Grateful for a (temporary) home of our own
Our temporary home in East Atlanta.
Today we spent the entire day at our temporary Atlanta home, the rental property of my brother and sister-in-law in East Atlanta, and boy am I happy to be here. After six weeks of being on the road it feels so nice to settle in somewhere, especially during these trying times.
We’ve gone back and forth about whether we should stay put or go home. But ultimately the house here is more comfortable than our 425 square foot home on Martha’s Vineyard and we get the benefits of seeing the kids everyday. Plus we’re in a city full of resources, while stories continue to pour out of Martha’s Vineyard about the demand to the Island’s resources and infrastructure.
This house is available to us at least through the rest of the month so we’ve decided to hunker down here for now. I’m pretty confident there will be shelter-in-place orders across the country before long, so not sure what that means for our journey home but we’re playing it day by day. For now I’ll soak up as much family time and perceived “vacation” as I can get.
I woke up to read a deeply touching Facebook post from one of the Island’s popular restaurant owners and the crisis his unemployed staff of 75 are now facing. As someone who has made a living in the service industry, and has been the wife of a restaurant manager for over a dozen years I get it, and it sucks.
That being said there are many other service providers that will suffer the same blow (like us hairdressers ahem) and there seems to be little support for us and many others. Some states have started to close spas and salons but Massachusetts has yet to, leaving it up to the town’s to enact on a local level, and they’re not moving. Ironically the State Board of Cosmetology is relentlessly stringent on rules of sanitation when it comes to licensing (when there’s fees and fines to be collected) but in a time of and actual health and safety crisis they’re useless. And the stylists that continue to work to “give their clients a sense of normalcy” or because they’re trying to make as much money as possible are just being ignorant and providing a disservice. I get it, we’re all going to suffer financially but come the F on.
Anyway I spent most of the afternoon catching up on work, while constantly being distracted by news headlines, which is pretty much all I do these days. As a social media manager on Martha’s Vineyard I’m trying to stay abreast of Island news and how local businesses are being affected and what they are doing to overcome it as the impacts on small businesses, especially in our Island economy are going to be tremendous. I’m grateful that Gavin and I operate businesses with virtually no overhead, and my heart goes out to all of the employers having to make very tough decisions at this time.
Like many small business owners stuck at home we’ll try to use this time to begin preparing for recovery. A silver lining is finally having the time to work on those extra things for our business that we’ve been putting off, like updating our blogs and email marketing, upping our social media, letting out clients know we’re OK and here to help anyway we can. The hard part now is just trying to get work done when I’m so anxious and easily distracted…
Luckily the kids break up our days and provide such a breathe of fresh air. Today our family came over for dinner and the kids and I raced back and forth across the front yard. I let Jack win most of the time but the truth is I’m not terribly faster than a nine year old boy… but at least I’m getting exercise!
Today’s Silver Lining: I finally have the time to go on long walks and am enjoying the warmer weather in Atlanta. I love seeing more people outside that likely weren’t doing it before.
Best Thing I Watched: My BFF Kati’s new video blog documenting her daily hikes for her students! So proud of what she’s doing to stay active while keeping the kids engaged.
Today’s Headlines: Tom Brady Leaving the Patriots (I’m not a Pats Fan but I live in Pats Country so it’s newsworthy, assuming there’s foot ball again…),
Best Thing I Saw: A seven week Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy named Elsa. It. was. so. cute. and it took all of my strength to not run up to her and squeeze her.
How I Practiced Self Care: Exercise, and grounding by the garden out back.
Best Thing I Read: The National Parks are offering virtual tours of many of the parks! I love how creative businesses and organizations are getting and how much they’re investing in digital solutions right now.
(I also consumed Star Wars content for the first time in years, courtesy of my niece Fiona’s book request. It might’ve been the most I’ve ever understood about the story line. Perhaps I’ll find kid books on all the things I’ve never tried to understand…)
Something that made me laugh: Fiona is obsessed with seeing my belly, she’s been forcing me to lift up my shirt for days. And Gavin taught her how to blowing raspberries on my tummy and it’s weird but hilarious. (Note to self: work on abs before coming back to Atlanta)