Social Distancing Journal, Days 440 thru 444

Day 440:  Thursday, May 27

So, the tide has definitely changed here. Cases are down, down so far, they're at their lowest since the beginning of the Pandemic. And, with every single vaccine, we get one step closer to normal. Which, is exciting. The light at the end of the tunnel here. And everyone is excited about getting back some semblance of normal. 

Even non-pandemic related things are giving us some hope! 

And some things have come full circle. 

And hey, I haven't wasted all my quarantine time! 

But, for now, Hayden still is not fully vaccinated (though he is on his way), so we're still being careful. Why stop now, when we're SO CLOSE to having the whole house protected. 

Some things you can still take advantage of while social distancing, like Culvers $2 burger days. 

And Hayden had been talking for awhile now, how he wanted to make a pound cake during quarantine. With those days dwindling down, we decided to give it a go.  

Not too bad for our first time. A little heavy for our tastes (which I know sounds weird given it was pound cake, but still). 

The most impressive thing was being able to get it out of the bundt cake pan without it crumbling or sticking. 

Day 441: Friday, May 28

Now, there are some things going back to normal I'm not thrilled with. Universal just kind of sprung getting rid of their indoor masks on everyone. I was really worried Disney was going to do that too. But, so far you are still required to keep them on indoors at Disney. I'm hoping that stays long enough for me to go on Mickey & Minnie's Runway Railway for the first time! (I'm not quite ready to be packed in an indoor cue with unmasked people). 

Although, I will say, Orange County is doing pretty good with their vaccination rates. 

Oh, but in shitty news, there was this: 

We did continue to work on our Summer of Shakespeare. However, this Finer Things Club had to go brunch style- because we were getting up early. 

And yes, I cut poptarts into triangles- that makes them fancy, right? 

So, why were we getting up early? Well, Calib's (twenty-first!!) birthday was upcoming. And, I had asked him over and over what he'd like to do for it. So eventually he came up with what he thought was just the best idea ever: 24 hours of birthday. 

As in, stay up for ALL 24 hours of June 1st. I tried my best to offer alternatives, really anything else. (Can't I just buy him something cool?!) But, he was pretty firm on it. So, we all decided collectively if we were going to do this, we were going to have to adjust our sleep schedules, so on May 31st we were sleeping till about 11:45 am. Calib decided to stay up later and later until he was going to bed around 4. But, Hayden, Asa and I took the opposite approach, by getting up earlier and earlier.  (Peyton, in his infinite wisdom, opted out). So we started out at 7 am- moved to 6 am, and then kept going until we were getting up at midnight. 

This Friday, I believe was our 5 am wake up time. 

And some of us did better with that than others. 

Day 442: Saturday, May 29

Good news of the day: 

Over here, Wake Up time: 4am 

Which is super early. Like, a little too early when everyone is playing Rock Band. 

And the dogs were not very pleased about this new sleeping schedule. They were probably like, "what are you guys even doing here?!?" 

And I'm not sure who hated it more, the dogs or Hayden. 

Saturday we actually had a noon tee time for disc golf at the Rec Center, but because of lack of staffing, they had to cancel- which we didn't know until we got there. But, we were also headed out for some Taco Bell, so we just did that instead (this is Hayden entertaining himself in the car while we waited). 

Normally, I am not a Taco Bell fan, but Peyton get is every time he passes a class, and he passed his Politics class in two weeks flat. So, it was celebration time. 

Day 443: Sunday, May 30

So, this is how things are going. Weird headline, but I'll take it! 

In case you're wondering where our count stands... 

On Sunday we had a Wake Up Time of 2 am

And when you get up at 2am, there is a long time to go until sunrise. (Worse sunrise is way after bedtime- and it's so hot the house isn't super cool mid-day like I'd want it for bedtime.) 

And there is just something about getting up while it's still pitch dark outside. 

You can take sunrise bike rides though, and that's fun. 

We went down to the lake to take in the views. 

And then Asa and I stopped at the park for breakfast- or lunch- or whatever you want to call it. 

We had some visitors. 

And Calib came down to the park with Etta and Ellie, who were most excited to see us- and then even more excited when they realized we had food. 

Hayden, however, was still struggling with adjusting. 

But Asa and I took full advantage- we even hit the pool at 8am (when it opens!) 

And it was so quiet. Nobody was there (and we discovered the music doesn't even come on until 9 am.) 

Also worth noting: Sunday was our 4,000th day married (we set google reminders for weird things). 

We also had to go out to get Calib's birthday cupcakes (they were closed on Monday for Memorial Day), so I suggested if we had to go into Tampa anyway, we should hit Sparkman Wharf for "dinner" when it opened at 11 am. 

And hey, check it out: the cruise terminals are offering vaccines! 

We got to Sparkman Wharf right at opening... 

And decided to try the new Barbeque place. 

Which was pretty good. It's no Disney bbq, but still yummy. 

It was just nice to be out and about. 

Oh, and the Lightning are in the Stanley Cup Playoffs again, so that's exciting! 

After dinner we headed on over to Gigi's Cupcakes, who are still asking you to observe social distancing (even though we were the only people in the store). 

We get the big cupcakes for Calib's birthday, but they have little ones too, so I picked up a couple of those to try some new flavors. 

By noon, Cupcake pickup was complete and we were headed home for an early bedtime. 

Day 44: Monday, May 31

Good news for the day! 

Wake Up Time: 12 am 

We decided to try the 12am wake up time before Calib's birthday in the hopes to be real tired on Monday so we could go to sleep early in preperation for the 24 hours of birthday. 

But man, getting up at 12 am kind of sucks. 

Nooms didn't seem to mind, he was still his rowdy, face licking self. 

Hayden, again, struggling. But hey, he was trying! 

We played some early morning Mario Kart. 

And went frog hunting. 

And took a walk. 

And saw some deer. 

I mean, who doesn't grill out "lunch" at 4:30 in the morning. 

At 6 we headed out to get some donuts (because of being short staffed our Dunkin Donuts doesn't even open till 6 now- and they close early too). 

And that was it for the day. I literally don't have any daylight pictures from Memorial Day. 

Next Up: 24 hours of birthday!