Mar 25, 2020 | Lifestyle, Photo Diaries
Ian recently returned from work travel to the mainland, and was placed on mandatory 14-day medical quarantine just in case he was exposed to COVID during his trip. Because I live with him, I am also self-isolating to ensure that we aren’t causing potential harm as potential virus carriers. That’s it. And ok… the word “isolate” is kind of a cold, cruel sounding word. The buzz word going around is “social distancing”, and it’s basically the same thing, except self-isolating is just a step further. Like, fully staying at home and avoiding physical interaction with people. Seriously, everyone should isolate or practice social distancing during this time. Please please please.
PS – I wrote this because I just learned about Typhoid Mary. If you haven’t heard of her, you should read this Nat Geo article about it. It’s wildly relevant to our situation as potential coronavirus super-spreaders, and gives insight to why we need to avoid contact with people even if we aren’t showing any symptoms.
I truly hope you are all safe and well! Sending much love and virtual hugs through the inter webs.
xoxo, Nerelle
While I’m self-isolating at home. I go outside at least once a day for fresh air and exercise.
I woke up this morning, and Ian wasn’t in bed. He wasn’t even in the house. I saw on a friend’s ig story that he was out SUP surfing, so I jumped out of bed, put on my biker shorts which I was going to wear for morning yoga anyway, and my Belle the Label swim top, and head to the beach.
Ian started picking up trash around the beach for about 10 minutes and collected this heap of debris. There was a lot of styrofoam, plastic bottles, a slipper, a piece of a hose, even random cabinet pieces, and an actual car door. I’m always baffled at what trash ends up on the beach. Ian’s doing these quick cleanups as part of his work’s social distancing activity where each employee just picks up trash for a short allotted time, then take a photo of it for data, and disposes of them properly. It’s such a great idea, and I’m going to tag along with Ian along our stretch of beach.
Someone sent me a message the other day on instagram saying that I make quarantine look like vacation… and I was in between feeling flattered and a little guilty, thinking this pandemic is a horrible thing for the world, and if I’m making quarantine look like vacation, am I being offensive?
I thought about it a little and I’ve decided that I shouldn’t feel guilty. This is my daily life even without quarantine, and it might even be a good thing to show people that self-isolation or social distancing is a good thing. If you want to see it as a staycation, go ahead. It’s a good thing to be safe and healthy.
Sometimes I’ll be so laser focused on my work that I don’t realize I’ve accidentally skipped lunch. Working from home with Ian though makes it a lot easier to remember lunch because he’s always hungry haha. Today he surprised me with delicious crunchy fish lumpia!
Mar 24, 2020 | Lifestyle, Travel
Talofa!
This is Ian, and I’ll be doing my very first guest appearance on Relli’s epic blog! I went to Ofu for work at the end of 2019 to fix a repeater tower and swap out some temperature loggers in Ofu’s Toaga lagoon. On my second to last day, I took out the GoPro and snagged a few pics. Hope you enjoy them.
Impending low tide; Not a bad place to be stuck.
I managed to squeeze through the cracks in the reef to get back to the ranger station before dark.
NPS has temperature loggers near some of these corals. We use this data to look at how temperature contributes to changes in the ecosystem over time. Parts of Toaga lagoon are notorious for getting super hot, and harboring remarkably thermotolerant corals.
Classic. Gotta give Relli mad props for making this shot look as good as it does. Lovin the lightroom skillzzz!
The high density and biodiversity of corals in Toaga Lagoon acts as a refugia for many species of fish. Acanthurus triostegus, Chlorurus frontalis, and Acanthurus guttatus are particularly prevalent.
It’s beginning to look a lot like a Christmas tree worm…Sorry, I had to.
Relli always loves these little Chromis viridis, so I always try and snag some pics of them when she’s not around. So pretty!
this is nerelle – i loved this post! who all thinks ian should post more on the blog?! me for sure! oh andi just wanted to point out that this is ian’s second time posting on my blog. his first post was after we got engaged: https://nerelle.com/the-other-side-of-the-proposal/
Mar 24, 2020 | Moments
Feeling extra loved and inspired after finding these sweet notes my girl gang wrote to me on Galentines
Mar 24, 2020 | Lifestyle, Photo Diaries
The coronavirus is causing catastrophe across the world, affecting people’s health, livelihoods, and even entire economies. On the vein of financial impacts, I’ve luckily been able to save money from this whole ordeal.
First of all, I am so fortunate to be able to work from home. I’m truly grateful for a supportive work environment that’s allowed me to find safety and solace in both my income and my health.
Normally, in any other given month before the coronavirus, I’d spend money on: groceries, eating out maybe twice or thrice a week, little knick knacks that I probably don’t need but buy on impulse when I’m browsing through a store, online purchases, and gasoline for our truck to commute. Now that I’m at home 24/7, and apart from our other basic monthly bills like rent, utilities, and internet, I’ve only been spending money on food supplies to sustain ourselves. Oh, and I did buy one new e-book too for $9.99, but that’s about it.
Ian and I are on mandatory home quarantine, and are not allowed to leave our home, minus the occasional swims and SUPs to get exercise and fresh air. So we really can’t drive anywhere, saving us money on fuel, eating out, and the random impulse purchases.
Through this all, I’m still mindful of my local economy. I prioritize buying locally grown produce like Taputimu Farm eggs or Tutuila Greens’ lettuce, and buying local from businesses that keep money invested in our home economy, versus buying online where my money leaves the island and likely never returns.
Another way we are so fortunate is to be surrounded by a very supportive community. Ian’s supervisor at work has been so gracious and kind to do our groceries for us the last two weekends. We gave him a list of our essential food staples, which he’d buy while he was out doing his groceries, and then he dropped it off to us in reusable bags which we’d then disinfect and return. Our neighbors are also always checking in on us when they make the occasional grocery run to see if we need anything. It’s such a blessing to have people you can turn to, and of course we would do the same for our community members in need.
Photo from this weekend, after we got our groceries and deep cleaned our kitchen.
Mar 19, 2020 | Lifestyle, Photo Diaries
March 18, 2020
I just want to start by saying that every new day is worth the effort. Despite the craziness happening around the world, it has always been important to me to make every moment count, whether it’s in celebrating a milestone, resetting, or finding healing.
That being said… yesterday was my 28th birthday! …also my 6th day in quarantine… BUT we made the best of it!
Being in quarantine made celebrating my birthday a bit tricky because I hadn’t left my village in almost a week, and hadn’t even gotten in my car to get groceries or see friends/family. Luckily, I have a great community of neighbors and friends around me, and we got together for a pandemic-social-distancing-quarantine themed outdoor movie night. We watched Contagion, which was intentionally ironic because that is essentially real life events right now. We stomached it without too much cringe though.
Initially, I had zero plans for my birthday. I’d been spending most of my quarantine evenings either blogging (so much time to blog these days, I love it!) or watching movies on our rad new projector that Ian’s parents gifted us for Christmas. I thought it would suck to not do anything at all, and asked Ian if we could do an outdoor movie night. He discussed with our friend and neighbor Traci, and we were a go! Ian sent out a message to a few neighbors that we share our yard with so it would still be considered a “stay at home party”. Plus we all practiced social distancing and situated ourselves at least 6 feet apart.
The view, and our cute simple set up: white fabric and string lights taped to a shipping container
Traci and Ano’s cozy couch set up, with Officer up on top
Made some bomb fish lumpia, which Ian was mmMmm-ing so hard lol
Ian was even disinfecting the camp chairs with Lysol hahaha
Photos of me and Ian taken by Traci
Can we all have your immunity, Matt Damon?!
The friends/neighbors all keeping their distance from us hahah
Thank goodness WHO let the dogs out… Yodi snuggled so hard with us during the movie
From earlier that day
I was in the middle of a conference call for my annual employee performance review–which I’m pretty sure I nailed–when Ian came in with this lovely brunch spread for me! I waved him away while I finished up my call, then Ian came back and snapped this cute flick and told me to open up my sweet gift… also pandemic themed, organic patchouli soap! I’m definitely the type of person that truly appreciates handmade natural bar soaps, so I love that Ian gets me.
Also during my conference call, my supervisor wished me happy birthday and asked for my favorite order from Ruby Red Cafe. Apparently my coworkers were planning to get food from there to deliver to me! I love that my team always celebrates birthdays, regardless of how busy we are, or if we’re not at the office, or even during a dang pandemic haha. That was so so so sweet. Sefa and Bel stopped by a little later, and Sefa cracked open his door covering his nose and mouth with his shirt all cautious, and I busted out laughing. We are in quarantine and so it was good that he did, but if you know Sefa, he’s simply hilarious. He put the food down (and brought my yoga mat from the office) and backed away slowly back to his truck. I thanked them, laughing and waving goodbye. They got food for both me and Ian, satisfying our power bowl craving from Ruby Red! ahhh
After clocking out from work, Ian and I head to the beach for a little fresh air. Ian went SUP surfing while I hung out in the hammocks under the pier with a bevvy for a bit. Then I swam around, and Ian was showing me his swimming techniques because I told him I wanted to get better at swimming.
I’m truly so grateful for this man coming into my life, loving me the way he does, accepting me for who I am, and wanting to grow old with me too.
Happy birthday to meeeee!
