Adventures in Grocery Shopping, Running in the Rain, and Watching Killing Eve: Quarantine Diary Week 1
Quarantine Diary Week 1 from Shannon, a 21-year old senior at Berkeley
Age: 21 | Gender: Female
Occupation: Senior at Berkeley
Location: Saratoga, CA
Displacement Status: Moved home from Berkeley. Quarantined with my mother, who is observing relatively strict no contact rules with me.
State of calmness: Honestly, quite calm personally. My mother is constantly listening to news updates about the virus, which feels somewhat unproductive. The world feels like it is in disarray, but I am in my house, waiting. I feel like there’s not a lot for me to do individually, and maybe this respite, while unfortunate in its timing, should be welcomed with productivity as much as it can be.
Reaction to local/state/federal response to the area: Santa Clara County and the Bay Area more broadly ordered shelter-in-place to begin on March 16th. I’ve been reading a lot about Sara Cody, Santa Clara County’s public health officer, and her response to the crisis, which seems to be satisfactory and strong. Still much to be considered about how the government protects the employees of essential services and supports their organizing efforts. The federal government, however, seems to be a lost cause. I am overwhelmingly disappointed with the absolute lack of preparatory efforts on the part of the current administration and with the farcical show that seems to be our national politics.
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Quarantine Diaries was conceived on the first day of this week as perhaps an ode to Money Diaries from Refinery 29, a way to keep up with the lives of good friends, and a marker of these historic days. Someday, we will ask ourselves what we did with this time, and here, we will find the answer. Perhaps, we’ll find ourselves vapidly obsessed with television (like I am in this diary with Killing Eve). Perhaps, we’ll have squandered some time (but time relaxing is not squandered). Perhaps, we’ll find ourselves remarkably hopeful and resilient.
Day 1 (March 16, 2020)
10am — My alarm awakens me, and my phone informs me that I have reached 100% sleep quality the night before. Odd, because at Berkeley, I rarely reach over 80%. I go about my morning routine, and I make an omelette for brunch with shiitake mushrooms, spinach, jalapeno, and tomato.
12:15am — I hop into my car and drive to the West Valley community college track. This is the second day I have exercised in a while, and I rather like it. It’s unfortunately cold, and I run around the track shivering and listening to the latest Call Your Girlfriend podcast episode. Aminatou Sow and Anne Friedman are doing a special episode on the coronavirus, and I’ve enjoyed hearing their hot takes — to be fair, I certainly fall into their target demographic.
1pm — Arriving at Trader Joe’s, I notice a queue forming outside the door just to enter, and I decide it’s not worth the wait and rapidly skirt out of my parking spot. Instead, I drive to Walgreens, where I pick up some tampons (as I have just rediscovered the joys of womanhood), tortilla chips, and salsa.
1:30pm — Shower shower shower. After exiting the shower, I use a clay mask on my face. Santa Clara County has just ordered us all to shelter-in-place, which perhaps explains the huge line of humans outside TJ’s. I put some laundry in the dryer.
2pm — Searching for some non-academic tasks, I work on finishing my scrapbook about last year’s travels and travails, and I start watching Killing Eve. Since I’ve installed an adblock on chrome that actually blocks hulu ads, I feel like I’ve won the freaking lottery. Sandra Oh is so lovely!!! There are some scenes where Christina Yang seems to show from the inside, but she can’t act on it because she doesn’t have medical knowledge in this world. In any case, I love it, and I spend more time watching the show than finishing on my scrapbook.
5pm — Given that I have potentially been exposed to the coronavirus through school acquaintances, my mother and I have been more careful in our interaction. We both wear gloves to prepare food items, and we will do so for the next two weeks. We make a delicacy — Lotus root stuffed with pork and mushrooms, covered in a flour wash, and fried. I stir fry some beans. They’re excellent if I do say so myself.
8pm — A group of my high school friends and I (we call ourselves TruTribe, ironically perhaps, after winter break’s misadventures at Trufusion Gym) hop on a facetime group video call, but since J has not updated her OS, we have to switch to Zoom. In fact, a Stanford Zoom opens up, attacking me on my screen. We chat for a bit about life and random stuff. Lots of derping and laughing as usual, especially about A’s excess bananas. Quarantine Diaries is born.
9pm — I continue watching Killing Eve while performing menial tasks, like cleaning out my work desk, determining if pens no longer work (and throwing them away). I also write a birthday card to mail to my friend who is studying abroad in Berlin.
11:30pm — I prepare for bed. After snuggling under my covers, I open my kindle to search for a book to read. Someone somewhere sometime ago inspired me to purchase Jonathan Safron Foer’s We Are the Weather, and I’m feeling like reading something about collective responsibility. I read the first 20% and decide to finish it tomorrow. It’s a meandering book, but I do feel somewhat inspired by it.
1am — sleep.
Day 2 (March 17, 2020):
10:30am — Awaken. I derp about, read more of my book, and make myself another omelette of similar contents. My mother comments, saying she didn’t teach me to eat oily things in the morning — it’s an omelette, mother!!
12:30pm — A meets me at the West Valley Track. Shame on us for not sheltering in place, but one needs some sanity even with some 6 feet distance. I arrive earlier, so I stretch and walk about the track prior to her arrival. We talk about many things and nothing in particular whilst walking around the track. Some yoga occurs on the grass under the California sun that peeks behind the clouds.
1:45pm — Back to my abode. I quickly shower, wash my hair, and put on clothing so I can make my 2pm class that is now on Zoom. My mother has made me some noodles, which I happily consume during our Zoom discussion. It ends up being very conversational, mostly consumed by updates from people in the class about their quarantine situation. One of the Prof’s prior students joins the call and gives a presentation about doing college in China during the coronavirus.
3:45pm — Class has ended, and I feel rather sleepy. I make some tea, and mosey to my couch where I read We Are the Weather. I may have napped for a few moments, before being called to make rice and wash the dishes.
5pm — My mother and I skin a potato and make a stir fry julienne’d potatoes with jalapeno, along with leftovers from yesterday. A scrumptious dinner, interrupted by periodic shouting of Mad Money’s Jim Cramer from my mother’s ipad. We discuss the free-fall of the market, and my mother discusses the extreme volatility of stocks, especially in comparison to China’s relative stability, due to government controls.
10pm — I’ve finished my book, feeling quite moved by the necessity of individual intervention in climate change through the change of our diets. I also ponder my individual responsibility in convincing my mother to change her behavior, voting habits, etc, and my own in learning more about our recycling system for example (you’d think I’d know by now which plastics can go in our recycling, but I still feel unsure, especially with distinctions between counties).
10:30pm — I decide to finish my scrapbook, so I can clear away the mess I’ve made on the living room table. Killing Eve plays in the foreground as I tape away and glue away. My friend N has my glue gun, so some things remain undone. I also don’t have enough picture paper to print all the photos I need. I also text a large assortment of people, asking after their health. It’s interesting to revive these dormant connections.
2am — I decide the scrapbook is as finished as it can be, and I move to do my nightly routine. My feet are very cold, so I hop onto my counter and run my feet under warm water. Sleep.
Day 3 (March 18, 2020):
10:30am — S (another friend from high school) calls me, just as my alarm rings. We discuss the quarantine and her recent arrival back to the South Bay. Her parents have set up a true barrier, and are taking their meals separately. Yikes. J & M join the facetime call, and we chat about our lives for a very long time, covering breakups and more. I make myself some yoghurt with blueberries. I wish I had some granola, but I unfortunately left the granola options at my apartment. Sad reax.
12:15pm — We stop calling, as J & M are staying at A’s house, and are annoying us with chatter about making a baked cod. My mother and I make food for lunch and eat it together, each of us using gloves to prepare. Seems a bit extra, but I understand the desire. After lunch, I prepare the goods for our dinner, defrosting some spare-ribs and chopping some veggies.
2pm — I ponder the format of the quarantine diaries, having asked some of my friends if they too would like to partake. We schedule a call for 4pm, and I sit down to write down the last few days.
3:45pm — I start the spareribs, and let them boil for the next 2 hours. A TruTribe Zoom call, but it seems Berkeley didn’t purchase a Zoom pro subscription for the students, and we have a ticking time bomb, so after running that clock out, we switch to the Google Hangout. We discuss the quarantine diaries situation amongst chatter about our lives.
5pm — I hop off our gchat at 4:55 with a surprising turn of events. I’m on a call with a recruiter from Lyft (really unexpected, as I turned in an app and didn’t hear back from them for like four months). It seems to go well. She said she’ll send a SQL test tomorrow.
5:30pm — Post call, I finish the spareribs, adding in some radish and other items. My mother makes some vegetables, and we gorge on our lovely dinner items. I peruse my bookshelf for a book to start, and I choose Jade Chang’s Wangs vs the World, which I already love by the 5th page.
8:30pm — My mother calls a meeting, so I put on real people clothing to meet her in the dining room; we speak of my future prospects. It’s grim. Thank goodness this is a short meeting, as we end at 9:15. We walk our trash cans all the way to the curb, which is kinda a lot of effort for my arms.
11:30pm — To bed, but not to sleep. I decide to forgo an early morning in exchange for finishing Wangs vs the World! A suspect decision, but I indeed finish the book. No regrets at all!! It’s a wonderful novel!!
3:30am — sleep.
Day 4 (March 19, 2020)
10:45am — Awaken. I feel sleepy still, but I decide I must get up, as it is already so late. I think I must wake up earlier, and I resolve to wake up at 9am tomorrow. My morning ablutions. I make myself a frozen Chinese pancake. I forgot to put oil! Oops. Add some oil and make my breakfast.
11:30am — My friend F (fellow diarist) has started a book club where a bunch of us mail each other books, so I decide to add my name onto the list and pick out a book to send to her from my shelves. I choose The Secret History of the Mongol Queens, one of my favorite nonfiction books about a somewhat obscure topic. Whilst clearing my desk a few days ago, I discovered a few greeting cards from redbubble, so I whip one of them out (it’s a young Obama pointing to his t-shirt that says “Fuck Trump”) — quickly pen a note, and out the door I go at 12:20 to go to my trusty West Valley College track for a short run (and an excuse to leave the abode).
1:45pm — Back home after my brief stop at the post office and a run at the running track. I shower and wash my hair, set up my hammock outside my abode, and join the Zoom call for my class whilst munching on a peach. At first, it is very pleasant with the sun shining and the world glowing, but it soon becomes overcast and cold, so I re-enter the abode. F and I chat in Zoom for a lot of class.
3:40pm — I watch the new Jimmy Fallon show with Lin Manuel Miranda, then I pour myself tortilla chips and salsa to enjoy as I study SQL. I review some example questions, then go do my assignment for Lyft, which surprisingly isn’t so hard.
7:30pm — I finally submit the assignment to Lyft, spending honestly way too much time on the language of my response. My mother asked me midway to purchase some Emergen-C on Amazon, and I buy 3 packs of 60. She says “Buy More!” but I say no! We don’t need more!
8pm — My mother returns from her venture out of the abode, and we eat some carrot congee with various cold dishes. Yummmmmmm.
10pm — My mother and I mosey down to the curb to pick up our newly emptied trash cans, and lug them all the way up the hill. I realize that I was supposed to fly to Marrakech tomorrow, and I am sad about all these coronavirus problems!! I also realize I forgot to cancel all the flights, so I proceed to weed through some bureaucracy, finding also that most of the flights are already cancelled, but I need to request refunds — that’s dumb as fuck — they flights are cancelled already!! It’s 12:38am by the time I’m done with that. Ugh.
1:30am — Sleep.
Day 5 (March 20, 2020)
9:15am — I am up before my alarm! This disgruntles me a bit, but I scroll on Instagram and roll out of bed. I make myself some yoghurt with bluebs. My mother finally approved of my breakfast choices.
10:30am — I head over to the West Valley Track for my morning run. I do 20 minutes of running and 10 minutes of abs. My soundtrack is Andrew Yang and Kara Swisher chatting together about coronavirus, presidency, and tech. Very interesting and insightful. It feels like she’s very laudatory of Andrew Yang in a way I’m not used to from her.
11:15am — A and I do the coronavirus shuffle in line as we wait to get into Trader Joe’s. An old man behind us wearing a mask inquires as to the origin of the coronavirus shuffle. It is of my invention! I purchased many items, deciding to make an oven roasted salmon, roast vegetables, and a beet salad for dinner.
12:25pm — Back at the abode, my mother inquires as to whether I have worn a mask. The answer is no. She is angry. Yikes. I shower, and we heat up some leftovers for lunch.
1pm — After lunch, I decide to finally organize my room, which takes about 2 hours. Ugh. I also remove some items from my closet that no longer capture my essence and place them in a suitcase for next year’s perusal. The Marie Kondo spirit is upon me.
4pm — N, my current college roommate, has sent me her recipe for salmon!! I decide to work on the marinade, cutting the vegetables, and mixing the sauce now. At around 5:15, I place the vegetables in the oven, and at 5:30, the salmon.
5:50pm — My vegetables are getting crisp, so I take them out and plate them. A couple minutes later, I take the salmon out of the oven, unwrapping the aluminium to check if it’s done (it is), and plating the salmon too. Everything looks rather good, and upon tasting, lives up to the expectation!
7pm — Feeling accomplished, I derp about on the interwebs. My mother approaches with the proposition of watching a movie, and we spend an actual forever choosing the movie, a 1993 Chinese movie called Farewell, My Concubine that I find incredibly moving. It’s about two boys, growing up in a Beijing Opera troupe, reaching commercial success/doom throughout the mess of WWII and the Cultural Revolution. It’s nearly midnight when we’re done watching, as it was a 2h40m long movie :0
1am — Sleep.
Day 6 (March 21, 2020)
10:30am — Awaken, rather late, feeling unproductive and lazy. I read some fanfic (yikes as it is all quite bad) and roll out of bed for some cereal at 11am. Then, to avoid exercising, I watch Tan France make a Daal curry on Instagram.
11:50am — Finally, I do some working out in my living room. I do S’s 7 min abs, a blogilates 12 minute full body thing, and a 8 min arms thing. I’m done. Blahhhh. My mother asks me to go to the farmer’s market for popcorn, garlic, and olive oil (because we happen to be out in this moment of coronavirus). She makes me put on the whole battle regalia — gloves and a mask. I make it #fashun by putting a scarf over it. Hahahah. No garlic at the farmer’s market, so I head to TJ’s, which has too large of a line. So I go to the nearby Smart & Final, but there is no garlic. Yikes. I head home sans garlic.
1:30pm — I shower and my mother heats up leftovers from yesterday and makes some random items: a few dumpos, an avocado toast, etc. We munch as we watch the first half hour of Red Cliff, a Chinese movie about the Three Kingdoms period.
3pm — F has scheduled a 2 hour creative writing session, which I decide to join. There’s a few prompts, and I decide to do the prompt “describe something dying,” and I write kind of a Woolfian introspection about buying the flowers, defrosting chicken as I wait for them bloom, sitting with my friend M in my Berkeley apartment, and finally disposing of the flowers’ as I leave my apartment due to the quarantine. We read parts of our stories to each other.
6pm — My mother and I decide to consume an East West pairing, salad and congee. I decide to make a beet salad with my house vinaigrette, excellent as usual (even without dijon mustard). I also make a Green Goddess sauce á la Antoni from Queer Eye — it’s not what I expected, but it’s pretty good — i think it’s more dip-like than dressing.
7pm — We decide to continue watching Chinese movies, choosing to finish Red Cliff (1 & 2), which takes us to midnight again. It’s interesting that these movies so captured my attention when I watched them as a youth — they’re about battle, battle strategy, and these few men who essentially play games with the masses. Rewatching now, they’re still these epic masterpieces of war, but it’s broadly disappointing that humans war so much for territory/power. Idk
1am — sleep.
Day 7 (March 22, 2020)
11am — While I have been up for a few moments, it is not until 11 that I emerge from my cocoon. My mother urges me to exercise with her, so I decide that it’s not a poor choice. 25 minutes on the elliptical, 7 minute abs, and a quick round of mat stuff.
12:30pm — Post showering, I decide to make the same salad as yesterday, adding some peaches and using blood oranges instead of normal oranges. We consume my salad. I have a yoghurt for dessert.
3:30pm — I watch Killing Eve whilst cleaning my defrosted chicken. I sever it’s head and it’s feet. Hmmm. Today, I’m making a homemade chicken soup. In 20 minutes, the chicken is in the pot, boiling on low for the next few hours.
4:30pm — My mother and I, outfitted in full coronavirus regalia, head to the next great expedition: Marina Foods and Trader Joe’s. We’re on a shopping mission for some of her friends who are more immunocompromised AND we must acquire some Japanese Nagimo (Mountain Gabo 山药）for my chicken soup. I’ve purchased a series of items from Marina to make a variety of Korean dishes as well for the next week.
6pm — Back home. I cut up the Nagimo and some Wood Ear mushrooms to place in my soup. Then, I stir fry some greens to pair. My mother is back from delivering the items to her friends, and we share in the bounty once more.
9:55pm — Holy fucking shit. I just finished Killing Eve, and it’s so freaking good wtf. I’ve spent the last few hours finishing season 2, and I honestly don’t even know what I feel right now.
11:26pm — I’ve literally spent the last hour and a half (bar a brief interlude on the phone with my father) on a wikipedia hole of Killing Eve, all the actresses involved, the awards won, etc. I’m in love with Sandra Oh. Maybe I’ve been since she was Christina Yang (although not as much as I was in love with Addison). In any case, Sandra Oh is my queen.
As a reflection, my diaries have been a catalogue of the foods I ate, the shows I watched, the books I read, the people I talked to, the exercise I did, and the minute ways in which coronavirus has disturbed my old routines and created new ones.
It’s striking to me how we cannot tell just by description whether we are on a weekend or weekday — the days simply roll by. I’m glad I wrote it down, or I fear I would have forgotten. These days have been somewhat of a blessing, a slowing down of life that I truly appreciate.
I recognize also that these moments are probably among the longest I will spend with my mother for the near future post-college, as we all set in various directions around the globe to find ourselves and our desired paths. In this way, even with the potential joblessness of the future, even with the looming horizon of “what’s next,” I’m grateful.
