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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
I'm beginning to feel a bit more hopeful about the future, which is symbolized by this image called Dawn. The symmetry and perfection of the graphic represents a feeling of cohesion and capability, something we have all lost during the past year. I've been able to complete some projects this week that were impossible to finish because I was distracted and unable to concentrate. A lot of this has happened because I was finally able to find an appointment for a vaccine, which is scheduled for tomorrow at 6:39pm. At the same time that I feel empowered by this, I am also disappointed that this pandemic has turned just about everything into a chore. It will be some time before we are once again able to enjoy our spontaneity together.
March 31, 2021
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Tell us about your experiences with pregnancy, childbirth, and/or the postpartum period during the pandemic.
I found out I was pregnant ( a surprise) in July. The appointments were different being fully masked and my husband wasn’t allowed to come along. When in September we realized this pregnancy was difficult and would be filled with specialists, that proved even more difficult by having to go it alone. My husband joined me on most appointments by speaker phone or FaceTime, but as we all know from pandemic times- it’s not the same. He missed seeing the baby on an ultrasound, I missed having him hold my hand during the amniocentesis. Then when we learned the pregnancy wasn’t viable, and covid precautions prohibit a nurse from hugging you, the specialist from holding a hand, from your husband to be by your side...it adds so much to the grief and the anger. In addition to all those difficulties- due to the pandemic no one knew. No moms at school drop off noticed my growing belly, because there was no school drop off. My daughters didn’t truly understand the situation because due to covid so much was a mystery- they couldn’t join me at appointments, etc. So much was taken from us in those 5 months of pregnancy- all our hopes and dreams that came with a new baby, and all the support and love we needed from community because our community was isolated from us. We couldn’t go to a counselor together as a family, we couldn’t go to our house of worship to pray, to mourn to grieve our child. So much of the pregnancy feels like a dream- because of the isolation surrounding it.
April 2, 2021
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What do you think was the biggest news event this past week -- either in your community, nationally, or globally? Talk about why it’s a big deal.
It's still the pandemic, although the Chauvin trial is a close second. The pandemic surge is happening, AGAIN. I despair for America and the rest of the world. I have friends and family in Europe, where they are again in lockdown. I hear news reports of vaccine refusers (even health care workers) in Africa. Vaccine supply is spotty at best in the rest of the world, and those in rural, underdeveloped countries are at the mercy of their governments. This is a virus that keeps mutating. I suspect it will be the main news story for years.
April 2, 2021
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
To survive this global disease, Do get your vaccination, please. Make it your task To wear a mask, And you’ll steer clear of harm with ease.
April 2, 2021
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Has the pandemic affected your political views in any way? If so, how?
The sheer magnitude of the traumatic, distrubing political events of the last year is mind-boggling. I was never a fan of the Republican party, Trump or his blatantly white supremicist rhetroic, but seeing his army of insurrectionists descend on the Capitol in real time is an event that will FOREVER impact how I view American politics and the cult of personality. Between January 6th and January 21st, I lived in immense fear of our democracy toppling forever at the hands of Q-ANON-ers, bigots, or foreign adversaries. I'm still afraid. I don't know that we will ever come back from Trump's mishandling of COVID, of the presidency, of our future as a nation.
April 2, 2021
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Think about something really important that happened to you this week, and tell us about it.
March 27, 2021 Caption: Covid days WE ARE OPEN! TA-DA! Yesterday I got a phone call (from Radiologist's office) directing me to book my mammogram, and an email from my Food Coop, directing me to sign up for my shift. I'm not ready yet. I'm not vaxxed. Too much to process.
April 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've managed to get my vaccine envy under control. The state is opening up vaccines to my group near the end of the month. My employer is allowing all employees to continue working from home through the end of year and is making plans to put on clinics to vaccinate all employees and qualified members of their family. But I am nervous, tired and mentally defensive. I'm already anticipating conversations from family expressing their expectations that we start gathering again and I suspect that the pressure is going to be worse than it was prior to the pandemic. To be so, so close to getting vaccinated while a surge is coming is scary. I'm nervous. The only argument I have left at this point is that I have no desire to get sick when we are so close.
April 2, 2021
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We know that COVID-19 is hitting some racial/ethnic communities harder than others. Is this something you think about? If so, share some of your thoughts.
Yes I think about this aol the time because my husband is African American.
April 2, 2021
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
It's not vaxxers vs antivaxxers It's not Republicans vs Democrats It's not science vs skeptics It's people vs the virus This is how we win
April 2, 2021
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Talk about your current living situation. Has anything changed during the pandemic (for example, where you're living, who you're living with, etc.).
I am still in the same house, but my office space has been rearranged quite a bit. I had to move out two of the bookcases to make room for an additional litter box. The house and garage are a disaster since we had to rearrange workspaces to accommodate working from home adults and schooling from home children. I mentally cringe every time I walk through - it is incredibly messy and disorganized. One of the things I am looking forward to doing is hiring someone to come in and do a really deep clean of all the spaces and organize everything. I've set money aside specifically for that purpose and I'm excited to get it done at some point. I'm sick of this space, after a year+ of spending the bulk of my time living in it.
April 2, 2021
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Talk about your current living situation. Has anything changed during the pandemic (for example, where you're living, who you're living with, etc.).
Last year I had a home decor idea -- using decorative paper to cover the electrical socket plates and lightswitches for all the rooms of the house. I had a hard time finding Mod Podge, the craft coating for the paper. Like a lot of things -- flour, chicken parts, sparkling water -- the stores were out of stock. I ended up ordering it from Amazon, adding to the much higher total I spent online in 2020. Over several weeks I did it bit by bit -- unscrewing the plastic wall plates one by one, cutting the paper, pasting it, letting it dry, and recoating it before replacing it. When it was all done I was even more pleased by it than I expected -- and it is something I will remember the pandemic by.
April 2, 2021
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What's one obstacle you've faced in the past week? How did you handle it?
I am still having a hard time dealing with family members who say they are not going to get vaccinated. It makes me so angry and I don't know what to sayto them, and I desperately want to change their minds. But if I say more than "I don't want you to die" I can feel them pulling back. They don't want to engage and discuss it. It's making me so angry. I can't believe that people I love would be so selfish as to not want to end this pandemic as quickly as possible. Or so closed in their thinking that they have bought into some weird ideas about what the vaccines may or may not do. I am hamstrung and it makes me really resentful and angry.
April 2, 2021
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What has changed most about the world since the pandemic began?
it's interesting; a lot has changed and not a lot has changed. for most, I would argue that the internal trauma of this experience is and will continue to change us faster than the external world does. aside from the obvious, staying inside, masking up, staying solitary, and everyone working from home, what has changed? each of those experiences impact our immediate comfort levels and sense of self more than the function of the world at large, seemingly. people are learning to grapple with their aloneness, their loneliness. people are learning to either see each other with softer eyes or more inward eyes or judge eyes. our lives are pouring themselves into computers more and more and more and more and more. it's all so annoying really, interesting too. just... it's all so much. people are tired. people are tired of having to change themselves for a society that won't help us, each other. I'm projecting, to be sure, but it's a felt, collective experience too. people are changing in that we are forced to meet each other where we are all at, collectively, because we're all hyperconnected and "going through" this pandemic together on the internet. can't bullshit yourself and say you don't know what's going on. it's written everywhere and shoved in your face at all times. it's exhausting. personally, I'm exhausted from it. it's also a curious thing to watch unfold, and, writing these entires helps examine it all, too. also, other things, outside of the pandemic have happened since quarantine hit--equally as traumatic. like the death of George Floyd which added just enough fuel to the fire of police brutality that it lit the country on fire last year. literally, riots and fires all across the country. the Wendys down the street from my home in Atlanta was bored to the ground after rayshard brooks was murdered by a police officer there. I went to protests and marches and riots and watched police tear gas crowds. I learned that I am too sensitive for all of that, and commend the people that can put their bodies on the line. it's hard to say what has changed most--it's all been changing. the way we relate to ourselves, the way we relate to each other, the way we relate to our institutions. if anything, I would call for more compassion for ourselves, more communication and patience for each other, and more "burn it to the ground" with our institutions.
April 4, 2021
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
With every passing week, I get closer to having to return to work. As the time passes I'm getting more and more anxious. I don't want things to go back to how it was. Rushing to work on a crowded bus or train. Being stressed all day. Coming home on that same crowded bus or train. We're opening too soon. When will I get a chance to cook healthy meals for my husband again? Or do our laundry? Our clean the house? I'll be back to the same tired person I used to be. With everything crammed into a 2 day weekend. I don't want to do that! I'm angry. I'm sad. It's all about money! The city needs my money, my taxes, my revenue... I'm saddened by the whole thing.
April 4, 2021
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
Coronavirus has affected me because it’s been getting a little hectic the way people are behaving during this time. Some people are being less cautious of how they should wear their mass and sometimes they cough not thinking about others around them which makes me and everyone around me scared that we might catch some thing.
April 4, 2021
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
When I think about how Covid-19 affected my life in the past week all I can think about is how the vaccines for the virus have changed my life. We will never return to pre-Covid-19 normal. Too much in the world has changed. But there are certainly some aspects of pre-pandemic life that do come back. Both my wife and I are fully vaccinated. We have had a dinner party with other vaccinated friends and it felt good. We have visited our son and his family several times. Both he and his wife are vaccinated. Although the littles are not vaccinated the worry that they could convey the virus to the grandparents is gone. The virus changed our lives and now the vaccines are giving us back some of what was lost for over a year.
April 4, 2021
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
My mom died this week. She didn't die of COVID, but she died *with* it. But she was still forced to die alone. Her husband of 46 years is devastated. He was able to spend 15 minutes with her earlier in the day in full PPE. He wasn't supposed to touch her, but he snuck his hand in anyway. And those lines on the picture are because we had to watch on FaceTime and take a screenshot. You hear about these lonely deaths. But you don't truly understand the depth of it until your family experiences it. It's so complicated, and adds a layer of grief on top of what's already an unimaginable loss. We will never recover from this.
April 4, 2021
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Has the pandemic affected your political views in any way? If so, how?
i think it's pushed me further left. the stock market is doing ridiculously well and corporate profits are going crazy while millions of americans suffer. i think we need universal basic income.
April 5, 2021
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
Have people forgotten about the pandemic? I found myself repeatedly asking that question during this past week while visiting my parents in Florida. It's a shock compared to the life I've been living in California. Here in Florida, I commonly see people (including my father - who I often remind, gently at first, then more vocally) not wearing masks while out and about. Today for example - my mother and I ventured inside a department store and I saw a man walking around without a mask on- next to a sign that said "no mask, no service." Yet no one was harassing him or reminding him to put on his mask. Even myself - I gave him this look of disgust. But that's not just it - I'm seeing it everywhere. I go for a run and when I encounter other people (who most of the time are not wearing masks) - they don't give me three or six feet of space. Half a dozen contractors have cycled in and out of my parents house this week - at least fifty percent weren't wearing a mask. At restaurants, people going to and from the bathroom or the front door without a mask on. Even now, as I sit at home watching the NCAA Basketball Tournament, I see viewers in the stands without masks on (or wearing them improperly). A diehard Cardinals fan, I just saw that a brawl broke out - it's Day 3 of the regular season of baseball. Instead, it feels like the news has shifted their focus from the pandemic - lessening it, as if it should be an afterthought - not the main thing. We seem to be allowing ourselves to ease up. No one wants to talk about the COVID-19 outbreak in the Nationals camp that prevented the series from being played. No one wants to talk about the lack of vaccinations in Europe. (By the way, I acknowledge that California is far from perfect and that I've seen a lack of mask wearing as much - just not in my neighborhood). It's driving me a bit insane - I won't lie. Because the pandemic is not over. Even after I get my shot (which will be soon - I hope), we have to stay committed. And I hate it. I stay up at night looking over photos from my previous trips - when travel was still a thing. I think about all the people I haven't seen and wish I could see. This week, I did something "BC" (before coronavirus) - I saw a dermatologist. It was my first visit to a doctor since December 2019. I had put off going because I worried about coronavirus and felt it was not "essential." I finally decided it was time to go and admitted to myself that the constant wearing of a mask (which I hate) has given me constant mascne (mask-acne). It was time to get help. And the visit was smooth and easy. It did make me think it was time to start getting current on other appointments I've blown off. But then I saw the non-mask wearers and I decided I could wait a little bit longer.
April 5, 2021
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
My son had his 21st birthday on Tuesday - his second full lockdown birthday. Here in the UK, the 21st is the big coming-of-age when you go out with your friends and party hard. Nope. He was at home with his parents and big sister for the second year in a row. His presents had all been purchased online and at the supermarket, the only shop that is open. HOWEVER, this year's gifts were much more hopeful than last year's - last year's included a "Coronavirus Survival Kit" containing (among other things) painkillers and a humidifier - this year's big gift was a coffee maker that he can take with him when he returns to university to the flat that he shares with his friends next week. In other coronavirus-related news, I have had a third week of volunteering at our local vaccination centres, which is a very uplifting experience. One of the centres I get sent to is an old town hall in a small town in the middle of the foothills to the Scottish Highlands. It has a "sprung" wooden dance floor and a small stage and feels like it is better suited for ceilidhs and pantomimes than as a temporary NHS facility, but I love how handily it has been repurposed in this time of emergency, and I am really happy to be able to help out in a small way. And the local outdoor Saturday farmer's market was held this week for the first time since December 2020! That was fun - we bumped into neighbours there that we haven't seen for months. It was a warm, sunny day and everybody was very cheerful. There was one moment where I felt that too many people were gathered in one place too close together, but everyone was wearing masks, and it was easy to go around the cluster. Not something I would have even thought about a year and a half ago. So - the pandemic is very much with us in our day to day life (I mean, we have been under a HARD lockdown since before Christmas - THREE AND A HALF MONTHS - and only tomorrow, a week into April, will we be cautiously relaxing our rules - most retail and restaurants will still not be open for another two weeks and we are still not allowed in anyone else's house). But things definitely feel like they are looking up
April 5, 2021