38: Local Take-Out

Inspired by our brunch-blogging friends Catie and Dave at Late for Breakfast, Early for Lunch, I thought I would do a post about where we’ve been eating while we’ve been mostly staying home. We like food and we like to support local businesses, so it’s a win-win.

Our new routine is actually pretty similar to our old one. We typically cook at home the majority of the time, and venture out to eat once or twice on the weekends. In the old days, we would usually go out for dinner on Saturday night, and sometimes go out for breakfast on Sunday.

I have written a couple of posts about brunches in the past, which can be found here and here. We haven’t gone out for breakfast at all during this time, but we’ve more than made up for it with delivery orders from some fantastic bakeries, and quite a bit of home-baking.

Here are the places we’ve patronized over the past couple of months, all in New Westminster unless noted, possibly in order of when we went, but that part’s a bit fuzzy:

Kozak Homemade Ukrainian Food – Home of our favourite cinnamon buns and a great local bakery that (in normal times) donates all their day old bread to Souped Up Swing to use for their community outreach programs. They started doing deliveries while their shop was closed, so we ordered enough cinnamon buns (which freeze well) to keep us going for a few weeks, plus some cabbage rolls and pyrizhky buns.

White Spot (Burnaby) – I have a love-hate relationship with this chain. They have a few menu items that are comfort foods to me (mostly of the burger variety) but their prices have gone up a lot over the past few years and it bugs me. I know, realistically we are probably paying too little for most things at restaurants and I’m acting spoiled while they all try to stay afloat, but I’m just giving my side of it here.

When everything was shutting down, White Spot was offering take-out with a discount if it was your first time ordering, so we gave it a go, partly due to limited options and partly to try to feel like we were doing something normal. Burgers and fries, watery fountain pop – it was exactly what we were looking for and it hit the spot.

Ki Sushi – Our preferred sushi restaurant in New West. We go there when we want more than just a few rolls because they have excellent cooked dishes too. That being said, if we can’t go in and sit down, we limit our choices because some items don’t travel as well as others.

We’ve ordered from Ki twice in the past couple of months. The first time we had it delivered and the second time we decided to go pick our order up. We prefer to pick up because it’s less than 10 minutes from home and our food is still hot when we get back – it can be hit or miss with delivery. Our favourite hot dish is the Teriyaki Chicken Yakisoba.

Re-Up BBQ – Fried Chicken Fridays! Everything at Re-Up is good, but the bucket of fried chicken is also a pretty great deal. For about $30 you get chicken, coleslaw and biscuits. It’s enough for two people to eat for dinner and still have enough left for lunch. It’s as good cold as it is hot too, so it’s like a whole new thing the next day.

Rocky Point Ice-Cream – We got a New Westminster location of this Port Moody ice cream parlour last year and it has definitely been a popular addition to the area. While they were closed, they offered curbside pick-up of pre-ordered pints one day per week. I got the Earl Grey and Honey, which is my go-to, and it didn’t disappoint.

Yianni’s Greek – After trying numerous times to get through to our favourite Greek restaurant across the border in Coquitlam, we gave up and ordered from Yianni’s website. We had eaten there once, ages ago, and it stood out in our memories because from our table we saw a drunk guy on the street peeing on a parked car. Unrelated to that, we haven’t been back since, but we were set on Greek food and our options were limited at the time. It was okay, but wouldn’t do it again, given other choices. I feel a bit bad saying that, but the competition is pretty fierce.

Ca Croustille (Burnaby) – I accidentally stumbled across this French bakery on Instagram. They don’t have a storefront; they can be found at Farmer’s Markets around town. They have been doing deliveries on Fridays, and I don’t know if that’s temporary or if they always have, but since I discovered them I have found it very difficult to not order every single week. Croissants are my weakness and theirs are amazing. I also love their Pineapple Coconut Swirl.

Golden Boot Caffe (Coquitlam) – Best pizza ever. We order the same thing every time. I get a Modenese (mozzarella, prosciutto, parmigiano, arugula) and Michel gets a Maranello (mozzarella, Italian sausage, ham, mushroom, olive) and we split a Caesar salad. This time we even went all out and grabbed a Tiramisu for dessert too. They have never disappointed us yet, and we get leftover pizza for lunch the next day.

Royal Tandoori – This was our first time having a socially-distanced dinner with friends. We visited some fellow swing dancers and sat on their back deck enjoying our take out. Michel and I had never ordered from or been to Royal Tandoori before, so we decided to keep things straightforward by ordering the ‘Dinner for Two’. Everything was good, and I would eat their food again, but I would probably make different selections next time. It was super nice to hang out with people again though!

Anny’s Dairy Bar – If you haven’t been to Anny’s, I would definitely recommend it. It’s a little place in Uptown New Westminster that is run by a woman from Quebec. The menu is pretty limited, but everything is good. Her claim to fame is her maple twist cone. It’s a soft-serve vanilla cone with maple syrup from her family’s farm running through it and it’s amazing.

We met some friends at Anny’s a couple of weeks ago and ate our steamies (hot dog in a steamed bun, loaded with mustard, onions and pickled cabbage)  and poutine while sitting six feet apart on the edge of a cement planter box. It was pretty great. We, of course, had maple twists for dessert.

Starbucks (Coquitlam) – We were just about two full months into this thing before we drank any coffee that we hadn’t brewed ourselves. I have to say, I didn’t really miss it much, but after an early morning (pre-breakfast) jaunt to Home Depot last weekend, we rewarded ourselves with grande half-sweet vanilla lattes. The fact that the drive-thru is right in Home Depot’s parking lot was definitely a big influencing factor, but I have no regrets, it was delicious.

Marutama Ra-men (Burnaby) – We regularly hit the Robson St location of Marutama when we are downtown for Broadway Across Canada shows, but we had never been to their new Metrotown location. It’s a little hard to compare take-out ramen that you assemble yourself to a freshly prepared bowl straight from the kitchen, but it was pretty darn good.

When COVID hit, Michel, my mom and I were 2 ramen places into a plan to try every one in the Metrotown area. I can’t remember how many we have left, but Marutama is my favourite so far, and I’m glad we’ve been able to continue on our tasting journey.

I don’t know if that is every place we’ve eaten at, but it must be pretty close. I have a vague memory of getting pizza at Panago right at the start but it was pretty unmemorable. As this list is made up of a lot of our favourite places, we’ll definitely be making repeat visits to quite a few of them, isolation or not.

I have no plans to start buying a bunch of things to ‘stimulate the economy’ but I will continue to help eat a path to recovery in New Westminster, if that’s what it takes.

37: A Year Without Dancing

First of all, let me set the record straight: It’s just a catchy title. In this case, a year is an arbitrary and unknown amount of time because who knows?

Based on the current evidence though, we’re a long way from being able to enjoy social dancing with our friends again. Social dancing includes all the things we’re not supposed to do: touching many strangers, sweating on each other, shouting/ singing/ heavy breathing into other peoples’ faces within an enclosed space  – the more you think about it, the grosser it is, but that doesn’t mean we’re not aching to do it again.

Even though I am one of the lucky few in the dance community that has a partner at home, it just hasn’t been happening. Right from the beginning of the end of social events, our dancing pretty much stopped.

At first, I was a bit disappointed in us because I thought we could use this time for dedicated practice, but given the reasons we love dancing so much, it actually isn’t very surprising that we aren’t more interested in doing it at home.

One of my very first blog posts was about swing dancing, and referring back to it, all of my favourite things about it are missing right now:

Community

I don’t think this one needs much explaining. I love going dancing and being a part of a community that shares that love. I still feel like I’m part of that community and am still in touch with many people that I know through dancing, it’s just that the thing that brought us all together in the first place is missing. Now we’re just regular people and it’s sad.

There are a ton of great online options for virtual meet-ups, dances, workshops and seminars to help keep the love alive, but I am finding that without the personal interaction, it’s difficult to get excited about them. Perhaps that will change as time passes.

Music

I miss live music so much!! I really appreciate all the musicians providing live streamed content right now, but again, it’s just not the same. My attention span for anything on a computer screen is significantly shorter than otherwise, whether it’s reading, watching videos or enjoying live music.

Regarding recorded music, I live with a swing DJ and we do have music playing while we work on our projects at home sometimes. Arguably, it’s the same stuff that we’d hear at a dance, but the excitement isn’t there because we’re just two people at home. I still enjoy the music, it somehow doesn’t have the same energy.

Maybe we need to try cranking it up – I can only imagine the confusion from the neighbours wondering who is blasting traditional jazz.

Challenge and Spontaneity

I am grouping these two together because I find them both very difficult to replicate at home.

With all the online content available, we could definitely be challenging ourselves and working on specific aspects of our dancing. I remain hopeful that we will, at some point, become inspired to start doing more practicing.

For me, though, the hard part about trying to improve while in isolation is that there are no ‘real world’ opportunities to take things for a spin. This is where spontaneity comes in (or doesn’t). It’s all well and good to be able to execute a new move or clean up some messy footwork in a controlled environment, but the real test is on the dance floor when you’re dancing with someone new, to a song you haven’t practiced to. It’s like thinking you mastered a new language on Duo Lingo and then going to the region where people actually speak that language and trying to communicate. Good luck!

I love the idea of going back into the real world as a much better dancer than when I left, but the odds of that seem slim right now. Fortunately/Unfortunately, there’s probably a lot of time left to change that, so you never know.

In the meantime, I am saving and taking note of various resources for staying inspired and practicing while at home.

Just this morning I came across this article, The Benefits of an Accountability Partner in Lindy Hop, and this workshop, Follower’s Bal-Swing Legwork Solo Practice.

I’m definitely not lacking options, just the motivation and self-discipline to actually make use of them.

That being said, maybe it’s okay to just take a break for a while. If the magic only happens outside the house, then so be it. I am not worried at all that my interest in dancing will wane over time.

They say ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ and while I do think social dancers were already quite appreciative of what they had, a little bit of time off will only make the return to social dancing that much sweeter. I am quite sure that when it’s safe to go dancing again, there will be a renewed interest from dancers and non-dancers alike, eager to connect with people again.

I am looking forward to joining them!

36: New Normal

Two weeks since my last post and what have I done with that time?

Each week, I make a list of things I want to accomplish so that I have some handy options to refer to if I start to feel like I’m wasting away. I have never yet completed an entire list in a week, but luckily, I can always just move things to the next week’s list! The lists are also handy to look back at in times like this when I am trying to remember how I have spent my days.

Based on what’s been crossed off, it looks like I mostly worked on the yard and deck, did a few hours of paid work to keep projects moving at my day job, and kept up with my new ‘normal’ activities of working on stained glass, doing living room yoga, writing and tending to various household chores. I’ve also spent an inordinate amount of time on hold or talking to various customer service agents at my cell phone and internet providers.

It’s been a bad couple of weeks for technology around here. My cell phone stopped sending and receiving texts and phone calls, so all I can use it for now is wifi-based apps. After weeks of frustration, my new phone should be here later today and (fingers crossed) I can just move my SIM card over and all will be well. It will, of course, involve at least one more discussion with a ‘care agent’, which I am not looking forward to.

Our internet has also been spotty and that is not fixed, but I’ve been assured that we have now tested all the possible ways that the problem could be coming from inside the house, and the next step will be to send someone out to look at what’s happening between our house and the main lines. I’m 100% sure that’s where the problem lies, so now it’s just a waiting game for the next time it goes out and then however long it takes to get a tech here.

Sorry, I know that is all very boring.

Other than those issues, I have been very content. My front yard is starting to bloom and it is bringing me great satisfaction. I haven’t run out of reading material yet, but I am still waiting for my skip rope to arrive. I could live like this for a long time.

As mentioned in a previous post, aside from the lack of social dancing and live music, this is pretty much the life I have been aiming for. Back during the pre-COVID days, I spent a lot of time thinking through what I wanted my ideal life to be like and what I needed to do to make it happen as soon as possible, so it’s not super surprising to me that I’m enjoying staying home all the time.

I feel confident I have been on the right track, and I’m more determined than ever to keep working towards making it a permanent lifestyle.

My income is taking a hit right now, but on the plus side, it looks like when things start to pick up again I will likely be able to continue working mostly from home. This probably means a reduction in paid hours because I won’t have any ‘admin’ time where I am stuck in the office twiddling my thumbs, but that part has always been one of the worst things about working for a living anyway, so good riddance.

I am pretty sure a great many people are looking ahead to what changes are in store for them in the future. I’ve been seeing more and more posts and articles discussing what the new ‘normal’ will be and what things need to change.

I think this quote by Dave Hollis, which I’ve seen shared quite a few times, sums it up nicely: “In the rush to return to normal, use this time to consider which parts of normal are worth rushing back to.”

I love the possibility that we might be in the middle of a great shift. I have no better idea than anyone how it will all turn out, but I am very optimistic about the future.

35: Month Two

It’s hard to believe, but it’s the beginning of my 5th week at home. In some ways it feels like I’ve always lived like this and I can barely remember how things used to be, but there are also a few things I miss a lot.

I had to look at my day planner and count the weeks to figure out how long it had been, and it was hard not to notice all the crossed out events that have passed.

At this point, I’ve missed at least 10 swing dancing events (either social dances or live jazz shows) and 5 Pearl Jam concerts. (That’s not an average month in my life, it’s just that this all happened at the worst possible time, event-wise.) It’s sad to think about, but I optimistically expect that I’ll get to make them all up eventually.

In the meantime, I’m just puttering along like everyone else, trying to take things as they come.

This past week, Michel was on vacation so my routine was different than it has been. I pretty much didn’t do any of my regular activities, but it was a good week and we got a lot done. The weather was great, so we spent some time every day working on the yard. We finally finished cleaning up the leftover mess from the renovations, and we started working on our deck.

The deck itself is in decent shape, but the railings were rotting off (and have been for years) so we went to Home Depot and bought the supplies to replace them. Eventually we’re planning to add a roof as well, but since we drive a hatchback, it makes more sense to buy the materials in phases. We also don’t really have anywhere to store extra supplies, so I like to only buy what we can use up in a reasonable amount of time.

I can count on one hand the number of places I’ve gone in the past month where I actually entered a building that wasn’t my own house. It made things feel kind of normal to go to Home Depot. There were a lot less people than there typically are, and we had to wait in line outside for our turn to enter, but other than that it was business as usual.

Michel did most of the deck work, while I spent a lot of time in the garden. I feel like I have a handle on the front yard for the first time ever. It turns out that all it takes to keep things under control is unlimited free time.

Generally, my gardening experience is pretty limited, so if I can plant something and water it a few times and it survives on its own from there, then it stays. Almost everything I have planted has come from friends or neighbours over the past couple of years, which makes for a really good success rate because the plants are already established and acclimatized to this area.

On Saturday when I was working in the front garden, I looked around and could see people working on their yards at every single house within my visual range. And now that we’re all staying home, everyone is interested in making plant trades, which is great! I hope this is a practice that’s here to stay.

This week I’ll be back to my usual activities, but if the weather is nice, I do plan to add gardening into the mix. Even though the front yard has started to feel manageable, it still needs a lot of work.

Another plan for this week: Eat less carbs. I’ve gone overboard on baking, and Michel has been experimenting with sourdough, so our diet has been pretty off balance lately. It’s been delicious, but I think we need to rein it in a bit, at least during the week. When we finally get back to social dancing we’re going to be winded after one song.

To help get some back cardio into my routine, I’ve also ordered a jump rope online. Currently, it’s somewhere between here and China, but when it finally does arrive, I’m planning to get fit!

I was a member of 30 Minute Hit for a number of years (many years ago now) and the first station in their circuit is 2 minutes of jumping rope. The first time I tried it, I was amazed at how hard it was, as an adult. I had childhood memories of skipping all the time for fun, and I didn’t remember it being difficult at all. Turns out it takes a lot of co-ordination and it’s exhausting.

I did manage to improve quite a bit during the time I was doing that circuit, but I have no illusions that I’ll have retained my skills in the meantime. At least I am aware of the challenge that awaits me so when I get started I won’t be too sad about how bad I suck at skipping.

Side note: The skip rope is item #2 on my list of ‘things’ I’ve bought so far this year. I am still doing my personal buy no things challenge, and doing pretty well. Based on the Depth Year guidelines I made for myself, I am also tracking, but not counting, things that are supplies required for projects like stained glass. The jury (me) is currently still out on if yarn counts, due to knitting not being a Depth Year topic, so depending on that determination, the skip rope might actually be item #3.

In other news, my pile of unread library books is starting to dwindle. Apart from the apparent scarcity of certain grocery items and paper products, lack of library books was one of my biggest concerns as everything started to shut down. I know it’s kind of silly, especially since I was planning to only read books I already had on hand this year, but I am still hoping that the library is working on a way to reopen in a format that is safe for everyone. If I have to leave my books on the front porch for 2 – 5 days, I’m happy to do it! (And yes, I know: e-books are available. I just prefer real paper books.)

I think that about sums up my life right now. I hope everyone is doing well out there. Stay safe!

34: Daily Routine

Last week I mentioned that I was planning to make myself a schedule so that I would be able to “keep on track”. I don’t know what exactly the track is, but I wanted to add some structure to my days and I like being able to cross things off lists, so it’s basically list of things, divided into days.

So far, it’s been pretty good for making sure that I account for my time each day with at least a few items that are productive and/or useful. The days are starting to have a bit more of a rhythm to them now.

Most days I get up between 7 and 7:30 and have coffee and breakfast while I check my email, Facebook and other regular sites. I have noticed that I’m drinking less coffee than usual. I still love coffee but now that I’m getting as much sleep as I need to, I am realizing that it doesn’t bring me the great amount of joy that it used to. So that’s interesting.

I try to limit the amount of time I spend aimlessly scrolling the internet by having my list of tasks and projects I want to work on each day. It helps sometimes but not always. A lot of my tasks involve being on my laptop, so even when I’m in the middle of something it’s easy to just check in on social media for the 100th time that day and see if there’s anything new.

I’ve started doing yoga most days and am really enjoying it. As part of my future plans for early retirement, I always included some kind of physical activity that I wanted to incorporate into my daily schedule. I was never sure that I would have the self-discipline to keep up with doing it on my own, but I am finding that now that I have the time to fit everything in, I actually don’t have a big problem keeping up with it, so that’s a bit of a relief.

The main part of my day is spent either writing, making art or doing mundane household activities. Usually in that order.

I find writing the easiest thing to get into each day because it doesn’t take any preparation to get started. If I open up a file and work for a while but am not feeling it, then I can just move on to something else.

Last week I worked on a couple of block prints while l listened to the new Pearl Jam album that just came out. I only did test prints of each one, and I wasn’t particularly happy with either of the designs, but I enjoyed the time I spent working on them. I have quite a bit of material on hand and would like to get to the point of doing a design that I actually want to make a few prints from.  My skills are pretty rusty still, but I’m starting to get the hang of it again.

This weekend I finally set up a space in the basement to start working on some stained glass. I spent a few minutes cutting out some pieces to see what my tools felt like in my hands again. Awkward, is the answer to that. I have pretty much lost all the finesse I had when I was at my most practiced, but I was expecting that, which is why I have a couple of smaller projects ready to go as test pieces.

I’m planning to take the box of CDs I haven’t been able to let go of downstairs and listen to them while I work. Maybe that will help get me back into the zone. If not, it will at least give me a chance to listen to all those albums again and decide if I really need to keep them all.

Tomorrow is the first day of this year’s 100 Day Project. The past few years I have done the project in collaboration with Ivana, as Shiftyville comics. This year, Ivana is focusing on a different project, so I’m going to do the 100 Days on my own. Like in previous years, I am going to do comics, but instead of having Ivana’s drawings to caption, I will be using stock photos. This is the kind of thing that I personally find hilarious, but it remains to be seen if anyone else does. I think it will be fun anyway, and I’ve set up a new Instagram account specifically for the project.

When I am having trouble landing on a creative project to work on, I fall back on household chores to keep busy. If I was allowed to have visitors, you would see that this definitely isn’t something that takes priority. Everything is relatively under control, though our standards aren’t very high.

We live half a block from Royal Columbian Hospital, so every night at 7pm there is a great uproar of cheering, clanging pots and pans, and police and fire truck sirens. A couple of times we have walked out to E. Columbia St to see the action firsthand and it is very heart-warming to see everyone out there celebrating (while remaining at least 6 feet apart). The walk home is also nice because so many neighbours and friends are out as well and we can all see each other and catch up a little, again, from a respectable distance.

As it stays light out later and the weather warms up, I think we’ll be spending more evenings outside in our yard and walking around the neighbourhood.

Currently, I am still doing a lot of knitting during the evenings. I like to have the TV on while I knit because it makes me feel like I’m being productive instead of just vegging out. On the flipside, if I knit during the day, having the TV on makes me feel like I’m wasting time. I am good with this hobby being relegated to evenings though because it makes my wrists sore after a while so it’s probably best if I limit the amount of time I spend doing it.

Michel is off next week on what would have been our Pearl Jam tour vacation. Instead, of course, it will be a staycation. That will change my routine a lot, but we don’t have plans to do any kind of big time-consuming projects. He needs time to decompress and has a handful of things he wants to work on himself.

If the weather is nice, we do plan to try to spend a couple of hours each day working on the backyard. It has been super satisfying so far, just cleaning up the leftover mess from the renovations and getting closer to having a clean slate to begin anew.

It seems like we might have quite a bit of time to continue on this way, but all we can do is take it day by day. I am interested to see what the world will look like on the other side of this, but for now it seems to be working well to just focus on the things in our immediate vicinity that need our attention.

33: Mini-Retirement

I’ve been self-isolating for a week and a half now.

Last Wednesday, I packed up my computer and brought it home from work with me. I took Thursday off because most of my projects had already stalled out, and then I worked from home on Friday. On Monday, I was laid off. This was not a big surprise.

Now I have as much time as I want to work on all my projects. I have been so accustomed to having my single day each week and feeling like I need to jam as much productivity into it as possible. Sometimes I would just end up paralyzed from the pressure.

It’s amazing how different it is when you have an abundance of time available. I think it’s safe to say that this is as close as I am going to get to the feeling of being retired until I really can retire, even if it’s temporary.

So far, I haven’t developed a routine, but I feel like I’ve been fairly productive. And also, when I wasn’t, I didn’t feel bad about it. This is a super weird situation so I think it’s pretty normal to have good and bad days as you try to figure out what the hell is going on with your life.

Last weekend was the first one in ages where we had absolutely nothing on our schedule.  We started working on getting our backyard cleaned up. We spent a couple of hours each day doing hard labour: digging and moving rocks and dirt. Our first task was to redistribute the piles of rubble left over from the work we did to the basement. We only got about 1/3 of the way through, but it was still satisfying to make a bit of a dent.

This weekend it was mostly raining so we didn’t get much further on that.

During the past week, I’ve continued to get up pretty early in the morning. I spend most of my day sitting on the couch, so I do need to figure out some kind of exercise plan, but aside from that, the couch time has been great. I’ve worked on a few different writing projects, done some knitting, kept in touch with a bunch of people I don’t get to see anymore, and even picked up a few old hobbies that I haven’t dusted off in decades.

This whole situation seems like it should be ideal to help me with my Depth Year, so I thought I’d do a short update on how that’s going. If you don’t want to read it, I can summarize: It’s been very hit or miss.

Depth Year Update – Self-Isolation edition

I’ll go topic by topic:

Writing

This part is going well. It’s something I can pick up and put down at any time and work on for as long or as short a period as I feel like, but I am consistently working on various projects.

Dancing

Not going so well. It’s amazing, but not surprising, how much less exciting dancing is when it’s just you and your partner at home. I know I’m lucky to even have a dance partner while so many people are stuck alone or with a non-dancing companion (though you have the time to change that!), but we also have super squeaky floors so we feel like we shouldn’t dance unless our tenant is out.

We did spend a short amount of time practicing a few specific things this weekend, so if we can force ourselves to do that once in a while, then at least we’re doing something and hopefully we’ll be able to add (and retain) a few skills that we can use in the future.

Stained Glass

Not yet, but soon, as I’ve been saying for months. Maybe this week!

On the semi-related topic of “things I used to do”, I got out my block printing supplies on Friday and made a thing. While it was not my best work, it was a very enjoyable way to spend half a day, and it turned out surprisingly well, given that it’s been about 20 years since I did any printmaking. I will probably do more this week.

Interior Design

This topic was specifically about an idea I had for a side hustle that I wanted to start. I’ve decided to let this one go. I’ve been stalled out on it for months and am not motivated to move forward so I’m dropping it.

Renovations

We have actually been doing decently with this. We have completed a few small projects upstairs, and as I mentioned earlier, we made some progress on the backyard last weekend. I think this one has a lot of potential. Like writing, it can be done in as small or large amounts as we like so it’s possible to continuously move forward, which is rewarding. We also have a lot of supplies on hand to keep us going.

Reading

If the goal was to do a lot of reading, then I am doing GREAT! Unfortunately, I was supposed to be concentrating on reading things I have on hand and that has not been as successful. I guess depending on how long this staying at home business lasts, I will finish all the library books I have and will be forced to go back to my own books. Mandatory success.

From that breakdown, it might not look great, but I feel like things are actually going quite well.

For this week, I’m trying to plan what I want to work on each day so that I have more of a schedule to keep me on track. I am also making an effort to fit in some exercise, as well as an online course that I’ve wanted to explore.

With all this extra time I didn’t plan to have, it really gives me a chance to do a bit of everything and find out what I want to keep focusing on and what I really don’t enjoy as much as I thought I would. There have been moments of aimless boredom, for sure, but I’m learning as I go.

32: Social Distancing

Well, it’s all happening. Pearl Jam tour postponed, all swing events on hold for the foreseeable future and everyone is “social distancing”. I won’t bother explaining what that means because you already know and you should be doing it too.

I started writing this post a couple of days ago and it already seemed super out of touch, so I’m rewriting as I go today. The thing that hasn’t changed is that I still don’t plan to focus on all the scary stuff. There’s more than enough out there already, and while I appreciate the people that are trying to be helpful, I am also doing my best not to get too bogged down in all the craziness.

On a positive note, I have already seen some amazing and heart-warming things starting to happen online. Jazz (and other) musicians have started streaming virtual shows to make up for the gigs that have been cancelled, dance instructors are offering private lessons via Skype, and dancers and community organizers are setting up groups for self-guided practice while we’re all staying home. The swing community is coming together to support each other emotionally and financially, and I am finding it very uplifting.

I can’t say for sure, but I suspect other communities are reacting the same way. Just yesterday I was watching a live stream by Colm Mac Con Iomaire, playing from his home in Ireland. Not only was his music beautiful, but it was such a unique experience to be one of 400+ people (at that time) from all over the world watching him play. As the performance streamed you could see in real time the comments coming in from people locked down in Spain and Italy, or written in Gaelic by his local fans. It was really awesome.

I mentioned briefly last week about what I was planning to do with myself in the situation where all my upcoming events were cancelled, and now that it’s here, I realize I need to fill in some gaps. Basically, I don’t want to end up spending half of every day sitting on the couch in my pyjamas drinking coffee. (And yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing right now, but if I’m also writing then it doesn’t count.)

So, from observations made over the past few months of weekends (during the 6 month break that we gave ourselves after finishing the basement), I can see where I’m going to need to work on things:

Routine

Unless we have a schedule we need to keep, we’re not great at getting going, even though we know there are chores and things we should do. We purposely haven’t been scheduling over the past few months, but our break is almost over, so that’s going to have to change.

This is something I know we need to work on and I don’t have a solution right now. I did put a reservation in for Atomic Habits at the library, which I’m hoping will have some good information in it. It’s in high demand though, so I probably won’t get it for a couple of months. If I find it particularly interesting or useful, I’ll write a post about it.

Exercise

I can’t rely on swing dancing as my main form of exercise anymore. This is especially unfortunate because I have been using dancing as my excuse for not having come up with the weekly exercise routine that was on my list of goals for this year (and last year!)

Now that it’s getting warmer and nicer out, I have been thinking about walking to work in the morning. According to Google it would take 43 minutes, which is only 13 minutes more than walking to the station and taking the bus, so it’s totally feasible. The route isn’t very scenic, but it has sidewalks for most of the way and it’s not a difficult trek.

If I start to work from home, then I’ll have to think of something else.

Dance practice

I won’t try to pawn this off as a form of exercise because I know I’m not so self-disciplined that I’ll do enough practicing to actually break a sweat. I do want to dedicate some time to working on my dancing though. This was part of my Depth Year plan anyway. (And hey, if anyone wants to revisit the idea of a Depth Year, it’s starting to seem more and more appropriate.)

The top 3 things I want to work on are:

  • Reviewing and practicing the content of the Balboa workshops I’ve taken. I have tons of video recaps to use for reference.
  • Learning to lead. By default, Michel will have to learn to follow, but I think he’s up for it. I’ve been talking about doing this for ages but I’d rather go through the awkward beginner phase in the privacy of my own home, so now seems like the ideal time to do it.
  • Work on Blues technique using video recaps from the classes we’ve taken over the last year

House projects

Currently, we have a huge list of incomplete projects around our house that we can work on, plus both the front and back yard need lots of work. We also have all kinds of supplies in the basement to use up, so that should keep us occupied for as much of our time as we want to spend on it.

Whenever the weather is good we’ll probably focus on the outside, mainly because it’s more interesting and will have more dramatic results. The inside is mostly finishing trim and painting and stuff, which is all very boring.

It will definitely be satisfying to get the upstairs completed after all this time though. I like to think we’d be able to get it done this year, even without a global pandemic, but I’m not really sure.

Stained Glass

As mentioned last week, I’m getting closer to being set up to work on some glass. It goes hand in hand with getting the basement cleaned up, which is coming along slow and steady.

Knitting

I generally start to lose interest in this hobby as spring approaches, but I am more than halfway finished a cardigan and I intend to complete it. Fingers crossed.

Writing

This will likely continue to be just a Monday thing because that’s my only solo day at home. Theoretically with all my extra free time on the weekends, I should be able to focus on it even more because I will have ample time to dabble in all my other interests and they won’t need to bleed into Mondays.

In general, I feel I am very well-equipped to not leave the house anymore. I kind of always have been though.

31: Spring Ahead

I woke up this morning to our internet being down. It’s been a bit glitchy lately, so I suspect it will be back soon. This should really be good for my productivity and goal of spending less time surfing social media, but actually it feels more like the apocalypse.

There’s a pandemic out there! Toilet paper is sold out everywhere! Last I heard we were being advised to avoid large group gatherings. This is not good for a life of live jazz, social dancing and Pearl Jam concerts. I need an update, but instead I’m stuck with my comfy couch and sleeping cat, and all I can see is a quiet residential street lit by beautiful morning sunshine. Ugh.

I have been doing my best not to get too caught up in the media frenzy of the corona virus. It definitely helps that we don’t have cable anymore. I know I spend too much time on the internet, but at least there I get some balance between crazy panic and calm reassurance.

I was curious to see how this weekend would go. We had our regular Friday night dance and our Sunday afternoon jazz, both of which could potentially be considered risky activities. (Saturday night was spent doing our taxes, which is less risky, but also enjoyable in its own way.)

Friday night’s dance attendance was not noticeably lower than any other week. It varies without apparent logic anyway. This week was pretty ordinary, aside from the organizers making a few announcements about hand washing, and some reminders we had added on the slide show.

As you might suspect, the outlook I heard from most dancers was that the public is overreacting. I don’t find that surprising from people that choose to go out and hold hands with strangers as a pastime. I’m one of them and I agree.

Sunday was a bigger surprise though. White Rock Jazz is mostly elderly people and last week was extremely quiet, so we thought this week would be worse. It wasn’t!

All the regulars were there, dancing and enjoying the band like any other week. I also saw some people greeting each other by bumping elbows and finding themselves quite hilarious. The only difference there was a few morbid jokes during the announcements about getting drunk and then going home to die. Everyone seemed to be of the opinion that live jazz was worth the risk.

I can only assume, based on media coverage, that most other people spent the weekend barricaded in their homes amid all their survival supplies. I guess only time will tell what the right course of action was, but what is interesting is the vast difference between how things look if you’re viewing them from out in the world or looking at them on a screen.

*My internet is back now and I’m caught up*

So far, there is no word of Pearl Jam cancelling or postponing any shows, which is my main topic of concern at the moment. I am prepared for the possibility of this happening and I am okay with it, as long as I have enough notice to be able to cancel the trip. I don’t want to waste any valuable vacation time or funds to go to warm and sunny California for NOTHING.

It’s the not knowing that is making me a bit crazy.

Now here’s the other thing: As much as I love going out dancing, and as excited as I am to go see a bunch of Pearl Jam shows and hit my 40×40 goal, if everything was to get cancelled and I was forced to spend the next month or two not going out, that really holds a lot of appeal too.

I can’t remember ever having a trip planned that I fully wanted to go on. There’s always a part of me that would really rather just stay home. I wasn’t aware until quite recently that there are other people out there that feel this way too. Apparently it’s an introvert thing and I don’t need to feel bad about it.

I mean, I still go on the trips. I can’t remember ever actually bailing out on a vacation; I just suck it up and go, and usually enjoy myself. I think though, this is why most of the travel I have done has been focused on going to concerts, or more recently, dance events. I need a really good, tangible reason to go somewhere. I do have a number of places I want to visit just because I want to see them, but those trips keep getting put on the backburner.

I have a ton of stuff on my calendar from the end of March to the end of April and if I’m forced to wipe the slate clean, I know just what I’d do with all that free time:

Yardwork

Now that spring is on its way, I am eager to get out there and tend to my new front yard, as well as our disaster of a backyard. We did a big overhaul out front a couple of years ago and it’s starting to look a bit more established now.

I have been trying to do everything I can with reused and salvaged materials, as well as planting things that I’ve gotten from neighbours and other sharers in New West. It’s been so satisfying to see the front yard come together while spending very little money. I have high hopes for the backyard too.

Stained Glass

I am getting closer and closer to having a space set up in the basement to work on projects and I’m really looking forward to getting started. I have a couple of small designs ready to go for practice pieces.

We have spent a few hours here and there working on cleaning up what’s left of our basement. We still have a lot of reno supplies that we are holding on to for unfinished projects, as well as a lot of stuff that just needs to go.

Over the past two weeks we have managed to get rid of a few items and we’re slowly organizing the things we’re keeping. It’s not happening quickly but it is happening.

Vacation Planning

Despite my love-hate relationship with going away, there are a lot of dance events I still want to attend. Depending on what happens with Pearl Jam, I will be looking at what to do with any vacation time we gain back. The planning part is really my favourite thing about travelling anyway.

In the meantime, I guess I will just go with the flow.

30 – Shopping Day

On Thursday I went shopping, which I rarely do. It was actually a much more interesting experience for me than I expected it to be. So much so that I was inspired to write a post about it when I got home.

As I’ve mentioned a few times, I’ve been trying to keep my acquisitions to a minimum and to avoid buying things in general. This is what was on my list for the day:

  • 4 pairs of pants
  • Art glass
  • Book
  • Wedding card
  • Cash

Kind of a random assortment of things, but here’s how it all came about:

4 Pairs of Pants

I’m in a few different ‘share’ groups on Facebook, which I have mainly used for getting rid of things rather than amassing them. On Wednesday, however, someone posted a bunch of clothes they were giving away. One of the lots was 3 pairs of dark jeans and a pair of black pants, all in my size.

I really, really hate shopping for clothes, so while it seemed pretty unlikely that I would find these random pants from a stranger to be the perfect fit, I thought it was worth a shot. Even if only one of them fit well, it would save me from having to buy new jeans or hunt through the racks at Value Village for way too long.

This was my first stop of the day, so I had to wait a few hours to try them on when I got home, but unbelievably, all 4 of them fit nicely! And 3 of them are a style I typically wear and I will get tons of use out of them. The 4th, I’m not sure will get worn, but I’m going to hold onto them for now. I can avoid buying jeans for at least a few years now, and they were all free.

I kind of felt like I won the lottery.

Art Glass

As part of my Depth Year, I’m going to start making stained glass again. I still have all my equipment, but I sold or gave away any glass I had more than 10 years ago.

A few weeks back, I took advantage of an online sale that Kona was having and bought a few different colours to start getting back into it. It took me a couple of weeks to get around to picking my order up and today was the day.

I didn’t spend any extra time in the store browsing, but I will definitely need to go back if I decide to keep on with this artistic endeavour. I didn’t really have any misgivings about spending this money because I know I will get a lot of enjoyment out of the creative process, and if I don’t, then at least I’ll know I’m done with this hobby. (In that case I’ll sell off whatever’s left, along with my equipment – but not before I make a panel for my front door. It’s been on my to-do list for years and it’s getting done whether I like doing it or not.)

Book

This was actually the most interesting experience of the day. I love books and I read a ton, but I have been getting all my books from the library for so long that I can’t remember the last time I went into a Chapters.

I realized just steps into the store that I should probably avoid ever entering one again, if possible. They do an excellent job at curating all the non-book stuff that you have to pass by as you enter. I caught myself thinking of all sorts of ideas for companion items to the book, but I forced myself to keep moving.

The purpose of my visit was to get a personal finance book for some friends as a wedding present. The book is Millionaire Teacher and I thought it would be a good overall read for financial planning at the start of their new life together. Also, it’s Canadian so way less blah blahing about Roth IRAs and 401ks, which is nice. And no, I don’t always buy finance books as wedding presents; I think these two in particular will appreciate it.

It also pained me to have to go to the store and pay full price when it’s available online for significantly less, but I just thought of it yesterday and the wedding is on Saturday, so it was my own fault for waiting until the last minute. (Technically, with the wedding being so close, I could probably have just borrowed it from the library and insisted they read it ASAP before it’s due back, but that seemed a little too cheap.)

I was amazed at how susceptible I was to the merchandising and am now realizing just how much easier I have made my ‘buy no things’ goal by avoiding the mall. The easy part is not going; it gets significantly harder to stay on track once you walk through the doors.

Wedding Card

After paying full price for a book, I just couldn’t bring myself to buy a card too. I made one when I got home. It’s more personal anyway and I think commercial cards are a huge waste of money. If I was near a place that sold hand-made cards, I would reconsider probably, mostly out of laziness.

Cash

As frugal as I am, I wouldn’t just give a paperback book as a wedding gift. And since bank machines give out 20s, which seems kind of tacky, I had to go into my actual credit union. This part was pretty boring, but I will note that the bank teller needed a lot more info than the bank machine asks for, and it took way longer. I prefer dealing with robots.

My whole outing was probably about 2 hours from beginning to end, and mostly not very enjoyable, but I checked off all my tasks and also had a good reminder that driving around the city during the day sucks. I forget that sometimes.

Overall, it was pretty clear that my decision to avoid shopping has been a really positive experience. I hadn’t been doubting it, but immersing myself in consumer culture once is a good way to bring it all back to the forefront of my mind. I don’t think I’ll do it again any time soon.

29: Balboa Saturday

As I’ve mentioned before, I feel a bit ripped off on holiday Mondays because I lose my one dedicated day of self-guided productivity. Not this week. Today I need a day of rest. (If that makes you question why I’m writing a blog post instead of resting, I can assure you that I slept in and then spent a very relaxing morning reading in my pajamas and drinking coffee.)

This Saturday was Balboa Saturday, my first swing dancing workshop as an organizer, which I mentioned briefly in my last post on Focal Points.

Until recently, I had never really thought about being the one to organize the workshops that I wanted to take. We have a pretty big swing dancing community in and around the Lower Mainland that includes numerous weekly dances, live jazz events and workshops so I have always been content to just partake in what other organizers were offering up, as things came along. The things that never really seem to come along though, are Balboa-focused events.

Michel and I (as well as a few other dancers in our area) have been travelling down to Seattle every so often to attend the great events they have there. Seattle is a mecca of Balboa dancing right now and we are lucky to be so close to them; however, not everyone is interested enough to make that kind of effort. In my opinion, the main reason for this is they haven’t had enough opportunities to further their dancing at home in order to want to take the next step.

I am going to try to change that. Maybe we’ll end up being our own Balboa Mecca and people will want to come to us instead. (Dream big, right?)

This weekend’s workshop was 4 hours of Balboa Fundamentals, taught by Joel and Louise Schwarz, who are fabulous Balboa dancers and instructors with tons of experience. They also happen to be my neighbours, which is convenient. They have stepped back from the dance scene a bit in recent years while they’ve been focused on their family, but they’re now at the point where they can get a little more involved again and I am happy to do all the logistical background stuff so they can come out and teach us.

The response to this workshop was amazing! I can’t say it was completely unexpected because I know that there is a lot of interest in Balboa just from talking to people at regular events, but it is very satisfying to see things actually come together. We had 34 people attend the workshops and the feedback so far has been very positive.

Spending all day practicing Balboa is really my perfect Saturday. I found the classes helpful and interesting, and even though some of the content is beyond me at the moment, it’s always good to keep trying new things.

I’ve already booked the venue for a follow-up event at the end of March. I am hoping most of the group will continue to attend further workshops and we can all move along together, improving our dancing as a group, and building a Balboa community.

I am identifying us as the Secret Balboa Club. I don’t actually want it to be a secret; I just wanted it to have an aura of intrigue. And a cute logo to put on buttons.

I also wrote a mission statement:

The intent of the Secret Balboa Club is to build a community of great Balboa dancers who don’t take themselves too seriously. It aims to encourage more and better Balboa dancing in New Westminster and surrounding areas, by providing quality opportunities to learn and practice with like-minded people.

I don’t think that’s an unrealistic goal, but only time will tell.

In my mind, this weekend wasn’t just a day of workshops, it was a whole dance weekend. I had included Friday night’s dance at Royal City Swing, Saturday night’s dance at Hot Club Swing, and Sunday’s afternoon dance at the White Rock Traditional Jazz Society on my personal itinerary.

Balboa is best danced to live jazz, so why not do as much as possible when you have the chance?

My calves are pretty tight now, but it was definitely worth it. I don’t know if good music can actually make you a better dancer, but it certainly feels that way sometimes.

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