CoronaQuarantine, Day 76
I had a terrible night's sleep last night. Nothing anxiety-inducing or anything like that; even when times are normal, sometimes I sleep like a log, sometimes it's the opposite. Last night was one of those opposite nights. Being up well past 11 p.m. watching TikTok videos probably didn't help any. But, then I woke up to pee in the middle of the night, after which it took a few minutes to fall asleep again; this morning I then just popped wide awake again at about 5:10. I was out of bed at 5:14, my Sleep Cycle app indicating 5 hours and 50 minutes in bed. I do best on seven hours, so that was not ideal.
Curiously though, I haven't been tired all morning. We'll see what the afternoon brings.
I don't have a whole lot to update you on the past 24 hours. Who the fuck does, anyway? Well, I guess I do have a couple of things. Shobhit worked at Total Wine yesterday, getting off at 4:15, making it perfect timing for him to pick me up at home right after I finished working at 4:30, and then we drove over to Bellevue to do some Indian grocery shopping at Mayuri Foods, and then get Indian takeout at a very close-by restaurant. We brought that home and ate while re-watching the pilot episode of Ozark because Shobhit had kept falling asleep the evening before . . . and then we proceeded to watch the next two episodes as well. So that was my entire evening in a nutshell.
I will say this: I'm loving Ozark so far, in spite of it plainly owing its very existence to Breaking Bad. Also, I was nice just to get out for a couple of hours, that span of time stretched to that extent because on our way back we swung by my office so I could exchange receiving paperwork. I went way faster than usual and only took a chocolate confection from the front desk. I even signed in and signed out like staff who come to the office are being asked to do, even though I was literally only there for ten minutes: in at 6:05; out at 6:15. But, I figure, if anyone at the office gets infected and contact tracing is needed, even a 10-minute window could provide useful information. Still, I only saw one person there while I was there, pretty far away from me at her desk.
The takeout we had for dinner was very good, from a place we hadn't used before but chose because the average Yelp rating was 4 stars instead of the 3.5 at the place we usually go to. I actually think the food is better at the other place, but not by any huge margin. The bhatura that came with what Shobhit ordered was made with some serious oil though, and although I was fine eating just the one, I knew if there had been any more for me to eat, it would have made me feel crappy.
Beyond that, I just have a couple of news items to discuss briefly. First, it's now public and official, which I only know because I received the email to PCC members in my work inbox: the Central District store is scheduled to open June 17. This is the store that will become our default store for shopping (after Greenlake Village had been it for the past six years; Fremont for the 12 years prior), and by far the closest store to home: 0.7 miles away!
Which brings me to the other bit of news: Seattle's "Stay Healthy Streets" program, permanently closing 20 miles of roads to vehicle traffic to make it safer for social distancing walks and bike riding in the Age of COVID—Google Maps has integrated those routes already, which I only noticed when looking up the walking route to the new PCC store. I knew no such streets have been (yet?) closed to vehicles on Capitol Hill, which made me think none of them were near me—but several stretches of it actually go through the Central District, as it turns out. And I live near that neighborhood border. I had to email Alexia that we should maybe walk some of those roads sometime next week. I already know she won't be able to this week as she's on a weeklong work furlough and leaving tomorrow for Leavenworth with a friend for a few days.
Leavenworth is in a county that has been allowed to move to Phase 2 in reopening the economy. It would be easy to argue that it's not a good idea for people in King County, where there remain by far the highest number of COVID-19 cases, to travel to those counties, but whatever. I have chosen not to bring that up to her. I know she's doing AirBnB in a place no one else is staying in and they'll still have social distancing rules and whatnot, and I'm still hoping to rent a yurt with Shobhit at a Snohomish County campground next month for our anniversary, after all. In my defense, though: camping is an outdoor activity, we won't be dining out at any restaurants, and it's a scenario in which it will be very easy to stay far from other people. So there!
Anyway, back to PCC. That store opening was supposed to happen in April, delayed two months due to all this crap. I've actually known about the June 17 date for a couple of weeks at least, but further delays were always possible. Apparently they are now confident they can make this date. I'll be sending batches down for them to print shelf tags by category by the end of this week.
I got my lunch break delayed slightly today due to another all-Merchandising Department Zoom meeting. This was the regular weekly Merchandising meeting that I only ever get invited to for something special or particularly important; Justine, who is Scott's boss, wanted us all present she we could offer Darrell, the VP of Merchandising, appreciation for his leadership. This kind of thing over Zoom is very different from when it happens in person; in the email Justine sent to the rest of us this morning she suggested we all send the high-five or thumbs-up emoji at the pertinent moment, which indeed happened when Justine went last, at her own request, to speak. There was also a lot of miming of applause in the many video boxes.
Even though Darrell didn't know why the whole department was there (except, I noticed, Noah—I'm guessing he was at the Central District store), he had us all take turns saying something. And even though he asked Cathryn, who does my same job but for Deli, Meat and Produce (I'm in Grocery), what updates she had, Darrell was not as predictable when he got to me and just said, "Are you excited for your new store opening?" Indeed, I am! I did mention it's 0.7 miles away, though I did not think to mention this is the third store I have thought would be excitingly close to me—first the Madison Valley store, still endlessly delayed after three years at the least; then Downtown, which is also delayed; thankfully CD is for-sure going forward.
Bellevue will likely open all of six weeks after that, sometime around the end of July or the beginning of August. Darrell theorized that there may not be any other company in the country opening two new stores within the next six weeks, but even with COVID-19 in mind, it's a big country. I bet there are. But, probably we're one of very few currently moving forward with such things.
[posted 1:00 pm]