Quit your life and stay with me
We’ll order in and watch TV
We’ll paint the house and wash the car
We’ll take a walk but not too far
So quit your life and stay with me — MxPx
Quit Your Life has been “our song” for the past 15 years. It came out right around the time my agoraphobia peaked and Josh sent it to me joking that it was perfect song for me because taking a walk, “but not too far” was my ideal. It might seem a bit mean to joke about mental illness, but at that point I was on meds and regaining my mental health and it was really funny.
On top of that, it talks about traveling all over, but home with the one you love being the best place of all. Check. Between Josh’s absences for deployments and now our travels in the Middle East, you can always count on me to say, “There’s no place like home.”
And now the entire world has gotten on board. Stay home, watch TV, order food, walk around the neighborhood, and that’s about it. My love song in a nutshell. Play it again. On repeat.
It’s a good thing I love home since it looks like we’ll be here for the foreseeable future. We’ve made the decision that we won’t be coming to the US to visit this summer, but will instead stay in Abu Dhabi until the borders open up and people are free to come and go.
Right now it looks like people may be able to fly out starting in Mid June or July, but we don’t know when residents or tourists will be allowed back into the country. And since this is where we have a roof over our heads and a job, we won’t leave until we are sure we will be allowed back in. There are approximately 30,000 residents of UAE stuck outside the country at the moment. Moms separated from kids, husbands separated from families, and kids separated from parents. One friend of a friend went on vacation with his wife to the Philippines, leaving the kids here with grandparents, and they’ve been stuck at their resort for almost 6 weeks with at least 30 days more in front of them. If you’re not an Emirati citizen, even if you’ve lived here your entire life, you’re out of luck.
Thankfully we love our home and love Abu Dhabi so our only regrets will be missing time with family and having to send Carter off solo to enlist in the Navy. I’m confident he will be fine, and right now the swearing in ceremonies are all restricted (because of Corona) so we couldn’t be there in person even if we were in the US with him. I’m counting on his big brother to step in and help out until Uncle Sam takes responsibility for him. (Thank you, Calvin!)
Ideally by the time Carter graduates from boot camp (His ship date + 9 weeks) we will be able to travel back to the US and be there for that milestone. I’m thinking Fall/Winter 2020?
Meanwhile, making the most of our allowed exercise time. It might be almost 100 degrees out and weirdly humid as we keep having rain showers (in May!), but it feels great to have the sun on our faces (the little bit that shows from behind our masks) and wind in our hair.