It’s funny how quickly habits can change in a society that seems dogged about its civil liberties and rights. Once upon a time, Americans made fun of Asians both in Asia and in the U.S. who would go outside wearing masks. They said they looked stupid, that they didn’t actually help with the spread and transmission of colds, flus, viruses. When the concept of wearing a mask seemed to finally be pushed by our flawed CDC, a number of machine-gun-bearing, pro-American freaks across the nation stormed around their state’s capitol buildings, holding signs and yelling that being forced to wear a mask when leaving their homes stripped them of their American freedoms, that wearing a mask was akin to being forced into slavery.

Do these people even know what slavery actually encompassed — across the world and in the very country that they call home? Because if they actually had any understanding of this in the slightest, they’d realize that being asked to wear a mask — to protect themselves, is not even remotely in the same realm as slavery.

Then throughout the month of April, the number of Americans wearing masks outside their homes grew and grew. During the first week of April, the number was around 30-40 percent depending on the area of the country. Then, now that we are in May, the data is showing that over 80 percent of the country is wearing masks when leaving their homes. And it’s even become a fashion statement: Nancy Pelosi seems to be color-coordinating all her masks with her outfits when in public and doing her usual House Speaker duties. There are new thinner, summer-ready masks that are being marketed and sold for park/beach wear. Social media influencers are modeling their different styles of masks on Instagram and TikTok.

So I thought to myself, if mask-wearing is part of our new normal, maybe I should start investing in color and pattern coordination, too, since why not? We have no idea how long this will last, and if it’s for the next year, a $10/mask investment really isn’t that much… especially considering that all the things we normally spend money on, such as eating out, socializing, travel, theater, are nonexistent for the near future. I went on Etsy and was overwhelmed with all the options: pattern or no pattern? Pockets? Adjustable straps? What size will fit my face vs. Chris’s? Filters or no filters? Extra room for the nose to allow for better breathing? Hmmmm.

Then, I checked the mail this week, and it just so happened that a colleague who I’ve been collaborating on a project with sent me a custom-made mask with my last name on it as a gift for our work together.

I guess this is the beginning of my mask collection? A year ago, I never would have thought I’d even own one mask. Now, I’ve got two along with all the airplane eye masks we’ve been using as make-shift masks.

Since 2013, I started a conscious goal to read at least 12 books per year. I read a good amount of news, breaking and long form, and I listen to a lot of podcasts, but I wanted to commit myself to reading actual books, especially since I’d learned that as adulthood responsibilities really kick in, people tend to de-prioritize books… as depressing as that sounds. I’ve kept a running list of books read each year, and between 2013 and this year, I’ve met my goal all except two years. Last year, I read 18 books, which was my highest year since I started tracking, and this year, although we are not even through May yet, I’ve already read 11. Shelter in place, with no social life and no travel, has certainly enabled me to read more. I read across pretty much every medium: physical books, Kindle, and audio. I don’t necessarily read “current” books, but I read books that have been on a long “to-read” list, and then occasionally reprioritize books based on availability via NYPL/Libby, or what I just feel in the mood for.

I told my colleague yesterday that I’d read 11 books already, and she couldn’t believe how productive I’d been since quarantine began and commented on how much of a sloth she was next to me. She said she really only reads books during her vacations, which she takes maybe two per year. That made me wonder what the average number of books Americans read per year was. The last time I could find data on this from 2011, it looks like the average number of books read by Americans was about 12 per year. That sounds high, but that’s because averages cannot necessarily be trusted, as these are skewed by crazy outliers, like those who are retired and read 80 books a year, or overachievers like Bill Gates, who reads at least 50 books per year. So a better number to choose is the median number, which is actually four books read per year by the average American. That actually sounded higher than I thought, as I thought it would be around 2.

So I suppose my goal is “average,” but my actuals are far above the median. But then the next question is: how do we define “book,” and just because you listened to an audio book does not necessarily mean that you took anything away from it? I try not to continue reading any book beyond the 100-page point if I do not find it interesting since I think that at that point, if you haven’t gotten my attention, you are actually taking away my attention from other books that are likely better and better to me.

Books are a good escape. They’re a way to learn about topics and people and places that you don’t always get exposed to. I guess it’s no wonder I am reading so much more now than pre-quarantine since I cannot go anywhere and explore physically. The exploration now needs to be done virtually and via books.

I’ve now finished editing and uploading 40 videos to Yvonne meets Food. It’s taken quite a lot of time, energy, and wrist/finger strength, but it’s been gratifying to see the work getting done and see my subscriber count slowly inch up. I’m officially at 151 subscribers now, which is not necessarily a huge thing to celebrate just yet, but it’s still a long way from when I was just hovering around 40-50 when I began this journey. I just finished editing my first of two Bali videos, and in the first video, I get to try Babi guling, or Balinese roasted suckling pig, for the very first time.

Last night, I dreamt I was back in Ubud eating Babi guling again, and I was filming a video where I was eating it and describing the tastes and textures to the camera man (who was not Chris). Was this actually something I was doing for real work? It’s unclear in the dream. Maybe one day it will become a reality, but in the meantime, I just need to keep chugging along and get these videos out.

Chris’s dad’s birthday is today. For as long as Chris and I have been together, Chris’s parents have almost always been traveling, usually in North America, during the time of his dad’s birthday every May, with a couple exceptions. They usually choose to travel at this time because his dad, who is self-employed, has a slower work period at this time. It’s also because the weather tends to warm up as spring approaches in the northern hemisphere, and they prefer the milder temperatures. While he certainly had a different kind of birthday this year with COVID-19, Chris’s mom prepared a nice meal of Sri Lankan style hoppers with eggs in them alongside a curry. No travel, but at least Sri Lankan food can come to him.

Chris’s dad’s favorite topic is always about travel: airports, airport lounges, different airlines, airline and hotel status, hotels and their amenities, different cultures and what makes them interesting across the world when they do their big round-the-world trips each year. So the worldwide pandemic has obviously halted a lot of his plans and what he’s looked forward to during the year. Because of this, he has less to talk and email us all about. In fact, these are the last two email subjects of emails he has sent the family: “Airbus A380” and “Jazzed Up Amenity Kits.” What will we do if we cannot travel for longer than just a few months, if it goes beyond a year? What will his emails and discussions be about then?

The current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic is pretty bleak. Our country is full of incompetent politicians and people, eager to believe conspiracy theories and to compare the COVID-19 deaths to the deaths of people who suffer heart disease or strokes. They do not realize that lives actually matter, and that to compare saving lives with saving the economy is a false equivalency. And I realize that while I hate the current administration and all the enablers that allow President Dipshit’s lies and moronic ways to continue, the pandemic has actually restricted my day to day life, preventing me from doing the big and little things I love: going to the gym, grabbing coffee with a colleague, meeting a friend for dinner at a restaurant, traveling, whether for work or pleasure, exploring new cultures. We can’t even hug people anymore. It’s all on pause for who knows how long, and we have this orange incompetent loser to thank for all this. And for the foreseeable future, no one will want dirty Americans entering their countries for fear that we are carrying the virus and will infect their people. And why should they want us given the terrible way we’ve responded as a nation and how selfish and short-sighted we have been? Trump got the wall he wanted between the U.S. and Mexico, though it’s an invisible wall where actually, Mexico would want to enforce it because they don’t want us coming over and infecting their people. Anyone who could possibly support this administration in the current situation is completely dead to me.

Apparently, The New York Times columnist Alison Roman, who I have recently decided I cannot stand because she likes to steal food staples of people of color and whitewash them, has decided to attack two successful women of color, Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo, for their “content farm” and creating empires with their names on them. It’s funny that she would actually go after women of color who are successful instead of other white women who have decided to stick their name on everything to make millions, whether that is Gwyneth Paltrow or Rachel Ray or Giada de Laurentiis. Her spice colonialization also clearly knows no bounds, because she has repeatedly been interviewed saying that her bland coconut turmeric chickpea stew is “not a curry” and is not at all influenced by the food of South Asia, even though the New York Times, after having experienced backlash for #thestew, has edited the description to say that the stew “evokes” the food of South India. A few other foodies in my Facebook college food group have also noted that she’s taken things like kimchi, fish sauce, and harissa, and made it seem like no big deal, like she just discovered them on her own and was not influenced at all by Korea, Vietnam, or countries in North Africa/the Middle East that use harissa. She even had the gall to host a paid food tour of VIETNAM last year so that people could experience Vietnam with her, even though this was her first time in Vietnam and she knew absolutely nothing about Vietnamese culture. This tour was clearly made for white people who did not know any better at all.

It’s always amazing to me how there can be such clueless white people out there who can profit off of the foods and creativities of non-white nations and think they are doing absolutely nothing wrong. Her cookbooks, supposedly best sellers, are catering to people who are exactly like her, and sadly, what that means is that there are too many people who are just like her out there. This is how my cynicism of the world continues.

Sheltering in place has gone on for over two months now for us here in New York City. While working from home has been fine and bearable, though I do miss work travel, the worst part about all of this is not being able to do two of the things I love most: travel and eat. I can’t eat out at a restaurant, and many restaurants across the city have closed. So of the restaurants that are within walking distance or can do delivery, that’s what we’ve been indulging in once or twice a week during this period. And to date, nowhere in sight can I find a reasonably decent Vietnamese spot who can fulfill my banh mi craving… until today!

Pho Shop is actually on the Upper West Side on 72nd Street, and we found out from their Instagram account that they reopened this location today. Chris indulged me and got a big order of several banh mi, pho, shaking beef, and chicken skewers so we could try them for the very first time. To report back, Pho Shop did not disappoint. The fillings of the banh mi were on point and quite generous. Though the bread quality was not clear to me since it was delivered, but it definitely hit the spot. It felt comforting to know that I could get my banh mi cravings fulfilled from a spot that is walking distance from us now, and I don’t necessarily need to go to go all the way to Brooklyn Chinatown to Ba Xuyen for a reliable banh mi anymore. Though I do wish Ba Xuyen the best during these times and hope they come out of this okay.

We’d been getting low on our Teddie peanut butter jar. After some initial skepticism, Chris embraced this brand of peanut butter, declaring that it really did have just the right amount of sweet and salty to it. He did a quick search on Teddie’s official site and found out that Teddie peanut butter can actually now be found at select Key Food locations in the city, one of which happened to be walking distance from us on 85th and Amsterdam. Chris insisted I didn’t look carefully enough. I insisted that back in 2011, when I ran out of Teddie, Teddie was definitely NOT outside of New England, with the exception of buying it on Amazon for inflated prices.

We trekked up to the Key Food, stood in line for about 10 minutes, and went inside to discover not only raspberries and blackberries packages for a buck each, but also both conventional chunk and smooth Teddie peanut butter (with salt). I was ecstatic. We picked up a jar of each and gleefully went home.

We were telling our building handyman and friend about this, that this was our highlight of our Saturday. He laughed and said, “What a time we live in now when the major highlight of our weekend is finding a specific brand of PEANUT BUTTER at a grocery store!” I insisted to him that this peanut butter was absolutely worth the hype. He said it probably was quite good, but these are the biggest things we look forward to in a time of shelter-in-place. Once upon a time, we looked forward to discovering new eats and restaurants, going to the theater, seeing a movie, catching up with friends visiting from out of town, an upcoming domestic or international trip. Now, it’s peanut butter.

Two Bros pizza is one of New York City’s most famous. When I say that, I do not mean that it’s considered the best, the most loved, or of the highest quality ingredients, but that New Yorkers know it for being the cheapest, most reliable, and consistent slice. At no other pizza spot can you get a $1 slice of pizza, and add another dollar, a soda for the “recession lunch special.” The pizza is not quite “New York style” in that it’s not extremely thin, but it’s not too thick either, and no one would mistaken it for deep-dish Chicago-style pizza. The tomato sauce is passable, the cheese is okay. The ingredients are fine. The pizza can easily and frugally satisfy a pizza craving a city known for pizza.

Chris had a pizza craving on Friday, so we decided to get Two Bros pizza delivered from the limited number of pizza places that would deliver to us. He wasn’t sure how large they would be, so he ordered two. Two massive pizzas were delivered to our front door, which was likely enough for about 8-10 people to eat. It was really overwhelming to open the boxes and see the large mushroom pizza and the large meat and vegetable pizza. The pizza quality was better than I last remembered it: the meat was tasty, the sausage was spicy, the crust was chewy and slightly crisp; the mushrooms were definitely canned, though. This is what you can expect from Two Bros.

The highlight of our Saturday yesterday was going out for a long walk… and going to Sunrise Market, the nearest Japanese market to us on 41st street between 5th and Madison. We lucked out, as we read earlier in the week that almost every Asian grocery store was facing a shortage of kimchi. We got a 1-lb jar of kimchi from Sunrise, among fresh shiitake and enoki mushrooms, Japanese egg noodles, and bok choy. I could get bok choy from Whole Foods, but refuse to out of principle. Why would I want to pay that much for bok choy, the most basic Asian green vegetable that white people have come to understand and like, and as such, is jacked up in price at places like Whole Foods? Although I would have loved to get water spinach/kong Xin cai or gai lan (Chinese broccoli), those don’t seem to show up in Japanese cuisine (not to my knowledge, anyway), so Sunrise does not carry them.

It’s always the little wins each weekend going out now: being able to get kimchi and not wait in line too long. Asian vegetables – YAY! Fresh enoki mushrooms, which cannot easily be found outside of Asian markets. This is our evolving reality now.