Lockdown: Udon know what it’s like

Took it kind of easy Saturday.

It started kind of roughly. I had a small amount of my marinara sauce left and I planned to lightly sauce some udon with it. It’s not a traditional way to eat udon, but I was going to sauce it lightly so the noodle taste wouldn’t be drowned out. I made the noodles (I won’t glorify them because udon noodles only get so good, but they were the were a higher-priced dried variety my mom gave me, so not your $.99 one-serving bag you get at Long’s) and then discovered the sauce had molded.

I said a few nights ago that it doesn’t keep as well in the fridge as you might think. Gr.

The waste doesn’t bother me too much (it wasn’t much sauce), but the loss of that few ounces of yumminess. It was a really good pot of sauce.

So I had to hurry, pouring some jarred sauce over the noodles and by then they’d overcooked a little and were pasty.

It was still decent, but it wasn’t good. And I made enough for two meals. So it was lunch, too.

Feeling the need for veggies, I drove down the hill to the neighborhood Chinese restaurant and ordered three dishes. Beef choy sum and a veggie-tofu dish, both of which I put in the fridge for later. And rainbow-tofu soup, which I ate about half of, with hapa rice. Not too many veggies in that, but man is it tasty at this restaurant. They use these mushrooms I’ve never seen anywhere else.

I took a bite of each of the other entrees and moaned aloud both times. I sorta can’t wait to get to them Sunday.

That rainbow-tofu soup is too simple not to be easily made at home. I need to look that up.

I tried to snack on the carrot cake Oreos, but they’ve gone stale with about a third of the package left. It’s a shame, ‘though I may try putting them in the toaster oven to see if they’re salvageable.

Oh, I also went for boba, after I picked up the Chinese food. Roasted oolong milk tea with mini boba, about 25% of full sweetness, enjoyed in my car.

Can’t remember the order, but between these meals I also re-watched the series finale of Silicon Valley. And after last week’s Matthew Broderick / Kristin Chenoweth The Music Man, I felt I should see the original film, with Robert Preston and Shirley Jones. I got up to “Marion the Librarian” before realizing that despite the early hour (it wasn’t quite midnight) I was sleepy enough to turn in for the night, despite not having written this Saturday journal entry yet.

Found myself awake much, much earlier Sunday than planned, and couldn’t get back to sleep, so what the heck. I got up and had Sunday’s breakfast (overnight oats) and wrote this while listening to Meet the Press.

Saturday I also did a few chores and organized my Kindle library a little. I think Sunday will be a day for reading, something I have done almost none of since this lockdown began, outside the news and the blogs I follow. Which I don’t count.

It feels good not to have to worry about being prepped for work Sunday, an instinct I still have from my teaching days. I guess that’s a misuse of the word instinct, but that’s what it feels like now — like it’s such a part of me now that I think any children I have (ha!) will be born with it too.

So Sunday may be for lazying, reading, and eating Chinese food leftovers, although there are a few chores I’d like to take care of so I don’t have to be stressed about them Monday, as I almost always am. I’m trying to rearrange my living room to make room for a jigsaw puzzle table, and it’s taking long.

I already have the table ready to go. Just have to do the work.

Crush Girl and I texted a few times about the growing numbers of new cases. Again. Got an IM from Allyson, a librarian I know who’s doing me a little favor and forgot about it.

That was it for connection, which was totally fine.

My knee still aches. I’m afraid I may have to take an extended break from late-night walks, which means I will have to get into the water more often. Normally not a problem, since in real life, I stop at the beach on my way to the office. In lockdown, it would mean getting up early. Ugh. Then driving down and back before my workday. Great. If one of these days is a Saturday or Sunday, I erase the “before work” part, but add to the getting up early part.

I’m thinking two days a week swimming and one night a week walking, however my body allows me to walk? Something else to think about before the work week begins.

Ohhhh something else to do: there’s some drama in the National Puzzlers League mailing lists. I haven’t been reading the emails but my phone alerts were chiming all day. Can’t wait to see what the issue is, although I’ve gathered it has something to do with the national unrest.

Hoping you’ll reach out if you’re having difficulty connecting. The internet is made for connecting, even if I’m not necessarily constructed with similar purposes in mind. Still, I’ve learned that we all need it, and while it may not be as ingrained in me as waking up in a near-panic on Sunday morning about being prepped for teaching Monday, neither is it especially agonizing anymore!

Most of the time.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *