Thanksgiving in the time of Covid-19
The 2020 election officially began in earnest in early 2019, when Democratic candidates started announcing their exploratory committees. Over the last two years, it has loomed over us, omnipresent. I have spent much of this year at work covering this election. There were 14 debates (primary & general), countless town halls, two week-long conventions, a global pandemic casting a shadow over it all, and then, finally, election day.
This week I tried to remember what it was that I did before there was an election dominating my life 24/7. What were the work projects I put on hold until after the election? What were the routines and habits I let slide, thinking I’d get back to my normal life after the election? Oh, right: I used to exercise and I take walks and cook healthy meals and meditate!
I spent a couple days being relieved that it was all over, excited about getting my life back, but then that relief was immediately replaced by a newfound level of coronavirus anxiety. Watching the country hit new daily case records every day — 100K, then 140K, 150K, and 180K within the span of a week — jolted me back to our gloomy reality pretty quickly.
I had been planning to visit my family in Illinois for Thanksgiving. I haven’t seen them in a year at this point, thanks to the pandemic ruining travel. But we had planned how we’d do it safely for months: we bought a car last summer, so we’d drive the 12 hours from NYC to Chicago to avoid flying; we’d quarantine for two weeks beforehand; we’d wipe down gas pumps on the road before we touched them; only get food from contactless drive-thrus; make the whole drive in one day; get tested before we left New York and after we arrived in Chicago.
But the more I read about how the coronavirus was surging across the country, and especially in my home state of Illinois, the more I started to realize what was probably inevitably going to happen.
I was still trying to be optimistic, and probably stubborn, about it. I tried to hold out as long as I could. When America hit 180,000 daily cases on Friday and Anthony Fauci was pleading with Americas to stay home and not travel for Thanksgiving, I realized it was time to cancel my travel plans. It sucks! It’s my first time not seeing my family for Thanksgiving in pretty much my entire life. But I couldn’t justify it to myself anymore, especially if there was any chance I could get my parents sick.
There have been a million articles about how it’s time to hunker down, time to cancel your Thanksgiving plans, time to go into lockdown again. Several states are imposing lockdown-like restrictions similar to those we had in the spring. If you’re contemplating Thanksgiving without your family this year: I get it! I spent all of this week obsessively tracking case numbers, debating with myself whether the risk was worth it.
It’s a personal choice that everyone has to make, depending on your comfort level with risk. But could you live with yourself if you were the reason a member of your family got sick? Ultimately, that was the thing for me: I couldn’t deal with it if I got one of my parents sick. The chances of it happening were probably low, but they weren’t zero, and that was too much risk for me.
So this year, for the first time, I’m having my own Thanksgiving with just me and my husband here in New York, and I’m thinking about how to create our own Thanksgiving traditions. We’re probably going to skip turkey — my least favorite part — and make Millie Peartee’s mac and cheese and roasted brussels sprouts and some kind of roasted sweet potatoes. There will probably be Pillsbury crescent rolls and Stovetop stuffing—I unapologetically love boxed stuffing and crescent rolls from a tube—and pumpkin pie from my favorite neighborhood bakery.
It’s going to look different this year, and it’s not going to be the Thanksgiving many of us would have wanted. But all we can do is try and make the most of it.
What I’m reading
America’s “daughters” grow up to be women it can’t handle, The Cut. Everyone loves to talk about our daughters as the future, until they become women.
Abby Phillip is Next-Gen CNN, New York Times.
I lost my voice before I found it, Catapult.
Quote tweets have turned us all into jerks, OneZero/Medium. This is true and one of the (many) reasons I find Twitter to be an increasingly exhausting platform these days.
It’s time to hunker down, The Atlantic. Another deadly coronavirus wave is here, and it’s worse than in the spring.
The digital nomads did not prepare for this, New York Times.
Doug Emhoff, as “second gentleman,” can make history — and change — too, Washington Post. “Supportive husbands content with being in the shadows of their prominent wives have existed before. You just don’t hear about them.”
The true cost of keeping a restaurant open during a pandemic, Eater.
Cancel your Thanksgiving travel plans, The Cut.
Why you should brave the bad weather, New York Times.
And for a pick me up, watch this hilarious viral clip of Leta Powell Drake, a Nebraskan broadcaster, interviewing celebrities. And then read this interview with her after.
What I’m cooking
I have recently been obsessed with recipes by Gaby Dalkin of What’s Gaby Cooking. This week I made her fish taco bowls and chicken mushroom larb bowls for dinners, and also her Asian Chicken Slaw salad for lunches. All of which were delicious! I also made these sesame noodles with crispy tofu from Bon Appetit, a recipe I’ve returned to a million times that never gets old.
P.S.
Want to help New Yorkers in need have a Thanksgiving meal? Here’s one way you can help, from my friend Steph who works at the West Side Campaign Against Hunger: donate to them to purchase a turkey for a family in need.
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