If you’re anything like me, your household around this time of year would typically be filled with all the MADNESS that is created during the NCAA basketball tournament. Smack talk amongst colleagues or fellow industry planners would be underway and brackets would have been submitted with a very select few based on the statistical likelihood of winning, most based on emotion and school ties, others simply chosen by the “cool factor” of their school’s mascot; shout out to those UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs! This would have also been a time we’d be looking forward to the impending awesomeness that is the Summer Olympics and all the national pride and corporate themed events that follow… and I don’t even want to get started on the insanely beautiful early summer weddings we’ve all been planning since last spring…  

Instead, we are receiving postponement and cancellations of sports, travel plans and events right and left, leaving someone like me to look anywhere for a glimmer of hope and normalcy. I am seeking out any sort of escape and sense of excitement that I can find, to the point where I am reexamining my linen swatch booklets and putting together new color schemes for events that currently don’t exist! Let’s be honest, who can handle any more of this? Stuck in my home, expertly designed by the likes of IKEA, Home Goods and Restoration Hardware, I am holding on to the idea that warmer, more exciting days are ahead. While coming across the beautiful floral swatches, the idea that flowers will soon be budding gives me joy and is a mental escape (if only for 5min); it’s an exciting time that some cities like Washington D.C. are already enjoying (remember social distancing when hoping to see those Cherry Blossoms).

Another form of escape while stuck indoors, and something I’ve deemed as “helping stimulate the economy” … hitting up those online shopping sales! About this time of year, I’d be looking for sales on mixed mercury and honeycomb glass votives, all different types of lanterns and a few vintage drink carts for upcoming events, but while that is on hiatus, I’ve come across other sales. During this time of “quarantine” and “shelter-in-place,” retailers are doing their best to get in front of anyone with the capacity to make such purchases with their online sales and BOGO offers and I don’t blame them. To be honest, it’s probably working! I understand this isn’t the best time to be making materialistic purchases, and let’s be clear, it’s really only happened a few times (shoes are my weakness even if I can’t purchase event decor).

The truth is, coming across anything that will be used during a warmer and happier time, whether it be clothes, sporting equipment or event décor, makes things in the future seem less glum. When something brightly colored, new and on sale is sitting before you, it’s impossible to say no to the sparks of hope created from these seasonal items. Until things go back to normal, I will stay “calmly” quarantined in my Home Goods special house, awaiting the online order of my sky blue Dolce Vita strappy sandals, dreaming of the next fabulous event I will be wearing them to and all of the talented colleagues and industry folks I have missed!