Week 100

Here we are, way more days in than ever was imaginable. And honestly, I am starting to get comfortable in every way. Before I go any further I want recognize our scenario is the definition of comfortable in these times: being able to work from home, trade off parenting/ schooling responsibilities, although very little of both going ha!, and practice social distancing is 100% a privilege.

I have gotten into a rhythm and more or less a routine. I go to the grocery store once week. Waiting to enter on 6 foot apart orange decals outside the entrance inching my way closer to the door and carts like a piece on a a game board. Suiting up with gloves and mask after I pass each mini milestone. Once inside I maneuver the aisles with precision and trace nearly the same steps each visit starting at the farthest spot: produce. Making sure I don’t forget bananas and then rounding to the dairy case, etcetera. I typically am grabbing all of the same things each visit: asparagus, spinach, eggo waffles, frozen mangoes, garbanzo beans, tortilla chips, hummus, salsa and recently fresh clams and shrimp.

Weekends have returned to moments of pause, reflection and relief from the work week. On Sunday’s we have gotten into the habit of walking a couple miles to one of the few coffee shops that is open and has transitioned to walk up windows for ordering and receiving. I am amused at how this weekly trip has become a ritual. Something we used to do most days, especially during my sabbatical, is now reserved to just one day a week and we milk it. Rain or shine we walk at Mo’s pace, slower than ours, dilly daddling. We stop to admire rainbows hanging from people’s windows or in trees. Try to find the stuffies peeking out of windows. We hold hands, pick up rocks, bicker & laugh.

The first five or so weeks that we would leave our house though it felt eery. Neighbors and passerby in masks. On walks as soon as we would come into the sight of others in the opposite direction they would immediately cross the street or choose to walk in the middle of the road to avoid any contact. I recognized that our house and being home was a safety bubble, it was not reality. Stepping outside and beyond our walls forced me to see how bleak this situation really is. So on our walks I started to go out of my way to make eye contact of say hello to people.

The past few weeks though I have adapted. I no longer think the masks are scary when I see them. I even bought us all ‘cute’ and matching masks supporting my friend’s family owned LA based factory. We have each discovered new things to keep us occupied. Dance Church for me, gardening for Mike and Trolls World Tour & scooter rides for Mario.

Waking up this morning I felt at peace with this new normal. The weather in Portland this week is set to be BEAUTIFUL, everything is in bloom (and allergies in full force). We are healthy, our families & friends are healthy & we actually get a lot of visitors on walks whom we talk to from the distance of our porch elevated high off of the street. I am not even going to get into the parenting piece of things right now but grateful for a backyard and many places to hide in the house during work hours for my video calls.

Thanks for reading. I hope you are well and able to find some peace at this time too. Let’s go week 8!?

xx Ly