Filling time while we Social Distance & Self-Isolate in our Home on Wheels

We’re in day nine of our social distancing/stay put measures. And, in fairness, I lost my mind by day four. 

We both consider ourselves relative introverts, although if you ask me, Jeremiah is not. At all. So the fact that he’s taken this in stride a lot better than I have goes to prove that maybe he is a bit of an introvert.  I went nuts pretty early on.

The San Francisco area was one of the first places to shut down all non-essential work and ask people to remain at home except for essential outings which include things like going to the grocery store or the doctor.  In fact, we arrived on Saturday evening, and Monday mid-day were told we were to stay home.

What are we doing to make the most of our time as we hunker in place?

Learning a new language via Duolingo

Now is as good of a time as any to learn a new language. I’ve started learning more Spanish, which was my goal when we visited Mexico, because what I know got us by there, but we could have had much better conversations if I could speak it. I also started learning Chinese, and so far I can say about 4 words. It’s slow going. Duolingo is a free app that helps me learn, so if you’re going insane and want to imagine yourself on the beach of a warm place, maybe take up the language spoken there, instead.

Trying to work out

I’m continuing to take Bernadette on several walks through the day and keeping social distance in doing so. Hiking trails, we’ve been told, are pretty packed, and instead of add to that lack of social distancing, we’re sticking to urban areas that aren’t getting a lot of foot traffic. 

There are tons of at-home workout ideas flooding our Instagram! Today I’m trying a new body-weights only one, which is good, since I tried to do 100 pushups yesterday, and while I failed, my pectorals claim I succeeded. (Translated: I’m sore.)

Full disclosure: I tried yoga yesterday. It ended with me making a strawberry-limeade. I took a sip. Then I added vodka. Turns out I don’t like yoga. I do, however, like cocktails, which leads me to our next thing…

Having online happy hours

On Friday night, we had an online cocktail hour with our friends with Google’s version of Facetime. We cheersed, talked about our week, and ate and drank with them. Was it glamorous? No. Was it the same as being in the same room? Absolutely not. But we’re doing our part to flatten the curve, and for us that means limiting who we see, and what we do. We’re trying to feel like normal people, and this helped a little. 

Cooking a lot

We’ve made brownies from scratch, cooked new meals several times, ventured to the very picked-over grocery store before changing our meal ideas, and even gotten takeout once when I accidentally microwaved raw chicken breasts.

How do you accidentally microwave anything, you might ask? 

Well, when your microwave is also a convection oven, and you press “microwave” instead of “bake” for 4 minutes and put your dinner inside, you come back to some very raw and somehow rubbery chicken breasts. So, yes, takeout and deliveries are still available, but the restaurants are not allowed to have people eat at them.  Instead of having delivery though, we’re opting to do pickups. This is one less person involved in our food prep, but if you think you’d be exposed to fewer people via delivery, that might be an option for you if you also microwaved your raw chicken. 

What has been affected, and what has not

In many ways, our life hasn’t been drastically different while we social distance, if I’m being honest. 

I was able to get a job 2 weeks ago to write remotely, only for it to be cut by a third this week due to a reduction in marketing budgets. 

Jeremiah works from home remotely, and his job hasn’t been affected, but his coworkers are all in New York, and their hospital has already been overcrowded. They are out of beds. His co-workers have all made their own face shields when they go out of their homes as instructed by New York. 

We have friends whose relatives have died from COVID19, and others who have parents who have been put into induced comas to see if they can combat the virus. 

Some of our friends have lost jobs entirely this week, even those in the health industry as elective surgeries are put completely on hold. 

So, while we make jokes about what we’re doing to stay busy, the reality is this virus is taking lives, and changing others. 

If you can, please, please, please, stay home. Can you work remotely? Start today. This is not the time for road trips or vacations. While you might not be concerned about getting the virus, the reality is you can carry it without knowing it, known as being an asymptomatic carrier, so it’s not about you getting sick, but keeping others safe as well. If we’re able to stay put in a 300-square foot RV, you can too. 

What are you doing to stay busy and not-crazy? Let us know!!! I need suggestions before I go even nuttier.