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What are you doing for fun right now, and how has that changed since the pandemic began?
This is an ongoing challenge, but I'm trying to stay creative in my efforts to find ways to have fun. First, I started dancing. In private. In my attic. I put on the Doors, "Light my Fire" to work out to, and decided I would just rather dance. I felt so much better afterwards, like I had really moved my body in ways I hadn't for a very long time. I enjoy the opportunity the pandemic has given me to try new things in the privacy of my own home. Second, I started trading Game Stop. Not sure this qualifies as fun-- it's totally nerve-wracking. But I do feel like I'm both watching AND acting in a Netflix drama. And I feel very invested in seeing Wall Street crash. I want those reddit folks to strip the hedge funds dry. They deserve it.The Reddit folks outsmarted them and deserve to win. Third, I'm reading YA books with my 12 year old niece. We each choose a book each month and then read and discuss. Fourth, I'm doing tons of cooking. I bought a pizza peel and pizza stone and made some delicious sourdough crust pizza the other day. Five, I'm playing lots of guitar. I did before, but not this much. All this time at home has helped me find new programs to practice with. Six, last week my daughter (with whom we bubble) came over for inauguration day and we drank (Well, I drank most of it) a bottle of champagne and with her brother and their father we played card games we hadn't played since they were little (They are 21 and 25 now). We had a really good laugh. Seven, I watch most of the clips of late night on Instagram. Just the best bits. I like to go to sleep laughing.
February 1, 2021
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Many of us have experienced restrictions on movement and social contact during the pandemic. Talk about any restrictions that have especially affected you.
I have been unemployed since May and unable to see my parents or immediate family since last February. Every time they plan a trip out to see me and meet my partner and her kids for the first time, we have to push it back because the virus keeps getting worse. I am incredibly introverted and my partner and her kids (I love them) are incredibly extroverted. Every day I think I’ve hit my limit and want to give up. I don’t know what’s keeping me going, but I can tell that whatever it is, I’m running out of it. I’m also an alcoholic and attending AA meetings with other people had been critical. But this whole virtual thing is exhausting and soul-sucking. It takes more out of me than it gives if I go to virtual meetings. The temptation grows more and more every day.
February 2, 2021
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
I started the day exhausted. We spent time outside and in our art studio (which was a pandemic project) making art. Then my spouse received an email stating that her supervisor’s son was exposed to COVID. They are all now quarantining for a minimum of 5 days. Each day, we feel the virus getting closer and closer to our bubble. Just the other day, another friend was exposed and is not doing well. Had to go to the hospital and left after not being admitted, but received medications. We take all the precautions. When will one of us get it?
February 2, 2021
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Talk about your experience keeping this journal. Has it had any impact on your health (including mental health) and well-being?
I've enjoyed writing in this journal. I like the various prompts each week that cause me to reflect on what has happened. Many times the weeks are very similar, but these journal prompts make me think about different aspects of the Covid experience and also think about what was different in the last week from the previous week.
February 2, 2021
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
The darkness of January has set in. It's been Groundhog Day over here. No in-person fire pit nights or outdoor hangouts. It's freezing outside and I think there is fatigue. It is almost like we just want to wait until spring. I am tired of trying. I almost prefer to sit the rest out until the weather warms. So a funk for sure. Work has been busy which is great as I can dive in and just focus on that. However, the guilt sets in as I have a 5th grader at home. She is a very independent learner, but she as been lonely as I usually work part time and we can keep each other company or do stuff half the week. I am grateful that I work part time normally. It helps to keep us all sane. I can clean the toilets - that kind of thing. However, my mind has been heavy with the terrible fact that I have three people in my life with cancer. My aunt - 62, a friend at 70 and another friend - 40's. These people are suffering at one of the hardest times of their lives and their loved ones can't sit by them in the hospital. COVID is a nightmare. People are outside peering in windows or freezing in 17 degree weather talking to doctors because they can't be in the hospital (but are outside just in case). Vaccines are crazy. Its is like at the start of the pandemic when you would keep refreshing your browser to see if open slots came up for grocery delivery. I am not old enough to be eligible, but I am hearing this from everyone else. It's a really fractured and frustrating system. My parents are in their 70's and they have appointments in April (its Jan.) I want this to be over and I don't want to be sad and scared of death anymore. I always am to be honest, but middle age is a bitch. Add COVID and its always on the periphery.
February 2, 2021
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Talk about how the events of recent months have affected your financial situation.
I've eaten through my savings and the part time adjunct instructor work I was doing is on hiatus so I'm as of this month entirely without income. I'm trying not to rely too heavily on family to keep afloat and continue applying for jobs but I can't make that process go faster than it is. I'm trying to maintain a positive attitude overall and failing. I'm grateful that I don't have a ton of outside expenses but am concerned about how long I can maintain this way.
February 2, 2021
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Let's talk about sleep. How have you been sleeping recently?
Thanks for asking - terribly! There people in my life right now struggling with, and dying from, cancer. We don’t even see friends right now because it’s just too cold and we follow Fauci very strictly. (We have the luxury to be able to and we also make safe choices - like not hugging my mom just because we want to). It’s a cold, dark winter. I wake up several times a night. Cold dry air doesn’t help but there is this underlying sense of dread in me that is always there just beneath the surface. I am afraid it will never go away because I am in my mid 40’s and “it’s all down hill from here.” I know part of that is BS but seeing more people I care about get sick is very sobering. So yeah - not sleeping which makes me crankier than usual and kind of depressed. It sucks.
February 2, 2021
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
So I am currently on hold, waiting to speak to the NH vaccination information line. I'm trying to find out if they will be able to move up my appointment for the second dose, to within the recommended time--at the moment it's 8 weeks out, its supposed to be 3. The frustration for me as an MD is realizing how much is simply unknown. I'm used to being able to look up studies or data on most things, and if the data isn't there, there's usually enough related info to take a good guess. With COVID, there just hasn't been time to do the studies, and there's simply no information. If I get a second dose of Pfizer in 5 weeks, or 8 weeks, or 12 weeks, what does that mean? Should I go back and start all over? Is it just as good? I gather (I think) that England has decided to extend the interval to 12 weeks, but based on what? Meanwhile, life goes on, or doesn't. There's an overall sense of "floating," not entirely unpleasant, but gets old. I'd love get treatment for some minor but annoying medical issues. There are people I miss, and the social vicissitudes of telling people you now don't feel safe seeing them when you did before (because of the ore contagious variants now out there) are hard to navigate. I'm listening to a long, detailed message for the fifth time. Giving me information that is different from what's on the website. Still on hold. But I'm glad I'm dealing with NH--if I were at home in MA, I gather it's a zoo, and it would be a long wait.
February 3, 2021
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
29 Jan. 2021. COVID Blues (in waves, logjams, and contradictory projections). This week a good friend, age 46, came down with COVID. On 21 Jan the daughter, age 5 or 6, tested positive. He and his wife still tested negative, but wrote: "I feel not well today, but maybe it is just exhaustion. The whole dilemma was caused by a child in V's class, that was sent to school, even showing already symptoms. Now half of the class is infected and the classroom closed. It is insane to experience how selfish and stupid people act, even in times like this." Four days later, Jan 25: "We all have Covid now. V. is over it I believe. But it hit me the hardest. It comes in waves. I have hours of total fatigue and high fever, but then also some hours where it’s more or less bearable. The pain in my body is brutal. It seems to be everywhere. The doctor warned me today that it might get worse before it gets better. I can't imagine how 'worse' could look like. The lung issues often start only after 7-10 days in. So this is all in front of me. I am not qualified to receive treatment. This is reserved for people over 55... I am on day fourth of having symptoms now. Nightmare. M. is holding up better. She was also tested positive, but her symptoms are much milder. Who knows why it got me so hard. It is scary. Especially the nights." I put out a crowd sourcing request and got some helpful suggestions, but the main one, Redemsivir (from a biologist friend who is working on the vaccine, who also noted that the German Minister of Health just ordered 200,000 doses) is what his doctors said he was unqualified for by the state; they are saving it for the over 55 age group. Frustrating. Fortunately by late on the 26th he reported the fever broke and he thought he might be "über dem Berg" (out of the woods). Meanwhile, vaccination log jams. When Mass. entered phase 2, checking with both my possible providers, neither had vaccine. (How this jibes with reports of vaccine sitting in refrigerators, unused or held back for second shots, is unclear. The key issue is that clinics cannot plan ahead to schedule vaccine appointments.) The good news. J&J finally announces today (29th Jan) their vaccine (one shot, no deep refrigeration needed): 74% effective in blocking infection (vs 95% for Moderna and Pfizer's) and 57% effective against the new more transmissible variant (but reminded that the flu vaccines are only 50% effective), and do seem to block deaths. The less good news: Fauci on TV warns there will continue to be new variants if we cannot get everyone (85%) vaccinated, that we will be dealing with this for the foreseable future. The anti-public health campaign. On television we get first hand reports about Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Georgia, Qanon supporter), walking around Congress without a face mask, bypassing metal detectors and refusing to stop when requested by Capitol police, posting self-videos and tweets about forest fires in California being caused by Jewish lasers from space, the need to shed blood to save the country from the election of Biden, and yelling about BLM. We see a video of her walking up behind and taunting David Hogg (now 18, but a survivor of the Parkland, Fla., shooting and killing of 17 teens) -- accusing him of using kids to attack her gun rights, saying she was carrying a gun, and that he was a coward (having plenty of such experiences he refused to engage lest she get the publicity she was seeking). We see Green being offered a face mask when the Congresspeople were in a room during the attack on the Capitol, ignoring the offer. We hear of her supporting executing Democratic politicians including "liking" a bullet should be put in Nancy Pelosi's head. We also see video and hear Congresswoman Cori Bush describe a run in between them in the Capitol tunnel, when Green came up behind her talking loudly into her cellphone; Bush has had her office moved away from Green's and hear her yelling about Black Lives Matter (Bush had been a BLM organizer). It appears that after a very short momentary condemnation of the attack on the Capitol on 6 Jan, the Republicans are now uniting in brushing it aside and mounting a full-scale white supremacy backlash, with Minority Leader in the House Kevin McCarthy going to Mar-a-Lago to consult with Trump on next moves. When Greene does wear a mask, it is one that says "Stop the Steal".
February 3, 2021
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Talk about how the pandemic has affected your closest relationships.
For the past nine months I have not been in my mother's house. She's 101 years old and still living on her own. During the spring and summer months, it was easy to be outside on her porch to visit. Winter has been a different story. 10 minute visits through her window have been all the family is capable of doing. She is still in good spirits thank God. She received her first vaccine last week, so it won't be too terribly long before we can spend time with her indoors. Missing my time with all my close friends. I really miss them. Phone calls just don't do it for me. If it would just be warm outside so atleast we could spend sometime together. Spring is a comments away. If we could all have the vaccine, we could end this isolation.
February 3, 2021
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¿De que manera el coronavirus le está afectando su vida en este momento? Cuéntenos sus experiencias, sensaciones/emociones, y pensamientos.
La ventana de mi cuarto. Cada noche antes de dormir, cada mañana antes de despertar veo hacia el cielo por medio de la ventana de mi cuarto, escucho los sonidos, los pájaros que cantan. Ya no he escuchado los pajaros que a las 5am cantaban anunciandome que ya iba tarde a la escuela, ya no he escuchado a mi vecina gritar "Vas tarde" a su hijo, ya no he visto al chofer que siempre me decia "No te atravieses asi" cuando veia que el camión se me pasaba, no he visto a mis amigos en el camión, antes no veia la ventana de mi cuarto y ahora si. Al ver la ventana de mi cuarto me pregunto, ¿Cuándo volvere a salir como antes? ¿Cuándo vere a mis amigos otra vez?
February 3, 2021
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Is the pandemic affecting any small businesses you know well? If so, tell us how.
One of my good friends was trying to eke out a living cooking custom meals. She told me she has given up because she just couldn't handle the struggle to find her ingredients -- she had plenty of willing customers but she was losing her mind trying to get the shopping done, just couldn't source ingredients reliably, now I'm worried about how she will survive.
February 3, 2021
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Piense en las personas más cercanas a usted. Cuéntenos como el coronavirus les ha impactado sus vidas y diario vivir.
La vida de mis vecinos ha cambiado, algunos no salen por miedo, ottos salen sin precauciones y la mayoría ha aplicado estrategias para sobrevivir la pandemia, unos se dedicaron a la jardineria y siembra de hortalizas, en las areas verdes de la urbanización, otros realizan trabajo de voluntarios, han cambiado sus ventas a delyveri. Algunos se ha mudados cerca de su sitio de trabajo. Hay. mucha ansiedad y algunos se ponen irritable. Todos hemos cambiados, algunos mas solidarios, otros se han aislado. Lo mas resaltante es ver gente con poco, ayudando, hay mucha necesidad, pero también mucha solidaridad.
February 3, 2021
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
Six more weeks! Am I suprised? Lolol. No! At least we can turn the calendar over to February! I'm still hunkering indoors except for food curbside pickup and a medical appointment now and then.
February 3, 2021
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How do you imagine life will be different when the pandemic is over? Have your thoughts on this changed since the pandemic began?
I was thinking about this the other day - and I honestly can't imagine going outside without a mask. I can't imagine being in shul with lots of people. I can't imagine being on the tube. I can't imagine hanging out with groups of friends. I can't imagine what it will be like to see my family again and hold their hands and give them hugs. I can't imagine going through the airport and getting on an aeroplane. In all honesty, the thought gives me anxiety. But I know I will do it --- I want to do and I will need to. I can't imagine what it will be like to get pregnant and give birth. It is a world that I am so hopeful for, but a world that can't imagine and I am scared of.
February 3, 2021
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
No third lockdown, was the decision of the French government. I'm worried I'll be told to go back to in-classroom teaching and I think that would be very unwise. I hope we are given a choice. The vaccination program is going slowly and who knows when I will get it. Feeling a bit stressed about this, but so far nobody has talked about on campus teaching although many students are back on campus. In wait and see mode. Glad that my parents got the first dose of vaccine last week and praying all will go smoothly for their scheduled second dose.
February 3, 2021
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Think about the people closest to you. Tell us about how the coronavirus has affected them, and their life.
My daughter in-law lost her mother to COVID-19 in the early spring. She is still not able to fully process the loss and I ache for her, my son and our grandchildren. My son and his family are moving out of town later in this year. I think that it's just too hard for them to be here with so many memories...
February 4, 2021
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Talk about what you think the world will be like after the pandemic is over.
Coronavirus is not going to go away. When this particular pandemic is over - five years from now, maybe? - the world will be better braced to cope with the next one. It's silly to imagine a world "after the coronavirus pandemic is over." It is a changed world and it will have to morph into something else. Perhaps a more slowly-paced world? It will be a more electronically connected world. I like to believe - I hope - that it will be a more socially conscious and aware world, with better safety nets and healthcare for the disadvantaged. I hope that the trials we are enduring today will help make the greater part of society aware of how interconnected we are and how much we need to help each other.
February 4, 2021
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Has the coronavirus pandemic changed how you see the country you live in? If so, how?
It's interesting that the country is in shambles in every possible way: economically, COVID being out of control, Biden and Harris inheriting an absolute mess in terms of managing the virus and ensuring that vaccines are sent to states constantly in order to get everyone vaccinated, and on and on and on. Yet, this morning, the day after a huge snowstorm, I saw outside my window neighbors helping neighbors, shoveling for each other, snow blowers moving straight down the sidewalk, helping numerous people. It was amazing to watch. I already knew I live in a great neighborhood, but, considering what the state of our country is right now, there is hope. It's out there, in what may seem like the smallest ways, but it is there.
February 4, 2021
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
Various tubes, bottles and jars of makeup—once applied with precision before I would venture out of the house—now sit untouched in an organizer. After all, there’s little reason to put on mascara, foundation, etc., if I am stuck at home due to COVID-19 directives. Heretofore, I was reluctant to even be seen in public without makeup, but the pandemic has prompted me to adopt a lackadaisical, no-fuss attitude toward beauty. It's so freeing!! Likewise, my hair is now a fashionable pandemic gray. Prior to the arrival of the coronavirus, I would visit a stylist every three months for color/highlighting and no doubt outlaid enough money over the decades to finance a child's college education. Now, however, I’m off the bottle and embracing, rather than concealing, my silver roots. Gray locks are almost a badge of honor—symbols of courage and strength that boldly emerge from an environment of pain, sorrow and anxiety.
February 4, 2021