Our new [temporary] normal: hiding from the coronavirus

As I sit down to write this post, I try to think of a title, and the only thing that comes to my mind is “Our new normal: hiding from the coronavirus” - hence the photo above, taken at much happier times, of course. Then I realized that I had to add the word “temporary”, as this is what it is - this situation will not last forever.

I have been trying all week to come up with blog post ideas, but it has been in vain. My mind is kind of running on empty these days, and I have been mostly busying myself with household chores and such.

I don’t know about you, but I have come to get used to our current situation. I greatly miss getting outdoors, without restrictions… as I said in my IG yesterday, I miss the beach, and I miss the ocean. We’re close to it, yet we don’t dare go near the beaches.

I’ve been seeing posts online from people saying that each day now feels like Groundhog Day, and I have to agree. Ultimately, our days don’t look much different from one to another - there’s only so much one can do at home.

We did venture out this week to go grocery shopping. I was fully dreading that day, as I don’t want to be close to any public and [possibly] crowded places these days. We got up early, put our cloth masks on (a friend made and sent them to us), and headed out at 9am. Surprisingly, in spite of plenty of traffic on the roads, we didn’t run into many people in stores (store clerks told us we had just missed a “busy” wave - lucky us!), and even had what I call a win when we found TP and flour (funny how quickly our “most-coveted items” list has changed). We found most of the things we needed (and definitely felt grateful for that), but I felt disappointed in some people’s actions, or lack thereof, to be exact, in regards to this epidemic.

Anyway, once we got home, I wiped our purchases with a paper-towel sprayed with a disinfecting solution, let everything air-dry, and put them away. After, I ended up cleaning our entire place, did our laundry - including the clothes we wore to the stores, and with that, our big outing was over. While it certainly felt nice heading somewhere further than our neighborhood, we will continue our isolation as long as this crisis lasts. As you see, our life is super-exciting these days #keepingitreal.

Speaking of the crisis, I keep reading articles and opinions of how this pandemic will shape us a society, and about all the things people say will or will not do. I am particularly hopeful of experts’ advice to stop the habit of handshaking, since, as a germophobe, I’ve always hated this custom. I don’t know about you, but I sure will take precautions in the future, and I think many of us will need some time to recover from this traumatic experience. Time will tell.

These are the thoughts running through my mind these days, and while I’m doing my best to stay positive and hopeful, I’m taking it day by day, as the vast majority of us. If you’re feeling sad, please know you are not alone - millions of people are in your shoes, and we’re all trying to get through this the best way we can. Sending love to all of you and know that we, humanity, have overcome so much throughout history, that we can surely beat this virus as well. Be well and stay safe.

Until next time.

xoxo,

Em