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What I’m Into: March 2020, Pandemic Edition

Published on March 31, 2020

Welcome to the end of the longest month in history. A month ago, I was traveling, voting, seeing friends, going to games and work and church and the gym – all things that feel foreign now. So far, I’m extremely fortunate to have a job in an essential industry that I can do from home. So far, my husband and I, and our families and friends, are all healthy. I’m grateful.

Reading

Thanks to social distancing, March was my most prolific reading month in years.

All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir by Nicole Chung (3.5 stars) As a Korean-American raised by white parents, Chung always knew she was adopted, but slowly began to question the circumstances. When she got pregnant with her own daughter, she decided to try to connect with her birth family – with some unexpected results. A must-read for anyone considering interracial adoption.

Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn (4.5 stars) A charming New York romance between a semi-famous lettering artist and a Wall Street math guy, with a couple of twists! I think I enjoyed it even more due to the similar words/numbers dynamic in my own relationship. Thanks Rachel McMillan for putting this on my radar!

Untamed by Glennon Doyle (4.5 stars) As a Glennon stan, I pre-ordered this book and counted down the days to its release. It’s exhilarating, and I might need to get it on Kindle too so I can have highlights of half the book. However, I personally cannot go all the way there with her message, hence the 4.5. Side note: I love it when artists amend their previous work, pointing out how they’ve grown and changed. It makes it less scary to write words that I know I may disagree with someday.

A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons by Ben Folds (5 stars) I’ve been listening to Ben Folds since college, and his inborn passion for music shines through in this great memoir. I was surprised to learn, among other things, that he started out as a drummer, (briefly) attended the University of Miami, and has been married four times.

The God Who Sees: Immigrants, the Bible, and the Journey to Belong by Karen Gonzalez (5 stars) Read with my church book club, this book alternates between Gonzalez’s personal story as an immigrant from Guatemala and stories of immigrants in the Bible. Highly recommended.

How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky by Lydia Netzer (3 stars) This magical-realism novel, about two astronomers literally born to be each other’s soulmates, was almost a DNF for me, but I rolled with the weirdness because I had to know how it ended. I would love to discuss with someone.

Leaving the Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life by Amber Scorah (3 stars) In case it’s not clear by now, I am very into stories about people escaping from cults. This memoir is about unbecoming a Jehovah’s Witness, but also about finding your place in a foreign culture, in this case China in the early 2000s. It’s interesting, but on some level it didn’t grab me as much as I expected.

Fading Feast: A Compendium of Disappearing American Regional Foods by Raymond A. Sokolov (3 stars) An 80s-era food travelogue that had been on my TBR for years. Unsurprisingly, my favorite chapter was about Key lime pie.

Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America; Essays by R. Eric Thomas (5 stars) Odds are you’ve seen Thomas’s tweets or one of his hilarious elle.com columns circulating on the social media. I’ve looked forward to his book for months and it did not disappoint!

Woman of Color by LaTonya Yvette (4.5 stars) I’ve followed LaTonya Yvette’s blog for a few years. Taylor noticed me eyeing her book at Cooper Young Gift Shop and got it for me for Christmas. I’m glad I didn’t get to it until now, because it was perfect to immerse myself in during these uncertain times. Full of beautiful photos, reflections, inspiration, and interviews with awesome women.

Listening

Over Leap Day weekend, Taylor and I went to New Orleans with some friends. We all traveled there separately – long story – and I drove down by myself to meet them. On the drive, I opened Spotify to discover one of my all-time favorite artists, Sarah Harmer, had just dropped a new album after ten years of silence. I joyfully listened to the whole thing multiple times in a row. It’s everything you could want in a Sarah Harmer album, and it felt like a gift.

My Pray as You Go app features a daily song. Last week, I had one of my “who is THIS?!?” moments with a group called Bifrost Arts. Great stuff.

Watching

I’ve mostly been popping in and out of whatever Taylor is watching, but we’ve also settled in for some comforting family classics like Space Jam and Mrs. Doubtfire. I’m bummed that the This Is Us season is already over. HOW ABOUT THOSE LAST TWO EPISODES. During the Kevin/Randall fight, I was gasping so loudly Taylor could hear me downstairs. I do not agree with Randall’s actions at all. Let Rebecca live her life!!

Around Town: A Pandemic Story

Taylor and my MIL and I attended our last Grizzlies game on Tuesday, March 10, against the Orlando Magic. With virus talk increasing, we knew it might be our last game for a while, but deep down I didn’t believe it. Or even think “a while” would be longer than a few weeks. The following evening, Wednesday, March 11, I went to a Lenten service at church and then to dinner at Mulan with my friend Dianne. The Mavericks game was on over her shoulder, and I started seeing bits and pieces of shocking closed captions: NBA season postponed. NBA players infected. NCAA tournament canceled. I managed to stay mostly focused on our conversation, but I called Taylor the moment I got in the car and he was like, “LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THE LAST TWO HOURS.” (This was also when Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson announced they had tested positive.) We were so spooked I decided to make a grocery run right away. At the store, shoppers and workers were having hushed conversations in small groups in the aisles. Back home, I was up watching ESPN until after midnight, trying to absorb what was happening. For me that night was the big wake-up call, the pivotal moment I’ll always remember. I’m still grieving the sudden loss of basketball. I just hope we get a next season.

At Home

St. Patrick’s Day was my last day in the office. I’m currently working in my “closet”/sunroom at home. Best view in the house! (I’d like to paint this room while I’m home, but it’s hard to pick a paint color when you’re not supposed to go to the store and look at swatches.)

My church has been meeting online for three weeks now. I “go to church” on the porch or in my backyard.

Moving in winter means the spring is full of surprises. We’ve been in the yard a lot, watching plants come to life! The azaleas are starting to hit their stride.

Taylor brought home a Japanese maple and a rose bush, which will be nice additions to the backyard landscaping.  I started a few rows of seeds in the greenhouse. So far only the arugula and cat grass are poking up. I also fired up an indoor seed starter kit that my friend Stacy gave me – getting a head start on vegetables seemed like a good idea!

Cooking/Eating

I’m really enjoying having time to cook. I’ve made a few things from Bread & Wine (mostly breakfasty items), old favorites from my tried-and-true recipe card album, lots of soups, and a few things I made up on the fly. Taylor mostly does his own thing foodwise, but there have been a few days when he cooked all my meals! We also do to-go orders a couple of times a week to help support local restaurants.

Wearing

I make a point of putting on actual clothes every day! **sparkle emoji** Having physical transitions to mark different parts of the day is important. I wear jeans sometimes, but my trusty Girlfriend Collective leggings and Old Navy joggers are also in heavy rotation. I keep wearing the same shirts. Mostly these, which I have in several colors (they’re under $5 right now!).

Beauty

I started at-home life insistent that Taylor deserves to see me looking decent even if I’m not leaving the house. While I stand by that, the labor of making myself presentable has been grating on me for a while. It’s hard to miss this only opportunity of my adult life to let my skin breathe and my hair rest. So I don’t do my hair every day, and when I do I use less product than usual. I put on makeup some days, but nothing close to a full face (taking recommendations for a great BB or CC cream!). This is the first time in literal years that I haven’t had stubborn makeup remnants around my eyes in the mornings. It’s refreshing.

Before the pandemic arrived, I decided to splurge on the Kiehl’s Vitamin C + Hyaluronic Acid serum that Alison at Wardrobe Oxygen recommends. On Ulta’s website, I found a gift set with the Midnight Recovery Concentrate (and a trial size Vitamin C eye cream) for not much more than the cream alone. After a couple of weeks, my skin tone looks more even. I’m also in danger of ordering the full-size eye cream because my under eye area was already brighter THE NEXT DAY.

Wellness

Without access to the gym, my exercise options are pretty limited. I do Yoga with Adriene most mornings, and if it’s not raining, I either walk or run in the evenings (with a goal of three runs per week). It’s the best I can do right now. My house has a lot of stairs, so I tell myself that counts too.

Random Happiness

Back when people could still interact, I got to talk to my neighbor about the magical-looking tree in her front yard. It’s one of the last elm trees in the area, and has been under the care of an arborist for years to keep it free of Dutch elm disease. I love looking at it!

I ordered a few City of Memphis seal stickers from my tweep Lindsey Jenks.

I’m a subscriber to Sarah Bessey’s Field Notes. Once a month, she chooses a question for group discussion. I submitted one at the end of February, and she picked it and talked about why she thought it was interesting!! The comments were helpful, too. (It was about how to engage with sin and suffering during Lent without falling into “worm” theology. I have a hard time separating those things.)

Your Monthly Rufus

America’s pets are the true winners of this crisis. Rufus is loving having both of us home all the time. He joins me for work:

Watches TV with us in all kinds of positions:

And happily sits in his cat bed on the dining room window seat for hours.

On the Blog

I shared a few personal thoughts about what’s going on in the world. I’ll probably write more as this goes on, if only for my own memories.

Good Reads

In closing, here are a few of the many flower photos I’ve taken around my neighborhood lately. Hoping everyone stays safe and well!

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