Reality Check

Here we are, Day 3 of social isolation. I’m calling it Day 3 because we were pretty much in denial until Sunday. On Friday night, we went to a neighborhood open house of a friend’s stunning new home, where another friend had her artwork arranged on the walls throughout this art gallery called a home. People were elbow bumping and not really eating any of the food, but we were out.

On Saturday, we helped friends move things from their old house four blocks away to their new house up the hill about 3/4 of a mile away (same block as art gallery home). After finishing helping, a bunch of the guys stretched out in the sun and made loose plans to play poker that evening. They’ve been meeting once a week (and sometimes more in cases of holidays and snowstorms) for the past 10 years, and I think their brains had instinctively switched to snow day mentality – so many opportunities to play poker over the next few weeks! After we parted ways, nobody made a peep about it, not one ping in the group text on my husband’s phone.

As we mulled over possibilities of getaways over the next few weeks, we considered Airbnbs in WV, the Shenandoah, St. Michael’s…on second thought, maybe not. We don’t know these people and how well they’ve cleaned, and we have no idea what it’s like at the grocery stores. Okay, so maybe only go someplace where we know the homeowners. A friend suggested we go to her lake house for a few days. Wouldn’t that be fun! Well, neither of us have mentioned that again. I guess we really shouldn’t be in close quarters with each other.

Next up: do we go to Sarasota, Florida to see Chris’s family, as we had planned to do over spring break? The plan is to drive down in one day, get some beach and family time, and drive back a week later. We can stock the cooler and even fill up some gas cans to put in the truck bed. Then we’d only have to stop to go to the bathroom, and we’ll wear gloves and wipe down everything before touching. Hold on. I’m spinning out. So many questions. Is it worth it? Am I over-reacting? Would we be foolish to embark on such a journey? Would we unknowingly infect Chris’s 75-year-old parents? How cautious have they been?

Here’s what I’m going to do: take a deep breath, make breakfast, and get the kids up to start the second day of our new schedule, and it will be great! We are going to walk Sasha, play basketball, read, learn online, and end the day with a family board game. Exhale.