March 14, 2020

Day 1: Semi-Quarantined Against CoVid-19 INTRO

OK, Leute.

Well, I haven't written candid blogs in a long while. And I had basically vowed to not really create new content in 2020.

Well, 2020 apparently has a ton of free time now, so here we go.


Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. My opinions and advice might work, and it might not. This is all a huge unprecedented experiment in 21st century human existence, so let's hope it works out for most of us.

I am going to write everyday while Marc and I have "semi-quarantined" ourselves over the next two weeks.

WE HOPE IT IS ONLY GOING TO BE TWO WEEKS.

But we are prepared mentally and physically for it to be potentially longer.

My new schedule for the next 4 weeks.
That "FREE WEEKEND" notation stands as an ironic reminder.
Our sports seasons were canceled on Thursday and Friday, and there are no practices allowed until after Easter break: April 19.

What am I going to write everyday?

HAHAHAHAHA. That's the beauty of it. I HAVE NO IDEA.

And who cares? Everyone else is bored to death already, anyway. So anything I write will at least be something mildly fresh and different.

But clearly an element of it will be how we have spent the day and whatever thoughts are jumping around in our heads. Both in an effort to get out what we're thinking and also in an effort to maybe give some ideas on how to positively spend alllllll this surprise free time.

One interesting aspect of this pandemic is how much communication I have had with all sorts of people over the past week. I've had some really great conversations with people I hadn't talked to in a long time, and that was really positive to get back in touch, even over something so difficult for everyone. But pandemics apparently bring people together, even when we are regulated to stay isolated!

Finally, the most positive reason for technology to exist is fully playing itself out!!!

To start with today: this is one of the best articles I have read about CoVid-19. It's long, it's personal, it's honest, it's well-written, and it's loaded with reality. Please read it and share!!!

I'm in the Vulnerable Class for CoVid-19. A Plea To Take This Virus Seriously.

I will try to share various interesting articles, postings, or amusing takes on CoVid-19 each day as well. I think we are all going through a wild gamut of emotions and experiences as we enter this new kind of way of life (that we all hope does return to normal, but we are glimpsing a different type of living at the moment).

The last two days were totally nuts in Germany and in other European areas.

The US travel ban was not entirely understood in all of its details, but is starting to make more sense. However, airlines are reacting in ways that have severely limited the available flight options remaining. Most Americans have left now, so why have planes to America for nobody?

Several smaller European countries have "closed their borders." We don't totally know what that means, but it seems like only entry and exit will be for that specific country's passport holders. Germany is still technically open to the rest of Europe, but Lufthansa airline will discontinue flights from Munich to the USA starting tomorrow, March 15th.

Marc and I have been working with American pro athletes to schedule, reschedule, pack, plan, whatever for their emergency flights back to the USA. Marc drove players to the airport at the crack of dawn this morning. I think we have been on hold with airlines for a combined six hours. There were hurried and unexpected goodbyes, a totally anticlimactic end to what was normally supposed to last at least another six weeks.

My flight to France for April got canceled by the airline, so today I finally relinquished the idea of my delightful French adventure when Adeline canceled her birthday party and got all of my trains reimbursed. I'm very impressed by the French hospitality system; they have graciously been changing, updating, and canceling for all their customers needs the past few days and have been an absolute life and money saver (Air France! Oui.sncf! Vous ĂȘtes SUPER!!!).

I have woken up a 6:00AM the past three days effortlessly, ready and alert to get work done and make things happen.

(This NEVER happens.)

This morning was full of confirmation texts that players did indeed make their flights and still waiting to hear from some that they have finally gotten home to somewhere. There was some anxiety, but much relief when getting the, "We're boarding now!" messages.

I ate a bowl of cereal before tackling my first project of the day: adopting a bicycle! Kirsten had to leave this morning and the corona-free bicycle is now safe at our house.

Next up was folding laundry! Then we did another load of laundry, just to be totally done with that in our lives. We will probably only be washing underwear and socks in the coming days, so laundry should be light.


We had a bunch of leftover fruit from the pro players who flew out today, so I looked up a recipe on my phone (because I have literally been on my phone twenty hours per day to be as available as possible) and found something easy for what I think was called an Apple Crisp. Well, it was indeed really easy and I am trying not to eat all of it until Monday. Will update in a later post.

Marc washed all the dishes and we complained about how dirty the floors were. So we will probably make that our project tomorrow or Monday.

We have rolled out the yoga mats and are stretching and exercising everything we can do at home. I am setting a stolen volleyball against the wall everyday.

We will likely use next week to kind of turn over the house for spring cleaning and transition all the winter gear into the closets and bring out the summer stuff.

We have realized that saying, "The Outside," is a new part of our vocabulary.

"Why do they keep going to The Outside?"

"The last time I was on The Outside was...."

"Well, we will have to go to The Outside if we need that."

The good news for us is that we are both really talented at staying home and finding things to do. We have spent the majority of our time abroad working less than twenty-five hours a week, which has meant a whole lot more home time together than any life we ever would have dreamed of in America.


Clearly, we have a lot of cleaning to do, I will probably cook something new everyday, and invest time in exercising, per usual. I had just started two full weeks of my gym routine again, but I am choosing not to go to the fitness gym anymore and do basically the same exact exercises at home just as well.

We miss our teams, our friends, and our families, but we are both feeling physically fine (while on the recovery end from regular colds) and content to wait out the pandemic here at home in Vilsbiburg.

Day 1, complete!


You can follow all of my daily updates during the CoVid-19 quarantine here.