Here's What I've Been Up To This Summer
I think we can all agree that pandemic summer looks a little bit different than normal summer. Of course, time is what you make of it, but with increasing COVID-19 cases, travel restrictions, widespread event cancellations, and social distancing requirements in effect everywhere, summer has been a bit of a bummer this year. On these hot summer days, I find myself missing lots of pre-COVID summer staples: travel, concerts, baseball games, festivals, restaurants, breweries, chart topping summer bops, and pool parties. Anyone else?
All that being said, I've been doing my best to stay cool and enjoy pandemic summertime the best I can. As unusually dull as the past couple months have been, it's not fair to say that summer has been a complete waste. In fact, for me, it's been one of the best, most memorable summers ever because…
I got engaged!
Last weekend, Alex gave me the surprise of a lifetime when he popped THE question and I said YES (well, I said "OF COURSE!", but close enough). By and far, this has been the biggest highlight of my summer, a great way to brighten up the doom and gloom madness of 2020. I'm so grateful for our relationship; after 9.5 years of dating, I'm looking forward to watching the next chapter of our story unfold. I want to share all the details surrounding the evolution of our relationship and my complete SHOCK during the proposal, but I'll save the story for another blog post. Guess that means you'll have to hang tight for now and check back soon!
Aside from the big engagement, I've been trying to live my best life under the current circumstances. I've done a bit of traveling, but let me tell you, traveling during COVID doesn't feel the same… While some people have seemingly forgot we're in a pandemic (*cough*all the people going to Sturgis*cough*), I've been very reluctant to indulge in travel. Nonetheless, I failed at fully resisting the travel bug and ultimately made the decision to take a few *safe, responsible, and socially distant* trips in late June/early July, so more on those adventures next…
I traveled to Myrtle Beach for a beach week with my mom and sister.
My mom and sister flew down to North Carolina in late June and we decided to spend a week at the beach, because who doesn’t love a good beach vacation — right? Work from home definitely has its perks, so I was able to work remote for a few days with oceanfront views from our hotel balcony in Myrtle Beach. The ocean is such a great place to relax the body, refresh the mind, and for me, it's truly one of the most inspiring places in this big old world. I'm lucky to be a couple hours drive away from the salt air ocean breeze — one perk of North Carolina living, that’s for sure.
It was interesting traveling to Myrtle Beach. The beaches weren't "packed" necessarily, but there were definitely a lot of tourists trudging forward with their summer vacations as planned. At the time we traveled to Myrtle Beach, it was becoming known nationally as a COVID-19 hotspot, tourists having contracted COVID while vacationing in Myrtle Beach and then spreading the virus to other people back in their respective home states. Yes I understand that life must go on, but the number of people refusing to wear masks and take the social distancing measures seriously really concerned me and made me feel very, very uncomfortable in the public areas of the hotel. The hotel didn't do enough to encourage guests to wear masks and the Carolinas hadn't yet implemented a public mask mandate, so people were choosing to live life under pre-pandemic, almost normal circumstances.
I even had one lady ask me why I chose to wear a mask in the first place. She approached me and said, "I have a question for you. I'm a nurse so I'm curious, why are you wearing a mask?" When I said, "I wear a mask to protect you and as you can see, I'm doing a lot better of a job than the hundreds of people here who don't seem to care", she immediately cut me off and said, "No need to get sassy, it was just a question. But I don't know why you're going to wear the mask and touch your phone and your hair and your face and think you're doing a better job than everyone else." I was fuming mad. If you're a nurse, or any decent person who cares anything about the health and wellbeing of other people, you wouldn't talk to someone like that. But whatever, just #WearTheDamnMask. It’s not fun, no one likes it, but it is what it is right now and we all just have to accept it, wear it, do our part, and hope that things clear up soon.
All-in-all, despite the crazy tourists and lack of proactive COVID countermeasures in place, it felt so good to be at the beach. I'm not a sit-outside-on-the-beach-for-hours type of person, but I do enjoy catching the ocean sunrise, taking long walks on the beach, and listening to the waves crash the shore, three activities that I most certainly enjoyed during my time at Myrtle Beach. It was a good, much needed recharge.
After Myrtle Beach, I road-tripped back home to Wisconsin for a 3-week stay with my family.
At the end of June, the company I work for required all employees to take a one-week furlough, so I thought what better opportunity was there to sneak away and enjoy time back home in Wisconsin with my family? I hadn't really been home home in a few years and the timing felt right. Pandemic aside, I knew I was going to be laying low back in Wisconsin, so I really didn't feel guilty about taking the trip.
Because my mom and sister purchased a one-way ticket to North Carolina when they came to visit Myrtle Beach, they joined me on the cross-country, 17+ hour journey back to the Midwest. We had originally planned a few stops along the way, but some of the things we came across made us uncomfortable enough to change the majority of our plans and cut our road trip short by a couple days.
As we left westward, we drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway through the beautiful Smoky Mountains before coming into Gatlinburg, TN. Originally, we planned to stay the night in Gatlinburg, but when we drove into town, we were shocked by the thousands of people packed in the streets and restaurants with zero regard for social distancing and zero mask etiquette whatsoever. Again, it was late June and before government mask mandates were a thing, but I would estimate less than 5% mask usage amongst the thousands of people. It was such an uncomfortable hour in Gatlinburg for us, so it was a no brainer that we all unanimously agreed (without any hesitation) to continue west and zip right on through Gatlinburg. Gatlinburg on a normal day = tourists. Gatlinburg during a pandemic = even more tourists.
Continuing westward, we rolled into Nashville LATE after getting stuck in standstill traffic on I-40 for more than 3 hours. A semi had overturned and shut down the whole westbound portion of the interstate. We had been driving all day, so we were all tired and, quite frankly, miserable. After the accident had finally cleared, we continued into Nashville. On the way to our hotel, we drove through downtown and admired all the honkytonks, bright lights, and country music. Of course, we were amazed at how many people were packed into the bars, but I guess it's Nashville…
Waking up the next morning, we stopped for coffee and started our northward journey to Wisconsin. We had originally planned to spend more time in Nashville followed by a quick stint in St. Louis to see the arch, but we decided to cut it all short and head home. Definitely a bummer, but as I said, traveling in COVID times is not the same…
Back home in Wisconsin, my sister asked me to be her Maid of Honor and we went wedding dress shopping for her!
My sister is getting married in July 2021, so we made an appointment for her to go wedding dress shopping. On that day, she first asked me to be her Maid of Honor and later said YES to the dress. It was a fun day with Mom and us three sisters together again. Of course, masks were required, making it quite the experience for all of us (and I thought they served champagne at these places haha!). She’s the first of us three daughters to get married, so it should be a good tome!
Then I proceeded to work remote a few more weeks and spend lots more time with my family.
I stayed in Wisconsin for 3 weeks enjoying all sorts of time with my family. I got to hang out with my sisters, I visited my grandparents quite frequently, and Mom, Dad, and I played plenty of games of Sequence, Cribbage, and other card games nearly every night. There are lots of days I miss living in Wisconsin, so this 3-week trip was everything I never knew I needed and so much more. If I'm being honest, leaving was really, really hard this time. You know what they say though, leaving is always the hardest part.
After my Wisconsin time was up, I solo road-tripped back home to North Carolina.
Well, I had a friend! Peanut, my grandma's cat, joined me as she moved across country to live in her new home with my aunt back in North Carolina. Together we cranked out 2 days in the car, jamming out to the entire Taylor Swift discography along our route, unaware that a few days after my return she would drop a surprise album. It works out like that sometimes…
I also brought back lots of my favorite Wisconsin beer and plenty of cheese to share with friends. We recently had a little Wisconsin beer and cheese party where we sipped on local Wisconsin brews and tried all sorts of flavored cheese and cheese curds courtesy of Dairy State Cheese, a local cheese factory near my hometown. I love sharing little bits of my hometown with my far-away-from-home friends. By the way, the reaction to the Strawberry Rhubarb New Glarus seasonal was mixed. Personally, I loved it, but it’s definitely sweet and tart. If you’re in Wisconsin, don’t miss the chance to try it out this summer.
And now I'm back in North Carolina, enjoying my new engagement and cozy moments at home.
It’s crazy to think it’s been more than a week since our big engagement. I replay the moment in my head quite often — it’s such a perfect summer memory, one I am eternally grateful for, especially in all the craziness we’re living amongst right now.
In between all the excitement, I’ve been staying busy decorating our house, creating a fun coffee station/coffee nook in our front room, and doing lots of online shopping (thanks, Target).
I’ve been listening to:
folklore, on repeat (no shame)
This playlist of everything by the wldlfe from january 1, 2016 until right now
This playlist of every one direction song but in a very specific order
I’ve been watching:
Parenthood (second time through)
Younger
Gilmore Girls (I’m watching this series for the first time!)
Uncut Gems — highly recommend
Time: The Kalief Browder Story — honestly such an unjust and heartbreaking story
The Office
I’ve been shopping for:
Way too many things online haha! I will share lots more on my recent purchases, what’s in my cart, and what’s on my wishlist very soon. I promise! For all you coffee lovers out there, coffee accessories have been my go-to shopping cart items this summer. I’ve been rotating out old coffee mugs and replacing them with cuter newer ones. And since I got my expresso maker earlier this spring, I’ve been busy buying all things to support my little coffee corner.
How's your summer going? What are you doing to stay busy? Have you done any traveling? Leave a comment below!
Enjoy!
JB