lately léna

Hi, guys. Long time no talk 😳

And, just like that, the world is a completely different place it was when we last spoke. It’s crazy to think about! I’ve had, shall we say, an intense couple of weeks, with international travel, global pandemics, national lock-downs, and incompetent government leadership playing just a small part in the story.

While I won’t bore you with the details, let’s just say that this entire experience has been…challenging?! Haha. I feel like I’ve been forced into a Wheel-of-Fortune-esque game of emotions, going from scared, to bored, to anxious, to irritated, to angry, to suspicious, to bored, and back again. However, I have also realized through it that I am immensely and insanely privileged, and I should never take that for granted, ever.

For one, I am able to work from home very easily, and I have an extremely supportive team and manager that both encourages and ensures that we are all taking care of ourselves & our families first, and our company, second. For another thing, I am quarantined with my family (Conrad and Winston), and, while there have of course been moments of tension and annoyance, I am sooooo grateful to be ‘stuck’ at home with these two.

Because I was travelling when the first of the COVID-19 restrictions were being announced, I could easily have been stranded abroad during this crisis. Thanks to my mom and dad, we were able to rebook my flights and I was back in Sweden before the national lockdowns began. After a period of self-quarantine, I went home to my husband (who is severely immunocompromised due to his past heart failure and subsequent heart transplant + daily immunosuppressant drugs) and dog and I have never been happier to be home. My younger brother’s partner lives in Milan, so needless to say he will not see her for who-knows how long, and I can’t imagine how hard it must be to be away from loved ones right now.

Speaking of which, my family are all in Europe, and all in self-isolation/quarantine for the time being. My parents and brother are together at our summer home on the western coast Sweden, and after evacuating from Lesotho with her partner, my sister is in Germany staying with his family.

This is a weird time, and I hope you are all doing well. I am finally feeling better after a really tough week+ (I wasn’t sick, but I was jet-lagged and physically exhausted, and thus even more vulnerable to getting sick!). Conrad and I have been trying to figure out how to work together from home, creating some new routines, cooking more often, watching a lottt of TV (might finally finish Sopranos for once!) and using our 3x daily dog walks as a way to get some fresh air and movement.

Stay sane, and stay safe. The more we are able to stay home, the more the curve flattens, and the shorter this lockdown will be (not to mention, the safer more people will be)!

Lots of love to you all ❤️

xxLéna