Saturday, March 27

I didn't sleep well last night. I kept waking up in the night, feeling like I had something to do, even though that couldn't be less true.

I gave up on sleep around 5:30am. After showering, I took advantage of the early-morning window of decent WiFi and called my mom via Facetime. She's visiting Chicago, so I got to see her, Mirah, Aaron, and Megan, doing their dinner rituals with the kiddo.

Mom and Mirah at lunch

Not getting enough sleep gives me a jittery feeling in my chest, like my heart is beating fast, and I started worrying what being in a sleepless state would do to my day—would yoga be hard, would I be less fun to be with during Outside Time with Roman? You can see that some of the rigidity I tried to let go of, starting on Day Seven, has crept back in. I stopped and did a meditation to calm my heart and to get at least a little out of my goddamn head.

I went to check on the street dogs—I've hardly seen any in the last few days, and the parking lot had been empty when I checked earlier in the morning. But now there were, like, seven tan-colored dogs in the parking lot! Oh how I wish I had a high-powered telephoto lens. To, you know, show you guys some dogs.

Wait, you can't see all seven? Maybe this will help (and yes, one is out of frame—it was a loner and sat far from the others).

Anyway, I had the Continental breakfast today:

During Outside Time, I photographed one of those zebra doves hanging out on the altar.

While I was taking the picture, I saw something large scurrying across the structure to the right of me. But once I turned, it was gone.

Roman went to investigate...and then beckoned me closer...

And we saw a rat, poking its head out of this white structure, nibbling on something in front of it.

Sorry for the photo, Megan (and any other musophobes). I am hoping that the lack of exposed tail makes it look almost...cute?

I did a yoga class, and then had Hong Kong style chicken and rice for lunch.

It seems to be the same dish as khao man gai, which they translate as Hainanese Chicken Rice in Thailand. Anyway, I had it on Day Zero and remembered liking it? As much as I remember anything from Day Zero? But I wasn't into it today—the rice was pretty good and the sauce was pretty good, but the poached chicken was butchered in a way I don't like—it had a lot of dark (blood? vein?) spots included, as well as the skin, and some cartilage. Which I realize intellectually isn't a big deal, but on a visceral level just icks me out.

Food is actually less of a big deal to me, now that the end of quarantine is nearing. I'm no longer looking for the Next Best Meal that can be repeated, and, you know, I am starting to imagine a life where more interesting things happen than the meal that's delivered three times a day.

Although! One exciting thing did happen today...we got our white wristbands!

They were waiting on our doorknobs when we came back from Outside Time. This means our second Covid tests came back negative, and that we get some additional freedoms. Roman called the front desk to find out exactly what those freedoms are...it turns out we can't go to the rooftop (all we can figure is that the garden is for guests in Towers 1 & 2 and the rooftop is for guests in Tower 3), but we can go to the swimming pool.

So after a little reading, a little meditation, a little yoga (why do I still include these details when you know exactly what I do every afternoon?), I met Roman in the hallway and we took the elevator down to the second floor, walked across the hallway to the first tower, and then out the doors to the swimming pool.

The sunlight was bright and at first everything seemed blindingly white and blue. There was a small blue swimming pool (roped off) and a little seating area next to the pool with potted plants, and a second patio area that looked out onto the street below.

It was not technically a thrilling view, and yet it was thrilling to see new sights.

White wristband life

I thought this open patio, with its white walls and bright sunlight, would be too hot for an afternoon hang out, but Roman pulled a table and chairs into a little strip of shade, and we sat together between the potted plants. With the shade and a strong wind blowing, it wasn't bad at all.

We talked about things we've missed in quarantine—Roman talked about missing the freedom to go where he liked and I talked about missing the freedom to have a diet soda in the afternoon because I have a simple mind.

We also talked about the things that haven't been as difficult in quarantine as we expected—we both thought the solitude would be harder than it has been, but with our daily phone calls and time together in the garden, we haven't felt as removed from each other as we thought we might.

Dinner was pork loin with rosemary and garlic, vegetables, and mashed potatoes (yes, basically the same dinner as last night, but with pork—it's one of their better options).

Then I watched the final episode of the season of Project Runway I've been watching, talked to Roman, watched a cooking show, and went to bed.