Results
2775 entries
found
Page 35 of 116
Text Only
How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
Well, I'm sorry I didn't post on my normal day. Everything in my "work room" was put away for Thanksgiving, so I happily lapsed a bit in all my responsibilities. We stayed at home, of course, and zoomed with my parents and sister for the holiday. Drank too much just like usual, felt like crap the next day, like usual. Got into political arguments like usual. It was honestly a pretty normal Thanksgiving, but of course, still in this same house with the same people. The sunroom I work in has become unusable for a pretty big portion of the day now due to too much, well, sun coming in. This irritates me much more than it reasonably should, but lots of things are doing that now. We put up our Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving. We were desperate to do something special, something that would make the house look different and more cheerful. It's nice, but I wonder if it will just make the wait for more time off work and school seem longer. While I kind of anticipated having some emotional problems back when lockdowns were first being discussed back in March, I've mostly been doing OK up to this point. But yesterday into the very early morning today is the first time I've felt like I might actually want some help. It's like there's this dark, sunken feeling in my chest, and nothing is interesting, maybe that's not the right way to put it. Nothing is *satisfying,* nothing I do gives me that feeling that you usually get - that it clicks, that it feels correct, that finishing it gives some sense of completion or accomplishment. That feeling you don't ever even notice until you can't feel it. I think it's the fact that COVID numbers are shooting up extraordinarily high, and they're almost guaranteed to accelerate even further with this holiday, and the next ones. I just heard that the Supreme Court ruled that religious gatherings couldn't be restricted, just in time for the coldest holidays of the year. It's murderous. And while I hope the Biden administration will improve things, when I think of all the damage, the acceleration of spread that will happen in the meantime, and the fact that he has repeatedly signaled his opposition to M4A, to locking the country down, etc., I truly don't have much faith in his leadership, either. Leaders in both parties are afraid to disappoint business interests, so more innocent people will die because we don't have the courage or the sense to do the only rational thing - pay people to stay home and give generous hazard pay and safety equipment to essential workers. On top of the failed leadership, there's the indifference that everyday people have developed. And what's even worse, in my opinion, a performative approach to disease prevention that doesn't actually respect the biological realities of the virus. "Bubbles" whose members associate with other people, masks sagging below the nose, school sports happening at all, and so on. The individualist focus that Americans have disgusts me. Maybe I'll have more organized thoughts on that subject at another time. I just can't find much reason to think there's something good on the horizon.
December 1, 2020
Text Only
How has media coverage of the coronavirus influenced what you think, how you feel, or what you do?
All the information and guidelines I follow regarding Covid come from Andrew Cuomo's daily Covid briefings. I found that he did a good job explaining everything and also giving clear and practical ways to stay safe. I trust him to tell the truth and so I follow what he says. I tune out all other media about Covid because it can be an overload and it is hard to know who/what to trust.
December 1, 2020
Text Only
Additional Material
My daughter’s childhood friend posted an angry plea for others to please wear masks. I was unable to copy it for use here, unfortunately , but here are the circumstances … Her father in law died of covid in Florida. Due to the number of deaths they were unable to obtain the body for a timely funeral. She was recording the funeral and sharing it via Zoom. As she was recording it people 50’s and up were congregating without masks and dismissive of. that and covid, stating it was a hoax. They were approaching her, wanting to hug her and console her. She was outraged and felt trapped. She posted the circumstances, ending with “WEAR THE MASK! JUST WEAR THE DAMNED MASK!”
December 1, 2020
Text Only
For some people, past experiences of stress, trauma, or loss are affecting their ability to deal with the challenges caused by the pandemic. If this is part of your experience, talk about it here.
In the late 70’s I became a mother. My husband’s mother lay ill and dying 6 months into this. My husband was a free-lance photographer. As he supported his father in keeping him company in a months long vigil, and was depressed, his business dwindled and dropped to virtually nothing. I had given up a lucrative job in a medical college. We had no health benefits. Had I not been breastfeeding our daughter ( which I did for her first year), I don’t know how we would have fed her. I recall one time having only 1$ for food; I spent it on 9th street @ the open air sheds of the Italian Market, allocating fifty cents for 2 different vegetables. I cooked and froze some as purées, freezing them in ice cube trays which were easy to defrost .. As our daughter grew I introduced these into her diet yellow (squash), green ((spinach), carrots (orange), etc . - is it any wonder that she became an artist and loves vegetables? My husband learned somewhere about tofu. Tofu was foreign to us. He was Italian, and I, a Wasp. Soybeans were then under 40 cents a pound and a lb of beans made a great deal of tofu. He bought a paperback: The Joy of Tofu which introduced us to the process of making tofu- soaking the beans overnight, processing them into a milk, adding a coagulant such as Epsom salts or lemon juice, and shaping them into bricks in a wooden settling box. The by-product, Okara, was also used ias an extender ( think hamburger helper) or made into a sausage-like protein. A 1lb brick of tofu was the result of soaking overnight and processing for an hour, which filled the hour our daughter napped. Beans(tofu) and rice were cheap and formed a complete protein. We have not been food insecure since then but I still live near the market and I have my settling box. As a new {3rd? Wave) has been predicted I told my daughter we should stock up on some GMO soybeans, just in case.… My parents married in 1933 during an economic depression . My mother was thrifty and organized her meals to recycle creatively into more than one day’s meals for a family of six. This laid the groundwork for my learning thrift and recycling . She was a college graduate and a teacher. She returned to working outside our home only when I was in junior high school. I returned to work when my daughter was 9. Until then I eked out a living with my home skills , sewing gifts for kids’s gifts and our wardrobes, gardening whatever we could grow and eat, learning to hand make my own breads and English muffins ( another good book was “Better Than Store Bought” - who knew you could make your own bagels or ricotta cheese @ home until then? Remember, this was before the Internet gave us instant access to. Everything and phones were still on wire tethers and walls),I made homemade play dough tree ornaments, etc., heated our home with wood and a Franklin stove which I tended while my bread rose on a shelf behind it. I think it made us more creative and resourceful. It also made me a committed recycler. It also led to my collecting and hoarding items “ in case” I ever needed them for myself or others, in my desire to not be caught short. Meanwhile, I plan to fill a jar with soybeans and decorate my kitchen with it Just In Case. And I am mindful that When you have your health you have your first million” I’m quarantined and holding onto my first million as I work my way through the million articles I’ve collected in my past 75 years. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
December 1, 2020
Text & Image
How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
Thanksgiving is my mom’s absolute favorite holiday. Growing up Jewish she never connected with Christmas, but Thanksgiving was a holiday everyone celebrated in her mixed income, predominantly white mid western neighborhood in the 1950s, so it helped her feel totally connected with everyone else in her school and in her community. She’s been known to go a little crazy when it comes to celebrating. She has tons of ceramic pumpkins – plus a really beautiful Le Creuset pumpkin tureen we got her one year — and has been known to collect and iron multicolored leaves in advance to decorate the table. She also has a white blouse embroidered with Thanksgiving leaved and cornucopias and Pilgrims and who knows what that she always breaks out for the once a year occasion. We tease her for it, but of course we love it. I’ve always loved Thanksgiving too, both because it was definitely our holiday (again, unlike Christmas), and in part because growing up it always started with lots of cooking on Wednesday, then stretched into a lazy Friday and the full weekend. In college it was even better because the beginning of Thanksgiving week would feel so quick, and the anticipation would be so great. The Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade has always been a beloved tradition in our family too, ever since my sibs and I would watch it in footie pajamas on the fold out couch in the family room when we were small. Of course we knew this year would be really different. We knew we wouldn’t have the whole family, from grandparents to young cousins and everyone in between, all piled up in a single house sharing rooms and beds, having cousin sleepovers, leaving kids with my parents to watch so we could go out on rare dinner dates and eat fancy food and drink fancy drinks with no kids around. When we saw these thankful signs at Michael’s — strings of simple balsa wood letters on a hemp rope — we bought one for my mom and another for us, then went back and bought more for the rest of the family. We colored them all in identical colors, then shipped them off to each household so we could all have them hanging upon Thanksgiving and see them during the family Thanksgiving Zoom. Together not together. Best we could do in these pandemic times. Oh yeah — one more thing: I learned I can dictate journaling entries right into my phone! This was my easiest one yet.
December 1, 2020
Text Only
What has changed most about the world since the pandemic began?
Oh my gosh who can say what has changed the most? I think we’ll be studying this one for generations. Then again... we clearly didn’t remember any of the lessons from the 1918 flu pandemic so maybe not. For me, the biggest change has been a massive shift inwards in my thinking. My circle has gotten smaller in every way. On the one hand it’s great to really focus on what and who is most important to me, but I want to make sure I don’t get to comfortable in my cozy safe space and forget to care about the wider world and the people in it, especially those who are hungry or scared or abused or exploited.
December 2, 2020
Text & Image
Additional Material
BONE I spoke of the bone last week. Here is the discovered bone. Found on a trail in the woods. I hope it is a special bone. I hope this bone has a history! Such a lovely bone. Full of promise! BONE I can barely see the square where I tupe wirds in from my iphone - editors - you have my permissiin to correct all typos! Bye PJP until next werk!
December 2, 2020
Text Only
How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
Again the main thing on my mind is my beloved aunt, who now has an inpatient hospice bed in her country and is expected to die within a month. I'm just devastated. Meanwhile our local area is on a scary trend of covid cases just like the whole US. B and her family had to put their baby in day care because she can't care for him alone, and he got exposed to covid. Now he has covid symptoms so B has to isolate from him because of her risk level and they have no idea what they'll do if her husband has to be hospitalized. It's just so hard for people who already have disabling health conditions.
December 2, 2020
Text Only
How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
Second day back after quarantine. Feeling drained, anxious, depressed. Feeling old (for me) classic symptoms of depression...I don’t deserve to be happy, nothing I do makes a difference, why do I keep trying, nobody cares about my efforts. I’m tired. I’m hurting. And I know I’m one of thousands right now. I know people have it worse than I do. Why should anyone care when I have an income, I have a roof over my head, I have my health (for now)? But knowing these things doesn’t make the pain subside. I don’t want to work at a school right now. I don’t think anyone should be trying to teach right now. It’s too much expectation on the kids and the adults (parents and teachers alike). I can’t quit. I need the income. I’m sick and tired of being an American during this pandemic
December 2, 2020
Text Only
Additional Material
Recently my friends started a "bad books club" where we read really poorly written books and come together to discuss. It was so fun to do something light-hearted and get the *virtual* social interaction. Our meetings have also helped my sense of time.
December 2, 2020
Text Only
¿De que manera el coronavirus le está afectando su vida en este momento? Cuéntenos sus experiencias, sensaciones/emociones, y pensamientos.
En estos momentos gracias a este Virus, se esta complicando el trabajo, como tambien el miedo hacercarte a las personas, la impotencia que te da no poder abrazar, besar o simplemente sentirse cómodo con los demas ahora estamos con miedo y con la duda y la pregunta de siempre ¿tendrá Covid-19? Ahora es todo mas complicado, mas dificil ya no podemos andar felices o seguros por las calles o simplemente yendo a comprar... ahora vivimos el miedo.
December 2, 2020
Text Only
For some people, past experiences of stress, trauma, or loss are affecting their ability to deal with the challenges caused by the pandemic. If this is part of your experience, talk about it here.
I think any past challenges and stresses I've dealt with have helped me be stronger for dealing with this pandemic. I feel like those experiences gave me a new perspective about life and daily I try to remember the importance of enjoying what I can each day and to try not to take for granted the big and small things in life. And to keep up with my connections as much as possible with my friends, family, coworkers. And then, more recently, I've started having what I call "COVID" dreams. In the dreams I'm doing everyday ordinary things like grocery shopping, or going for a walk, gathering with friends and family, but nobody is wearing a mask, or physically distancing, or any of the things we're supposed to do to stay safe during the pandemic. And when I try to say something, everyone ignores me, and I keep "wandering" around like that until I wake up. It makes sense to me that I'm having these dreams, because I think everyday I have this underlying constant worry that everyone is doing what they need to in order to stay safe. Whether that's when I have to go out to run and errand, or I'm thinking of my loved ones. It's constant worry about exposure to something that's invisible.
December 2, 2020
Text & Image
How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
Thanksgiving was a more subdued affair than usual. I didn’t cook for the whole extended family, or much at all for that matter: aside from some oversized sourdough rolls (my pandemic baking project!) we ordered everything carry out the day before to reheat on thanksgiving. But we still bought some fun new table decorations and the food was great. Plus we were able to see family via zoom and FaceTime, including family that we wouldn’t normally see on thanksgiving so although I am looking forward to having everyone together next year, this year was still a net positive. Lots to be thankful for.
December 2, 2020
Text & Image
How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
Today, the first day of December 2020, I began addressing Christmas cards. In a year marked by disconnection, distance and divisiveness, I feel that it is doubly important to let friends and family members know that they are held dear and greatly missed. Spreading hope, cheer and affection during this dark, unique time in history is vital. Hopefully, loved ones currently tethered by pandemic restrictions will be heartened when a holiday card bearing a handwritten note arrives in their mailboxes.
December 2, 2020
Text Only
Háblenos de lo que le está afectando o asustando más en este momento acerca de la pandemia del coronavirus.
En este momento se esta analizando en argentina cuando sera el mes q comenzaran a aplicar las vacunas, se habla de enero o febrero posiblemente. En mi familia, el circulo intimo... deberian recibirla mis padres, mi mama asmatica y mi papa mayor de edad... sin embargo no se ven convencidos, al contrario, lo cual me preocupa un poco. Deberemos hablarlo detenidamente en familia
December 3, 2020
Text Only
Have people in your community supported one another during the pandemic? Talk about why or why not, and maybe give some examples.
I do feel that most people in my immediate community are supporting one another during the pandemic. My immediate neighbors are so amazing. They always wave, check in to say hi, and participate in conversation from a distance whenever we're outside at the same time. During the first spike back in April, two doors down actually dropped off a peach loaf with a nice little note that said if we need anything, to call them. I thought it was super sweet. I plan on reciprocating the love during this Christmastime. :) I do have to say I have wonderful neighbors.
December 4, 2020
Text Only
Think about the people closest to you. Tell us about how the coronavirus has affected them, and their life.
While everyone is affected by COVID, the person in my life who has been most affected is my grandmother. She is 88 years old and lives in seniors' home. We are lucky that she is treated well but the isolation has made her really lonely I think it has negatively affected her physical health as well. Prior to the pandemic she was doing well health-wise and has really deteriorated recently. It makes me sad that I might not see her again, and she may well live the vast majority of the rest of her life alone. I think she's very depressed about it.
December 4, 2020
Text Only
Many of us have experienced restrictions on movement and social contact during the pandemic. Talk about any restrictions that have especially affected you.
Currently, I don't find it too difficult to maintain social contact. I attribute this to how advanced technology has become. In addition to living with my younger brother and single mother, I keep in close contact with my high school friends and college friends. The pandemic has made it more difficult for me and my high school friends to see each other but we use the internet to contact instead. My brother and I still go on walks but at relatively abnormal hours to avoid any interactions with other people. Overall, the pandemic hasn't profoundly influenced by social contact and movement since technology has allowed for me to circumvent this problem.
December 4, 2020
Text Only
During this pandemic, people are looking for guidance and support in different places. Talk about where you've been looking for support, and how helpful (or not helpful) these sources have been to you.
For COVID guidance I have been listening to Gov. Cuomo's briefings and daily e-mails.For personal guidance or when I need emotional support, I have been turning to my friends and family as well as my Bible study group. I also pray and talk to God, who's always there. These sources have all been helpful as I feel that I've been thriving and blossoming during the pandemic.
December 4, 2020
Text Only
How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
I've been getting the news of how the vaccine is soon becoming a reality (and because of my health conditions, I could be one of the priorities). So now it seems just a matter of hanging on and staying safe until then--if only everyone else would do the same.
December 4, 2020