Heather Allen

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New week, new stay at home orders! This week the governor of New York extended the stay at home order through May 15, this comes after the announcement that NYC school’s will not be going back (and continue with e-learning) through the remainder of the year.

Josh and I received our stimulus money this week. Here’s what we decided to do with it:

1. pay off our joint credit card that we were carrying a balance on before the pandemic
2. save the rest

As a small addendum, I also went ahead an made some online purchases: matching sports bra and leggings set from Girlfriend (I have succumbed to the lounge wear Instagram ads, but I don’t feel too bad about it because it’s a brand that is sustainable), a pair of Madewell jeans (there was a sale, and this was a replacement item, and I don’t even know if they will fit, so why do I have to keep justifying this purchase to myself!!), and an order of stamps and greeting cards from the USPS! (If you’re reading this, I’m probably going to ask you for your address!) If you haven’t heard, USPS didn’t get much of a bailout with the CARES Act, is hurting financially, and could use some help from the government, but in the mean time, it’s easy for regular people to buy stamps or other miscellaneous items from them to boost sales and keep them afloat. In summation, my portion of money going into savings will be a bit less.

So far, I still have a job! I’m so thankful that I have money coming in to build an emergency emergency fund (as in, I’m building it while in the emergency). I’m on track to save $1,000 in various accounts this month (in addition to the money from the stimulus). My colleagues and I received an email this week from HR that all employees are required to take three vacation days by the end of the fiscal year in June. I’m not 100% sure what this means because it was explained in the email that this would be a cost saving measure. If vacation time is built into our salaries then I don’t see how the company would save, but I’ve heard rumors that businesses do this before they start laying off employees. I hate speculating, but it just is a reminder that nothing is stable right now. Look at this chart from the Wall Street Journal for the projected next round of layoffs. Is publishing a business services? Entertainment industry?

Josh has been productive through all this. Together we’re trying to learn more about portrait photography (he’s really good!). But beyond this, while I’m working, he’s taking a Udemy course of web development that he got on sale. He’ll come out of this quarantine with a new set of skills! (Stay tuned for his pet project, my website!)

Yesterday when I went to grab a package from the lobby of my building, I noticed that I was getting out of breath on the way back up the stairs to our third floor apartment. I haven’t been walking as much and it’s already starting to show up in my health. Need to recommit to doing more exercises. Does anyone have recommendations for home workouts?

Some joys I found this week:

1. Sending a friend a gift through Seamless for their birthday.

2. Watching Josh play Animal Crossing on Switch. This is the cutest game!

3. Microwaving our own popcorn and making our own seasoning. This specific popcorn maker was gifted to us a while ago by Josh’s parents, but in the time of quarantine it’s really become a savior of snacks. In a cost saving measure we bought a bunch of kernels and have been making our own seasoning! Drizzle a bit of olive or vegetable oil over the top of freshly popped-corn, then add a variety of spices to boost flavor. Some examples: truffle salt (I die); or garlic powder, paprika, dash of chili powder, salt; or melted marshmallows for sticky popcorn.

4. Finishing The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin. If you love NYC you will love this book. Such an homage, 6 people become the city of New York to fight off an inter-dimensional being. Interested to see where she takes the series.

5. Reviving my Amazon Fire tablet. This week in an effort to get through some e-books that have to review from NetGalley for 80 Books Blog I downloaded them to my Kindle tablet. It’s better than reading on my phone, but I kind of don’t like the idea of staring at a screen for essentially 18 hours a day. Also, the tablet is out of date (I can’t even return it to Amazon as part of their buy back program!), so I’m looking for something new.

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Stay safe and STAY HOME! ♥

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