What I’m Into: April 2020

We’re another month into our new reality. How’s everyone doing? My world has narrowed to our house, yard, and a roughly 2-mile radius of our neighborhood that I pace every evening. Taylor and I continue to work from home and feel very thankful to have jobs. He does most of the shopping for us and his parents, and we haven’t run out of anything essential yet. None of our family members or close friends are sick. Basically, we’re currently privileged to have all our basic needs met. Like everyone else, we really miss seeing friends and family, going places, looking forward to events, and having short-term plans and goals, but getting those things back is absolutely not worth risking lives unnecessarily. I’m grateful that our city and county mayors (and my company) are taking a more cautious, gradual approach to “reopening” instead of throwing wide the doors and letting everyone fend for themselves.

Easter is one of my favorite holidays, and I was sad to be apart from my church and family. But we made the best of it. I put on a dress, and Taylor, Rufus, and I watched my church’s livestream service together. We had a family Zoom call. I cooked myself a feast – pork tenderloin, mac and cheese, and collard greens. As anyone who has had Easter dinner at my house can attest, I do not mess around when Christ is risen. I also deemed it a special enough occasion to pick the Meyer lemon from our wedding tree, and make it into delicious lemon bars.

Reading

The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan (re-read) (5 stars) The novel that both fanficced Will and Kate and predicted the advent of Duchess Meghan. With sequel The Heir Affair coming out this summer, it was a great time for a comfort re-read of one of my faves.

We Are Okay by Nina LaCour (4.5 stars) This novel confirms my suspicions after loving Everything Leads to You: Nina LaCour is a special writer. There’s a simplicity and intensity to her words that I find beautiful. In We Are Okay, Marin flees to college early after her grandfather (her only known family) dies. After a semester of silence, her best friend Mabel arrives to try to put the pieces back together.

Roomies by Christina Lauren (3.5 stars) A fun marriage-of-convenience story perfect for music lovers, Broadway babies, and people trying to figure out where their lives are going.

I Want to Be Her!: How Friends and Strangers Helped Shape My Style by Andrea Linett (4 stars) I snatch up anything by former Sassy magazine staffers, so I was excited to discover this illustrated ode to Linett’s many fashion influences. There are a few famous women like Kate Moss, but most of the entries are regular people she’s known. This is the kind of book I would love to write.

Love & War: Twenty Years, Three Presidents, Two Daughters and One Louisiana Home by Mary Matalin and James Carville (3.5 stars) I read this memoir to see how two political opposites maintain a happy marriage, and also for the Louisiana content. It’s longer than it needs to be and sometimes I had to walk away from Mary Matalin, but I was entertained and somewhat inspired. Note: this was published in 2015. I wonder how they’re doing now.

Weather by Jenny Offill (3 stars) A strange little fictional musing on climate and cultural change through the eyes of a university librarian in New York. It was interesting, but my general impression was, Huh.

Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing by Jennifer Weiner (4 stars) I’ve been a Jennifer Weiner fan since her first book, but you don’t have to be to appreciate her personal stories and insights on writing, body image, and womanhood.

Listening

Yes, I’ve checked out the new Fiona Apple and it’s good, but I am not yet as obsessed as everyone else. I’m more into the advance tracks from HAIM’s new album, which I already pre-ordered.

I’ve also latched on to Sarah Harmer’s new song about enjoying nature, gardening, and simple home comforts with your sweetheart.

And I LOVED the finale of the One World: Together at Home concert.

Watching

Although I wish it wasn’t prompted by a sad event, I’m excited one of my all-time top five movies, That Thing You Do!, was back in the spotlight this month. The livestream watch party with most of the stars gave me joy. Then Tom Everett Scott did a highly enjoyable episode of Gee Thanks, Just Bought It (one of my favorite new podcasts). If you’ve never seen the movie, please do yourself a favor.

We watched all of The Plot Against America in a week. I read the book when it came out in 2004, but remembered almost nothing. It’s alternate history, told through the eyes of a Jewish family and community, in which America elects a fascist instead of Roosevelt and stays out of WWII. It is… extremely relevant. It also contains one of the saddest subplots about a child I’ve ever seen, and I’m still fighting the urge to jump through the screen and adopt him.

Taylor chose the American Pie movies as our background while we worked on some puzzles. I hadn’t seen them before, because I wasn’t allowed, and because I previously resented them for ruining all my legitimate band camp stories. They are super raunchy but entertaining. We still need to watch American Reunion.

Around Town

The only thing happening “around town” for me is enjoying all the flora and fauna (and sidewalk art) within the aforementioned 2-mile radius, so here’s some of the beauty.

At Home

It seemed crazy to move again so soon after getting married, but now I’m SO thankful to be spending quarantine in our long-term home. While I’m just now starting to feel interested in tackling some projects, Taylor (and my dad) have been working hard sprucing up my greenhouse. It clearly hadn’t been attended to in years and needed some TLC. They spent a whole morning cleaning all the crud off the glass and have ordered replacements for the broken panes. Once those are installed, we’ll clean and repaint the trim, and then it’s planting time!!

The neighborhood barred owl has been spending a lot of time around our house (this is the best picture I could get with my phone through a dirty upstairs window). Watching and listening for him has become a highlight of our days! He loudly announces his arrival, travels with an entourage of smaller birds, and doesn’t take crap from anybody. The Biggie of birds.

When we moved in, my guest-room sleeper sofa didn’t make it up the stairs (or, as my friend Stacy calls them, the “murder stairs” #oldhouseproblems). So we put it on the enclosed front porch temporarily. This month, my parents traded us the sofa for a set of antique bamboo furniture that belonged to my great-grandmother in Miami. I thought we’d need to change the seat cushions for something more modern, but they actually look great on the porch! Rufus is the biggest fan.

Taylor ordered one of our favorite wedding portraits and had it custom framed. <3

My MIL gave us this beautiful bromeliad, which is classified as an “expert” houseplant. I hope I’m up to the challenge!

Eating

The last normal social event I attended pre-rona was a brunch at my friend Vada’s house, to which I brought a fruit crisp from Shauna Niequist’s Bread & Wine cookbook/memoir. I’ve made a crisp for myself almost every week since. I couldn’t find the ungarnished recipe posted anywhere, so here it is:

Combine crisp ingredients. Pour the berries into an 8×8 pan or baking dish, and layer the crisp topping over it. Bake at 350F for 35-40 minutes, or up to 10 minutes longer if using frozen fruit, until fruit is bubbling and topping is crisp and golden.

A few other things I’ve cooked: slow-cooker chicken tikka masala; sausage and Rotel dip; excellent snack of celery topped with cream cheese and Everything But the Bagel seasoning.

We order takeout a few times a week. The Huey’s boxes are my favorite.

Wearing

I ordered this keyhole tunic tank top from Old Navy in the black floral and black stripe. Normally I avoid anything flowy or with “slub” in the description, but I have a top like this from Stitch Fix and it’s one of my favorites, so I thought it was worth a try. Well, it’s cute, feels great, and is long enough to wear with leggings! I also have a shipment of coronatide comfort pants on the way.

Beauty

For most of April, I was having The Best Skin of My Life and just wanted a little polish once in a while. I chose Cover Girl Clean Matte BB Cream (cheap and easily available at Walgreens) and it’s getting the job done. I also thought now was a good time to attempt liquid eyeliner again. NYX Matte Liquid Liner was recommended as good for beginners, and it’s been… not a total disaster. But I still need a tutorial for those of us who can’t even apply regular eyeliner without stabbing ourselves in the eye.

Wellness

Hitting it hard with the quarantine workouts: good for you, not for me. This month I didn’t force myself to do any exercise I didn’t feel like doing. For once I prioritized my overall health over my physical fitness, so it’s been a lot of Yoga with Adriene and long walks. But I’m planning to step it up in May. After a lot of consideration, I ordered a Pilates stick, which takes up little space and with which I can do many familiar strength exercises. It seemed like a better choice than a $129 over-the-door TRX, or spending a ton on weights. Stay tuned for a review next month.

On a more personal note, recently I’ve seen some real fruit of many years of work to get mentally, emotionally, and spiritually healthy. I have Been Through Some Things this month in addition to the pandemic, and feel like I’ve maintained poise and composure in situations that would have caused the me of even a year ago to fold. I’ve also automatically refused to blame myself for things that are not my fault. I feel really thankful and proud – not in a boastful way, but like I’m standing aside marveling at myself, instead of the usual Oh no baby, what is you doing dot gif out-of-body experience. So I want to say, if you’re in therapy or just generally working on your stuff, KEEP GOING. It’s a long, hard road, and you’re never really done, but the results are worth it. And the more you overcome, the more you know you can overcome.

Random Happiness

With my surplus, I bought this beautiful new machine that I’d needed for at least a year. Neither my Chromebook nor my old, wheezing MacBook Pro could handle a Zoom call or anything else I need to do in our current times. I took a risk and went for the rose gold model I really wanted – if it looks tacky in a few years, I can put a skin on it. (Why am I suddenly into pink tones after hating them for a decade?) Anyway, I’m loving it.

Your Monthly Rufus

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