. We also participated in the second Timothy Oulton “Friday Night Los Angeles Lock Down.” This week, in addition to giving away prizes, they hosted a Q&A with Timothy Oulton, which was very interesting. It’s great to hear what inspired our favorite designer. I also listened to a virtual concert by Josh Ritter, called The Silo Sessions. He played his entire The Animal Years album, which is one of my all-time favorite albums. A Josh Ritter concert is exactly what I needed right now and there is something special about being invited into an artist’s actual home. I could hear Ritter’s wife and children in the background and he sat on the floor with his guitar. It was low key and very intimate.

We attended an important virtual meeting hosted by our community association that taught us how to prep our sprinkler system for spring/summer. We followed the steps and watered our little patch of lawn…but then we had to shut it down again, because snow came. Oh, Colorado, you weather tease!

We continued with the kitchen experiments. I caved and tried the viral sensation: whipped coffee. It was easy to make and very sweet. It reminded me of Thai iced coffee, more of a dessert drink.

Dan made an English Trifle to go with our Sunday roast dinner. We are lacking a proper trifle bowl, but made-do with a pyrex baking dish.

Dan baked amazing cinnamon raisin bread. Our house smelled so good!!!

Another big accomplishment was physically moving our Timothy Oulton Rex Mirror to a new spot in the house. This was a big deal because it is incredibly heavy and took five men to lift it when we moved to Colorado, but somehow, we managed to do it ourselves on Saturday. In a super hero moment, Dan took the weight of the entire mirror and stood it up. It was like I was trapped under a car and he had to lift it to save me- that kind of strength. Here is a cute picture of Tom in front of the mirror.

During a clean-out of unpacked moving boxes in our garage, we hit the jackpot.

This week we watched a few long-anticipated movies. First, we finally watched Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. I’m not a huge fan of the Star Wars franchise, but it seemed like a must-see, especially as we have a trip to Walt Disney World planned. It was better than I had anticipated. Last night, we finally watched Cats.

Cats…I kind of loved it. I know it isn’t very good and it’s truly bizarre, but I liked that Victoria was made a protagonist ( she is a minor character in the stage musical) and Francesca Hayward who plays her, gives a moving performance. It’s all-around weird and the music sounds dated, yet I found myself in tears at the end. I was moved. I think it might be a bit of nostalgia. Cats was my first Broadway show that I saw as a child and I thought it was magical. I’m not sure why the movie made me so emotional, but maybe it was a feeling of sadness for theatres being closed or nostalgia for a different, easier time. I also got torn up by the abandonment story line and thinking of how we rescued our kitties. I also had been drinking gin. Who knows what triggered me, but I was definitely triggered.

I do know that this episode of This American Life, also sums up my fascination with the whole damn thing. Clearly, E.J Dixon is my long-lost sister.

Speaking of cats…here are some cat pictures from this week. Highlights include the cats watching the snow, including Tom trying to catch snowflakes by jumping at the glass. Tom also helped Dan build his new driving simulator chair. I love the picture of Tom and Slinky taking turns at their food bowl. They need to work on their social distancing skills.

Sunday was Easter. We don’t normally do anything special to celebrate Easter, but we did have a relaxing day at home. I read for hours, sitting in a chaise by the window, enjoying the falling snow and multiple cups of coffee. The cats cuddled with me. It was great.

I’m ending with a childhood Easter memory from the early 80’s. My mom always had Good Friday off and we would go to Disneyland. This lasted throughout my entire childhood, until my teen years. I always associate this time of year with Disneyland.

In the 80’s Disneyland had a promotion called “Thumpers Easter egg hunt,” where each child could pick a plastic egg that contained a prize. Most of the prizes were small, like a free soda or popcorn. I always wanted to win the stuffed animal- never did. The top prize was a return ticket to Disneyland and although that was the most rare prize, I managed to pick an egg with it for several years in a row. My mom was thrilled. I still wanted the stuffed animal.

Here I am with Thumper and my Dorothy Hamill hair style. I realize that it seems weird that I was wearing a sailor dress and Mary Janes to Disneyland, but this my style. I almost exclusively wore dresses until I was in Junior High. This wasn’t an Easter thing. I’ve always leaned towards being fancy for any occasion.