Before everything truly hit the fan, Tim and I got away for a long weekend in Las Vegas. Vegas is my least favorite town under the best of circumstances, but we ended up having a great time. We were going to watch my friend, mentor, and former/current boss Anja shave her head to raise funds for pediatric cancer research. Anja has already lost all of her hair once to chemotherapy from her own cancer battle, and knows first hand how devastating it can be - to go through treatment, to lose your hair, to struggle with your health. I thought she was so brave and wonderful, and I was so glad to be there to watch her do it. I would say probably half of the office turned out to watch her, all driving out from California to cheer. Goes to show what an amazing person she is. Her son Edward also shaved his head (he for the fourth time.)
This is my outfit, because Vegas baby, Vegas!
Things with Coronavirus were starting to heat up as we were there - I had a thought while touching a serving spoon at the buffet that "this is how a virus spreads like crazy." They actually closed all the buffets shortly after we were there (not because of us specifically, but you know...) Feels like we really snuck one through. I'm glad we got to go on many levels, mostly to support Anja. Nonprofits, including the one I work for, are going to suffer greatly in the economic downturn, while their services are going to be needed more than ever.
We've since gone ahead and canceled our spring break trip to the Grand Canyon, had our cousins cancel their spring break trip to see us, and are eyeing whether or not we'll get to go on our anniversary trip in July. Meanwhile, mom and dad did NOT go to Steamboat, and for that I'm thankful. It's amazing how different the world can feel in a week.
School is closed, all sports are canceled, and piano is being done via Skype. Ellie has work she can do via the Google classroom, and Adam has websites that he can use to keep up with his learning (though, was sort of dismayed and yet pleased when he logged into spelling city and could easily do the lessons set for June - he's a good reader, so at this point some of it is pure busywork.) Tim was able to move to work from home pretty seamlessly, other than having us wander in the back of his video meetings (his back is to the kitchen, so it's bound to happen.) This week thus far we are mostly feral, but have spent a lot of time doing outdoor PE. We're lucky as a family in that my work has been sporadic anyways, and has always been done during stolen hours, so it's not as though we have two full time working parents trying to manage their days - I can spend all the time with the kids that they need and can do whatever home schooling is required of us (not well, but I can do it.)
There's definitely a dark cloud of the unknown hanging over us, but we'e trying to remember how truly good we have it and how lucky we are.
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