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Column: Joy can be found in quarantine because there's no place like home

Mike Anthony
Hartford Courant

There's no place like home ... There's no place like home ... And two-plus months into Quarantine 2020 I bet I could sprint blindfolded through every room of my condo while wearing ruby red slippers and carrying a full cup of coffee without spilling a drop.

Jerry Seinfeld once called home, "Where I sleep. Where I come to play with my toys."

But there's not much coming home or getting home or going home these days. Because we are home, almost always, still, pajamas becoming the prison jumpsuit of these strange times.

As we prepare for parole with the gradual re-opening of the state, set to carefully wander back into parts of the world, let's remember that we've been hibernating in the place of our greatest safety and comfort.

There really is no place like home. We're all scratching at the walls and missing barbers and restaurants and human beings, of course, but there is plenty to embrace about spending, say, 23 of every 24 hours where you hang your hat ... or mask.

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If going stir crazy is the extent of COVID-19's impact on a life turned upside down in more damaging and depressing ways for so many others, you're doing just fine. You're finding a new favorite author, watching new shows, taking on new hobbies and finding time for old ones, enjoying both peace and quiet and advanced conversation, learning all sorts of things about yourself and those around you.

Admit it, you're having a blast.

At least occasionally.

"Early in the quarantine there was a beautiful day and I was sitting on the front steps of the house with my kids and we were reading and talking and laughing," Rebecca Lobo said. "We found peace in the midst of a really dark time around us. It was a simple day, but it was perfect in many ways."

I emailed a bunch of sports folks this week and asked about being home with the E-brake pulled on their 100-mph life. What I found in their responses is what I've found in my own experience. That there is enough to celebrate. That the little things matter. That while the situation is less than ideal, anything lost can be replaced with something of value.

"The positives are that things will never slow down like this again, and just enjoying being able to take the dog on walks and hang out with my family," Hartford women's basketball coach Morgan Valley said.

She added, "Everyone handles these things differently and to judge how we handle things is not the greatest move. This isn't normal for anyone so we just have to give each other a break once in a while."

Absolutely. Wouldn't it be wonderful to come out of this with new tools or outlooks, some perspective to take back into a disrupted and divided world, more tolerance, better understanding, patience, compassion?

Let's forget the frustrations and inconveniences of confinement and understand that certain freedoms know no bounds. Boredom and anxiety are solved by creativity and resourcefulness, even the acknowledgement that there's joy in simplicity.

"I have prepared a vegetable garden for the first time in my adult life," said UConn baseball coach Jim Penders.

Valley has picked up the guitar and gotten back to studying Spanish. Geno Auriemma has discovered Instagram Live, which is highly entertaining.

"Especially the first few minutes when he tries to add the guest," Lobo said.

Indeed. But no one's in a rush these days.

"I take a lot more walks than ever," Lobo said. "I'll walk with friends (staying six feet apart) and it has been a great way to stay connected and get outside. And laugh. We laugh a lot. We talk about the graduations and milestones that our kids, and we, are missing. We talk family and politics and the state of the world. But we also laugh. These are such scary times and I'm lucky to have friends who can make me laugh."

Life is complicated now more so than ever. It's OK to recognize the silliness of our current existence while we wait it all out and, yes, laugh. At our own jokes. At our image in the mirror. At that failed dinner. At that impulse purchase.

I bought a bag of 24 bouncy balls and I should probably explain that they are for the cat. That would be a lie. I chuck those things all over the place, boing-boing-boing now part of our daily soundtrack.

Central Connecticut men's basketball coach Donyell Marshall bought a new smoker.

"I'm a pretty good cook," Marshall said. "Smoked ribs and brisket."

"My best dish is anything on the grill," Central football coach Ryan McCarthy said. "I stay as far away from the kitchen as possible."

I'm a little winded right now, having furiously waved a couch pillow at the fire alarm for maybe the 50th time in the past two months just moments before typing this sentence. That should tell you how things are going in my kitchen.

Upstairs in my makeshift office, about 700 of 1,000 pieces are in place on the first jigsaw puzzle I've tackled in 15 years. Through the window of my Windsor Bureau operation, what's this I see outside? The neighbors have a new trampoline and they're bouncing through the afternoon. Another neighbor has a new dog that barks all ... the ... time. I can't stand that stupi _ Wait, this is a positive column.

Truly, I have no complaints.

I love my home, mostly for the woman and cat I share it with. Sure we're staring at the same walls, sitting on the same couches and staring out the same windows. There are no movie theaters, but Netflix. There are books, cards, long walks, occasionally tennis. We miss restaurants but I'll tell you, quite a few dishes from the Fire Hazard Menu have been wonderful. And the alarm drowns out the howling of that damn dog.

Lobo's go-to is her mother's jambalaya recipe. Penders' youngest son loves Dad's chicken parmesan. Valley is proud of her lentil burgers. UConn's Nancy Stevens is a heck of a field hockey coach but, apparently, not much of a cook.

"If it weren't for Whole Foods prepared items," she said, "I would starve."

"Every day feels like Groundhog Day," Marshall said.

True. But there's something to be said for not rushing out the door every day, too. No one has been in a traffic jam since March.

Look, coaches miss their players, certain routines, more. I miss The Courant newsroom. I miss Gampel Pavilion and the XL Center and booking trips to the nearly 40 states this job has taken me over the years.

But what comes to mind at the tail end of every vacation or work trip?

That it sure will be nice to get home.

I know my cat is thrilled to have constant company. He's currently on my lap. I started this paragraph, typed entirely with one index finger, about 20 minutes ago.

I wonder if Stevens replied to my email while on a horse. Her horseback safari in Botswana in June was canceled, but, "I am an equestrian and now get to ride six days a week to improve my proficiency in the sport of dressage."

I needed Google to find out about dressage. Last week I needed Twitter feedback to learn about pickle ball. Expert sports columnist at your service.

"I have probably done enough push-ups in the last eight weeks to put myself in Herschel Walker's category," said McCarthy, adding that his favorite part of quarantine has been fishing and riding bikes with his three sons.

Penders: "Best day was having my whole family enjoying a fire pit on our patio listening to music from the 60s and 70s after a nice dinner."

I'm thinking Penders' children trampled his cabbage or tomato plants.

"I have remembered my kids' names every single day," he said. "There has yet to be a 24-hour period since March 13 that I haven't yelled at them. I've found it is more effective to use their names when I do so."

Life used to be great.

It will be again.

Actually, it has been all along.

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