The Fluffbucket Diaries

On the Catholic blog: Confession in the age of coronavirus.

I’m a sucker for a light regular feature. The New York Times' Sunday Routine is an example of this: a weekly feature that profiles New Yorkers and how they spend their Sundays. The Times also puts together an irregular feature, My Ten, that asks celebrities about the 10 favorite things they can’t live without. It’s not an original concept; I’ve seen it in other places, usually as an excuse to work in overpriced merchandise links.

(My Ten is so irregular that it doesn’t have its own page yet; examples include lists from Questlove, David Chang, and Emma Thompson.)

I’ve been wanting to write a Sunday Routine of my own for a while, but it takes time for me to figure out. (Besides, if I wrote one now, it’d be basically a whole lot of sitting around steeped in cabin fever and chronic anxiety.) Right now, a My Ten is easier to slap together.

PEPPERMINT GREEN AND “TURMERIC BLISS” TEAS. I can’t drink coffee as much as I used to, but I still need my caffeine fix. I’ve largely weaned myself off diet soda (except for the occasional diet root beer, which isn’t usually caffeinated, or diet Cheerwine, which is), and I wanted something relatively healthy. So, I found myself turning to tea. I started with peppermint tea, which is not caffeinated, but found several green tea blends with peppermint for my caffeine; Traditional Medicinals and local retailer Nuovo Tea produce my favorites.

I also get my favorite turmeric blend, Turmeric Bliss, from Nuovo (the blend is actually produced by Adagio Teas, not to be confused with a Tazo Tea product with the same name): turmeric combined with ginger, peppercorn, mango, apple, and other fruit and floral ingredients. I credit my daily two cups of this turmeric blend with helping me break my dependence on ibuprofen for pain management, and it’s become a tasty way to wind down my day after dinner.

PILOT G2 PENS, BLACK BOLD (1.0). Austin Kleon turned me onto these. I used the 0.7 fine point version of the G2 for a while, but I find the bold tips much smoother to write with.

INDEX CARDS. I carry around a small Field Notes-type notebook, but I rarely use it for reasons I can’t quite explain. I also carry around index cards (usually of the 4-by-6-inch variety), usually in a small plastic holder intended for photos, that I do use for lists, doodling, and notes; they especially come in handy when I need to give my tween something to draw on during Mass.

MAGNIFICAT and HANDBOOK OF PRAYERS. As I’ve been in Catholic re-entry mode over the past year and still haven’t fully memorized the order of the Mass (I still stumble over the “consubstantial” thing in the Nicene Creed), having the Magnificat to follow along with has been absolutely essential. Paired with my monthly Magnificat, the Handbook of Prayers – produced by Midwest Theological Forum – complements it perfectly with a robust set of prayers and practices, including Marian devotions, the Stations of the Cross, and a good confession guide.

WORKS BY ST. JOSEMARIA ESCRIVA. St. Josemaria’s three books of maxims – The Way, Furrow, and The Forge – provide me with inspiration and encouragement in my spiritual life.

ROSARY. I think the red glass-beaded rosary I carry around was a freebie from one of the numerous Catholic orders or charities that received donations from my mom when I was growing up. But for a freebie, it’s been pretty durable. More importantly, Bp. Joseph Perry kindly blessed it for me when I asked years ago after a Tridentine Mass at St. John Cantius parish in Chicago. It’s been a constant companion the past few years.

“WAIT WAIT … DON’T TELL ME." I wake up early on Saturdays to listen to the first airings of this NPR news quiz program on the Internet, then download the podcast to listen to it during the week. Some shows are better than others; I’m a little weary of the new hit-or-miss (mostly miss in recent months) panelists that it’s been rotating into the show in recent years, and I miss original panelists like Charlie Pierce and Sue Ellicott. But “Wait Wait” is still a huge part of my weekends.

“LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT." Colbert’s show is a tonic of sanity in the cultural and political hellscape of the past three years.

SPALDING BOOTLEG YOGA PANTS, BLACK. This $20 wardrobe essential of mine is no longer on Amazon, for some reason. (I just ordered a similar product, at the same price, and I’m crossing my fingers that it’s wearable.) I was smart enough to buy two pairs, but I wish I had ordered more when I had the chance. It’s the closest I get to a uniform item a la Steve Jobs' turtleneck, especially now that I’m working from home full-time. Comfy and durable.

CROCHET BERETS. This item has become another essential part of my daily uniform. I started wearing these as a head covering for church (chapel veils don’t work on me), and ended up wearing them to work and anytime I had to go out. My hair has been thinning for years, to the point where no amount of gel, volumizer, or other “product” will make a difference in covering bare scalp. These are light enough to wear in warm weather, work in casual contexts, and can class up an otherwise blah outfit.

This morning’s caffeine source. Delighted that the diet version of this has landed north at last.

Listening to SiriusXM’s MLB channel play the 1962 NL tiebreaker game 3 between the Giants and Dodgers. Fun to hear names like Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, and Juan Marichal during the play-by-play.

I had scheduled a retreat today, but I backed out of it. Kept my day off from work. Loaded the kid and the big dog in the car, went Pokemon hunting, and hit a drive-thru. It’s the most excitement I’ve had in 4 days. 😬

This woman is my hero: “Maybe this is the perfect time to call a timeout on the academic rat-race that was never healthy or fair in the first place.”

From the National Institutes for Health director, Dr. Francis Collins: “To Beat COVID-19, Social Distancing is a Must.”

Digital thinking, kind of, still infuses the tween’s analog activities.

Going easy on the kid during this first week off school; e-learning doesn’t start until the week of March 30. Grateful that several midday hours of enforced analog time (reading, writing and art) each day go well with Nintendo Switch and YouTube time and chores while I work.

Trying to tamp down my news consumption these days for my mental health. The Washington Post is a subscription site, but its Inspired Life section is worth it to help calm my spiking anxiety and restore my faith in the world. Grateful for it.

“2020 Census field operations will be suspended for two weeks until April 1, 2020.”

Social distancing? A cloistered Franciscan nun has advice for that.

The “silent spreader” element of this whole viral thing is what alarms me the most.

I didn’t realize that being a loner was a Gen-X thing. I wasn’t even a latchkey kid, but I was left alone a lot growing up in the late ’70s and ’80s. Who knew that being able to be isolated would be considered a vital life skill?

Had to take my car to the dealership for a fix and maintenance this morning. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen employees wipe down doors and counters in the waiting room.

It’s just past 2 a.m. and I’ve spent the past few hours trying to self-soothe with late-night comedy clips on YouTube. Watching John Oliver’s stark take on COVID-19 this weekend was far from soothing, but powerful viewing nonetheless.

We caved and got an early birthday gift for the tween when we bought the download for the Pokemon game she’s been wanting. We figure on giving her a pass tomorrow on structuring some makeshift learning this week, which is effectively an extra lost week of school thanks to our friend COVID-19.

We’re not going to be massive hardasses about learning this week; I figure on time for reading, outdoor time, and writing both Pokemon fan fiction and a memoir of the dog. And maybe some education video. We’ll play it by ear.

Maybe it’s a good thing I left Southern California more than 20 years ago: “Angelenos cope with coronavirus ‘pandemonium’ by buying craft supplies, weed and guns.”

I admit I was wary of voting another billionaire in office two years ago, but Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been just an outstanding leader during this coronavirus crisis.

Glad we did the early voting thing before the Illinois primary on Tuesday. Looks like other area voters did the same.

Followed along with the vigil Mass live-streamed this afternoon from Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. I may be better focused when I pray with a radio Mass and read the Liturgy of the Word with F tomorrow morning.

Sigh. It’s gonna be a long plague.

Oh, I guess we’re good for a while. Anybody got any canned bean recipes?

In line with Austin Kleon’s recommendation of news produced for kids, here’s a great “just-for-kids” comic from NPR explaining coronavirus.

“…there is not a standard definition of what symptoms are associated with {mild, moderate, or severe COVID-19 levels). … Nonetheless, there are some preliminary definitions that can be helpful in understanding the range of symptoms.”

We called our local breakfast hangout to make sure it was still open. It was. So, we headed over. Typically, on a Saturday morning, it’s bustling; when we got there, there were a few people scattered over two or three tables. The waitress said it was slow yesterday, too.

Thankfully, by the time we left, folks were seated at maybe five tables, with another party coming in.

We worry about our neighborhood businesses, especially small independent places, in this self-quarantine age. I saw a great idea on Twitter:

If you can afford to, please buy a gift certificate from a local shop/restaurant/small business to help them weather the cash crunch most are experiencing to get through this.

We don’t anticipate heading out much more this weekend; I need to clean the house anyway in anticipating of working from home and an extended spring break for the tween. But I may pick up a couple of gift certificates, just for the heck of it.