Day 16 – adventures in cooking

March 31, 2020March 30, 2025 / Brienna / 1 Comment

Yesterday, a co-worker mentioned watching youtube videos of this famous Korean chef to keep occupied. He later sent me a link to a video of her making a veggie pancake, which looked pretty cool. (video is at the bottom of this post, fyi)

Anyway, I did not anticipate actually making the veggie pancake. Then I realized today that my green onions were about to go bad, and that I had enough flour to make the pancake (but not enough to really make anything else), and some other veggies to put in it. What the hell right? Let’s try new things!

I’ve never really had a non-stick pan that was actually non-stick, so of course it stuck. And my pan is maybe 9″ (she used a 12″ pan in the video), so it was definitely too thick. I gave up trying to cook it evenly, keep it together, and flip, and just turned it into a scramble.

With no jalapeño or serrano peppers to be found in my fridge, I had to make do with chili powder, which wasn’t very strong. However, all in all it turned out tasty, even if it doesn’t look correct.

This is the video! See how pretty hers looks??!

So cooking fail? Or worthwhile experiment and learning experience? I got a decent meal out of it, so I’m happy with the outcome!

Day 15 – fitness while locked up

March 30, 2020March 30, 2025 / Brienna / 1 Comment

I’ve been injured for about a year and struggling with my workouts. Prior to the last year, I gave up running due to foot pain, so that also limited what I can do. An injured shoulder + back pain meant working out was not working out for me.

Ironically, now that all the gyms are closed,, I feel ok. As long as I take care of my self and watch how I’m sitting and stretch, stretch, stretch.

Claudia is graciously hosting classes on Zoom. Even though her awesome gym, Fitness Movement, is closed, she’s helping us all stay in shape. After taking a break from classes since Thanksgiving, I’ve been cautiously trying to get back at it. I’m so much better at being consistent when I have someone telling me exactly what to do!

I set a goal for myself to hit all three rings on my Apple watch last week, and I DID IT! Let’s just say the doggies are getting a lot of walks!

So what’s next? April is coming, and I’ve never hit a perfect month for all three rings. The move goal — sometimes. I missed March due to my flight to New Zealand. Apple watch basically says March 1st didn’t exist for me. Can I do it for April? I’d like to try.

Anyone out there have an Apple watch and want to start a competition? They last 7 days and are based on points assigned daily for each ring. Let me know and we can figure out how to connect.

Day 14 – cabin fever

March 29, 2020March 30, 2025 / Brienna / Leave a comment

I like being home. Some days, there’s nothing more that I want in the world than to curl up on the sofa with a book or binge some Netflix for hours on end. And now that it’s not only socially acceptable, but legally mandated that I stay home — I WANT TO GET OUT.

I changed the sheets on my bed, including the pillow cases, and put a new comforter on, rotated the mattress, walked the dogs (several times), did sooo much laundry, did the dishes, mopped… hell I even washed the broom. I haven’t been able to sit still all weekend, and I have been looking forward to binging Ozark S3 for weeks. And I couldn’t sit through one episode. It took me all day yesterday to get through the 1st episode. It’s not you Ozark, It’s me.

Am I broken? Am I going crazy? I keep reminding myself that there is no proper or expected way to feel right now, but it’s not helping. Or it is helping, just not enough.

And if I could go out? What would I do? I’d probably go to 7-11, get some Doritos and rent a movie from Redbox. I don’t have Doritos here but I do have Tostitos and salsa, and thanks to the internet, there’s a million movies to choose from. So it’s not like I would really be doing much differently.

I picked out a movie for tonight. Portrait of a Lady on Fire. I’ve been waiting to see this since I saw a trailer around Christmas. Now it’s on Hulu, and I made it less than 5 minutes in before turning it off. It’s a foreign language film and I just can’t right now.

Many of my friends have been baking to keep busy. Everyone was talking about what kinds of cookies they are making. Snickerdoodles! I would love a fresh baked snickerdoodle right now. I even looked up some recipes. Did a mental inventory to see if I had the ingredients. And then I remembered — I hate baking.

When I first heard I’d need to stay home for 2 weeks, I thought to myself “I’ve got this. It will be awesome!”

I believe in social distancing, I believe the best thing we ALL can be doing right now is staying the F home. Flatten the curve and all that shit. But I hate not having the freedom to go out, I hate being forced to stay at home, even if that’s exactly what I’d be doing if I were free to choose.

Trump announced today that instead of “reopening by Easter”, he now believes we should continue social distancing measures until the end of April. I wanted to jump up and shout for joy at hearing this. Finally, he is doing something right. I also wanted to burst into tears because WTF am I going to do for another 32 days??!

Also, I feel guilty, because I know a lot of people are struggling right now. Many people have lost their jobs, or their healthcare, or both, or something else equally horrible. Or maybe they never had a job, or healthcare, or a home. I feel selfish and entitled.

So here’s to all the essentials out there; the doctors and nurses (and all healthcare workers), the people keeping the lights on and the water running, the UPS guy who’s coming to my house to bring me all the things.

And to anyone else who’s feeling it (whatever it may be), we’re all in this together, and if you need to talk, let me know.

Day 13 – book review time!

March 28, 2020March 30, 2025 / Brienna / Leave a comment

While I was on vacation, I read The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. I hesitated to pick up this book, as I found her first novel, The Night Circus, to be quite tedious and boring. However, I am very, very glad I gave this book a chance. I absolutely fell in love with it.

The Starless Sea is an amazing adventure. It centers around Zachary Ezra Rawlins and his discovery of the Starless Sea, and yet, in the end it is unclear if he is the main character, the narrator, or merely just a player in the story within the story within the story.

I have rarely come across a book like this — layer upon layer, containing many stories within stories. Six other stories are interwoven and interconnected within The Starless Sea. Each tells a different tale… or are they all the same tale?

How would you feel if you found an ancient-looking, author-less, uncatalogued book in the library that seemed to recount, no wait, honest to goodness DID recount, a story from your childhood? Not just a story, but actual events that took place in your life.

This is what Zachary Ezra Rawlins discovers when he finds Sweet Sorrows in the library. This is what leads him down the proverbial rabbit hole in search of the Starless Sea. Little does he know that his actions are being tracked, that he, the son of a fortune teller, is the key.

If you have a love of adventure, a love for stories or storytelling, you might fall in love with this book just as much as I did. There is mystery, intrigue, mythology (or perhaps legends might be a better word?), evil, and love contained inside.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if the Moon and Sun could meet? What if Time and Fate fell in love? What if there was a wondrous secret world beneath the world filled with marvels and stories?

This was a book about endings, as much as it was about many other things too. Are endings truly the end? Or does one story have to end simply so another can begin?

I highly recommend this book! However, as Erin Morgenstern says — “Books are always better when read rather than explained.”