Yesterday, we expanded our quaranteam to include the family across the street. It has been 70 days since their son (age 11) and our boys (12, 9, 6) saw each other, or anyone else. These boys have essentially lived in each other’s houses since we moved here four years ago, and after the 70 day hiatus, they fell right back into their comfortable friendship. The neighbors have a large above ground pool, and the boys just jumped right in. We did not attempt to socially distance the boys at all, although we adults did sit six feet apart from each other and stayed outside. New Orleans is no longer a hotspot – Orleans Parish has an average of 100 or so new known cases a day at this point, after our peak of over 2,000. We did the work of social distancing and did it really effectively, we are reopening very slowly, absolutely everyone wears masks everywhere, and all of our giant gatherings have been canceled. The other family, like us, only leaves the house for groceries, outside exercise (walks or bike rides), and occasional takeout food. I don’t say this to sound defensive at all – I’m 100% comfortable with this – just to give you a window into our thought process.
Next weekend, just our little nuclear family will head to Oklahoma to stay in a mountain air bnb. We will hike and snooze and play games and not go near anyone else.
In July and August, we plan to make our usual summer visits to each of our families, although that is open to change if circumstances dictate. The Prof’s family lives in an area of extremely low transmission and they have socially distanced for weeks. My parents and sister live adjacent to an urban area with higher transmission, but my retired parents are an hour outside of that urban area and never leave their house except for groceries, and my sister has been working from home. Her husband goes into work two days a week maybe, but only on a staggered schedule with one or two other people physically there and with social distancing protocols in place. The remaining siblings may or may not be able to come from their various locations, but each have been working remotely and socially distancing for the most part. We will visit, and then when we get back we will quarantine ourselves completely for five days (the most likely period of time for symptoms to appear), and continue to socially distance from our new neighbor quaranteam across the street for two full weeks. I feel like these trips are extremely important, beneficial for our health as a family, and low risk (whereas, for example, going to a movie or a concert would be high risk and low benefit, so we will not be doing that for the foreseeable).
In the meantime, even with these little trips planned, there are a lot of weeks of little boys with no camps. The Prof plans to just not make any summer goals for his writing and research and manage them (“Camp Dad”), but I’m looking at some online Outschool courses – some of them are single day, some are for a week. There is one on bearded dragon care that we will sign Jack up for, and one where kids take turn reading to each other that Craig might do. We will see – the goal is to make life easier, not harder, so we’ll think about it. But some structure and things to look forward to may help punctuate the formless days during this odd time. Nobody knows what fall will look like for school, and it’s best not to think too hard about that yet. One step at a time.
I had my first zoom court appearance yesterday. It was pretty interesting! I fretted quite a bit over where to aim the laptop camera – often my background is my bed because my office is in the bedroom, but that felt inappropriate for this. I finally settled on the bookshelf in my bedroom – I set the laptop on the dresser and if I tilted it just right, it caught my full face when sitting or standing. I showered, dried my hair, put on makeup and pearls and a full suit (no pantsless faux pas for this lawyer!), and then when the judge came on he was in shirtsleeves! Ha! Although it was an adversarial hearing (on my motion to compel), it was very informal and chatty and went just fine – this judge is great, and we worked out an interim plan for discovery. But I still had to take a half a Klonopin plus a Propanolol to get through the morning. The stress of the unknown . . . it weighs heavy on the anxious lawyer’s psyche. After it was over at 11 I was basically useless the rest of the day, wiped from the preparation for the endeavor, so I did nonbillable tidying (sorting email, making a task list, cleaning up my desktop and electronic files). It was soothing, but I was still feeling skinless, porous, vulnerable. That evening was all jagged edges and irritability. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for universal healthcare and wiped student loan debt, so I had options for a less high stakes, exhausting career.
Anyhow, you came here the for meal planning I know (ha!), and meal planning you shall have. We ate a lot of leftovers last week – I tend to freeze them and eat them a week or two later, just for variety’s sake.
Oven fried catfish with green beans and new potatoes (the green beans and potatoes goes like this – you slice the new potatoes in half and boil them until tender. Throw the fresh green beans (ends snapped off) in for the last two minutes or so of boiling – don’t want them too soggy. Once they’re cooked, drain them in a colander. Throw 2-3 tablespoons of butter into the pot they were just in and melt, then toss the potatoes and beans in the melted butter with the heat off. Salt, pepper, and voila!)
Chicken and kale burgers from Costco, plus boxed mac and cheese
Clean out the fridge/finish leftovers before our OK trip!