It is 11:13 on Tuesday night and I am feeling a mixture of stress, anxiety, and overwhelm because for some inexplicable reason I decided I need to start decluttering the whole house 4 days before Christmas and less than 24 hours before my parents arrive.
Clearly, this is not a necessary thing, but also, this is apparently where my brain goes sometimes.
Anyway, some better things:
- We signed the girls up for camp at the local nature center yesterday and today. They were not entirely thrilled to find out they’d be going to camp for a couple days instead of lying on the couch watching iPad all day (har har), but Jose and I really needed a couple days to get things in order and get a short break before the holidays and many family visitors. Happily, they ended up enjoying camp — so much so that when I picked them up today, they asked if they could go again tomorrow! Mom win. So satisfying.
- We finally saw Encanto at the theater on Sunday afternoon after having listened to the soundtrack (songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda!) for a week or two before. It was so good! I really loved the stories and characters, and the whole aesthetic of the movie was so bright and colorful and vibrant. It comes out on Disney+ this Friday and I’m excited to watch it again.
- Charlotte and I made a Target run this evening so she could pick out a present for Emma, and we were treated to quite a lovely sunset from the parking lot.
- We are planning a Disney trip for spring break in March and bought plane tickets to Orlando yesterday. It is a strange thing to be doing amidst all the omicron news, but the tickets are on Southwest so worst case we can cancel and use the credit later. I have a weird, almost-certainly-irrational hope that omicron is just SO contagious that it sweeps through in a month or so and by late February/early March cases are on the decline again. (My commitment to be at QuiltCon in February influences this wishful thinking as well.)
- Jose got his booster shot today! Woo. With 10 total shots between the 4 of us, our family is as vaccinated as we can possibly be at this point.
- I made a cute pouch because sometimes you just need to sew. This is the Olivia Pouch pattern by Sotak Handmade and it was a quick sew. Thankfully I had all the materials I needed on hand, including the interfacing. I cut the pieces last night, and stitched it up earlier today. Satisfying!
p.s. I’m doing a 31 day blogging challenge.
I am hoping the same with Omicron! I guess we will see! Disney sounds fun! We are driving the Florida panhandle for Spring Break—I’m ready! And I too feel restless.
I was thinking the FL panhandle would be a good backup plan if we get to mid February and are feeling squeamish about Disney. We had a great time on our panhandle spring break trip in 2020, despite the fact that it was the same week covid started shutting down everything!
“I have a weird, almost-certainly-irrational hope that omicron is just SO contagious that it sweeps through in a month or so and by late February/early March cases are on the decline again.”
I don’t think this is irrational at all. In fact, that is exactly what I expect to happen. In fact, I think we’ll see cases start to decline in January, not February.
I think the biggest concern with travel is not so much getting Omicron, but getting stuck in Florida and being unable to travel. Is it possible to drive home if you really had to? That would be the sticking point for me. But J & S & B are in Houston right now, and that’s not really drivable. So sometimes you just take the risk. And I am (almost) sure that things will be better in March than they are now. We shouldn’t be due for another variant until May or June.
Is there a travel risk of getting stuck somewhere from covid? I wasn’t aware of that being an issue (at least for domestic air travel) at any point. Do you mean if we got sick while we were in Florida?
Well, you’re not supposed to get on an airplane if you have Covid or even Covid symptoms. You’re supposed to quarantine for a full 10 days after testing positive or your first day of sypmtoms (if they are followed by a positive test.) And you have to attest that you don’t have Covid symptoms as part of the check-in process.
So let’s say Jonathan gets Covid on the flight to Houston. He develops symptoms tomorrow. He’d have to be dishonest as part of the attestation to fly if he decides not to test. And if he did test positive, he’d be required to stay in Houston 10 days before flying (per the CDC). Even if he decided to ignore that requirement / lie, I’m sure he’d feel morally obligated to at least wait until his symptoms were gone. I mean, you wouldn’t feel comfortable knowingly getting on a plane if you had Covid, would you?
And if Jonathan contracted Covid and couldn’t avoid passing it on to Saoirse, they’d have to stay in Houston (or I’d have to fly down to take care of her) for 10 days after whenever SHE tested positive, which might be several days after Jonathan did. (Furthermore, being unvaccinated, she’s technically supposed to quarantine for at least 14 further days after Jonathan’s quarantine ended. But I personally would feel very comfortable ignoring that if she didn’t test positive.)
I actually have a friend trapped in Atlanta hotel right now on a 10 day quarantine. He was on a work trip, so work is taking care of the expense, but I bet his pregnant wife with 2 young kids at home is feeling pretty hassled by this whole situation.
right now given how many people i know have omicron i am assuming a lot of us are going to get it. i mostly dread the hassle of the quarantine when we do.
I don’t think quarantining at home would be that big of a deal. Though I guess I wish they’d reduce it to 7 days, as is happening in other countries.
Is your friend traveling from Virginia? Why doesn’t he just drive home? He could do it in a straight shot. Though Covid is not cool for pregnant people, so it might be better that he’s not at home.
Assuming we make it through the holiday break without getting sick, I feel pretty resigned to catching it once school starts again. SIGH.
Ah, yeah, I get what you are saying. I hadn’t really thought about it but yes, I would not want to get on a plane knowing I had covid. We did talk about driving — it’s long, but not out of the question. We could always switch to driving as we get closer to the dates.
I always have this irrational cleaning, organizing, redecorating impulse when guests come. I don’t know what makes me like that. Byron is baffled.
Good to know I’m not alone at least!
I guess the other thing is that I have started buying tickets than can be changed. I never did this before Covid. But I always do it now. Not refundable (too expensive) but changeable is usually only a little bit more.
I’ve enjoyed your bogging this month