Sequestration Meal #446

 

I had an open bag of blue corn chips, so of course that meant I had to make nachos. Specifically, these nachos from Nora Cooks. They were delicious, if somewhat more spicy than I intended; I probably should have seeded my jalapeno before dicing it and sprinkling it over, especially since I already made the cashew cheese sauce pretty spicy. But you know what? Sometimes you need a bit of spiciness to remind you that you're still alive.

(Let's just say these are challenging times.)

Someone on Twitter asked recently why I was still sequestering. (Or "sequestrating," I think, was how it was put.) Those familiar with me know that I like doing numbered series, rather than giving each post a name; it also helps with the tagging and sorting. Changing it now would break up the theme.

However, I am, in fact, still semi-sequestering. I don't know that a day may ever come again when I don't "sequester," because I can't envision going out to a restaurant, and I rarely eat with other people otherwise (and never, ever do I do that indoors). I figure the series name still works, because there is still a high risk of COVID-19 out there due to very high rates of community transmission where I live, and as a person with various health issues already--including a pretty drastic reaction to respiratory illnesses--I am also at a high risk if I contract it, even though the risk is lower because I am vaccinated. So I have to go to work, and in that sense I'm not sequestered. I don't have to socialize over food,  though. And so, I guess, I am also still sequestered, or semi-sequestered. All my meals are sequestered.

Honestly, I sometimes would like to ask, why are you not? But I know everyone has to make their own rules these days; heaven knows nobody seems to be interested in making any clear rules to keep people safe out there. And if you've had COVID recently you can probably do whatever you want without fear of getting it again for a few months.

I mask. I eat alone or I eat outside. I don't go places I don't need to go. It may be the case that COVID exists for us in perpetuity, knocking off swaths of the population here and there, forever. I don't know. But I choose not to contribute to it, nor to succumb. So I'm keeping "sequestration meal" for now as a descriptor for the food I make at home and share with you.

To all of you who are still out there, taking an interest in this mundane part of my life, I thank you.