Day 23 of Governor Newsom’s “Blueprint for a Safer Economy”

Is anyone even following Covid-19 anymore? We’ve all simply adjusted to the new normal…

Saturday. 9/19/20.

9:00 - 9:30 - The dog relentlessly barks at the foot of the stairs for a full 15 minutes. OMG. I go downstairs and take her outside, then I sit at my patio table, drinking water and waiting for her to go. She does a No. 1 and a No. 2.

9:30-10:30 - I make my coffee and go upstairs. I finish Schuylers Monster.

-L. leaves for the grocery store. I requested a few items yesterday and left a list for her on the counter and she agreed to do a grocery run. I thought she could pick up a few things in between Door Dash, but when she left she didn’t take the list. I texted her, after she left, and commented that she left the list behind, but L. responded that she left the list because she wasn’t going grocery shopping - she was doing Door Dash.

I assumed this meant that AFTER Door Dash she would go to the grocery store. When she arrived home at 7:00 p.m., last night, I again handed her the list and went over the things that I needed. L. then said that R. was coming over and she would not be going to the grocery store AT ALL. I felt very mis-led, but perhaps it was due to miscommunication???

B. and I scheduled a “camp-out” tonight (Saturday) and I offered to make turkey burgers, from scratch, but I don’t have ground turkey so had relied on L. to pick it up and had planned on assembling them Friday evening. Except L. didn’t go to the grocery store Friday evening.

I tell L. I really need her to go to the grocery store and she says she will go Saturday morning (meaning today, this morning), before she and R. are scheduled to get together at 11:30. I find this highly unlikely as L. rarely gets out of bed before 1:00 p.m., but thought that perhaps she would follow through as she has plans with her boyfriend???

So, today, at 10:30, L. leaves for the grocery store and tells me it is unlikely she will be able to get all of my items (there are 5). I tell her this is unacceptable, reminding her that she committed to going to the grocery store for me yesterday. I absolutely must have the ground turkey in the next two hours so I can assemble the turkey burgers, per the commitment that I made to B. She says she will do her best and leaves. I’m concerned.

10:30 - 11:00 - Blog entry.

11:30 - L. returns, having purchased all of the wrong items and complaining that she couldn’t find ground turkey anywhere. She proffers a tiny 16-oz pkg of ground turkey and I immediately say, “Where’s the two pounds I asked for - that’s not enough” She says, “Uh, yeah, I remember seeing that on the list…but, oh well, this is what I got.” At this moment, I actually want to slap L. because I. am. so. f—king furious. Full Disclosure - in 18 years, I have never once spanked L.

I reply, “So now you’ve wasted both of our time. Because you didn’t bother to read the list, now I have to go to the grocery store, which means you didn’t have to go in the first place because, since I have to go anyway, I could have purchased the five items myself.” She could care less and leaves for her appt. with R.

I had today planned to the minute and I can see the tasks I was going to accomplish slipping away due to L.’s apathy and unreliability. As I go through the remaining food items, I discover that:

1) L. bought hot dog buns, although she was unable to find vegan hot dogs. I specifically wrote in my list, “just look around for the vegan hot dogs - if they’re not there, don’t get the buns.”

2) She bought processed, bleached hamburger buns when I asked for wheat buns.

3) She bought a block of cheddar cheese, when I asked for a pack of sliced cheese for the hamburgers I’m making.

4) AND, she bought only 1 pound of ground turkey when I asked for two pounds.

L. is long gone, but I call her and ask why she bought the hot dog buns, when she didn’t buy hot dogs - didn’t she read the list at all? And why didn’t she get two pounds of turkey like I asked? Didn’t she read the list? Instead of apologizing, L. tells me to have B. make the turkey burgers. Is she serious? I told B. I would do it and I really didn’t mind - now, I’m supposed to tell B., four hours before I’m scheduled to arrive, that he will be making our turkey burgers…all because L. didn’t care enough about my getting my grocery items?

This is unacceptable so I hang up on her. She texts me and says I’m being childish because I’m arguing over hot dog buns, but as you can see if you’re reading this, it’s really much more than that. I still need to assemble the turkey burgers and I still don’t have the ground turkey.

12:30-2:00 - I take a shower and get ready. Covid-19 uniform. Light make-up.

2:00 - I leave and return to Office Depot, where I request a refund for the Fed-Ex pkg I sent on Thursday. As stated in my last blog, it was supposed to arrive Friday, but was now scheduled to arrive on Monday. The manager says I have to complain to Fed Ex directly. Great.

I drive across town to drop off my recycling, but today is Saturday and it’s super-crowded there - nobody is social distancing. Bye. I’m retired. I don’t have to complete my errands on the weekends anymore.

3:00 - I rarely shop on weekends [it’s too crowded and unsafe], but when I do, I shop at night, around closing time. Because L. did not get the correct amount of ground turkey, I’m forced to compromise my safety and go grocery shopping during peak hours so I’m now at Whole Foods to get the ground turkey. It appears there’s a run on ground turkey as L. said she couldn’t find it at Walmart and had to go to Sprouts, where there were limited supplies. I take the last TWO pkgs. of ground turkey and grab a container of Ben and Jerrys Fish Food.

It is packed in here. The customers are on top of each other and nobody is practicing social distancing until they get to the check-out line and even then, it’s sketchy. Although I have just three items, the people in front of me have their entire month’s shopping and will not give me the courtesy of going ahead. I actually wait in line, while people brush past me with their carts and their gross, sweaty bodies, for 25 minutes. Although I wrote above, in the prompt, “Does anybody worry about Covid-19 anymore?”, it appears that I still do because my anxiety level is through the roof and I just want to get out of here.

I never shop at this hour, especially on the weekends. This experience and the fact that I’m surrounded by disgusting, stinky people really makes me wonder “Why are large church congregations prohibited from gathering at Sunday services when people are on top of each other at grocery stores?” The Governor’s Blueprint for America bans church gatherings, but I’ve heard all about the positive steps churches are taking (I mean most churches - not the tent-revival, snake charming churches) where they pass out masks, insist that their “flock” sit 6 feet apart from each other, and put Purell in the holy water (j/k, but they usually pump a few squirts in each member’s hands as they come in). Not so Whole Foods. OMG - it’s a f—king free-for-all in here. I know I’m going to get sick.

As I leave, the store manager begins limiting how many customers are allowed in the store and a long line forms outside.

4:00 - Home and I’m so stressed out that I have to lie down. There were so many tasks I had planned to accomplish today before heading over to B.’s and it feels like the majority of my day has been spent at Whole Foods. I close my eyes and try to calm down.

5:00 - 6:30 - I load my sleeping bag and overnight gear in the car, then break down the condiments - or is “fixings” a better word replacement for condiments?? - by cutting slices out of L.’s huge block of cheese. I slice tomatoes and onions, then put a bag of spinach in my thermal lunch bag to substitute as lettuce. Finally, after I’m done with condiment prep., I assemble the turkey burgers by mixing 2 pounds of ground turkey in a bowl; two eggs; 6 tbls of parsley; and I decide to chop up some celery and throw it in there, too. Add salt and pepper and I think I’m done, but I really don’t know because I’ve never grilled before. I’m running around like a chicken with my head cut off because I’m supposed to be at B.’s at 6:30. I had hoped to have all this s—t done yesterday. I put everything in my car and leave.

7:00 - 10:00 - At B.’s and we have “cocktail hour” and then he fires up the grill. I made 6, thick, turkey patties and I ask him to cook ONE on the grill for effect - the rest he puts in an aluminum pan. In the interim, B. eats the salad I made for him. I ate my own salad earlier for lunch. The turkey burgers come out great - I’m pretty proud of myself because I don’t know what I’m doing and am self-taught on turkey burger assembly, courtesy of the Internet. I stack the turkey burgers with the fixings that I prepared at home and they taste good! I’m very pleased.

10:00-11:00 - We let our food settle and then we make S’mores again, putting our marshmallows on the grill for the charred effect. Quite tasty!

11:00-1:00 - We clean everything up and after a few more rounds (alcohol) we crawl into the tent and go to sleep.