2020 Gratitude: A Car

*Our now-local grocery store (image from bostonmagazine.com)*

At the end of August, my boyfriend’s parents passed their old car to him. We had never had a car to ourselves up until this point, and therefore spent almost all of our quarantine within a 3-mile radius of our apartment. Thankfully, everything we needed was within that radius, including two grocery stores within a 5-minute walk, and a Target less than a mile away.

However, I didn’t realize how “trapped” I felt in my bubble until we were finally given the freedom to break free from it! I became excited about doing trivial things, like going to the “big” grocery store to buy a big bag of rice and not having to carry it home. Even a normal Costco run has become a fun excursion!

*My new favorite state park, Borderland – Knives Out was filmed here! (image from mass.gov)*

A lot of the other things I’ve written about so far wouldn’t be possible without the car, including going for long walks and hikes by myself .(For context, I cannot drive, but my boyfriend has been driving to different disc golf courses throughout the state. I’ve been using many of those drives as an opportunity to check out hiking trails!)

Finally, having a car has given us the opportunity to try new date ideas, like drive-in movies and going to a nearby sculpture park.

I had been feeling pretty cooped-up throughout the spring and summer, so the car came at the perfect time. Now, I can’t imagine how I made it through so many months without the freedom of being able to drive outside of my bubble!

2020 Gratitude: Taskmaster

I learned about Taskmaster near the end of last year, with two friends giving the show glowing recommendations. They described the premise, including a play-by-play of the very first task, and I was sold! However, my problem at the time was that there was no straightforward way to watch it. There were episodes unofficially available on “sketchy” sites, but nowhere that was easily accessible.

However, the official YouTube account started uploading full episodes, and I spent most of this year devouring them. Over the course of quarantine, I’ve binged eight full seasons with my boyfriend! We’ve sat through most episodes together, talking through how we would do different tasks, judging contestant’s attempts, and have generally used the show as another way to bond with each other.

My favorite Taskmaster submission – TREE WIZARD!

Throughout the year, we also hosted and participated in our own little Taskmaster competitions among our friends. We had three sessions overall, one that we hosted and planned ourselves, and two others that were run by our friends, and they were all interesting little diversions from the otherwise boring day-to-day of quarantine life.

We did many different challenges, including “cook an egg,” “create a bouquet,” “make a Rube Goldberg machine,” and “recreate a classic painting.” You can see our attempt at the last challenge below!

These Taskmaster games were not only fun and creatively challenging, but they were also a great way to keep in touch with friends! We’d chat with the hosts about rules, with our friends about their attempts, and always had an in-person finale at the end where we’d get to see each other’s submissions and crown a winner. Any way to keep in touch over this quarantine is a plus for me! (Looking like fools in the process is just a cherry on top!)

2020 Gratitude: Ordering Take-Out

I was never really a take-out person in the “before times”. The closest that I would ever get to “take out” was grabbing a slice of pizza or a sandwich on the go or on the way to a friend’s place to hang out. Other than that, I would never order food delivery to my house. I was very put off by the extra costs and waiting time to have someone bring food to my house. If I wanted to eat out, I would go to a restaurant!

However, times have changed! Instead of eating at all of the delicious restaurants down the street on the main road, my boyfriend and I have taken to grabbing take out on a regular basis. After getting a car, we’ve also expanded our horizons to driving a little further than usual to eat at restaurants we normally wouldn’t have gone to before.

Though we both love cooking, because we’re home a lot more often than usual, cooking fatigue sets in a lot more often. Though we used to feel bad about ordering take-out because of the extra costs, we’ve forgiven ourselves for it in quarantine. We want our local businesses to stay afloat and are making a conscious effort to order from them whenever possible. I’ve even taken to tipping much more than I usually would, just to spread the love.

I don’t think I’ll continue doing this when we can go back to safely eating at restaurants – whenever that will be – but it’s been a fun experiment so far and I’m excited to try new restaurants and cuisines!