I was reading Off-Kilter by Life of a Doctor’s Wife, which feels very reflective of how things are right now: the odd rebalancing of what’s what, the trying to be grateful for things that are deep-down blessings but currently driving you crazy (AHEM THE CHILDREN), the frets about the future and about all the people we know, the ethical struggles like whether ordering something online is good for the person who can’t afford to quit or bad for someone being forced to keep working.
Two of her questions particularly seized my attention: When would she start putting sweetener in her tea again, and when would she eat the Easter candy. The question about sweetener in the tea, or in my case sugar in the coffee, is one that feels symbolic to me. When are we going to grant ourselves the little graces and mercies that could make it a little easier and more pleasant to LIVE (we hope) THROUGH A PANDEMIC? Which plodding daily deprivations, so normal in our normal lives where five pounds of body weight was a huge consuming issue and dying of a virus was a remote one, could be lifted during this time of freshly renewed perspective? “Oh, I am so glad that in my last ten days of good health I kept up my commitment to Low Carb Living!!” It doesn’t have to literally be sugar in tea/coffee, but for me it was, and for me the answer was “this past Thursday.” March 26th is when I started putting sugar in my coffee again.
When to eat the Easter candy feels less symbolic, though still something that I too have been thinking about. My answer, if it is interesting to anyone else, is that we are not eating the Easter candy until it is Easter. I want to have it to look forward to, and I want to feel like we’re Doing Easter even though we won’t be doing it the usual way.
Another question we’re lazily trying to figure out at my house is “When did our quarantine/isolation begin?” My last day of work was March 13th. But then that weekend Rob and I went to pick up his stuff at college, and Sunday afternoon when we returned home is when I felt like we were shutting the door behind us and now we were In. So that would be March 15th. But Paul still had to go to work several days that week, and he will continue to need to go periodically into the office. Still, the kids were all home, I was home, we were deliberately not going anywhere or seeing anyone, and Paul was showering after work like he was re-entering a bubble, so that all felt like it happened Within the Quarantine, so I think probably our self-isolating started the afternoon of March 15th. When did yours begin?
Let’s see…. Yes, for us it was a series of events. But yes, the kids were all back from school or had school canceled by Saturday the 14th. John got to start working from home the 16th. I got to start working from home on the 20th. So despite it taking a few more days for my job to get the WFH logistics down, I say we started isolating by Saturday the 14th. (I even canceled the cookie booth sales we had scheduled for the 14th and 15th by that previous Thursday.)
I completely agree about the Easter candy, I need something to A) look forward to and B) make it feel like it’s actually a holiday versus just another day in my house. Our quarantine situation is similar ish. We were semi staying home by the 12th but I still went in to work on the 15th.
I started counting the quarantine days on Monday the 16th. My husband started working from home on the 12th and the 13th was the last day of school. But we still did a few things that weekend that really weren’t necessary (went to a thrift store and bought a dresser; my son had a horseback riding lesson that hadn’t been cancelled yet; went to a neighbor’s house for dinner). I wouldn’t do any of those things are this point.
The 16th, with the lack of kids in school, was the first truly abnormal day.
March 14 was the day I stopped taking the kids anywhere, crowded or not, and started cancelling things. My husband hasn’t been to the office since the 13th. I still went to the hardware store a few times that weekend for projects I was working on, but I was careful with distancing and took bleach wipes with me. Also, I have been to the grocery store a couple times, because we aren’t doing very well coordinating groceries and prescription pick up. We usually shop every three days and aren’t used to a weekly shop. I’m hoping I can get better at this as time goes on.
Other than 1 order of curbside pizza pick up and 2 grocery trips, we have only left the house for the kids to play outside (our 3! No others!) and to go for walks as a family since March 13th. The kids have been in the car once to just go for a drive in the forest preserve. I was last in my office 3/12. My husband works from home with some travel. His last trip (domestic!) brought him home 3/5.
So I’d say our isolation began 3/13 at 3:30 when the kids got off the bus.
I have a question. My parents (both with health issues that make them more susceptible) have also taken quarantine seriously and have only been on walks outside since 3/14. They are retired. My brother lives with them, works from home, and has only been to the grocery 2x and pharmacy 1x since 3/14. So, can we see them? Can we go to their house or have them come to ours?
We are going Monday to stand in the driveway, but do we need to keep our6’ or are we ok? I’m very confident that my children and parents have not been exposed to any other people. My husband and I were at the grocery and my brother too? So does the clock start over? Or can we, like, hug them?
Everyone has a different answer to this. We have decided that we are in a social distancing family with my parents. We don’t go out except groceries or see anyone else and neither do they, but I have had people feel appalled by this. We are on the yes to hugs side but others might feel differently. Ultimately it is up to your family.
We were seeing my mom for the first 4-5 days that we stayed home, since she lives alone and tends to get gloomy and feel very isolated even when she’s seeing family regularly.
But we stopped on March 18, which is about the time my husband was going back in to work after having several scheduled days off and about the time we had the first case in our area. For us, the deciding factor is that he works in an ER and absolutely cannot stay home. We’re trying to operate under the assumption that he has already been exposed (because he probably has) and the rest of us will likely be exposed soon. (Still had to go to the grocery store, though, because now it takes 7+ days to schedule an order online around here, which I didn’t realize until after it was too late to wait) .
In New Zealand we have a mandated quarantine and there is much talk of keeping in your ‘bubble’. So the people you live with are your bubble, and you don’t break the bubble *at all* – especially for elderly people. I would suggest keep in contact online or by phone and don’t go near them. It’s very tough, but how much worse would it be to be the person who gave them the disease?
At this point, my opinion is it depends on your location/case load as to if I’d visit. Lower case load areas are probably ok. But I would stand or sit far apart and I definitely wouldn’t hug. The contact/droplets is the danger.
Starting from Friday March 13th. March 12 was the last time I saw friends, ate restaurant food, went to a bank, worked a normal day, and used childcare. Since then I’ve had to go into work a few times (work in a doctor’s office) but am primarily working from home. We haven’t seen a soul, haven’t gotten any groceries since the weekend before that, and have made every single meal at home. It’s just my husband, toddler, and I so we’re lucky we are fairly easy to feed. I’m also 20 weeks pregnant though and am trying hard not to freak out.
I still let myself have honey in my tea every morning, otherwise what’s even the point of continuing to breathe. I am counting eggs verrrrrrry carefully though and not throwing away ANY food.
I went to work for the last time on Friday March 13th (it seems like so long ago!) and my kids and husband were already home by then. On Saturday the 14th I donated blood at our local center with my mom and we went to a local Chinese place for noodles, which still seemed like a safe and reasonable thing to do.
Since then, we’ve only gone out for groceries and curbside takeout and lots of long walks, so Sunday feels like the day we really shut the door here.
My mom lives a few miles away but alone and recently widowed. (it feels so awful trying to get through this without my dad, who was a doctor and so calm and levelheaded.) We’ve decided to treat my mom like she is one of our household and she doesn’t see anyone except for us and doesn’t go to the store to make that possible.
I always put sugar in my coffee ha! But we have a giant package of Oreos and one of twizzlers that we are saving until it feels like they are Really Necessary so we’ll see when that is.
Our first real day was March 17th when the kids had their first day home from school. My husband started working from home the Friday before. Feels like a hundred years ago. Since then we have only left the house for walks around the neighborhood and I have had two PT appointments at a non-sick people type of clinic.
I’ve been thinking about things like this too. I always put sugar in my coffee, so that’s a moot point here, but I’ve been allowing the kids sweet treats on occasion.
As for isolation – my husband and I have been mostly home since the 10th, with limited trips into the world. The kids still had school that whole week – but we pulled them from other activities, and drove our daughter to school, rather than letting her take the subway.
We’ve been letting the kids out for family walks when the weather cooperates. And I had one physical-distance walk with a friend. Otherwise, we’re keeping to ourselves. (For reference, we live in Queens, NY, very close to the hospital that is considered one of the epicenters of the virus. I hear sirens all the time now.)
Kids last day of school was 3/13. Husband’s last day was 3/12 but he did a grocery trip in what felt like a war zone 3/13. I worked at the library when it was PACKED with people 3/14. We were still letting the kids see their boyfriends up until our stay at home order 3/23. And I was still working in the library without people through 3/23.
I’m still mad that it took an executive order to let us work from home and still get paid.
Ha! How funny to write about the symbolic sweetener on the same day!
I too am holding out on the Easter candy. I want to save it for as long as possible.
I don’t go out much so it’s hard to determine when my quarantine began. Probably the last time I was where other people congregated was February 27th when I went to the pharmacy. Because I am older and live in NYC I began isolating on purpose very early March. On March 15th my son came over (he had been working from home so he was quite safe) so we could go to the park. There were so many people milling around, less than 3-ft apart!, that I refused to get out of the car.
Tomorrow I HAVE to go pick my meds again (one of them is a schedule IV drug and it cannot be delivered.) I thought about not going but if there was a time to go off Ambien, this is not the one. I am having a lot of anxiety over this issue. There is no way my son can go for me because while I live in one of NYC’s lowest concentration of virus-positive areas, he lives in one of the highest. I think it’s safer for me.
As for sugar, a funny thing has happened. I bought a box of Toblerone as my comfort food but I can’t even look at it, it makes me queasy. So do my gummy vitamins. Instead I am craving ramen noodles. Not good for an overweight senior with borderline high blood pressure!!
On the children issue, I know it would be hard having them cooped up with me, but I have wished that they were still little and at home where I could watch over them.
I hadn’t given up sugar in my morning tea, but I had given up treats. Until yesterday, when it was raining (again) and the baby was cry-screechy as she cut two new teeth (again) and our preteen sons were grumpy and on screens (again). Day 13 of shelter-in-place here. Yesterday I mentally had a mini breakdown and decided no-bake cookies would help. Plus, I knew I could quickly find the recipe in Swistle archives. They did help. We call them ‘moose poop’ cookies which still makes preteens laugh. And I woke up knowing I could eat another cookie today. Mental well-being in the rough shape of oats, chocolate and peanut butter.
I’m doing a daily photo on my social media to keep track. My own personal quarantine started march 17th Kids have been home since the 16th. There have been walks and walks and walks but I am the only one who goes to the grocery store and, after 10 days, we do go visit my mother who is older and lives alone. No play dates, no visitors. This is really hard even for introverted pack animals.
The last time we had anyone in our house that wasn’t myself, H, or our two kids was March 15 but they closed schools here starting March 16 so that’s when I’d mark the real beginning of our isolation with the caveat that I work at something that is considered an essential service but I can do 99% of my work from home. Nevertheless I’ve had to go into work once last week and will have to go in again once this week. I absolutely hate that I have to do this, but it is what it is. Also we’ve been to the grocery store and/or pet food store 1x a week since the beginning of this so I guess we just keep restarting the clock on isolation. I think in time we’re going to try to move to shopping only every other week. Am about to start experimenting with freezing milk because we’d have to have a refrigerator the size of Rhode Island to keep enough milk in there to go 2 weeks without grocery shopping.
I haven’t left the house since March 13, so although my husband has had to make some trips to work, that’s what I count as our In Date. Since I work from home and barely go anywhere anyway, the funny thing is that I don’t mind being home this much but I do mind other people not going away. 😂
Ha! “I don’t mind being home this much but I do mind other people not going away” – exactly the right words for how I feel :D
I started working from home this past Monday, so it hasn’t quite been a week for me yet. But my household (consisting of my fiancé & I) may never officially be self-quarantined because he’s helping our next door neighbor & neighbor’s father-in-law with home remodel projects, so not only is he mingling with the residents of those households & the other people working on the remodel, he makes several trips to Home Depot & Lowe’s each day. Not really ideal in my opinion, but he will only be paid by his full time employer through April 18 and money is already/always an issue, so he has no desire to stop helping with the remodels b/c that will terminate an income stream.
How timely, Beth went grocery shopping today and brought home Easter candy. I’ve been granted permission to eat one Cadbury egg, but we’re hiding the rest from the kids and saving it for Easter.
I don’t think I ever stopped putting sugar in my tea (figuratively– literally I usually drink it unsweetened anyway). My feeling about little luxuries is we need them now.
Beth’s last day in the office was Thursday, March 12, but she went back that weekend to gather some things she’d need to work from home. North’s last day at school was Friday, March 13. Noah was already home on his never-ending spring break by then and I work at home, so I guess ours started around the same time as yours.
My kid’s Montessori and husband’s college closed per government mandate on the 14th, so that feels like the start to us. (We are in Ireland.) This weekend more stringent restrictions have been put in place so, all but essential services are closed, and people are not supposed to go further than 2km from home. It’s like a weird dream isn’t it? In fact my actual dreams seem more real.
I didn’t suspend luxuries really but I am trying to cook old store cupboard food like dried beans rather than go to the shop. Thank you for the no bake cookie recipe. They did cheer me up.
My last day of working outside my house was the 12th and my husband’s was the 13th. We’ve been to the store once since then and have been doing Instacart and a local farm box delivery once a week since then. We started socially distancing the last week of February when we went to some crowded events and it felt like people were breathing all over us. However we do live in an area that was hit first so it was on people’s minds even in late February/ early March. I had a friend from NY visit around March 8th and she seemed confused as to why I preferred to FaceTime rather than meet for dinner. It didn’t seem on her radar yet. I think this whole thing is going to turn me into an food hoarder. I’m having a hard time putting sugar in my coffee.
My kids had their last day of school on Monday March 16th. My husband coincidentally started a new work at home position that day too. So Tuesday March 17th is when we were all home together and have since only been out once a week to get groceries at the pick-up. Plus walks around from a distance.
I am also saving the Easter candy for Easter, because who knows if we can get anymore. I have one bag of mini eggs that we will make into Easter nests a few days before Easter. So I guess we will eat those a little early perhaps. I bought the kids a big egg each and 1 creme egg to give them on Easter.
Last day we left the house for a non-essential: Fri March 13, went to a one-on-one meeting and then stopped for takeout at an outdoor mall. Sat March 14 I read about the crowds at airports coming home from abroad and told my family it was time for us to seriously hunker down.
My sugar moment: After about a week of trying really hard to follow all the guidance from teachers and do high quality homeschooling, deciding to throw up my hands and just get through this as best we can. Not going to sacrifice my own mental health to keep elementary aged kids from falling behind on addition practice.
I am counting March 13 as Day One. That was the first day I felt like, Ok, everything is canceled and rightly so. The day before we had been out behaving fairly normally, and then suddenly we weren’t.
Same here. Thursday the 12th was normal, then school was cancelled for Friday the 13th. My husband was already working from home anyway.
We were on an overseas holiday, and Monday March 16 was the day our tour director rushed in at breakfast and told us to pack as quickly as we could so we could fly home before the borders closed. Although it took a couple days to get home. But we’ve been on full quarantine since then, not leaving the house for any reason except getting tested for Coronavirus, no walks around the block, friends dropping groceries at the door and waving at us through the window.
Just want to say that I can only imagine the level of panic you felt having been told to pack ASAP. Very glad you got home!
I don’t know when to say our quarantine started. I mean really if *anyone* in your house is leaving at all, then there is truly no “quarantine” happening. One of my kids hasn’t left the house since 3/12. The other 2 had school on 3/13. And life basically shut down on 3/14, but for the next two weeks my husband was still going to work (part of IT group transitioning a large university to online/virtual learning, then transitioning many employees to working-from-home… so delivering/installling hotspots, etc). And I’ve been to the grocery store twice. I’d prefer to go and shop for weeks worth of food, but I don’t want to hoard, and the stores have limits anyway. Plus, I need to venture out in search of TP. My parents have stopped over twice…. pulled into the driveway, and I went outside to talk from a distance. Absolutely no hugging or handshaking going on. I wear gloves at the grocery store to prevent myself from touching my face.
I drink my coffee black (always have), so no sugar in there for me. I have yet to buy any Easter candy/treats. And realize that I probably won’t since I doubt if Man-Child will be here for Easter. He has proclaimed that he will not come here until this is over – in case he could infect us (since he didn’t take this seriously enough until the governor shut down all the restaurants, etc. – that woke him up to the seriousness of the situation). I started working from home on the 18th but have had to go to the office several times. Luckily though, the building is pretty empty so I see very few people when I’m there.
I hosted a baby shower in my house on March 14th. So I started sheltering in place on the 15th. I’ve made a trip to a Fed Ex store, one 2 hour trip into the office, and one grocery trip in the last two weeks. I have another grocery store trip coming up this week. Trying to hold off until Wednesday or Thursday.
We stopped taking our older son to school after the 12th even though school wasn’t officially closed until after that weekend. My husband has been out since then, I’d say, 4 times for either work or groceries and I’ve only been out once to the pharmacy. But we’ve still been going on walks in our neighbourhood and in fact our city has closed some roads to traffic to make it easier for pedestrians to maintain distance. I think that’s pretty awesome!
I’ve been in for two weeks plus two days, other than one furtive grocery trip (our plan was to all stay in for two weeks once Angus got home. We got to day ten and he had no symptoms so I went out and picked up some stuff, didn’t get within a metre of anyone). It feels both longer and shorter.
“When are we going to grant ourselves the little graces and mercies that could make it a little easier and more pleasant to LIVE (we hope) THROUGH A PANDEMIC? ”
I’m really interested in this concept. My husband and I have hands on jobs, and we can’t work from home. Last week we both found out our hunker down has been extended, and no paychecks coming in for the foreseeable future. Well, he might be able to go back, but I work for the school district so I will probably not work till the next school year. So no money coming in, we do have savings. He is happy to putt around, watch Youtube and sleep. I need a bit more of a cheerful scenario-so I just ordered things from a website I love, that I know will cheer me up when I get them. I asked him if he thought it was a good idea, he said no-and I ordered it anyway. Lesson here, don’t ask! If it were some kind of fishing equipment, he might have given me the OK!
I guess the thing is, did I need those things? NO! Were they super cute and had the possibility of being out of stock months from now, YEP! I guess what I am saying, I really need to see and use what I think are cute things. They make me happy in a world that feels kind of crazy right now. I hope we can all, in either big or small ways, find those things that make our lives easier.
Schools here announced closures March 12 and 13, I had a half day of work to shut down school March 16. We, the husband and I, had already begun Social Distancing Measures and Precautions in the weeks before, and then I’d say Isolation Light March 13, followed by Isolation For Real March 16.
I’m making our quarantine meals as fun and frugal if possible. I turned scraps of frozen homemade bread into garlic cheddar croutons to use with our last box of tomato soup today as a treat! We have been doing quite well making do (we were prepared, plus California means we should all have at least 3-7 days of shelf-stable foods because earthquakes/wildfires/power shut offs) and making it tasty.
We got groceries on Saturday, including three bunches of bananas, which will not be enough to last the week. My five year old eats a banana first thing, like morning coffee. This morning my husband asked, “can I have a banana? Or are we saving them for something?” I said he should go ahead and have a banana while we have them. Likewise eggs (we have some, but there were no more at the store). We will enjoy our morning scrambles, we will stretch them with beans (and salsa- huevos rancheros!), then we will have oatmeal with lots of walnuts and raisins. Planning ahead is impossible. I am trying to enjoy what we have when we have it.
Me: My job started mandatory WFH on March 11th
Son: our county’s schools closed on the 12th
Husband: his job (teaching kids computer programing) went online-only on the 16th (he still has to go to the school site, but there are only 5 teachers and they are keeping their distance from each other and sanitizing out the wazoo). I wish they would allow the teachers to WFH, but something about insurance? I don’t know.
So, really, the 16th.
The only other place we go is to the grocery store, and we limit that as much as possible.
My husband and I go for the occasional walk, and we drive the cars sometimes to keep their batteries from dying.
Us too. We had a small birthday gathering for Felix on March 14 then locked it down after that. We’ve been to the grocery store once since then and I’ve picked up curbside food 2x, both followed by intense washing and cloroxing of surfaces that bags may have touched, etc. It’s very weird to live like this.
My current big stress is food. You cannot get any delivery slots for any stores in our region – I guess I will need to find out when the slot opens up for 2 weeks + 1 day away (maybe midnight??) so i can reserve a slot for 2 weeks from [whatever day i figure out what time is the exact time the slots open up]. I have a family of four who eat ALL THE THINGS and we were not stocked up before this. Even going to the stores in person around here, you can’t get a ton of the essentials – no flour, eggs, dairy, crackers, goldfish for the kids, and obviously no paper products. So. Fun times.
We started when the kids did not go back to school on Monday, 03/16. My husband and I both still have to work out of our offices, so we’re probably not quite as locked down as other people. Our state closed down schools for the rest of the school year effective this morning.
I went to the grocery store twice this past week, and except for no toilet paper, the stores were remarkably “back to normal.” My 17 year old is applying at the grocery stores for a job- because if she isn’t in school or playing sports, she wants to work.
I’ve purchased Easter candy three times already, and we’ve eaten it three times already. On top of that, we don’t celebrate Easter. But Reese’s Eggs are really good.
We’re in France, and schools closed on the 13th of March, and they formally closed restaurants midnight on the 14th because people were too crowded in them. It’s interesting reading all the comments, because following the US press from here, I got the sense that France was like a week ahead in terms of isolating, but lots of you have been home for the same amount of time (or more) as we have. I suppose the main difference is that here it is a countrywide mandate, rather than state by state or city by city implementation, and they fine you if you go out for a reason that isn’t allowed. Very French, there is a form you can download (or copy by hand) where you sign on your honor why you’re heading out: for work if you can’t work from home, errands at a business that is allowed to be open, doctor, helping a sick relative, exercise within a kilometer of your house and by yourself etc. We get fresh air, do errands, enjoy the start of spring. The number of new cases here seem to have stabilized, I hope soon they will start to decline.
I left work on March 12th expecting to work from home on the 13th and be back in the office on Monday the 16th. I even left perishable snacks (apples) on my desk, that’s how much I was expecting to be back the next week. I have to have access to an internal network at my place of work to do part of my job, so I figured I’d be going in once or twice a week no matter what, and would eat my apples there. As it turned out, March 12th was it. By the end of that weekend we’d all gotten orders to stay home unless absolutely necessary to go in, and accessing the network was not absolutely necessary; we were to just let that part of our jobs drop for now and respond on the regular network to anything that came to us via our normal email.
However, there is no point from which I’d say from then on we’re totally isolated. My husband owns a gas station so he’s providing an essential service and with some of his employees having to self-quarantine there’s not enough people to keep the place open if he doesn’t go and do shifts. It bugs me when I see people say “Go for a drive to get out of the house! That’s still maintaining physical distancing!” because more driving = more needing of gas = more people touching the pumps and more people coming in to pay and interacting with gas station workers. Even though gas station owners (at least here) don’t make any money on gas, only kiosk sales/propane/car wash, my husband is doing everything he can to discourage people from coming in and buying stuff, especially with cash. When a gas station worker gets Covid-19 here, it hits the news and people blame the station for exposing everyone… the same “everyone” who are coming in to the store when they could just pay at the pump using contactless payment!
Whew, sorry, that was long.
We’re eating a lot more treats. I’ve started baking bread and adding ice cream to our shopping list. We’ve also started playing board games as a family for the first time. I’m hoping there are some aspects of this whole thing my kids will look back on fondly to balance out all the scariness and frustration and disappointment. I’ve actually been on a diet since the beginning of January, weighing myself daily and counting calories, and I’m letting myself eat some of the treat foods too, but doing my best not to go over 2000 calories a day, even if I do go beyond my budget of about 1400 a day. I usually manage to stay below 1600. I’ve lost about 22 lbs since I started, and don’t want to lose all that progress!
We’ll eat our Easter candy at Easter. I felt pleased with myself for even remembering to buy candy for the Easter morning hunt!
Ice cream, I might start adding that to my weekly shopping trip. We’ve been making a lot more treats, but I don’t know if that’s more a function of the amount of time that the kids have now that they’re not going to school. I also feel like I should get easter candy. It just makes me sad. We were supposed to go to my parents in NJ for easter and obviously that won’t be happening.
We’ve been home since the 16th. Schools were closed by the end of day on the 13th and we made a last run to the library on the 14th. My husband insisted on taking the kids to church on the 15th, but after that my husband and I have only left to go to the grocery store (me 2x) or the gas station (him 1x)
My boss was on vacation completely unplugged so didn’t really understand the magnitude until she got back. I’ve been WFH since March 16. J. is still working because his workplace has a few clients who have essential products that need to be shipped. It’s a small B2B company so no client contact and it’s just him and one other guy in the warehouse so his risk is minimized, thankfully. We’re very lucky we’re both working right now.
We go out once a week to drive my car around, get groceries (there’s no paper products, no chicken, limited eggs) and get takeout. Although we’ll probably try to go once every two weeks now unless we run out of something. J. has been doing virtual happy hours on Zoom, but I have 12-16 meetings a week for work and already have 3 “fun” Zoom meetings scheduled this week – I’m burned out on socializing, even if it’s virtual! (Totally obvious statement: I’m an introvert.)
We don’t have kids and J. is out of the house while I work, so the isolation has been just fine with me. J. is an extrovert so this is killing him. He told me last weekend, “It’s not fair. The longer this goes on, the happier you’re going to be and the sadder I’m going to be.” It’s totally true. I feel I have a disposition that is well-suited for this type of situation.
P.S. Although J. has been making fun of my pandemic preparations, he totally stocked up on Cadbury Creme Eggs this weekend.
I don’t remember when we started all of this. There was a day of no school because they feared a kid had it in our district. That was a Thursday. They went back on Friday, but I think that was it. I think the 13th was the last school day. My kids were still seeing friends that weekend. Not big groups. Coach and I drove to New York (prompted by Lad’s decision to jump on a plane to New York) to get Lad and his stuff from his apartment the weekend of the 20th. Been home since – but Coach is a PT and still sees patients and we have been to the grocery store.
I consider March 14th our first quarantine day. The kids’ school closed beginning the 16th, but our church, for which I serve on the board, decided to cancel services starting Sunday the 15th, and we saw no one after I picked the kids up from school Friday the 13th. My husband had already been quarantining since the 10th, because he had a cold, so he started voluntarily working from home (his office is already set up to let most employees telecommute regularly). However, we’ve been out since for grocery shopping, tax filing (quick trips to drop off/pick up documents, we did our appointment with our CPA over the phone this year), and once picking up iPads/schoolwork from their teachers.
I will be honest, except for missing church (which is still doing online services) and having to avoid playing with the neighbor kids when they are out, this for our family feels very much like summer vacation so far. Yes, my husband is home all the time instead of some of the time, but he was already telecommuting a lot anyway. Yes, my children miss play dates with friends, and I miss my mom friends, but I’ve always been terrible at those get togethers, and we never did them as often as we intended. Even staying inside more feels a lot like summer, because I HATE the heat and will do anything to avoid putting sunscreen on my terrible, whiny children, so we spend so much summer indoors as it is. Right now, it feels like the first three weeks of summer break, with a little more “always being on top of each other” and a little less shopping happening. I’m not trying to brag at all – I think this makes me kind of weird, honestly. But I also expect my own feelings of cabin fever to have a more delayed response because I am so terrible at socializing already. Right about when this forced “vacation” is supposed to be over, actual summer break will start, and that’s when I expect to begin really freaking out.
Note that I am absolutely freaking out now, but it seems more or less like my usual levels of freaking out. Worries about the virus, and schooling the children, and how/when to grocery shop, and all the fun things we’ll have to miss/cancel are replacing previous worries about that next appointment, or school field trip, or classroom volunteer day, or tax appointment, or travel I had to book, or whatever it is we’ve canceled. Apparently, regular life was so stressful to me that having it canceled has meant no net increase in corona-related anxiety whatsoever, which makes me really, really wonder about my mental health, TBH.
Arlo last went to daycare on March 10th. Everett last went to preschool on March 12th. On the 12th I was debating pulling the kids from school and shutting us in but it still felt like I was being mildly paranoid and a weirdo. Gabriel’s last day of school was March 13th. I went to work as normal on Monday, March 16th, and at 10am they announced that the building was shutting down and we all had to be out by 6pm. So my kids haven’t left the house since 3/13, and I feel like the last….normal beginning to a day (?) was 3/16.
That said!
I still have to periodically go into the office (at least once a week), but I’m one of only 5 people in a large building when I go, and I’m careful. Quentin goes to the grocery store. My parents (we are isolating with my parents) visit my grandmother every day, as she’s 96 and lives alone. I don’t feel like we are ENTIRELY self-isolated. My two brothers live with my parents and they are leaving the house for work or for school. I’m leaving the house for work, Quentin is leaving the house to escape the madness of our house. But….I would say 3/16 was the start.
BTW when I say leaving the house for school I mean that my brother is going with me to my isolated “work from home” space, which only we are accessing. My other brother does HVAC and he is working inside of people’s houses which is nerve-wracking, but he is also nerve-wracked, so he’s been showering immediately upon coming home, etc.
No isolating here. I work at a hospital, in supply chain. I leave my house at 5 am and return at 5 or 6 pm, six days a week, and on Sundays I work a half day. This has been going on for 3-4 weeks now and we have no idea how long we’ll be working like this. My whole team is working overtime to keep the supplies coming in to the hospital and while we’re all so tired, we are all very thankful to 1) have a job and 2) be doing something Important and Meaningful.
My husband is retired and doesn’t leave the house much anyway. I change clothes and wash up before leaving work and I do any grocery or pharmacy shopping and then carefully wipe things down when I get home. We live in a hurricane prone area so we we were pretty well prepared for this already, I just made sure we topped off our pantry, freezer, paper products, pet supplies, etc to last for 2-3 months and I’m really only shopping for fresh foods every 10 days or so.
I have to admit I’m a tiny bit envious of all of you who are at home. Most of my hobbies are stay at home sorts of things and I’m confident I’d have no problems isolating for months before getting restless. Of course we don’t have kids at home, that would be a whole different story!
Ours was the evening of March 6th, because our 4yo starting symptoms of illness that day, so we all stayed home from preschool/work from then forward. She had a slight fever on the third day, and she had a dry cough and fatigue. My husband caught it. I didn’t, but I worked from home that week, and by Friday the week of the 9th, and the 13th was the last day anyone worked in the office. I went to the grocery store on the 15th, I think. I’ve had one Shipt delivery, and one drive-up order at Target, and I’m supposed to pick up another drive-up order today, but I think I will cancel it and go with Shipt instead. My husband has gone to the grocery store once for perishable and frozen items. My husband is an extrovert, my daughter and I are introverts. We’re all a little tired of one another’s company, but overall we are extremely privileged compared to many people.
Whoa, that was … really jumbled. Multi-tasking is kicking my butt lately. We have been mostly isolated since the evening of the 6th.