It is Day 24 of Shelter at Home/Quarantine/Pause/Hibernation. It is Nowday, April 8th.

Well, the novelty of Little House on the Prairie and optimistically declaring, “this is fun” was premature. I had some great plans at the outset for family game night and homemade bread, etc. but being in quarantine is emotionally draining and all I want to do after 8pm is watch Netflix. At the end of the day I look at what I have achieved, and it is not a lot. I can’t seem to focus on any one project or book. Most of the day I am standing in the kitchen, cleaning or meal prepping all day long - but it is not efficient. I check my phone often and when I snap myself out of the phone zone, a good chunk of time has passed. Today I purchased an online class but not sure if I will actually have the willpower to sit myself down and do it. My big goal of cleaning out my inbox has not even been attempted, and my unread emails have exploded to 6,597. If you are wondering why you didn’t get a reply, it might be that your email is buried between a Poshmark shopping alert and Petfinder notification. On that note, a lot of my time is spent on Facebook and Google searches to find a cute rescue dog or a puppy! Turns out lots of people have the same idea, so it is taking some time. I guess everyone wants something cute to cuddle in order to distract us from our reality.

Celebrations in Quarantine

Last week we celebrated two birthdays. On Maya’s birthday, the two of us did a massive hike on the Oat Hill Mine Trail in Calistoga. The weather was perfect and we ended up completing the entire 14 mile hike (7 miles up, and the return). I think that is the longest hike I have ever done! The views were extraordinary and it was truly worth the sore hips and feet. You don’t need to do the full 14 miles, you could turn around at any point and still have some incredible views.

On Friday, it was Chris’ birthday. It is nice that it fell on a weekend night, so we dressed up and ordered cocktails and steaks delivered by Cole’s chop house. We decanted an amazing Cab (we have been making a dent in the wine cellar - at this rate we won’t have to do the massive wine filing because it will all be consumed by the end of this). We ended the evening with a few rounds of poker and Eva was the big winner. Even though it would have been nice to celebrate in person with our friends, it really set the tone for a great night with a surprise Zoom toast with friends. I think by now everyone can agree that Zoom is the big winner in all this. I have zoomed yoga lessons, birthday cocktails, book club, and French class. We even zoomed a lemon merengue pie making party. In some cases (but not all) its actually better than being in person.

Tonight we observe the first night of Passover. This will be the first time we celebrate this holiday as a nuclear family, just the five of us. I am kind of looking forward to the tradition and ritual of the story - and maybe it will provide a good distraction, but also feel spiritual and comforting. It will be nice to read a story of survival, and a good reminder to us that every freedom is worth fighting for, whether it be freedom from suffering, from sickness, discrimination or slavery. I left the heavy cooking to someone else and ordered the meal from an Israel chef, here in Napa (Blossom Catering) but I prepared a matzoh kugel and “Matzoh Crack”. It is a Wednesday and the kids still have virtual school, and its almost finals week. I have been asked multiple times by each family member, “how long will this take?” I can’t say but I hope everyone ends up agreeing it was worthwhile to take the time. It might turn out to be our most meaningful Passover ever. Next year (healthy and alive) in Jerusalem.