Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Entering Quarantine

Well, it's official... as of yesterday afternoon, Maine's Governor Janet Mills issued a shelter in place order and as of 12:01 this morning we've joined the other states in an "official" quarantine.  I've been feeling a lot of feelings... but mostly I'm feeling relief that it's finally official.  (It feels like Eliot's parents in CA have been at home forever...)  I'm hopeful that this means people will stay home unless they absolutely have to leave their house.  And a bit selfishly, I'm also hopeful that this will allow the store shelves to be replenished.  (Anyone else in need of TP?)  But most of all, I'm hopeful that this will help stop the spread of the virus and our healthcare system from being overrun.


On the down side, Eliot still has to go to work.  His company is considered "essential" as they make small electrical components for pace makers.  He, as an engineer, could do at least 90% of his work from his computer at home, but his company wants them all there.  I'm terrified that he's going to get sick.  I'm so scared of him bringing it home to me.  I'm also very upset that this means I really won't be able to go home to see my parents or Nana at all for who knows how long.  Every single time Eliot walks through the front door, he's bringing home God only knows what.  It's upsetting, annoying, hurtful, confusing, depressing and most of all incredibly frustrating.

But, at the same time, I'm so thankful that he's still able to work.  We're blessed that he is still bringing money home.  Small businesses are really struggling and we're no exception to that.  Obviously, no one is traveling so my travel agent job isn't bringing in any money right now.  Another depressing side effect is that no one needs mouse ears for non-existent Disney trips.  Happily Ever Hatter has had a few sales, but we're definitely behind where I'd like to be and we're not bringing in what we need to.


On the plus side, Eliot's been able to work on some new designs for his own Etsy shop Snowblade Creations.  He's had the business card holders for a while now, but he's been working on a few new designs for other things people can use at home.  We figure that if everyone is going to be spending more time at home, they could use a little bit of Disney magic to brighten their day!  We've spent the past few days printing samples of these new products.  We're hoping to get them completed and listed online in the next week or so!  I'll be sure to post about it on here so you can see them!

Obviously, I've been on a bit of a rollercoaster emotion wise.  I think we're all going through a lot of emotions.  I don't consider myself to be a control freak, but I definitely like to be more in control than I am right now.  It's a lot and I'm learning that I just need to ride the waves of my emotions as they come.  I need to acknowledge them and own them and allow myself to feel them.  As I said before, we're all in this together.  We're all feeling a lot of feelings.  And we'll all get through this.  Somehow.


As for my everyday life, my everyday lifestyle hasn't actually changed much at all.  I work from home and don't leave the house that often anyways.  The biggest difference for me is that I'm a little more paranoid about leaving the house.  The only time I have left the house (since the weekend before last) was to get groceries.  Eliot and I went shopping last Tuesday morning, and again Sunday afternoon to get a few more things.

In fact, I really don't have a reason to leave the house at all at this point... especially as my sewing class hasn't been happening since we had the first one.  We were going to be postponed for two weeks, but we got an email from my instructor last night that the soonest we'd start is when school is "supposed" to go back in session on April 27th.  I highly doubt the kids will go back to school though.  If they aren't in school, we aren't having class.  On top of that, we were only supposed to have one more class after the week of the 27th to begin with.  I'm pretty bummed because the 8 week spring session of my sewing class probably won't happen at all at this point, but I'm hoping I can get myself set up to work on a few projects at home.  (Hello beautiful tote bags and valences!!!)  Plus, this will make the fall session of class that much sweeter!


As of right now, Maine's shelter in place is supposed to go through April 8th.  I'm sure we'll know more once we see how the curve looks with everyone staying home.  I know the top health officials are saying this could last months.  I'm going into it expecting "social-distancing" to last at least through April and May.

I'm not making any big plans for the next few weeks.  However, I am going into this with a lot of ideas to keep me busy.  I certainly won't be bored!  Even if we don't have many orders to work on, Eliot and I have at least 40 sets of sample ears that we're in various stages of working on.  Those will keep me very busy.  Plus, creating new designs is very relaxing and rewarding for me.  It will help keep me calm and focused.

In addition, Eliot and I still have a ton of small projects, cleaning and organizing that we're working on in our house.  Eliot's parents just bought a ton of plastic storage containers for us and his sister Elissa who had to move off of the University of New England campus last week.  We ended up with all of the extra containers so we've got a lot of stuff to work with.  Plus, we still have a lot of painting that we started and never finished the touch ups.  I'm hoping to get working on all of those as soon as I can.  I'd love to have a few projects get finished.  I guess this is the silver lining of being stuck at home... that I'll have more time to work on the house!


I've also been working on a list of ideas of things to do while under quarantine.  I'll be sharing those here over the next few days so you'll have some fun ideas of how to spend your time!  I've seen way too many people online complaining about being bored so I'm here to help.  I've always got some creative idea up my sleeve!

So... now we've officially entered quarantine.  It's going to be a lot of highs and lows but I'm keeping my faith that we'll get through this stronger than before.  Keep your chin up friends.  This won't be forever.  We can do this and we got this.  °o°

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