Chronicles of The Family Quarantine

These past few weeks have been weird and difficult for all of us in our own individual ways. After hearing about the lock down, as much as I didn’t want to leave my amazing roommates, I fled to my hometown in Phoenix to wait out the quarantine with my family! 

Initially, I thought I’d be there for maybe one or two weeks, nothing crazy. But here I am a month later! It’s so crazy the last time I lived in this house for over a month was before I left for college in 2014. All I’ll say is – a lot has changed. Not only have I become a new and improved human since high school (thank God), but my family has also gone through their fair share of transformation. Needless to say, being around each other so abruptly for this extended amount of time has been quite interesting to navigate. 

I’m sure I’m not alone in this – one day seems harder than the one before, and then the next day is okay again. It’s tough to be around the same people for this long. Or at least it has been for me!

But every day I wake up and just can’t imagine another time when I’ll be able to spend this much of my time eating, laughing and hanging with my family. Heading into this FIVB beach season, all of my time was taken with training and traveling from one country to another chasing the 2020 Olympic Dream. That will still continue in 2021, of course, but this time is sweet. And unexpected. Before COVID-19, the next time I had sights on coming home was in late OCTOBER! It’s crazy how quickly that schedule has changed and turned around, but I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to connect and spend all this time with the people I love! 

There so many things that I took for granted back in high school that I’m absolutely loving and trying to soak in now: 

Like I GET to wake up every morning and eat breakfast with my parents, and I GET to just chill on the couch and talk about anything and everything. I GET to cook with them… cause I know I can’t do that s*** by myself. I GET to go on sunset strolls with my sister! These are such simple activities, but I know they’ll be the ones I look back on years from now when I think of this weird and unpredictable 2020. Cause let’s face it – we’ll never be able to forget this year. So why not try to fill it with positive memories and new experiences? 

Other than occasionally bickering with one another about stupid stuff, there have been so many positives that have come from our quarantine. My family has picked up and tried a lot of new things since I’ve been home. I recently started to get in and find out what this Orange Theory hype is all about. I’m on week two of doing these at-home OT workouts. They are no joke. As you can see in the video, some of the moves are a tad interesting and comical, but I was dripping sweat by the end.

Another thing we’ve taken up is basketball. My family has started playing or attempting to play a couple of times a week. And when I say attempting, I mean we make 2-4 shots within a game of HORSE… embarrassing, but hilarious! Along with basketball, we were inspired by our next-door neighbors to try our hands at baseball. I found out that hitting that ball is hard AF! Like I was getting underhand pitches and couldn’t make contact – I’ll stick to volleyball…. I don’t even want to imagine getting a real throw. Maybe I should just start at T-ball or something. Another thing we discovered was my mom still had her magic touch from softball back in high school. She really gave us a highlight real. 

Now we were on a roll, so we decided to get the ole croquet set out. We haven’t played since 2005. So naturally, we forgot all the rules. Instead of Googling them, everyone was just making them up as we went along. It led to a disaster and led to lots of trash-talking, but the nice, friendly type of trash-talking. Long story short, I couldn’t play worth a crap. Mom excelled yet again and ended up winning somehow from our made-up rules. 

Along with our exploratory activities, we’ve also been baking. I have to say – one of the best parts about being home is all these new recipes I’d never make on my own. I’ve learned from my sister’s boyfriend Matt the art of baking the “perfect peach pie!” And we’ve mastered an ice cream recipe that is seriously competing with Ben and Jerry’s Cookies and Cream and McDonald’s Oreo McFlurries. Well, McDonald’s puts hardly any Oreos in their McFlurries. They sprinkle like two crumbs on it and call it a day. But I’m not gonna get started on that because it really fires me up.

Overall this time in quarantine with the fam has been one for the books. However unexpected this time is, I’m so grateful to have a crew like them. As we continue to march through the unknown, I hope you’re able to find time for your friends and the people that mean the most to you. Because at the end of the day, that’s all that matters. Find and cherish the people you can lean on in tough times, because I don’t know about you, but this time is extremely tough for me. Even with the fam.

Happy quarantining and stay safe out there!