2020 is not quite over, but it will be in ten short days. Okay, a couple of them may feel pretty long. But as I started jotting down notes for my latest blog post idea, I began reflecting on this year. I began this blog in April of 2018. It’s been a fun little hobby, and mostly my family and friends read it…or I like to think they do. But I would say my blog has been more than just a hobby in 2020.
In January, due to some personal family issues, I ended up leaving a contract position I had held onto as more of a crutch while starting my own firm due. Those are too personal to share still, but it was a big leap. Once I got the family stuff a little more settled, I needed to be able to go all in on my own business. In late February and early March, I was able to really start doing that. I made some good connections with potential referral sources and resources for me to refer clients to. I ended up setting up an agreement for a new office location and an of-counsel agreement with another small, woman-owned firm. I was ready to go.
Then pandemic set in. On March 16th, my husband’s job officially sent him to work from home. We have effectively been in quarantine since that day. We take walks in our neighborhood. We occasionally take a drive around the city or up to the suburbs to drop stuff off to my Katie. We get our groceries and anything else we need by delivery or curbside pick-up. Because we have shared custody of our youngest, we drive her to her mom’s every other day (or it feels like it with the current schedule). We’ve had a few socially distanced interactions with my older two girls. My Katie did come home and stay briefly, but mostly she has been quarantining up north. I’ve met a couple of clients outside with masks and social distancing. My husband has been to his office twice on Sundays when no one else is there to take care of things he couldn’t do from home. We have been seriously locked down because my husband is asthmatic and has high blood pressure, and between my pre-existing agoraphobia and blood pressure, we felt a need to be super cautious.
My line of business generally requires a lot of socializing, networking and marketing. That is pretty tough to do when you don’t leave your house. I’m finding ways, like most others I know, to do more virtual and social media things since it seems this is gonna be a while longer. But I don’t have nearly the level of business I would have likely had if the pandemic had not happened. All this was a long way to say I’ve had some time on my hands and a little extra stress (cause you know, we’re all stressing about pandemic related stuff).
So, my blog has been a solace and a form of therapy for me. (Don’t worry, I have any actual therapist for the real stuff.) But writing has allowed me to explore my feelings about what has been going on. And cooking and blogging about cooking has been a respite from it all. I love cooking. My husband will tell you that I look insanely stressed sometimes in the kitchen, but it’s a good stress, kind of like the high a runner or an athlete gets. And I like to think I’ve learned a lot through all the cooking during pandemic, both about cooking and about myself. If you’ve read some of my earlier blogs, you know that I am a self-taught cook, not a trained chef. And I’ve been highly adventurous in my cooking for a long time. But the quarantine gave me the time to really experiment more.
Whether you’ve been with me for all 38 weeks and counting of quarantine life or you just started following, I really appreciate you. Without you, I would probably have stopped the blogging. And without the blogging, I don’t know if I would have been as inspired to be so adventurous. I just don’t know if that binge into bread making, or the homemade crackers, or the various homemade favorites would have happened. And I know my local spice shop would definitely say thank you. You have as much supported their small business as I have by reading my ramblings. So thank you, and if I don’t post again before then, have a very happy new year.
Foodie's Delimma 