Back in May, I posted a list of what I learned in the first two months of quarantine-life: things I learned to do, fun factoids I didn’t know before, things I learned about myself, and more. This was and remains the best way I’ve found to journal about the pandemic, and some of it was pretty funny, at least to me. So I kept it going.
I meant to post this last month, so that it would be what I’ve learned in two more months of quarantine, but time is weird now, and here we are.
So here is what I’ve learned in three more months of quarantine. Enjoy.
- What moldy garlic feels like (it’s weirdly powdery).
- Contrary to a lot of recommendations on the internet, you can’t just use aquafaba as an egg replacement to make a non-vegan cake vegan. You need to have a vegan cake recipe. This lesson came with a cake pan full of batter that refused to solidify and yet was also somehow burning on top.
- That you should not read a plague book in the middle of a plague. I made this mistake twice (and will probably willfully make it again whenever the third Nevermoor book comes out because I don’t care).
- That I’ve learned Unified English Braille so well that I now have trouble reading old Braille.
- That risotto requires a lot of stirring. And I mean a lot of stirring.
- That I might just not like prequels to books.
- That the book I’ve been writing is actually two books. So now I have almost complete drafts of a middle grade space adventure and a sequel. Yikes!
- That I can type in Braille right onto the screen of my iPhone. I actually learned this in March when I got my new iPhone, but I’ve since perfected it, and it is super cool.
- How to actually make a vegan cake. Also flax eggs are nifty.
- I don’t understand how they work, but food processors are magical.
- That I do better when things are scheduled for me. I reactivated my barre membership so I could take the virtual classes with the actual instructors from my studio, and actually signing up for specific time slots means I actually take the class, which was not happening when I was just trying to use videos whenever I felt like it.
- That I have in fact, finally, fallen into a new routine. Is it a routine I like? No, not at all. But it’s a routine and that’s progress.
- That even though the metro is opening up, I am terrified to get on it.
- That social distancing when you’re blind means a lot of trusting other people to do the right thing, and that generally I do not trust other people to do the right thing. Sorry.
- That I don’t do well with the unknown, and reminding myself that the people who are making the decisions don’t know what’s going on either doesn’t help. I already knew this about myself but as the unknown stretches on longer and longer it seemed important to say.
- That I miss the headphones I left on my desk at work on March 13.
- That I didn’t actually leave my headphones on my desk at work on March 13.
- That I don’t know where my favorite headphones are.
- That a certain author who wrote the Harry Potter books and shall not be named is a horrible, horrible person.
- But on the other hand, Twilight is not as bad as I give it credit for. No it’s not great, but it’s not as bad as I’ve been making it out to be.
- Also when it comes to Edward Cullen I am apparently still a sixteen-year-old girl. Deal with it.
- That the Twilight movies aren’t that bad either, though definitely sometimes unintentionally hilarious.
- How to spell misogyny. The first y gets me every time.
- That a subscription for the New York Times cooking app is 100% worth it. Seriously I have loved everything I’ve tried so far!
- That I use my oven way more than I thought I did.
- How to make homemade potato gnocchi without a potato ricer and without a ton of flour.
- That I will be continuing to telework for a long, long time, possibly until next June, and that I’ve gotten so used to telework that I no longer viscerally hate it. I don’t like it, but I don’t hate it.
- That melatonin makes my covid dreams a whole lot weirder.
- That friendships change, and when you find yourself saying, “That’s fine, and I understand that, but…” to everything going on, it might be time to think about whether it really is fine.
- That scented toilet paper exists.
- That I do not like scented toilet paper.
- That there is nothing quite like buying a book the second it comes out and dropping everything to read it. It’s been a while since I did this, but I did it twice in August and I should do it more often because it is wonderful.
And that’s it. I’ll keep noting down things I’m learning in pandemic life, and whenever I have a good-sized list again, I’ll post that too. I hope you all are keeping healthy, safe, and sane, and maybe it’s too much to ask of 2020, but I hope things start to look up from here.