Happy Birthday, Amy!

This is also my mom's birthday. Wish I could take her out to dinner, but I'll have to settle for eating pie slices from across the room.

Happy birthday, Amy!

Oh, JZ. I'm so sorry. It would be hard enough under ordinary circumstances, but this is just a big pile of awful on top of that. Be kind to yourself, and know you have been a good daughter. {{hugs}}

I've basically been practicing social isolation my whole life. This is my time.

My mother was saying my aunt sounds better than she's seemed in years! She's been basically at home for decades, and now she's calling people every day, sending letters all over the place, something about everyone else also being home has really energized her.

I came across something that really resonated with me; a woman in Seattle, quarantined with her husband, who was watching a TV show and she started crying:

I cried and said something about missing haircuts and hugging people and grocery stores. I miss people not dying by the thousands. I miss a lot of fucking things, big and small, insignificant and not. I miss feeling hopeful. I don't fucking remember the last time I felt that way, but I'm certain it was sometime during the course of this fucking TV show, a show which felt absurdly dated because it showed people going outside and touching one another.

My cats and dog seem to be more cuddly than ever. They may get that I am missing out on my usual number of hugs. Little things like most days I hug my son when he gets home from work, but the past few weeks we wave to each other when he comes home.

In happy news my most favorite local restaurant spent the last couple weeks or so doing deep cleaning, repairs, and renovations using their cooking and serving staff for the labor. Now they are opening for take-out starting Friday, including booze! They published a special menu with all the entrees at a flat $10, plus some various soups and appetizers. They have outdoor seating in both the front and back of the restaurant so I expect they will use both sides for the carry-out. I've missed them so!

It is taking a lot of willpower not to spend more money than I have ordering takeout to support my local restaurants that are staying open for takeout (and enjoy their food, not gonna lie, it's all good). Maybe I'll go a little crazy with it after that gov't money comes in

In sometimes things work out news - I put the last of my stash of dry cat food in Miss Kitty's feeder this morning (she free feeds dry food and gets canned food at meal times) and just got the notice that my subscription order is supposed to be delivered today.

It is taking a lot of willpower not to spend more money than I have ordering takeout to support my local restaurants that are staying open for takeout (and enjoy their food, not gonna lie, it's all good).

Same here. I mean, we almost always went out to eat or got carryout on Saturday nights, so there's no reason not to continue, but I also want to be financially responsible because so much is uncertain. (Also, it's April, and we still haven't gotten the bills from Tim's surgery, so we have that ahead of us, too.)

I just ordered booze to be delivered and pre-ordered my lunch for tomorrow.

Happy birthday, Amy!

What I've been doing is just ordering takeout (mostly from locally-owned places) whenever I would have normally dined out, and tipping as if I were. I'm sure it's not making up for the drop in business, but every little bit helps.