California has been lovely, but also not exactly what we were expecting from it. This is, in no small part, thanks to a fun little merry-go-round of COVID that we’ve been riding at the McFarlands’ house, which means we’ve not done very much during our time here.
The first couple days were mostly just getting settled in – we had some food we’ve been missing (Dave’s Hot Chicken! Real Mexican food!), played some board games, and got comfortable.
Over our first weekend, the McFarlands went out of town for a baseball game, and we housesat for them. While we had the use of the McFarlands’ car, we drove up to Noho to have dinner with our friends, the Armes, and we had a great time.
Then Micah tested positive for COVID, and we couldn’t go out anymore. He self-quarantined in the bedroom most of the time, but the house isn’t that big, so we were mostly just hoping that if we got sick, it would be fast and we’d get over it quickly. We did go to an improv comedy night and left him at home the first day, but after that it felt too weird – what if we were positive and asymptomatic?
That thinking proved wise, as soon we did the merry-go-round thing; right around the time Micah was feeling better, Cassie got COVID, and then right when she was moving past it, I got it from her. So far Lizzy hasn’t caught it at all (fingers crossed!), but the end result is that we’ve spent basically all our time since then hanging around the house, playing board games. Sometimes the people who are feeling better will go out and pick up something fun, but there still haven’t been any big events or anything.
But as disappointing as it’s been to not get to do everything we wanted to do here – by this point, with me still testing positive, there’s no way we get to see everyone we wanted to see, and I may not even get to see a movie in a real movie theater! – it’s kind of been great?
We love the McFarlands, and our time here has basically been nothing other than spending time with them. It’s been a blast, even when we were sick. Seriously, the idea of just spending time ordering take-out and playing board games with friends is already kind of our ideal vacation; given the option, we’d rather have seen some more of our Los Angeles friends, but this hasn’t been as big a bummer as it could’ve been.
We’re getting better at taking pictures – not great, but better – but given our lack of activities, there still aren’t a lot. But we’ll share them all below.
Hopefully I test negative starting tomorrow, we all go see a movie and some friends, and we finish our time in Los Angeles strong – but really, as long as I’m healthy for our flight next Sunday, I’ll be happy.
