Free Range

On Monday in the middle of a lovely lunch in Milwaukee, we received notice that we had been exposed to COVID-19 before heading out on our honeymoon roadtrip. We ran through a slew of options and determined it was best to hole up in a hotel to wait out our 14 day quarantine. And so it was that we ended up in room 235 in a hotel near South Bend, Indiana for 5 nights.

The first order of business was getting food without breaking our quarantine. We selected lunch and dinner foods to be delivered via ClickList and decided that one run per day to the hotel lobby to grab a to-do breakfast bag was going to have to be acceptable. Armed with canned chili, baked potatoes, and ready to mix up our favorite taco-flavored chicken sandwich filling, we knew we wouldn't starve.

Next on the agenda was arranging for testing. Let me tell you what. When you hear you've been exposed to COVID, it is easy to become a hypochondriac. We took temperatures and oxygen levels frequently and kept each other appraised of every slight nausea, faint headache, and general feeling of malaise, but neither if us actually took a turn for the noticeably worse at any point. Wednesday morning, we were able to self-swab for COVID in a drive-thru test site in a Walmart parking lot. David went first, and I had to turn my head away to keep from gagging. Twirling a large q-tip in my own nose while a stranger counted down from 15 outside my window was... well, I am just glad it is over. Test results take 3-5 business days, so we are still waiting to hear whether we spent our quarantine asymptomatically sick or whether we may still be open to our own turns with COVID in the future.

So what does one do in a hotel room in Indiana for over 100 hours? Luckily, working was an option for Dave. It was quarterly maintenance at work, and we had actually blocked out a little time to pause the honeymoon for that anyway. I made myself a list of actually important, reasonably important, and enjoyable projects to work on. I was able to iron out the wrinkles and get my Georgia educator certificate, complete an important and difficult job application, research and apply for tutoring positions, design a website with our wedding memories, and choreograph four numbers from the musical Six to use as workouts. We also found a cemetery within walking distance of the hotel figuring that we couldn't really hurt anyone there with one walk each day.

Thankfully, we received two games as gifts (thank you Natalie Solomon and Eric Zierse) after we had loaded the Pod, so they ended up stuffed in my car for the journey. We played one game of Guillotine and one game of Forbidden Desert each day. Dave won Guillotine 4 times out of 5. We escaped the Desert in novice and normal, but we have not yet beaten the elite level. 

And we did the unthinkable. We watched tv. One of my favorite things about our relationship is that David and I do not watch tv. We don't have one in the living room or bedroom, and the only tv we own is used by the kids to play xbox. But we recognized the situation for what it was and decided on a 7-day free trial of HBO so I could finally force David to sit through a few episodes of The Newsroom, and he suggested that we also try Curb Your Enthusiasm. We watched one episode of each per day and appreciated the power that television seems to have over advancing the clock. We also noticed that the change in our normal routine negatively impacted our sleep, and we will be cancelling the HBO right away.

To keep some normalcy, we did two of our favorite things: ate popcorn in bed, and enjoyed Japanese comedy shows. (I know, technically tv. But somehow having to read the subtitles is so much more mentally engaging.) We watched a Wednesday Downtown episode that tested the theory that you will definitely laugh at your parent's funny faces, and a Gaki no Tsukai episode of Silent Library in which Endo and Hamada were hooked to a static electricity machine and had a shock pass between their lips. Laughter really helped us stay positive.

We did sneak out once. Having chosen to stay in Indiana specifically to check out the new Indiana Dunes National Park, we opted for a field trip on Friday. We kept completely isolated from others and were able to see a beautiful green bog, the larges of the dunes, and have a picnic on the shore of Lake Michigan. Listening to the waves crash on the beach was a balm to my sedentary mind.

Today marks the end of our fourteen days, and we have flown the coop. I can't stop talking and am jumping subject to subject despite taking my ADHD medication and an extra boost of caffeine. I couldn't figure out why my mind was racing so uncontrollably this morning, but then it hit me. I am not built for holding still. Escaping after 5 nights and 100 hours logged in room 235 has simply left me mentally exuberant. 

We are now back on the road, that strange adventure behind us (albeit still awaiting test results). We're headed to Ohio for one more national park, but we are also scheduling real estate showings tomorrow in Georgia. Life is moving forward, and with so many decisions to make, I feel alive again. I am definitely meant to roam free range.