joining the club

so i started off 2022 in the most 2020-2021 way possible:

i'd gotten a text from someone i'd seen a couple of days before new year's, fully apologetic but letting me know that she'd just tested positive for the 'rona.  i felt fine - in fact, when her text came through i was on the peloton! - but as the next day or so went by i started noticing a weird tickle in the back of my throat.  i downed packets of emergen-c like it was my job, but it was all in vain.  and when the headache kicked in, i busted out one of our precious leftover at-home test kits and confirmed it.  boo.

i confined myself to the living room, far away from everyone else.  luckily, that booster shot i'd gotten was just about three weeks old by then so i really just felt as though i had a really bad head cold paired with some super intense fatigue.  like, i could barely get up for a glass of water without having to stop to catch my breath.  that part kinda sucked.  and whenever the bean emerged from her room i made sure to throw on a mask, just in case.

but that, too, was in vain because as it turned out, that new year's eve family hug and selfie session was enough to pass on the virus to my child.  boo again.  she tested positive a couple of days after i did, and so while the rest of her classmates were returning to school after the two-week christmas break, she had to revert to distance learning again.  unfortunately, the old lady tested positive as well.  the only ones who escaped unscathed were the hub and the fiance.

the hub had lots of advice for us based on his own experience with the 'rona - lots of fluids, rest as much as possible but also attempt to sweat it out in the gym if at all possible.  and while i was still tired, when that headache-on-crack finally subsided two days later i headed in there and made myself get some cardio in.  nothing super intense or PR-worthy, just a beginner-level bike ride and a nice walk on the treadmill (i virtually walked through a haunted hotel in louisiana, which was pretty fun).  and i don't know what exactly did the trick, but a mere five days after testing positive another home test returned a negative result.

we waited the recommended number of days and then headed out to a local testing center to do a 3-in-1 test - they did a rapid test, a PCR test and then also tested for antibodies. we weren't aware that that last one involved a finger prick to get a blood sample, and we both freaked out a little, but i knew it was a good idea to have it done.  and to be perfectly honest the finger stick really wasn't that bad - the dagger eyes from the bean hurt more than that did.  and actually, that was more of a 4-in-1 test since they also checked us for the flu.

andplusalso, all that time at home gave me the chance to actually finish that cardigan i'd started working on the day after christmas.  that's probably the fastest knitting project i've actually completed, like ever.

the bean finally got to return to school, having missed about a week and a half, and she was really glad to get back into the routine - as was i.  we didn't get to see the old lady for almost two whole weeks, which really sucked.  but it was so good to finally hug her when our quarantining period finally ended.  and i'm so grateful that we were all fully vaccinated and that our bout with the omicron was relatively short and mild.  you just never know how your body's going to react to any of it, you know?

thank goodness for vaccines.  and science.  

everybody wins

last week, i was scrolling through instagram when something caught my eye:

we all know how much i love my tieks ballet flats.  and this post led to a page on their website that basically put out a call to anyone willing to sew up fabric face masks to be donated to hospitals that are accepting them.  for every 25 masks, they'd send a $50 gift card and for 50, $100.

i thought this was a great idea, but i also remembered packing up all of my cotton woven/quilting fabrics and putting them in the donation pile when we were boxing up all of our stuff before the remodel.  and so i just kept on scrolling and forgot about it.

until my co-leader buddy texted me to see if i'd seen the post.  she had already been working on making masks to donate, and she ended up lighting a fire under my ass to head into the garage to see if there was anything at all i could scrounge up.  after all, i hadn't really done any sewing in weeks and i did miss it...plus, i had nothing but time while on lockdown anyway.

after just a few minutes of digging around, i was super stoked to find that there were still a few pieces of suitable fabric that hadn't made the donation pile.  my elastic supply was pretty low and i already knew that because of the surge in mask making there was a shortage of it, but i figured i could still eke out at least 50 masks from what i'd found.

and not just any masks, but with the fun prints i'd found i hoped i'd bring a smile to the recipients' faces.

i busted out my quilting square and got to work on precutting all of the fabric out - two layers of woven fabric plus one of flannel for the inner layer.  it took a little while, but i eventually had enough cut out for all 50 masks:

this piece in particular was going to make one epic face cover:

to streamline the process, i went ahead and layered all of the pieces in the correct order, sandwiching the pieces of elastic inside and using clips to hold them all in place.  i only had enough clips for half of them, but it was a good start.

my serger came in really handy for the first part, and i was done sewing up all of the edges for all the masks in less than an hour.

of course, that was the easiest part.  next i had to trim all the stray threads, flip them all right side out, press them flat, iron in the pleats and topstitch them down.  while i only have a small corner of our room to work in, it was just enough to be able to set up my machines.

and with the ironing board buried deep in the garage, i had to improvise with my little bench, tossing one of our many throw blankets on top.

while the pile of masks looked a little daunting, i took my time and pushed through them one by one, and by that evening i'd managed to get through them all.

i played a fun game of "thread chicken," watching the spool twirl round and round as i sewed.  and look - i won!  just as i stitched up the final mask, i looked up and found this:

so here are some of my favorites out of the pile - these are the "friends"-themed ones, and the one with joey's face was just as comical as i'd imagined.

and hopefully there are some "big hero 6" fans out there who'll recognize the characters on this fabric:

per the instructions on the tieks website, i laid them all out and took a picture.

and then i found a box i'd just received that happened to fit them all perfectly inside, even with a plastic bag that would help keep the masks safe from any damage that might come to the box during shipping.

i was feeling a little weird about this whole thing - i'd love to say that it was a completely selfless act to help people during this whole crisis.  but it benefited me in a lot of ways - aside from earning that tieks gift card, i was able to use up a bunch of supplies that have just been sitting around taking up space.  not to mention, i got my sewing mojo back AND had a lot of fun while working on the whole project.

i guess we'll just call it a win-win situation.

huh? what coronavirus?

so, yes - our trip to florida with the bean's cheer team proceeded as planned.  no cancellations due to the coronavirus, and so with an abundance of caution we made our way out to LAX on wednesday morning.  i'd been a little concerned about getting there through rush-hour traffic, but as it turns out, lots of people seem to be working from home these days.  the freeway was pretty much empty at 9:00 in the morning.  almost eerily so, to be honest.

we got to the airport in record time.  and as we made our way towards the terminal, that eerie quiet continued.  this is not a normal sight at LAX...not at all.

after we said our goodbyes to the hub and dropped off our bags with the skycap, we headed on inside to get through security and find our gate.  if we weren't all wearing sneakers our footsteps would have damn near echoed in the empty building.

we were traveling with one of the bean's cheer teammates, and she was sweet and quiet and polite.  we had ample time to find some breakfast, pick up some airplane snacks and hang out at the gate.  there weren't a ton of exciting food options, so we ended up grabbing some breakfast sandwiches and finding seats near the gate.  of course, as we sat there waiting for our flight to board someone wearing a mask came over and sat down next to our friend.  "let's go to the gift shop!" i said as we left immediately.  eek.

there was a 10-minute delay in the boarding process as maintenance worked on the PA system on the plane, and then finally we were making our way onboard.

once we found our seats we got to work on disinfecting our space, donning latex gloves and wiping down all of the surfaces around us and tossing everything into the plastic bag i'd packed.

our little friend was a first-time flyer, so we did our best to help keep her calm and relaxed.  she seemed to handle her first take-off just fine, and then we all settled in for our almost 5-hour flight.

the bean had picked up all of her schoolwork and got to work right away, pulling out her laptop and connecting to the wifi.

eventually they both fell asleep.

while our friend slept through the majority of the flight, the bean woke up after about a half hour power nap and got back to work while i dove into netflix's "love is blind."  oh boy...that's quite a show.

the lady in front of me kept draping a towel over her headrest, and the bean whispered "don't touch that...it might have coronavirus on it."

we landed about 15 minutes ahead of schedule and once we got off the plane we found this on the shuttle to baggage claim.  sorry guys, we've already been recruited into the resistance at disneyland.

once we found our bags we followed the signs to disney's magical express, which would take us right to our hotel.  the woman who checked us in was really rude, which was most definitely less than magical.  oh well.

it was about a 40-minute drive from the airport to our hotel, which was, of course, the very last stop.  the bean took this from her seat as we arrived into disney property:

check-in was easy and fast, and then we were heading to our room in the 101 dalmatians building.  on our way out of the main building i noticed this:

oh yes.  with no fitness facilities at the hotel and the humidity (and my shins) keeping me from using the running trails that was going to be the extent of my exercise for awhile.

the rooms at the all star hotels are...very basic.

a quick tug on one of those handles and the bed appeared as if by magic.

the bathroom is adequate.

we were all starving, so once we dropped off our bags we headed back to the main building to hit the food court.  i was really amused to see that we'd be spending the next five days living behind a gigantic dog's ass.

since we're at the all star movies hotel, everything is appropriately themed.  it's very cute.

and there was a nice assortment of desserts to pick from, which we made a mental note to return to later.

i picked up refillable drink mugs for all of us, and they have a chip built into the bottom that tells the soda machines how long they're good for.  so fancy!

we headed back up to the room to relax and unwind after a long day of travel.  of course, with the time difference none of us could fall asleep at a decent time.  one by one though, we finally all dozed off somewhere after 1am.

welcome to florida!