monday march 30

today i got a text message from a beer delivery guy letting me know he was 10 minutes away from my house. in my reply, i asked if there was any non-cash method i could use to tip him, to which he answered, "you can send an e-transfer but it's really not necessary!"

when he arrived at the door, i thanked him and asked him to text me his email address for an e-transfer, to which he once again replied that it wasn't necessary.

i felt as if i was in a "no, i insist"-type standoff and that i could get him to accept a tip if i kept pushing. after all, if he was really opposed to it, he wouldn't have mentioned the e-transfer option in the first place. but i was in an awkward spot -- the only way to actually get him that tip would be to text him back (after he'd already left my house) and to insist for a third time that he give me his personal email address.

after going back and forth on it, i ultimately decided that it wasn't worth it just to give him $10, but i came out of the encounter feeling annoyed that non-contact tipping options aren't more widely available during these times. give me this option on your websites, toronto breweries.

sunday march 29

today i was asked if i have any one "thing" that i've gotten way more into during this self-isolation period. although i didn't have a good answer at the time, i ended up accidentally watching the first three fast and the furious movies later in the day and am now figuring out how i'm going to watch the remaining six. so i guess maybe "get really into the 'fast' franchise" is a leading early candidate for "thing."

wednesday march 25

today i earnestly said the following answers out loud while watching jeopardy:

• "sigmund and roy" instead of "siegfried and roy"
• "marie curie" instead of "montessori"
• "old yeller" instead of "old faithful"

sunday march 22

today i was in the midst of excitedly telling my girlfriend about a spreadsheet i was making to track toronto breweries' new same-day delivery deals when she interrupted me to accuse me of "loving the lockdown."

friday march 20

today i ordered takeout from love chix for dinner. having not yet visited a restaurant since social-distancing rules were established, i was unsure exactly how to proceed when i arrived. should i maintain a six-foot distance from the employee? would i need to handle their terminal when paying? would he hand the food to me, or set it down and let me pick it up myself to avoid accidental hand touching?

the process ended up being fairly smooth, but i was still going to such lengths to be cautious that it sort of felt like the seinfeld scene where you see the regimented way they order from the soup nazi.

tuesday march 17

today i went for a walk after work. it seemed like a good and healthy idea, since the sun was out and it'd be one of the few times i left the house this week during this time of social distancing.

however, based on the route i took and the way i dressed, i found myself being pounded much of the way by a nasty, colder-than-expected wind that made my ears and whole head ache. by the time i got home 20 minutes later, i was extremely relieved to be back in the house where i'd spend the other 23 hours and 40 minutes today.

saturday march 14

today i saw that the two library books i'd activated holds on (in the hopes that i could pick them up before my social distancing began/continued) had arrived at my local branch. unfortunately, it happened just after the city had announced that libraries would be closed through at least april 6. at least i shouldn't be at risk of missing the new, extended pickup window.

friday march 13

today i asked my girlfriend if we could do an elbow bump, since i'd never done one before and felt like it was the right time to get some practice.

monday march 9

today i made a reservation for my parents, my girlfriend, and myself at lucia, committing to returning to the restaurant for the first time since losing a pair of winter gloves there in december.

after mistakenly leaving them there after a friday dinner, i called the restaurant on saturday and they confirmed that they had in fact found a pair of grey gloves. relieved not to have lost them for good after only wearing them about three times, i stopped by the restaurant later on saturday evening to pick them up and thanked them profusely when they handed me a pair of grey gloves.

it was about 10 seconds later, when i had left the restaurant and went to put them on, that i realized these weren't my gloves. they were the same colour, but unlike mine, which had full fingers, these ones had half-fingers, making me feel like a 'home alone' villain.

at that point, i made a snap decision to just keep them. after all, if they'd found more than one pair of lost gloves, they probably wouldn't just have randomly handed me one of them. in the following weeks though, i second-guessed that decision. what if someone had mistakenly taken my pair and wanted these fingerless things back, returning to lucia themselves to explain the mistake? should i have ducked back in and explained the situation? would they have insisted they keep the gloves that weren't actually mine?

anyway i've been wearing the replacement gloves off and on for the last three months. they're admittedly pretty good for outdoor texting.

saturday march 7

today i teared up a little while playing the end of the spider-man ps4 game. men, it's okay to show your emotions, like me.

wednesday march 4

today i left my house for the first time since last thursday. this wasn't me being overly cautious about coronavirus or anything -- just a reflection of how uneventful my life is at the moment. think i may have picked a questionable time to start blogging again.

sunday march 1

today i was expecting a co-worker to drop off a laptop at my place at 4:15pm. at 4:14pm, my doorbell rang and i got up to answer it.

as i approached the front door, i could see him setting something on the ground outside, then turning around and walking away, which i was not expecting at all. my co-worker was just going to leave the laptop sitting outside, not sticking around to say hi or to even confirm that i got it? truly bizarre behaviour.

i quickly walked up to the door and swung it open to make sure i caught him before he was gone, realizing as he heard me and turned around that this was actually the delivery guy who was dropping off my goodfood box for the week. my co-worker arrived three minutes later and, as expected, stuck around for a chat rather than just nicky-nine-doorsing me.