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Just checking in to (and taking a break from Disneyland and El Salvador content) see how your quarantine is going. These are wild and unprecedented times! I actually hate the expression “new normal” because we can adapt to the new, but we don’t need to pretend that anything these days is normal. I hope you’re feeling your feelings, getting outside when you can, and connecting with your friends and family members. I’m an eternal optimist, so I believe that we’ll make it out of this, and I’ll keep crossing my fingers that it will be sooner rather than later.

I started off this strange time at my sister’s apartment in NYC. Her boyfriend and I were on the same flight back from LA on March 9th. The airport felt normal (no social distancing yet), but the flight was empty enough that we each had a whole row to ourselves. We’d heard warnings, but weren’t too worried. Back in NY, we even went to Comedy Cellar and to visit Grandma in Buffalo. Yikes, in retrospect!

I stayed at my sister Elayne’s place for a week, and Will took me down to Long Beach Island to pick up my car. Stores and restaurants were still open. I stopped in the restaurant where I worked last summer and grabbed a festive latte from my favorite quick lunch spot.

As it turned out, I wouldn’t be needing my car much. I drove it up to visit my dad, with a bag packed for three days, but I’ve been here ever since. We started to get worried about me getting stuck in NYC, which I’m sure would be fun, but could get old quickly for my sister and Will with me sleeping on their couch and all of us in the same apartment all day.

I arrived in Poughkeepsie on St. Patrick’s Day. My dad tried to salvage the holiday by serving corned beef and cabbage (with Harp lagers!) and my stepmom delivered green bagels. They did a great job of making us forget the quarantine for a night!

Since then, I’ve been here. In the beginning, we took little day hikes in nearby parks, but as the social distancing warnings became more severe, we’ve been keeping our exercise confined to the neighborhood and the basement gym.

It’s really all I could ask for at this time, and I’m SO GLAD to be here at home instead of on my own in Australia or trapped in El Salvador.

There’s no telling how long we’ll be cooped up, but Spring has sprung and the sunset view from the back deck is lovely. I haven’t spent this much time at home in quite some time, so I’m soaking it all in. I planned to visit friends and hug their babies, but I’ve been forced to slow down and sit quietly with myself.

I’m sure you could have guessed that I’ve been practicing yoga!

And Bonnie (my stepmom) made us yummy pizza!

We (mostly I) did a challenging and sanity-testing puzzle!

And here we are, a little stir crazy but enjoying our time with each other! I hope your quarantine days have been rewarding or cleansing or however you’ve needed them to be. We’re all in this together.