I keep hearing from my American friends & family:

“It’s not that bad here.”

True. What’s also true is that as everyone keeps doing what they are doing. No extra protections. Handwashing. Decontamination. Social distancing. It will get that bad. It will get that bad in a flash. I read a brilliant post, that I forgot to save, but the gist is this:

The virus is glitter. That tiny, sticky/static glitter. Someone burst a big bag of it at the grocery store, Costco, wherever you desperately needed to be. Glitter is hard to get rid of. You can’t brush it all off. You can’t wash it all off. Not at the store, not even in the store restroom, so you take some home with you.

You get it in your car. On your steering wheel, the drive shaft, the blinkers, your seat. It gets on the door handles. You drag it in with those much needed groceries. Onto the kitchen sink & faucet. It’s on your clothes, in your hair. That glitter is everywhere.

Now imagine that glitter is really the virus. It is COVID-19. That glitter you can’t get rid of? That glitter you are getting everywhere? That is a virus more contagious than any we’ve known (chart from WHO data). There is a wide range of symptoms, from nonexistent to fatal.

That glitter may just be annoying to you, but even one tiny little shimmery particle can be deadly to your partner. Your child. Your parents. Your neighbor, mailperson, barrista… or mine. Or it may just kill you. Sure, it’s a picky virus. It prefers older people. It’s not exclusive though. Younger people, even kids, are getting sick. Even kids have died.

Think of it this way, if you had a bag of M&M’s, with 100 M&M’s, and 3 of those were cynanide pills (current death rate is approximately 3%). How many M&M’s would you risk eating before you said ENOUGH?

I am eating zero M&M’s. We are at home. No outside at all. No walks. No shopping. Just creative cooking from the pantry. We are on military orders to shelter-in-place. While I’m going a little stir crazy, I’m also extremely grateful because the numbers are sky rocketing here. Just my little state in Southern Germany, Baden-Württemberg, is getting 1,000 new cases a day.

I do not want to be one of those statistics. I don’t want to get this. I don’t want to play Russian Roulette with M&M’s. I am staying home. I’m begging my friends & family to stay home.

I’m trying to calm my heart. To enjoy the gift of being with Tess, Dane, Christian & Dave. Some times I succeed. Some times I absolutely panic. I’m doing what I can to stay sane. I’m cooking, sewing, playing games, watching the daily Home Safari’s from the Cincinnati Zoo. I’m doing my damndest to not spread any glitter.

I made reusable pocket masks for when we finally do leave the house.
I tried a new cake recipe: Sicilian Whole Orange Cake
Playing Settlers of Catan over Skype with Soren & Lindsay
Christian brought home a new game: Star Wars Legion (I won!)