Teri Vance: Lessons from quarantine, part 2

My husband and I celebrated our four-year wedding anniversary this week. Although the world has opened back up in many ways, I am under strict quarantine in preparation for an upcoming medical procedure.

(As part of the process, I had to take the COVID-19 test up the nose. That’s a story for another time, but oh my gosh, that was a cringeworthy experience.)

With all of that happening, we celebrated with takeout from Sassafras and a movie on Netflix.

And we aren’t the only ones who have had to find new ways recognize milestones. The last couple of weekends have seen graduations in Carson City in surrounding counties with students and parents taking the pomp and circumstance to parades rather than graduation marches.

In some ways, it has been a sacrifice, but I’ve heard many people — especially in regard to graduations — say they like some of the modifications.

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about new traditions springing up from quarantine.

I had several people respond to that topic, so I decided to extend that topic today to include those responses.

While it started out as a necessity to avoid grocery stores, Heidi Brandow said she wants to continue to do so as much as possible.

“Grocery delivery! OMG! So worth the $10 to not drive to the store, pick out items, bag it up, load in car and unload into house,” She said. “We made three orders and it was better than getting room service while on vacation.”

Ashley Delgado was one of several who saw benefits to her bank account by staying home more.

“We have been better at meal planning and saw how much we save not eating out so much,” she said. “I also learned how much I and we take for granted. I want to keep being thankful of the little things that we never gave a thought to.”

Lest we all feel guilty that everyone else is making these revolutionary changes, while we may be stuck struggling with old habits, Kathy McClintock keeps it real.

“I’ve started prepping my main meal for the day while fixing and eating breakfast,” she said. “A crunchy green salad with homemade dressing is so much more satisfying than the cheese and crackers that I usually grab to go with my wine. The one thing I promised myself I was going to do, but haven’t, is walk every morning.”

We are all a work in progress ….

Monica Chiazza and her husband have been commuting to work by bicycle, and dropping the kids off at their grandma’s house along the way.

“The kids love riding in the trailer instead of always driving,” Chiazza said. “It helped get them out of the house without actually having to interact with anyone.”

Although the quarantine has made many of us feel more isolated, Michelle Pedersen turned it into a time to serve others in a creative way.

“We've been taking a lot of evening family walks,” she said. “Some have been just walks but others we've tried to scatter sunshine — we've made cookies to drop off at homes with small kids who are going stir-crazy but don't understand why they can't go out. We’ve ding-dong ditched a few people with boxes of Ding Dongs, TP'd people with rolls of toilet paper on their doorstep, painted rocks to leave along the way, stopped for lawn-chats when we've found friends outside.

“It’s been really nice, and I hope we can keep it a priority.”