Hi everyone, I’m Paige. Actually I’m not. Read the About Me link above for some basic information for starters. I’d add a link here but this is my first time with this new theme and WordPress has changed a bit since I last blogged, and also it’s 10:30am and I’m already exhausted so I’m not going to spend a bunch of time learning and fiddling around with my blog like I’m 35 with one baby who blessedly sleeps a lot (holla to those who read my old blog!).

So I think I speak for the majority of people when I say that this is not how I thought 2020 was going to go. I figured the biggest news would be the election, where the Republicans would nominate Trump like yesterday and the Democrats would winnow the most diverse field they’ve ever had to the oldest, whitest, male-ist candidate (on track so far!) and then there’d be a tired period of primary debates in which nobody learns anything, a grumpy convention between grumpy old men, then a bizarre spectacle of what apparently now passes for Presidential campaigning, culminating in an election not entirely free of tampering and disenfranchisement in which we all grow more grumpy late into the night only to wake up with some of us relieved and some of us disappointed and all of us girding ourselves for whatever new political reality we find ourselves in.

I mean, that’s a basic overview and surely there would be more fun twists and turns but, you know, basically that.

What is this fresh bullshit?

Then comes COVID-19, which just makes me say: What is this fresh bullshit? First there’s a virus spreading in another country which makes only epidemiologists worry because we’re America USA #1! and we don’t have those problems. Then other countries start, like, entirely shutting down. Like Asian countries next door to the original outbreak, which okay, seems sensible and thank you for that. But then Italy. I mean, ITALY? I’ve been to Italy! It’s full of Westerners with sexy accents and really, really old buildings! How do you close down all of Italy? And that’s where I’m getting worried because Italy is very much like America except with better pasta, and this could most definitely happen here. It’s coming. Like a barreling train. On the eco-friendly high-speed trans-national train system the United States should have but doesn’.

Seriously, what is going on? Now my darling, precious children–Thaddeus, 5th grade age 11, and Poppy, 3rd grade age 8–are out of school (although Thaddeus was already being accidentally homeschooled, but that’s a whole other topic) and we’re all supposed to stay like 3 feet away from other people while the rest of the world stays 1 meter because why aren’t we using the metric system? It just makes sense. But anyway, in an effort to avoid germs, move ourselves to a better mental environment, and have the opportunity to go outside and get some exercise without running over people, we have moved our sunny Southern California selves to our cabin in an adorable Small Mountain Community (SMC) in the snowy Southern California mountains (yes, they exist. yes, there is snow 90 minutes away from Los Angeles. yes, we could go surfing in high tide in the morning, take a short drive and ski all day, and then surf again in the evening. Oh! Southern California! May she live forever!).

I don’t know if this was a wise move or how well I’m going to do here, but as I mentioned, it’s 10:30am on our first day up here as a family and I’m already exhausted. And I woke up at nine. And the cosmically cruel thing that is especially true right now is that my stomach absolutely cannot handle caffeine, which means I can’t even start my day with a cup of coffee.

It’s going to be a long quarantine.