I feel like Captain Kirk writing my Star Ship Enterprise log entries… not sure if anyone will ever read the blog but I want to preserve the data, just in case. Like many of you, my emotions have been on a vomit-inducing roller coaster since we first heard the words COVID-19. My first week was spent in front of the TV, not cooking at all, too afraid to leave the news or social media because things were changing so fast that I had whiplash.
I’ve worked mostly at home for the past two decades, so I should have been better prepared for this than most people. Usually when I wake up in the morning, I think about my to-do list, which real estate clients I have scheduled for that day, and where I might go on vacation once tourist season is over in Panama. Since COVID-19 changed the world, I no longer have holiday renters for my rental apartments so my urgent to-do list has evaporated. No one is buying real estate (and I wouldn’t be able to show properties even if I had clients), so my funnel is currently empty. And since I’ve lost 90% of my income, I no longer think about going on vacation myself, not to mention the fact that our airport is closed for the next 28 days (at minimum) so there is nowhere to go.
Like most of the world, the panic about my safety—and the stress about my lost income—caused me to drink too much and sleep too little. Even though I’ve survived terrible time—9/11 and the ensuing stock crash, my husband’s death in a car accident, the mortgage meltdown of 2008, and starting a new business in a foreign country where I don’t speak the language—this COVID-19 pandemic has hit hard. When the last two decades of my life are put into perspective, this shouldn’t have hit so hard….but it has. Maybe it’s because I watch the news more (and the news is more polarizing). Maybe it’s because I no longer feel invincible. Maybe it’s because I’m a small business owner, which means my expenses and obligations to employees are high. Maybe it’s because I am finally at the age where I think about retiring one day. Maybe it’s because I—like many of you—have an underlying health condition. Maybe it’s because I have a tourism-related business and our sector has been decimated. Whatever the perfect storm of reasons, the Coronavirus COVID-19 quarantine is definitely a crisis.
What wine to you pair with a crisis? This is the question I ask each morning as I drag myself out of bed. The best wine in my cellar? Or the one I have the most of?
During the first week of the COVID-19 quarantine, I drank a lot of my expensive special-occasion wine. I rationalized it by saying, “If today is my last day on earth, I want my taste buds to go out happy.” But as we have gathered more data about COVID-19, I realize that my body will most likely survive this. Now it’s my business I have to worry about. Instead of drinking the special-occasion wine I had been saving for milestone birthdays and anniversaries, I am now back to my daily-drinkers. After all, today is Tuesday.
My second week in quarantine was more normal, if the words “normal” and “quarantine” can ever be used in the same sentence without an automatic disconnect. Panama has stopped all international flights, I have no Airbnb renters to tend to, and even my husband’s normal ADD-induced-activity has sputtered to a stop. There is nothing left to do except solitary activities. Luckily for me, cooking has always been one of my favorite solitary activities.
Because I’m a cook and rarely buy prepared food, I have two huge refrigerators and a massive freezer full of raw ingredients. I’ve always been someone who “stocks up.” (It’s not called hoarding when you do it in when there is no crisis.) For example, I bought 20 kilos (about 44 pounds) of flour from a wholesale distributor, and I still have at least 30 pounds in my freezer so I’ll be able to make homemade bread for the rest of the year. I also have three big bags of pinenuts in my freezer because they can be difficult to get in Panama. I grow my own basil, so I’ll be able to make at least a modified version of pesto. I don’t have frozen pizzas I can throw in the oven the moment I get hungry, but I do have specialty Italian 00 pizza flour that I can use to homemade pizza, as long as I plan two or three days in advance for the dough to rise.
When you learn how to cook, you are more prepared for a crisis such as this. You can take random ingredients you have in your pantry or freezer and turn it into something edible. So each day as I count my blessings, I am grateful that cooking is one of my hobbies. I may come out of this a few pounds heavier, but my well-being is being preserved with each loaf of bread that I bake.
And that brings me back to the main question of this blog. What wine do you pair with a crisis? Whatever you have on hand at the moment. Do whatever it takes to stay healthy, happy and sane.
Cheers my friends.
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