as scheduled, i woke up at 6am. i didn't even have a set breakfast waiting, but instead i was supposed to fast for 4 hours then eat my set lunch. i wasn't even allowed to go back to sleep, but had to stay awake in the cold living room, waiting for my lunch. i wasn't going to turn on the heat so instead i grabbed the fleece throw and wrapped myself in it as i surfed the web on my macbook pro. kevin slept until 8am, at which point he woke up to use the bathroom and eat breakfast before starting his day. i didn't see him, the less i do the better. the heat finally turned on at 8:30am.
kevin asked me today if i had a handheld mirror. i'm honored to know he thinks i might have everything under the sun, but sometimes he asks for the strangest things. so when i asked him why he needed a hand-held mirror, he said it was so he could cut his own hair. then he asked if i had special hair cutting scissors. why he needed a haircut was beyond me, he just had one back in february. and it wasn't like he was meeting anyone, not while he's staying home waiting out the coronavirus. i told him to take out the bathroom carpet before he started cutting, he didn't even think of that. i also told him to block the heating grate, so hair wouldn't fall into the vent.
kevin was in the bathroom for an awful long time, nearly an hour. was he cutting his hair or also manscaping? i had to use the bathroom by that point and gently asked if he was done yet. he came out minutes later and i almost wanted to punch him in the face. i thought he was going for a gentle trim, but ended up cutting off most of his hair. there was hair everywhere: all over the floor, on the nightstand, in the sink, on the toilet sink cover, there wasn't any place where there wasn't hair. i couldn't even walk to the toilet without getting hair all over my feet. i told him i'd wait until he cleaned up. he asked if he could vacuum up the hair. i told him no, if he did that, there would be hair in the vacuum forever. i could see him brain starting to malfunction because he couldn't think of any other way to clean up the hair. i saved him by digging out my dustpan and broom from under the kitchen sink. before he started cleaning though, i couldn't wait any longer, hopping across a floor covered in hair like they were land mines until i reach the toilet. to his credit, he did clean up the hair, but later when i was in the bathroom i still found hair in some places.
at 10am i finally had my lunch, the last of my muffins, along with some black tea. after a 2 hour fast so there was enough time for the blood glucose sensor to get an accurate read of how my body was reacting to the food, i was finally free to do whatever i want. i grabbed the blood tests from the fridge, packaged into them the padded envelope with the next-day-delivery mailing label, and biked down to the porter square post office to drop it off in the mailbox. i could've just used the mailbox around the corner, but i don't it, felt it'd get there a lot sooner if i went to the post office directly.
coming back, i stopped to admire some of the flowering trees along the beacon street bike path. i noticed some flowering cherries. these were not the okame i spotted yesterday, but rather Prunus subhirtella 'autumnalis' which have pale pink flowers. apparently they can also flower during the fall, and i vaguely recall seeing some flowers last autumn, though i can't find my notes about it. elsewhere, i saw some red flowers which are of of the sugar red maples. these were growing on private property so they didn't have any id tags but i remember these trees from their fall foliage. the flowers i saw were male flowers.
back at home i made my second lunch, as the 10am vanilla-flavored muffins was enough to satisfy my hunger. at the very least i needed something hot, preferably with some proteins. i ended up making one of my english muffin sandwiches, with a butter-fried egg, a few slices of virginia ham, and some pesto spread.
the rest of the afternoon was spent in quiet isolation, kevin behind the door of his bedroom, me in the living room. i was still wrapped in the fleece throw, sipping my hot tea, trying to find something to watch on my laptop. i wasn't coughing, but i don't know whether it's because i'm afraid to cough at home for fear of freaking kevin out, or maybe because i don't talk at much at home, i have less opportunities for coughing. 2 hours after my second lunch, i measured out some red seedless grapes as a snack.
it also began to snow in the mid-afternoon, first some light flurries, which turned into big flakes by evening. none of it would stick though, as it was supposed to rain for much of the night.
i felt tired (and frankly bored) enough that i went to my bedroom around 4pm and crawled into bed to take a nap. i woke up around 6pm to what sounded like a woman talking. i peeked out the window, thinking it was my unfriendly indian neighbor, but i saw nobody. when i stepped out of my bedroom, i was surprised to see a chinese girl standing in my kitchen in a big furry hooded jacket. turns out it was kevin's coworker friend; he must've thought i went out so he invited her over. she came by to pick up some more amazon orders and to pay kevin the amount. i retreated to the living room, turning on the news. few minutes later they left, both of them decked out in surgical gloves and masks. i asked kevin if he was going out long, he said he'd be right back, mumbled something about taking his friend home.
as soon as they left, i went to the bathroom. finally i had some privacy, i could use the toilet in peace and then take a shower, maybe get dinner started before kevin got back. i figured i had 20 minutes, because that was how long the last time kevin was gone before returning home. he ended up not coming back until more than an hour later, my frozen lasagna nearly finished baking in the oven by that point. turns out they just to star market, but because american supermarkets are still new to them, they took an hour browsing. even when i'm with my parents making a supply run, i don't think we've ever been in a supermarket for that long. "you picked the worst day to go," i told him, because by that point there was a steady cold rain outside. he revealed that they in fact picked this particular day, thinking the poor weather would drive people away from the supermarket. little did they know, which governor baker's stay-at-home advisory and closing of all nonessential businesses in massachusetts, that there was a new round of panic buying. in fact, star market was super busy, as kevin counted as many as 30 customers.
nothing like some hot pasta to recharge the system, i felt satiated and energized afterwards.