Friday 5ive- April 10, 2020

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post about five things that caught my attention during the week. We're going on four weeks since we have been sheltering-in-place, and we seem to have settled into a routine. I get up, make my husband breakfast, catch the first part of CBS This Morning, do laundry twice a week, take a Peleton spin class, eat my breakfast and then get to work on whatever project I have going. I check in with family and friends, and then read for awhile before starting dinner. I have cooked (or reheated leftovers) every night since March 14th. It's exhausting, am I right? On to the 5ive-

1) We live near four hospitals and every night at 7pm, people go out on their balconies and cheer for first responders, healthcare workers, and all essential workers (grocery store workers, pharmacy workers, transit workers, etc.) I video it and post it on my Facebook page every night. It's really great to see people coming together to do this, and here is one from this week.

2) Speaking of videos, my birthday was this week and since my kids couldn't be with me, they sent me birthday greetings from Brian Baumgartner, who played Kevin on The Office. I love that show, and just finished a book The Office-The Unofficial Best Comedy of the 2000s by Andy Greene, so this was extremely appropriate and made me laugh so much. What a thoughtful gift! You can get one too at Cameo.com

3) Recipes have been on my mind this week, and not only the ones I have cooked. My cousin and her friends shared a Quarantine Recipe Exchange, where people swapped easy recipes made with things you probably have in your home right now. I shared Spanish Rice, which my husband loves, and the link to the recipe from Robyn Stone on Add A Pinch is here.
Our nephew's girlfriend has been making her grandmother's recipes and posting the results on Facebook and Instagram for all of us to drool over. What a great idea! We're trying to convince her to put together a cookbook as all the women in the family enjoy cooking.


4) I've been watching two shows about people "breaking bad"- Better Call Saul's fifth season is on now on AMC on Monday nights, and for those of you who loved Breaking Bad, you know the character Saul Goodman, a lawyer for the drug dealers. The show gives us his journey from struggling lawyer to cartel lawyer, and this season is a key one for Saul.

Good Girls is back on NBC on Sunday nights, and this one is about three suburban Detroit women who in desperation rob a grocery store and end up stealing a drug dealer's money by mistake. Every decision they make just brings them into deeper trouble. I watch it and marvel at where they take the storyline. If you haven't watched this one, binge it on Netflix.

5) I finished Louise Erdrich's The Night Watchman and it is fantastic. It's based on the life of the author's grandfather, who worked to keep Washington DC from taking away his tribe's land in North Dakota in 1953. The characters are so vivid, and the reader is immersed in the culture. I highly recommend this one.

I also started and finished Abby Greaves' debut novel The Silent Treatment. (My review is here.) It's about a long married couple whose husband stopped speaking to his wife for six months. When she becomes comatose after an intentional overdose, her narrates their love story and tries to explain why he was silent. It's heartbreaking and devastating.

I hope you all stay safe and well and home.

Friday 5ive- Living in a COVID World

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post about five things that caught my attention during the week. Everyone in NYC seems to be settling in to a new reality. More businesses are closing (our dry cleaner closed, many restaurants who were doing takeout and delivery have closed), and the only people you see on the streets are walking their dogs or going to the grocery stores, which seem to be better stocked now.

1)  The weather has been so dreary and cold, the sight of these tulips blooming in front of our apartment building brought me joy.

2)  I'm trying to keep busy by doing one small project per day. Last week I reorganized my bookshelves (which was a BIG, all-day project), on Wednesday I reorganized my greeting card box, which only took about 30 minutes, but I feel better.  (And I have a lot of Halloween cards, I'm not sure why). Yesterday I cleaned out a big pantry bin and kitchen cart. Our apartment will be so well organized when this is done. Now all I need is a label gun.

Now I can find any card I need!

3)  My sister-in-law thoughtfully sent us a two-pound box of chocolates from Krause's Chocolates, the best chocolates around, in Saugerties, NY. It's a nice thing to support local businesses that are online and can deliver if you can do it. I've ordered books to send to family members from local independent bookstores in our area, and they are so grateful for the help.

Krause's Chocolates

4)  Staying connected with family and friends is important too, and we have been What's App-ing and FaceTiming with family, and I did a Zoom Happy Hour with two good friends, Kelly and Trish from back home, that was so wonderful, it made me very happy. (But we did miss Barbara.) I also participated in a Zoom mass celebrated by our priest from our hometown. That was an oasis of peace in the midst of the craziness on NYC.

5)  I haven't been able to read too much this week, but I finished Andy Greene's The Office- The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s which I really enjoyed. This is a must-read for fans of the show. 

 I did start Louise Erdrich's new novel, The Night Watchman, a novel based in part on her grandfather, who was a nightwatchman and worked to prevent the federal government from taking land from Native Americans in North Dakota in the 1950s. There is a book populated with many characters, and each one is more interesting than the next. You get a real sense of community, and you get immersed in their culture. I can't wait to get back to it.

I hope you are staying safe and healthy and home. We will get through this together. Peace my friends!

Friday 5ive- March 20, 2020

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post about five things that caught my attention during the week. Welcome to spring! I can't believe how drastically the world has changed in just a week, especially here in New York City. It's been a week of staying in touch by FaceTime and What's App with loved ones who live elsewhere, and hoping everyone stays smart and safe.

1)  Our doggie photo of the week is of these two cutie pie basset hounds. I see them frequently in the neighborhood, and even though we are all supposed to stay inside, these doggies gotta walk (or ride).

2)  Since Governor Cuomo announced that all restaurants must go to Pickup or Delivery only, every restaurant in our neighborhood has a sign like this one in the window of Bare Burger. People are not ordering out as they normally would, but if this goes on a long time, I hope that people will get tired of cooking and order in. I feel so badly for restaurant owners and workers, it's a tough business in the best of times. There are so many people out of work.

3)  Our local CBS NY News Channel 2 has had a difficult time with this COVID-19. They had staffers infected, and many of the on-air anchors had to self-quarantine. Our local news feed was anchored by people in Boston and Los Angeles. Many of you probably saw that the CBS Morning Show came from Washington DC and now they are in Stephen Colbert's NYC studio. Last night, the local 5pm news was anchored by Maurice DuBois and Kristine Johnson from the sidewalk in front of their building. Their scripts were on their cell phones. 

 4)  We've all been watching the news non-stop- daily press conferences by Governor Cuomo, Mayor DeBlasio and from the White House team. At night I have to have something lighter, so I have turned to old standbys Seinfeld reruns at 11pm on WPIX, and I'm so glad I have new episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine to add to my reruns of the show on my DVR. The standout episodes this season include "Captain Kim" and "Debbie", featuring SNL's Vanessa Bayer. She also has a role on this year's Will & Grace as Friday, Karen's assistant. I decree that Bayer must play every supporting comedic role on TV.  

5)  Since the Book Cellar is closed because the NYPL is closed, I have more time to read. I finished RaeAnne Thayne's The Sea Glass Cottage, abouth three generations of women. The young grandmother (53 years old) fell off a ladder at her garden center, so her 29 year-old daughter comes home to help out. The 15 year-old granddaughter, who was raised by her grandmother, read her deceased mother's teenage diary and now wants to find her father. Thayne writes the three generations so well, I was intrigued by all three women's stories. My review publishes tomorrow. 

The Sea Glass Cottage

Actress Kristen Johnston became famous on TV's 3rd Rock From the Sun, but she also had a terrible alcohol and drug addiction. While she was in London getting ready to open in a play, her stomach literally burst open because of her abuse, nearly killing her. She writes about this in her memoir guts. It is harrowing and honest. 

guts

I just started Kelly Rimmer's novel Truths I Never Told You, told from two perspectives- a mother of four children who has severe postpartum and her daughter Beth, who is also secretly suffering with it while she and her siblings are all dealing with putting their father in a nursing home. I can tell already that I'm going to really like this one, my full review will post on April 6th. 

Truths I Never Told You

Stay safe everyone, and stay healthy. Please be kind to those who are working in grocery stores and pharmacies, and caring for people in hospitals and nursing homes.