The Long Saga Of....the Coronavirus, Oh, the Coronavirus

I remember hearing the words "coronavirus" and "Covid 19" a few times in the months of January and February. At that time it felt like a far away problem, totally unconnected to me. I was sorry for the communities that were struggling with it but did not feel anxiety for myself or my way of life. And then I remember attending some meetings for my church leadership and the virus was a major topic. The other attendees were talking about all these contingency plans and how we would possibly hold church differently or maybe not at all and I remember just sitting there wondering what everyone's problem was. I mean, wasn't this just kind of like the flu? And wasn't it no where near America? It was so weird. So. Weird. And I was a total idiot. Over the next few weeks there began to be cases identified in the United States and even one or two in St. George. It still felt so unreal. Then came the Ides of March.

I'll never forget the day - it was Thursday March 12th actually. There had been a few more cases diagnosed in Utah and suddenly it felt like my entire life was just water that I was trying to hold cupped in my hands. Everything began to disappear. It seemed like within just a few hours every single event in my life got cancelled. We had play tickets that very night to go see Newsies at Clayton Middle School. We had tickets the next week for Romney and me to go see Bright Star at Hale Center Theatre. There were music lessons doctors appointments and choir performances church socials and school gatherings and they all just slipped away literally within one afternoon. I felt like I was watching the end of the movie Infinity War and every social event in my life was a superhero that got dusted away.  That day Troy and I talked and decided that I should go to the store to pick up a few shelf-stable food supplies to keep us fed in case we suddenly had some type of shelter-in-place order. I was not the only person to think this - the local grocery store that afternoon was absolutely packed with people buying up supplies like pasta and flour and sugar and canned beans. Oh and toilet paper. That was the day that toilet paper started to be scarce and it remained hard to find for about another six or eight weeks along with many other supplies. I've never had a hard time finding things before like frozen chicken or ground beef. I've obviously lived a very privileged life because that was quite a jolt, to not be able to get exactly what I wanted exactly when I wanted it.

The next day was Friday the 13th and there was a meeting called after school for the faculty and staff of the elementary school to discuss what the plan was. We got word just as we were gathering in the faculty room that school at least for the next week would be held off campus. So, there we went - no more school in person. At the time it seemed like it might just be that one week plus the week of spring break after that. (As you can see I continued to be an idiot.) At first it was kind of like a fun vacation. We started hearing the word "Quarantine" a whole lot. We took that first week with some at-home school stuff showing up at the end of the week. Then the next week was spring break. Let's see... for spring break we did....nothing. That's right, we did nothing. We hid in our house and wondered what was happening with the world. 

Oh yes and then there was the earthquake. That was Wednesday the 18th, at like 7:30 in the morning. Troy and I were up and in the kitchen. I was at the sink and Troy was behind me. I felt an up-and-down shaking feeling and I swear I thought Troy was jumping up and down. I spun around to ask him what he was doing, and there he was staring at me with huge eyes. I believe he even said, "You have GOT to be FREAKING KIDDING ME." Yes, that's what he said. I should have sprung into action, getting in a doorway or under a table or something but all I could do was stand there in absolute shock, frozen in place. It was really really scary. The motion was like the house was jumping up and down but then began rocking and rolling forward and back right under my feet. It felt like the counter under my hand was waving like water. My heart rate went up to a million beats per minute and I swear it stayed that way all day long. Not only did we get many aftershocks to keep my heart racing, but I was just freaked out. It took me weeks before every single jolt I felt, every truck rumbling by, didn't make me think there was another earthquake. Talk about adding stress to a stressful situation!!

Well, by the time spring break came to a close it was clear that we were stuck with online school for the time being. At first they said a few weeks, then May, then it was just the rest of the year. We coped with this by enjoying the flurry of memes that suddenly erupted with the start of quarantine. I once told Chase that we were truly in the golden age of memes, and he's quoted me on that several times. Those first weeks  it seemed that was how the world coped with the virus and quarantine. Just keep making memes. 

Here are just a few of the millions that we all were sending each other like crazy:

With quarantine came the birth of the zoom calls and meetings. I know they had existed before but now they became the primary way we communicated with each other. Here we are having a zoom date night with our poetry group. 

We also tried to entertain ourselves at home. The girls made some home movies. Chase and I played a game where we hid this figure-drawing model all over the house. Chase won that - he had the best ideas. Made me laugh all the time.

By the time the school year was wrapping up, the kids were all heartily sick of home school. It took a lot of energy on my part to support them but they all did really well. But man were they sick of it. And the virus was still going strong. But you know what was so weird - at first we all really put ourselves on quarantine, barely leaving the house. But as summer approached, it seemed like people sort of got desensitized. People got more and more comfortable going out in public and not worrying too much about social distancing or mask wearing. And so with summer the virus has really resurged and our numbers in Utah are way way higher than they were in the spring. We are now mandated to wear masks anywhere we go in SLC proper. If you leave the city though you still find that many people don't wear them.

It's so weird. Life is so weird!  Since this situation has lasted for four months now, it's hard to capture it all in one blog post, but there are some things that I'll always remember. For example, church. Along with every other event in our lives that got cancelled, we stopped attending church in person. What is just amazing is that a year before that we had been given a program from our church leaders helping us having more worship in our own homes. It certainly was inspired. We had a program already in place for us to focus our learning and study in our homes. We have really missed seeing our church community - I mean, my church members in my neighborhood are pretty much my family. I really miss them. But also we have enjoyed some really sweet and bonding family time as we have our own church services in our home.

I'll also always remember all the crazy things we had to do to keep school seem school-ish at home. In some ways it seemed like a bunch of busy work but hey, those awesome teachers were doing everything they could to make school meaningful. One of my favorite things was Emma needing to recreate famous artwork - she made a great girl with a pearl earring:

Also she had an assignment to do her reading in a different space. She picked a wheel barrow.

It took us a little while to get used to wearing masks. At first it was optional and I wasn't sure how I felt about wearing them. But then it became clear that masks were really helpful (though not everyone agrees) so now we all have a mask plus I have extras in the car and we wear them every where we go. (How did I become a character in a science fiction novel?)

The whole country seemed to get interested in prepper hobbies. We all started getting chickens and puppies and learning to make bread and using sourdough. I confess that I was one of those obnoxious people who got into bread making. I totally did not mean to hop on a bandwagon. I just got interested and I really love my sourdough starter. I got it from my friend Ben, who told me that it had it's beginning in France in the 1700s. So we named in Pierre and I have been baking ever since. In fact, one of my favorite comfort activities is watching bread baking videos on YouTube. We did not join the ranks of people getting puppies though, much to my kids' chagrin. They want a puppy so bad, and seriously, I think I've seen about 20 people get dogs since the start of quarantine.

We started some fun habits/traditions during this super weird time of not being social or going places like we normally did. For a while in the spring Emma and I went to the park pretty much every day to play frisbee and/or football. That was fun, but kind of fizzled out when it started getting hot. What has held on longer is a weekly walk for Troy and me every Sunday morning. We get up early and hit the avenues and walk for a good hour and a half. We love it so much and dread the day that our walks are put on hold due to cold weather.

Okay so that's all I can think of to say. Coronavirus is still going strong and this fall school is looking more and more like it will be online again in the fall. Turns out it wasn't just a few weeks off like we thought at first. Now it feels interminable and instead of sending each other lots of funny memes like we did in April we are all just eating too much and letting go of our life goals. We are certainly in the middle of an event that will go down in history.