Eagle advice: how to get through quarantine

By KAITLYN O’GORMAN

Staff Writer

It has been almost a month of quarantining, practicing social distancing and putting our entire lives on hold waiting for COVID-19 to pass. If you are like me you spent your first-week deep cleaning and organizing everything, not only because it feels like everything is infected, but because you knew that you were going to be trapped in your home for an unknown amount of time.

During the second week, I focused on getting the hang of online school and working from home. Now that there’s nothing left to clean and I’ve gotten into the swing of this new normal, I have extra time on my hands which has allowed the gravity of this pandemic to set in. Rather than wallowing and panic-reading the news, I decided to come up with a list of everything people can do while still being responsible quarantined citizens.

If you have not already done so, I highly recommend that you clean your space. Having a clean and organized space is a good starting place if you are feeling anxious and not in control of your situation. This is a great time to purge clutter and get things done that you meant to get done last spring.

Since we have ample time and nowhere to go, this is also the perfect time to declutter your life. Try to start good habits and break your bad ones. If you have always wanted to be an early riser or if you have always wanted to be someone that runs in the morning, try to make that a habit now.

If you are quarantined with family, try to make the most of it with family game nights, neighborhood walks or learning some family recipes. Even if you live with your family throughout the school year, most of us don’t have the time in our normal schedules for much quality family time. If you are not quarantined with family, make it a habit to Facetime and call; this is a great opportunity to catch up with people you’ve been meaning to talk to. Right now everyone is looking for some kind of social interaction and just because we’re practicing social distancing does not mean we can’t still be social people.

There comes a time when you have cleaned everything, you have spent all the family time you can muster, you have watched everything on Netflix and all the boredom, anxiety and antsiness start to settle back in. If we are going to get through this without going completely insane we need to find or create some kind of normalcy amid all this time of confusion.

There are a lot of companies and organizations that are working to help keep things normal, or at least as normal as they can be during a pandemic.

Fandango has started a new promotion called FandangoNOW, which allows you to rent or buy movies and stream them all without leaving your home. You can stream brand new or older movies from just about anything that has internet access which means that even while locked away in your home, you’ll be able to watch the newest movie theater releases. New releases are $19.99 to rent and movies that have been out for a while are only $5.99 to rent or $19.99 to buy. FandangoNOW allows you to rent a movie for up to 30 days and once you start playing the movie you have it for 48 hours.

I know that a lot of the standard food delivery sites are a little crowded right now, making it hard to treat yourself with your favorite restaurants and foods while quarantined. Chipotle was already an affiliate with several food delivery services, but now they are partnered with a delivery business. Now all you have to do is order your favorite Chipotle burrito through their website or app and have Chipotle at home. Better yet, if you order a meal that costs $10.00 or more on Sunday, the delivery cost is free.

UberEats is currently offering free delivery for orders from independently-owned restaurants. This helps us to safely get food from our favorite local restaurants and it’s helping small businesses stay open. You can find independent restaurants near you by looking for the “eat local” banner on the UberEats app.    

In the same vein, I want to stress how important it is to support local businesses in any way you can. Since the entire world is shutting down, a lot of the small local businesses are getting hit hard financially. If you know of any local restaurants that are staying open for takeout, spread the word on social media and link their website. A little extra publicity can go a long way right now.

If you live in the Fredericksburg area, Harry’s Ale House, 6 Bears & A Goat Brewing Co., 25 30 Espresso, Allman’s Barbeque, Battlefield Restaurant, Benny Vitali’s Pizza and so many more are still open offering takeout through their website or app. You can also support local businesses by buying gift cards or their branded merchandise.

We are all in this as a team and it’s important that when COVID-19 finally passes everyone comes out of quarantine better than before, or at least still intact.