How to cope with stay-at-home orders?  Some try wine, comfort food and online shopping

Well, isn’t this something?

Bet you aren’t asking, “what?” Yes, I’m talking about the virus that has us under house arrest without the ankle bracelet.

We’re getting all kinds of suggestions of what to do while we’re at home from every communication method known to man. I’m taking the advice to heart.

For example, we’re supposed to do things around the house that we’ve put off. Let me say here that we would have to be quarantined for a year before that long list would be complete. I have, however, painted bathroom cabinets, cleaned out drawers and cabinets and asked myself 1,000 times, ‘where did all this stuff come from?’ Guess the spices from 1988 came from the grocery store and the 52 T-shirts came with participation in charity runs, walks, shows etc. in the past several decades.

And photos! I started going through about 2,000 of them (I’m not kidding) and two hours later nothing was accomplished except a wonderful trip down memory lane.

It also has been fun finding things I thought were gone forever. And several things I didn’t even know I owned.

But it’s the attic that’s killing me. Thirty-three years of dust and an enormous accumulation of Christmas decorations, old toys, old documents, furniture and who knows what else, is a job I’ve put off for oh, I’d say about 25 years. When my brain sees a wide, open space it says, “Filler er up, Bon.” And I did. My bad.

After 12 hours up there I haven’t made a dent in it. I took today off but I have to go back up those stairs tomorrow or it’ll be another 25 years. Hey, maybe that’s a good idea, then it would be someone else’s problem.

My friend, food writer Adriene Rathbun, says it’s the perfect time for comfort food. She’s right. I’ve cooked more in the past few weeks than I did all last year. I made something where I actually followed a recipe and my husband said it was delicious. He doesn’t use that adjective loosely. Maybe I should follow a recipe more often. Comfort food is so good, but it is usually more caloric. Like my friend Julie Fitzthum said, “Remember the ‘freshman 15?’ Now it’s the CoV19.”

Wine goes well with comfort food. Or most anything. I used to have a rule to drink wine only on the weekend. But listen, these days I don’t even know what day of the week it is. I used to be a bit mystified when my mom wouldn’t have any idea what day it was. I wish I could tell her I now understand.

I was excited this morning because today was my Book Club. At 11:30 we all struggled to get on the Zoom site that would allow us to talk and see each other. Sort of. It took two tries but I could finally see AND hear everyone. We all talked at once, only half of the group was able to join in, but it was still fun to see the ones who managed it.

One thing I’ve decided to do is send a note to someone every day. I started with our youngest granddaughter. I found a postcard I bought when we were on our trip, wrote a note and mailed it to her. She was so happy to get it she called. She didn’t text, she called! Try it. Send a note to someone who will least expect it. It’s fun to get something in the mail besides bills and catalogs. If you get something, call, don’t text.

Many of the lists of what to do during this time suggests “learn something new.” When I saw a tutorial on how to round brush while drying your hair, I thought, ‘Aha! I’ve never been able to do that.’ The woman on YouTube has the same haircut as I do and I had the right brushes from when I tried to use a round brush and blow dryer at the same time several years ago. It seemed I needed three hands to do it so I gave up.

So I watched the very attractive woman on YouTube and decided to give it another try. She was fast and made it look very easy. And her result was exactly the look I want.

Who knew you could get hair going in two directions wound up in a round brush? Yes, somehow I got my hair on top wrapped in two directions which meant the brush was stuck. The woman on the screen never mentioned this problem. She just kept adding volume here and there and bouffing up her do, talking and looking glamorous the whole time.

Thirty minutes later I had most of my hair unwound from the brush and cut the rest of it off. If you just heard a thud, it was my hairdresser, Melissa Tinker, hitting the floor. Little does she know I’m going to cut my bangs so I can see where I’m going.

I have one friend who won’t FaceTime because her roots are at the two-inch mark. Like nobody knows she colors her hair?

And yes, like many of you I’ve done some shopping on-line. So the way I see it now, by the end of April I’ll see the results of the wine, the comfort food, and the shopping. And come out of quarantine a nearly broke, overweight wineo with a clean attic.

We’re in this together. Stay well.