Lockdown: Bye bye, mug of American pie

I listened to a lot of podcasts and a lot of music. That’s most of my Sunday. Didn’t even nap much, as is my predilection for Sundays. Woke up to the sound of text alerts, which is unusual. I get texts in my sleep every night, but they almost never wake me. It was still a few hours before my alarm, so I ignored the phone, but then realized I was pretty much awake.

So I got up. Ate a couple of hot dogs with sauerkraut, mustard, and ketchup for breakfast. Did the Sunday NTY crossword in nineteen minutes. It was challenging but I worked it out, including the wicked clue “entrance” for the answer “BEWITCH.” Of course it doesn’t make any sense until you read “entrance” with a different prounciation. Yeah, that was the last hurdle to my finishing the puzzle.

Read the news. On weekdays, I try to read mostly the news and just a couple of pieces of commentary or analysis. It’s my way of sticking to facts and trying to make judgments on my own. Spend too much time immersed in commentary and you start to mix it up with the news, as viewers of that one cable news channel seem to do every day.

Sundays I read a little more commentary and analysis. It’s because Sunday’s the slowest news day. Since I listen pretty faithfully to the podcast release of Meet the Press, the day usually starts with a bit of commentary anyway.

I couldn’t really get to the end of any one piece, neither news nor commentary nor analysis. Tried to listen to the Obamas’ graduation speeches on YouTube, but I couldn’t sit through those either. Just wasn’t in the mood, really. It’s been a rough couple of weeks.

I goofed off a little on the web, then took a short nap. Actually set an alarm so I wouldn’t be up too late Sunday night.

For lunch I made another dish of spaghetti, so as not to let my marinara sit in the fridge forever. Also because I really like it. But yeah, that stuff doesn’t keep as well as you might think. I did a few housekeeping tasks, played around with my phone, and ate the rest of the spaghetti for dinner. I know. Terrible.

I hit the grocery store even though I just went last weekend. I needed more Diet Pepsi and took the moment to get a few other things. Mostly stuff to mess around with in the kitchen.

Like this mug pie I made. Well, mug apple crisp, really. I messed it up, mismeasuring ingredients two or three times, and there aren’t but six ingredients or so. It was a comedy of errors. But you know, I’ve enough experience with pie-baking to know I didn’t ruin the dish. You can pretty much make up how much butter, sugar, and cinnamon you want in your apple filling and it’ll come out tasty. It might be a little wet or too sweet, but it won’t be inedible.

So I proceeded despite my errors. The result was edible but not great. Good thing I bought two apples: I get to try again later, probably Tuesday night.

I saw the footage of the protest march in Honolulu Saturday. I’m not calling anyone an exaggerator, but it doesn’t look like 10,000 people to me. It looks like 5000 or so, which also might be pushing it, although I know even experts will tell you it’s super super difficult to estimate crowd size.

Not that it matters. It was a lot of people; the video makes this clear.

I didn’t go for a walk, which was kind of a lame decision. I won’t get to go Monday night either, probably, unless I’m really on top of my work and get enough done early enough to go. I very nearly went in the late afternoon, while the sun was still illuminating a lovely Honolulu day. I felt it calling; I should have answered.

Feeling a little moody, but I think it’s the usual Sunday night, end-of-weekend moodiness, which is almost reassuring in its melancholy. It’s only quarter to three, too, so if I hustle, I can shave, brush my teeth, and make overnight oats, and slide into bed by 3:30. That would be nice.

So the daily text/dm/im rundown. AJ and I traded a few short texts about, um, something I can’t discuss here. But also about her book review, and about why she changes her IG bio so often. She says, “I’m not sure. I’m a different person every day?” I laughed.

JB answered my questions about God but I thought he played coy, or evasive, or something. And called him on it. He hasn’t responded yet.

Ryan is already thinking about the next issue of Hawaii Stories, which I love. I said we should debrief later this week — I’m still enjoying some of the buzz from yesterday, and hope to spread it around a little. Get these writers some eyeballs on their work.

Crush Girl and I traded a very few texts about the second wave of this disease. It’s coming. Florida has five straight days of 1000 new cases. Hello.

That’s about it. Hope your week is great and filled with meaningful interaction. If it isn’t, please reach out. We may all be emerging from our caves, but I’ve a feeling many of us will be scurrying right back into them before long. So you may as well reach out and connect with someone.