10 Things That I Have Done In Quarantine That I Have Never Done Before
“You never know what you can do until you try, and very few try unless they have to.” C.S. Lewis
When was the last time that you tried something new? Studies show that we fear the unknown. Usually when I try something new, there is always the fear of failure. It’s natural to think about what could go wrong. But what if you don’t have a choice? As Nike says, you just do it. Here are some things that I have never done before the quarantine.
I made my own hair conditioner (egg, honey, olive oil, lemon juice and vinegar) and had the time to sit and leave it on. Next time I will add banana. It worked out great. My hair was so shiny.
I ate jello pudding and popcorn for lunch -because that’s what I found at the market.
I am grooming my dog every day with proper grooming tools. At first he was into it, but now he runs.
We have made a pantry in my garage and bought another freezer.
Gone thirty something days without makeup
Cut the BF’s hair. It is not perfect but it is shorter.
I colored by own hair -the part I could see.
Eating lunch with the BF and walking on the beach together every day. We might keep this one up.
Deleted all my emails. My inbox is empty. That never happens.
Gone 36 days without seeing friends, family and using a public restroom.
“She refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn’t boring.”Zelda Fitzgerald
It is twenty something days in. I often lose track of what day of the week it is as every day is the same. I’ve developed a bit of a corona schedule for my day. They are not always in this order and sometimes I mix it up – nor do I always get up at 8.
8:00 Breakfast and internet time. I try to work on my blog for a bit but not traveling makes it more difficult. Play some scrabble.
9:30 ZOOM Yoga every Friday with Michelle Azar Aron or her face book yoga on other days. I haven’t done yoga in a year and a half and I can feel it. I try to switch off every other day with Pilates so it doesn’t hurt so much.
11:30 if I can get it to work, I do another twenty minutes of QI Gong breathingwith Samuel Barnes on his face book page .
12:00Spend time brushing my dogs hair because he is starting to get matted and dreadlocks are forming. After, we go out on the deck and run around. Today i spoke to a nice man at Mobile Groomers who told me what tools and shampoo to buy to detangle my dog and taught me what to do. This should be interesting. He felt that cutting the nails and expressing the anal glands was above my skill level. He was right. Soon I will learn how to color my own hair.
12:30 Lunch is whatever we have in the house. It usually involves peanut butter.
1:00 I am taking this Yaleclass online.. It is an interesting time to be taking it but when do you have this kind of time? It is called The Science Of Well Being and I’m really enjoying it. I spend one to two hours a day on it.
2:00 Thisis a good time to getdressed or at least change into a different pair of sweat pants,clean up the house and make the bed.
3:00 We go for a walk with the dog on the beach or the Speedway. The Speedway is less windy but more crowded with bikers and skateboarders. It is easier to navigate the six feet thing there than on our less crowded but very narrow streets. Everyday we have moreand more quarantine gear. Almost everyone is wearing masks now. The bikers freak me out because they come so close. It feels good to get out of the house.
4:30 Meditate for half an hour.
5:30 Treadmill and some TV for half an hour. We don’t walk so fast because I have a little dog who likes to stop a lot.I’m binge watching the Gilmore Girls- anything lightand mindless to avoid the constant corona virus news coverage.
6:00 Check in on family and friends – some I haven’t seen in a long time but I find myself thinking about people and wondering how they are doing.
7:00 Dinner.The BF has taken on the quarantine cooking challenge and our dinners are always creative and delicious. We have made it more interesting by comparing dinners with a couple of friends. It is not supposed to be a competition but…… We are also trying to support our favorite restaurants that are still open by doing some take out.
9:00 TV and Reading. Three seasons of Silicon Valley and Unorthodox. Now we are watching Top Chef. I have read Angle Of Repose and currently Americanah.
We have started Corona Catering for our respective kids. It is nice to do something for someone else during this time. Thereis a lot of me time. But instead of hair, skin and nails it is more about calming my brain, being grateful and being in the present. I wonder what changes I will make in my life and what new habits I willtake with me when this is over.
Fifty Favorite Books That I Have Read On Trips, On The Beach Or At Home
i thought i would reblog this one- since we suddenly have all this time now.
“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.” Lemony Snicket
How does a book make the favorites list? I remember it. I have a really bad memory and if it stays with me, it stays forever. I want a book to take me somewhere I haven’t been before, another time, another place, another pair of eyes. There are books that have taught me something and changed how I see the world. Some of them I have read more than once – under the covers with a flashlight. I identify with certain characters. There is this wonderful moment in reading where you think “You feel that way too? I thought that I was the only one.”
It was very hard to pick only fifty. My favorite books from many different stages of my life are here and in no particular order. If you missed reading any…..they are good.
The Master And The Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov (Russian)
On The Road Jack Kerouac (American)
Purge Sofi Oksanen (Finnish)
The Chosen Chaim Potok (American)
Love In the Time Of Cholera Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombian)
Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell (American)
Swann’s Way (In Search Of Lost Time) Marcel Proust (French)
To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee (American)
One Hundred Years Of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombian)
All Over But The Shoutin’ Rick Bragg (American)
Snow Orhan Pamuk (Turkish)
The Fountainhead Ayn Rand (American)
The Prophet Kahlil Gibran (Lebanese American)
Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand (American)
Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes (Spanish)
The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald (American)
The Stranger Albert Camus (French)
The Giving Tree Shel Silverstein (American)
Diary Of A Young Girl Anne Frank (Dutch)
The Old Man And The Sea Ernest Hemingway (American)
The Kite Runner Khalid Hosseini (Afghan American)
For Whom The Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway (American)
The Unbearable Lightness Of Being Milan Kundera (Czech)
Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides (American)
Siddhartha Herman Hesse (German)
The Things They Carried Tim O Brian (American)
Life Of Pi Yann Martel (Canadian)
The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway (American)
Zorba The Greek Nikos Kazantzakis (Greek)
A Heart Breaking Work Of Staggering Genius Dave Eggars (American)
The House of The Spirits Isabel Allende (Chilean)
Catcher In The Rye J.D. Salinger (American)
The Gulag Archipelago Alexandr Solzhenitsyn (Russian)
“What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.” Karl Lagerfeld
As I was sitting home and feeling sorry for myself and my cancelled trips, my friend said to me “you are so lucky that you traveled the world before all this.” I went through my photos and realized that she was right.
“Toto, I have a feeling we are not in Kansas anymore.” Wizard of Oz 1939
Favorite Foreign Films
I’m reblogging some old posts that might be applicable now.. If you missed any of these or feel like rewatching, it is time well spent., Stay home and stay safe.
There is nothing I like better than sitting in a dark theatre with subtitles. It combines some of my favorite things – reading, movies and foreign countries. The best thing is to be eating popcorn, red vines and a diet coke. Lately, it is healthy snacks brought from home – almonds, Tcho chocolate and water. I know when people think of the best foreign films they include names like Fellini, Kurosawa, Trauffaut, Eisenstein, Bunuel, De Sica etc. This could be another blog. I’m sure most of you have at least heard of those. I thought I would list some of the ones that I have really enjoyed a little more recently. You might find a few that you have missed. They are in no particular order. Im sure you can get them on netflix. Sadly, I feel the need to add a disclaimer. None of these films will cause trauma or violence to anyone.
Cinema Paradiso (Italy)
Writer Director: Giuseppe Tornatore Cast: Philippe Noiret, Enzo Cannavale
It is my favorite movie and my favorite movie score (Ennio Morricone). Cinema Paradiso won the Academy Award for best foreign film in 1989. It takes place in a village in Italy during World War ll and has a wonderful cast of villagers. The film follows Toto (Jacques Perrin), a Sicilian boy who persuades the town projectionist, Alfredo (Philippe Noiret), to teach him how to show films. Spanning nearly 50 years, it draws parallels between Toto’s life and those lives he sees on screen. As Toto matures into Salvatore, a successful Italian filmmaker, the Cinema Paradiso ages as well.
The Lives of Others (Germany)
Writer Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck Cast: Ulrich Muhe, Martina Gedeck and Sebastian Koch
In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police, conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover, finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives. The film does a beautiful job of questioning integrity or duty while keeping you on the edge of your seat with the suspense. The acting is superb and has one of the most satisfying endings. It won the 2006 Academy Award for best foreign film.
Amelie (France)
Director: Jean Pierre Jeunet Writer: Guillaume Laurant, Jean Perre Jeunet Cast: Audrey Tatou, Mathieu Kassoviz
Amelie is a young waitress in Montmarte. She has grown up isolated from other children, very shy and with a vivid imagination. She begins to get involved in the lives around her by matchmaking and fixing problems from a distance. She forms a friendship with a man who slowly helps her breakdown her own isolation and shyness .
The film focuses on an Iranian middle-class couple who separate. More conflicts arise when the husband hires a lower-class caretaker for his elderly father, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. It shows life in current day Iran. The film won the Academy Award for best foreign film in 2011. I think it is the closest thing to a perfect film – it is very well written, acted and directed.
Moscow Doesn’t Believe In Tears (Russia)
Director: Vladimir Menshov Writers: Valentin Chernykh, Valdimir Menshov Cast: Vera Alentova, Irina Muravyova, Aleksey Batalov
The story of three women takes place in the nineteen fifties and continues twenty-three years later. It depicts life in Russia for these three women who come to Moscow to follow their dreams. (A Soviet chick flick). It is mainly the story of Katerina and her daughter. The film won the Academy Award for best foreign film in 1980.
All About My Mother (Spanish-French)
Writer – Director: Pedro Almodovar Cast: Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes and Candela Pena
Esteban wants to become a writer and also to discover the identity of his father. His mother searches for his father. That is is the simplified version of the story. Almodóvar dedicates his film “To all actresses who have played actresses. To all women who act. To men who act and become women. To all the people who want to be mothers. To my mother.” It won the Academy Award for best foreign film in 2000.
Strictly Ballroom (Australian)
Writer – Director: Baz Luhrmann Cast: Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice, Bill Hunter
While studying at the National Institute for Dramatic Arts in Sydney, Baz Lurhmann and friends wrote a short dramatic piece about competitive ballroom dancing. A dancer risks his career by performing an unusual routine with a new partner at the Pan Pacific Grand Prix Dancing Championship. The characters are great and if you are a Dancing with The Stars fan this is a must see. It is being made into a musical in Sydney.
A Jewish man uses his humor and imagination to get the girl and later to protect his son in a Nazi concentration camp during World War two. It won the Academy Award for best foreign film in 1999. Robert Benigni won the Best Actor award that year.
City of God (Brazil)
Directors: Fernando Meirelles, Katia Lund Writers: Paulo Lins, Braulio Mantovani Cast: Alexandre Rodrigues, Matheus Nachtergaele and Leandro Firmino
This is a story about two boys growing up in a favela (slum) of Rio de Janeiro. They take different paths: one becomes a photographer, the other a drug dealer. The story is based on real events. It is about the growth of organized crime in the Cidade de Deus (city of God) suburb of Rio de Janeiro. Many of the actors are residents of the favelas. “If you run, the beast catches; if you stay, the beast eats”.
Goodbye Lenin (Germany)
Director: Wolfgang Becker Writer: Bernd Lichtenberg, Wolfgang Becker Cast: Daniel Bruhl, Katrin Sab, Chulpan Khamatova
In 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of Communist East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.
Y Tu Mama Tambien (Mexico)
Director: Alfonso Cuaron Writers: Alfonso Cuaron and Carlos Cuaron Cast: Maribel Verdu, Gael Garcia Bernal, Ana Lopez
In Mexico, two teenage boys and an attractive older woman embark on a road trip ( yes, a Mexican road movie) and learn a thing or two about life, friendship, sex, and each other. It also depicts the economic- political scene of Mexico at that time.
Together (China)
Director: Kaige Chen Writers: Kaige Chen, Xiao Lu Xue Cast: Yun Tang, Peige Liu and Hong Chen
A violin prodigy and his father from a poor peasant family travel to Beijing, where the father seeks the means to his son’s success while the son struggles to accept the path laid before him. He learns not only music but what is important in life.
The Untouchables ( France)
Writer -Directors: Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano Cast: Francois Cluzet, Omar Sy, Anne Le Ny, Audrey Fleurot, Clotilde Mollet
The Untouchables is a story of a rich quadriplegic, his daughter and staff and what happens to them all when he hires a caretaker from a Paris ghetto. It is corny, calculating and commercial and I loved every minute of it.
The Wind Will Carry Us ( Iran)
Writer Director Abbas Kiarostami Cast:Behzad Dorani, Noghre Asadi and Roushan Karam
“The Wind Will Carry Us is a film about nothing and everything—life, death, the quality of light on dusty hills.”
A city engineer comes to a rural village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result. The villagers are played by real people in the village. It is a very hard film to describe because it is so visual that you are in it and so symbolic and poetic that you are always searching for the deeper meaning.
The Class (France)
Director: Laurent Cantet Writers: Laurent Cantet, Robin Campillo Cast: Francois Begaudeau, Agame Malembo-Emene and Angelica Sancio
The film is based on the semi autobiographical novel by Francois Begaudeau who plays himself as he negotiates a year with his racially mixed students from a tough Parisian neighborhood. The camera never leaves the school, so we see what he saw as a teacher.
Salaam Bombay (India)
Director: Mira Nair Writers: Mira Nair, Soona Taraporevala Cast: Shafiq Syed,Hansa Vithal, Chanda Sharma
Salaam Bombay chronicles the life of street children in Bombay. The children are played by the real street children. It centers around the story of Krishna who has been abandoned by his mother and is trying to make enough money to return. It is another one of my most favorite films.
Shall We Dance? ( Japanese)
Writer-Director: Masayuki Suo Cast: Koji Yakusho, Tamiyo Kusakari, Naoto Takenaka
A successful but unhappy Japanese accountant finds the missing passion in his life when he begins to secretly take ballroom dance lessons. There was an American remake of the film in 2004 with Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez but it was not good. The Japanese version is very good.
The Lady (France)
Director: Luc Besson Writer: Rebecca Frayn Cast: Michelle Yeoh, David Thewlis, Jonathan Raggett
The film is the story of Aung San Suu Kyi as she becomes the core of Burma’s democracy movement, and her relationship with her husband, writer Michael Aris. She is a real life heroine, a female fighter who uses no other weapons than her human virtues. She was the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Asia. She could not be there to accept because she was under house arrest in Burma (Myanmar) for over a decade. Michelle Yeoh who plays her in the film is not allowed into Burma. It is an important movie, especially if you don’t know much about her.
“This morning when I was at the post office two people with masks entered and there was TOTAL PANIC! Then they said:”This is a robbery and we all calmed down….” unknown
“Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you from getting me sick” unknown
Eventually all those people stocking up on supplies at Costco are going to have to leave their houses and the Corona Virus will still be here. It will lighten up in the spring and summer as viruses do, and come back in the winter. It is something we will learn to live with like Aids and Airport Security.If you have not been addicted before, hand sanitizer is the new normal. Someone you know or maybe you will get it and next year there will be a vaccine and things will calm down.
The decision to travel or not is a tough one. I just had to cancel my month long trip to Germany and France in mid April.The first part was a tour with the Jewish Heritage Museum though the Alsace region. I was particularly excited to go tothe baths in Baden Baden – a bucket list thing for me. Afterward, I was meeting the BF In Lyon and we were traveling to Marseille, Cassis, Aix and laterstaying in a beautiful winery in the region. We would have ended up in Paris for a few days. It was a lot of planning and involved planes, trains and cars. I have not cancelled part two yet.
I know it is the right thing to do at this time but when it comes to travel-all reasoning disappears. I haveterrible travel envy and the cure for me is planning a trip. I always have something to look forward to and now I don’t – other than maybe not getting sick and dying – which is big.
At the moment it feels like I am sitting at home thinking about traveling a lot more than I am actually traveling.
I’ve always had anxiety and lived my life in fear so this collective fear doesn’t feel strange to me. The best we can do is to wash our hands and avoid people who are coughing. I’m germaphobic so I do this anyway. I was way ahead of my time with social distancing. I am no longer weird and can proudly touch things with my elbow and not hug hello.
Life is tough and unpredictable .No matter how well-thought-out your plans might be, they’re bound to be disrupted at some point. Don’ttake it personally, it’s just life and like everything else this will pass.
And by the way, thanks for freaking out and buying all the toilet paper.
“Wash your hands like you just got done slicing jalapeños for a batch of nachos and you need to take your contacts out.”Unknown
As the Corona Virus spreads around the world, health officials are saying washing your hands a minimum of twenty seconds with soap is helpful to prevent infection.
Here are some things you can do in your head for twenty seconds while washing your hands.
Sing Happy Birthday twice.
Sing the chorus of Jolene. Dolly Parton.
Recite as much of the Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll as you can remember or any other poem you had to memorize in school.
Sing the first verse of God Save the Queen, the British National Anthem.
Hum Grieg’s In The Hall Of Mountain King.
Sing the chorus of Africa. ToTo.
Recite the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence or any speech you had to memorize in High School.
Hum Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.
Sing Mambo Number Five. Lou Bega.
Sing the chorus of Raspberry Beret. Prince.
Hum Ravel’s Bolero.
Sing the chorus of Truth Hurts. Lizzo.
Hum the March Of The Toreadors from Bizet’s Carmen.
Sing the chorus of Owner Of A Lonely Heart. Yes.
Say the famous Star Trek speech. “Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before.”
Travel Well, Fly Safe 
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