“It’s The End Of The World As We Know It”

I’m having a very hard time starting this. It’s not so easy to jump back in after all this time, like nothing has happened, because we all know, stuff has happened.

The last time I posted on this site was during the Covid-19/Coronavirus pandemic. Most of us have never lived through a pandemic so we didn’t know what we were living through.

My earliest memory of Coronavirus was in February, 2020. We were in Aruba celebrating my daughter (F’s) Bat Mitzvah. F wanted no part of a traditional synagogue service followed by the customary, blow-out celebration. That’s not her thing. She opted instead for a family-only private service in the Rabbi’s study, and a family vacation instead of a party. We suggested going to China, but F had her heart set on Aruba.

The trip to Aruba was to celebrate F achieving legal adulthood under Jewish Law, but I also needed that trip, bad. I was a beat-up b*tch from the small business I started in 2017 (Sum Girls Boutique) and the last thing I wanted to do at that time was plan a Bat Mitzvah. Guest lists, invitations, logistics, event planning, family/friend drama, guilt.

PASS.

A family vacation to Aruba though? Just the four of us?? And Cody Husband was going to plan the whole thing!?

Sign me up!

It was our first family vacation since opening Sum Girls, and I will forever thank my daughter for going that route. Not only did F stay true to herself, but she also gave me a free pass to CHECK THE F*CK OUT for a whole week.

And you know I did.

We were ballers, lounging lazily in our private cabana. Surrounded by fashion magazines and sunscreen, we ordered fresh fruit and sandwiches from our Cabana Boy, “Jeffrey,” who we affectionately nicknamed because of Matt Dillon in The Flamingo Kid.

I do remember seeing early articles about a deadly virus in Wuhan, China, but I swiped up, or right, or whichever way I could to get away from those bad vibes. Got no time for THAT right now. Vacation, baby! Who needs another Pina Colada?!?

Plus, I thought the whole thing was going to be China’s problem. But no. Things got serious for the U.S. real fast, and the first death was reported on February 29th, 2020 — just after we got home from our trip.

The virus moved swiftly across the country. Businesses, schools and social gatherings were shut down; hospitals were running out of ventilators, and unemployment rates reached their highest level since the Great Depression.

The WHO declared a global pandemic. Wall Street tanked, and Trump issued various travel bans. California was the first to issue a stay-at-home order, but by the end of March, dozens of states followed suit.

People started working from home, and public schools went remote. Toilet paper, paper towel, hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes all became overnight prized commodities – and we saw the word “unprecedented” embedded in pretty much every piece of news content.

It was all beginning to resemble something Kurt Vonnegut would have written. One minute you’re plugging along, standard operating procedure, and the next minute you’re in a surgical mask, 6 feet away from the person in front of you, waiting in line, outside, to get into Trader Joes.

It was pretty surreal.

We sanitized E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. We social distanced from our friends and family. We wore lunch lady gloves and wiped down our groceries. We covered our faces with scarves and masks, and scrubbed our hands until they were raw.

All at once, everything felt so extra, but also like not enough. In the beginning though, with so many different outlets and platforms dispensing disparate information, trying to figure out what we were supposed to be doing, and who to believe, wasn’t always so easy.

Social media was, as you can imagine, completely out of control. The utter excess of news (and fake news) was abundant, scary, and/or inaccurate. Suddenly, all outlets had a great topic everyone was interested in, so it was E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E.

Like most people, I did a lot of “Doomscrolling” because I was starved for information. I was searching for anything intelligent to help me protect my family, my businesses, and myself.

Scroll, scroll, scroll…

It wasn’t good. No one can thrive under a dark, heavy blanket of bad news. I needed to find balance. I had to find a place where I was educated and informed, but not to the point of defeat and despair.

I started reading only articles from reputable news outlets. That helped cut some of the fat, and it gave me some direction. Owning a brick-and-mortar business was a new game every day because the goal posts kept moving.

I’m fortunate to have smart people in my life, so when I wasn’t getting the comprehensive guidelines I needed, I deferred to a few intelligent, respected, local friends and customers who have their fingers on the pulse of the community, and on our brand and mission.

But really, anyone’s opinion on how to proceed at that time could have been (and usually was) refuted by someone else. No one definitively knew what the real deal was. We were just going with our instincts and trying to stay safe.

Still, if you would have walked into Sum Girls Boutique on Saturday, March 14, 2020 and told me it would be our last day in business for an indefinite amount of time, I don’t think I would have believed you.

Yes, there was some virus chat amongst our customers, and just the day before Trump declared a National Emergency, but the overall vibe at the shoppe was pretty high. Everyone seemed chill and happy to be there, including me. In fact, at one point, I distinctly remember looking around and thinking to myself how proud I was.

At that time, Sum Girls had only been open 2-1/2 years and it was so validating to be standing there, seeing a business inspired by THIS VERY BLOG, brought to life. It was finally starting to hit its stride, and I finally felt a little peace and positivity.

And then we had to close up.

UUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHH! It sucked. Thanks, Covid!

I think we might have actually been the first business in our downtown area to close. Looking back at the dates, I realize we could have stayed open a little longer (the Governor ended up not issuing Stay-At-Home orders until March 24th) but it felt like the right time for us.

Every headline I saw was laced with death and more death. I felt if we stayed open, we’d just be contributing to the problem. Besides, I thought we’d be only closed for two weeks. But no, we were closed for two months.

Every day, more and more deaths and hospitalizations were reported. Health care workers FOR SURE got it the worst. They worked crazy-long hours as their colleagues became sick or quarantined. They received ever-changing recommendations from medical and political leaders, and they were perpetually stuck between balancing their commitment to help with an understandable need to protect themselves and their families.

We were staying home, ordering online, and using curbside service. Businesses across many industries issued layoffs and Congress worked out a $2.2 trillion stimulus package to address the country’s impending threat of economic disaster. Supply chains were massively disrupted (and some haven’t fully recovered).

Having to close Sum Girls Boutique was one thing, but my promotional marketing business of over 25 years also abruptly came to a halt. There were no more gatherings, events, meetings or trade shows – which meant there was no need for promotional services or products, or me.

Social Distance. Wash Your Hands. Wear A Mask.

That was the mantra. The goal was to “Flatten the Curve” as COVID-19 reached every continent, including Antarctica! We went from travel, concerts, gatherings, parties and boardroom meetings to baking, bingeing, TikTok’ing, zooming, lounging and tie-dying.

“Folding in the cheese” and Air Fryers were all the rage — even for Cody Husband, who perfected several Tik Tok culinary treasures like cheeseburger sliders, air fryer doughnuts and, on a few occasions, Pasagna. (Yes, that’s pizza and lasagna all in one. I know. Ridiculous, but good.)

Not long after we closed Sum Girls, on March 28, 2020, my daughter, F, had the first ZOOM Bat Mitzvah Service in the history of Temple Beth El. F does not like to be the center of attention, so a ZOOM service from home, in our slippers, was her dream come true!

We had a real life Torah in our house, on loan for the day. And after F’s Mitzvah service and Torah portion, we followed it up with an impressive spread of comfort food and sweet treats in our kitchen. Just the four of us, our perfect pooch, Bruno Marshall, and a Torah. For our family, it was the best. Thanks, Covid!

Zoom Bat Mitzvah Be Like:

By April of 2020, about half the world was under some sort of lockdown to help mitigate the spread of Coronavirus. Everything was closed except for essential businesses like grocery stores and health care facilities. Basically, everyone was home like “Bored in the house and I’m in the house bored.”

Not me though. I got to work. With both of my businesses now circling the drain, I had my Dad’s voice in my head as I was presented with two choices: Adapt or Die.

So, I started two different female entrepreneur networking groups and filled them with other bad ass business women who weren’t looking to fold, and I hit our Facebook and Instagram accounts hard so we could stay engaged with our community.

I also created an online shopping site, but I hated that. Sum Girls Boutique was never supposed to be an online shoppe; it’s actually the antithesis of that.

Sum Girls is about taking a break from being online. It’s about logging off and getting out. It’s a magical, inimitable place of empowerment mixed with sustainable, on-trend style, good music, good values and good people. Like the tag line of the Dim Sum & Doughnuts blog, Sum Girls is about having fun and making memories.

That kind of stuff just doesn’t happen shopping online.

But there I was, making myself crazy, spending endless hours trying to set up a freaking online store in order to keep the business afloat. Oh, the irony!

After two months of being closed though, in a phased plan to safely reopen the state of Michigan and economy, Governor Whitmer gave retail businesses the cautious green light, and on May 15, 2020, we pivoted to Private Appointments at Sum Girls.

Cody Husband made sure the shoppe was STOCKED with the best versions of all mandatory safety features — even the ones that were hard to come by, and a lot were.

He found and installed a plastic partition at our cash wrap, an air purifier in the dressing room, and two, super swanky, automatic sanitizer stations – one at each entrance! He also made sure we had the 6 Feet Apart Signs for the floor, back-up boxes of disposable masks and as many Clorox wipes as he could find.

As a seasoned director at Camp Tanuga for over 30 years, safety is Cody’s wheelhouse, and he treated Sum Girls to the same amount of research and care he gives to camp.

Re-Opening our doors at the shoppe felt very natural. Maybe because I had been there a lot, prepping and getting it ready – but I still feel like most would agree coming back to Sum Girls was like seeing an old friend. Everyone was masked and 6 feet apart. Strict safety measures and cleaning regiments were implemented, but Private Appointments were in session and Sum Girls had LIFE once again!

Can’t wait to tell you the rest, but you have to come back for Part 2! Thank you for being here as I make my way back to writing. We are lucky to have you, and we hope you come back!