The Four Horses of the Apocalypse…

Welp, Pestilence is here. I hope everyone is safe and healthy out there. Please stay home as much as possible, and maybe we can all at least “flatten the curve” together.

My company didn’t send us to all work from home until late in the day on Friday, so already Monday everyone was getting pretty nervous, and some folks (especially who had kids or parents living with them) had already talked the bosses into letting them work from home then. I was pretty worried that they were going to wait until someone tested positive before sending us all home, but I guess as the tallies have ramped up they finally decided that wasn’t the best tack to take.

I’m looking forward to spending this time cooped up reading even more than usual, and getting to spend lots of quality time with my sister and dog (she lives nearby, but is staying with me for the duration of this thing). I also got into Sex and the City last weekend — I’d never watched it before, and I figured it was one of those things that lives in our cultural memory. I’m also square in its target audience — it’s about a group of 30-something women living in a big city. W00t.

Speaking of reading, I’m almost done with Anna Karenina, which I’m incredibly proud about. I’ve been reading it since the start of the year, and it was even better than I anticipated. The last time I read a book that big was probably when I read War and Peace back in college. Well actually some of my study texts for the IT exams have been of a similar size. But they have a very different feel. I’m also intending to read Gödel, Escher, Bach and The Cairo Trilogy this year, which are similarly impressively sized books. It was actually one of my New Year’s Resolutions this year to read the three (I figured if I didn’t do it as an on-paper goal I would probably keep putting them off for shorter, easier-to-digest books).

Another thing I’m looking forward to during this time is drinking tea! I stocked up on some teas back in late January or early February, from David’s Tea. They have such a great selection! As I mentioned in a post a while back, I’ve started drinking more tea as I’ve been more careful about my weight (which is a whole different struggle — I might post more about that later), and I’m currently working through five that have all seem very good so far. I’ll develop more of an opinion and then post about those later, probably.

Anyway, again, wishing you all the best. And see you on the other side :).

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Edit April 4, 2020 at 3:15pm PDT

Image added here and as featured — yesterday I made the couscous from the class I took back in January with a friend; the picture is from the couscous this time just before folding in toasted pine nuts and cilantro. I don’t think I can post the recipe here since it was from a Sur Le Table class, but it was still rather delicious the second time through. I substituted veggie broth for the chicken broth that it called for, but it was just as good. I plan on making this many more times in the future; it was so straightforward and didn’t really call for any terribly special ingredients.