feliceThere’s not a lot to laugh about when thinking about the Corona Virus except perhaps at our own reactions to it. During these past few weeks as the Corona has found its way to a neighborhood near us, we have moved from passive observers to action takers. The big question is what are we going to do to keep ourselves healthy?
Last week I wrote about almost cancelling a trip to visit my kids in LA but proudly braved my fears and went anyway armed with 7-eleven gas station Purell and Clorox wipes. Frankly, it felt like Purell and Clorox were mere feather dusters in the face of an onslaught of volcanic ash moving like a toxic lava field into our personal space. But nevertheless, I had my prescribed tools and managed to avoid the invisible threat.
Now it’s two weeks later and like many, the conversation of how we will live our lives over the next few months has become a major topic. Will we self-isolate and hole up at home, or will we venture into the world with our Purell and soap?
At our annual ski trip gathering of 5 couples that was thankfully not cancelled in Colorado at our friend’s home, the Corona topic was front and center the entire week. As we settled into our familiar routines, there were a few adjustments that needed to be made. Normally we are all big huggers and now we were having a little less of that. We still cooked collectively and our cocktail pace was not slowed, but our normal levity had been weighted down by this unavoidable topic.
As we all prepared for our trips home an uneasiness settled in and for my husband and me, flying into Miami International from Colorado, felt like stepping out of the countryside into Calcutta. And with that anxiety about the Miami airport being filled with a random sea of humanity, I reached for my Purell bottle for small comfort and discovered it missing. This was so not ok. “No Purell, no re-entry,” I thought. So I headed out on a mission to find more knowing full well there was serious Pure Hell price gouging of $149 per bottle.
My friend Nancy and I set out on the hunt. Like fric and frac we combed the aisles calling out, “none here….nope, not here either”. Walmart was sold out so we headed to last week’s stop at the same 7-Eleven where I’d had success but none was left. As we stood at the check out to ask if there was any in the back, the cashier looked at us like we were nuts. We all nervously joked a bit and then a woman at the check out suggested we make our own.
The line was now 10 deep but all were listening as the Julia Childs of home spun Purell shared the magic formula of rubbing alcohol and aloe vera gel. We raced back to that 7-eleven’s remedy section which had but one small shelf and grabbed the last 2 mini bottles of rubbing alcohol. Back at the check out we felt like we had scored a big success. Then we headed back to Walmart in search of aloe gel and travel bottles. Success again! We were giddy. We nabbed the aloe vera, and the travel bottles but the rubbing alcohol was sold out and we patted ourselves on the back that we’d nabbed it at the gas station.
We High Fived, proud of our conquest and headed back to the house to make our potion which you can click on below if you want to see how it’s done.
Laughing at our desperado behavior, it all seems so surreal realizing we had treated this Purell hunt like a survival mission. After all there’s just so little that we can be in control of when it comes to self-preservation in a Corona world. But alas, we do what we can and from time to time it feels good to laugh at ourselves.
We decided we had to make our own Purell and looked it up on-line. If the ingredients are around…it’s easy. Rubbing Alcohol and Aloe Vera. Heres’ the recipe.