Song of the day:
Starting a petition now for Jack Black to perform this live, with Britney obviously, at next year’s Oscars or Grammys or MTV Movie Awards - something! It can’t be nominated for an Oscar since it’s a song that was previously recorded, but still. We need it. Also, Kung Fu Panda 4 was fun, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Four years ago…
Four years ago yesterday the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, and the world shut down. I’m sure you remember where you were when you got the news. My office, along with the county, didn’t shut down until the 17th, but it didn’t completely phase me at first because I was actually on vacation. In New York.
I’d gone back and forth about whether or not to even take the trip that I’d planned months earlier, but I wanted to visit my friend and do all the fun NYC things. So I got on the plane on March 9th and flew east. As it turned out, I had an extended visit with my friend in upstate New York because all the NYC things got cancelled, and I never even made it to the city. So, instead of spending four days with him and four days in Manhattan, I spent my full vacation in his tiny town eating all the food and watching all the things (along with cancelling all the other things and rearranging my journey home). There were no reported cases in his county (again, tiny town), but we were still careful. Restaurants were open with sparse seating, and honestly, we had a great time. I’ll never regret my decision to go. And while I was sad to miss hockey and Hamilton and friends in NYC, I don’t regret that I didn’t get to Manhattan since I likely would have been exposed 737 times a minute and might have been stuck there for a while. As it was, I feel lucky that I didn’t contract an early case of COVID from any of the airports I was in. I was wearing gloves and masks everywhere, and dousing myself in hand sanitizer, so I felt a little bit more protected than some, but still. Lucky.
I remember flying back into SFO on March 17 (the first day of lockdown in my county and several others in the Bay Area) and driving back to SJ through what felt like some sort of futuristic apocalyptic kind of movie. There was no one in the airport, I was the only one on my shuttle bus to get my car, and there was no one on the roads. It was eerie. I was technically still on vacation that day and the next so nothing else felt too out of the ordinary. I was able to keep my car maintenance appointment the next morning, which felt normal, but then I went to Target and Safeway to get food, and that’s when it really hit me. The shelves were empty. I’m sure you all remember it. I was thankful that I’d bought a big pack of toilet paper before leaving on my trip because there certainly wasn’t any of that to be had. I went to my office to get my notebook and my work laptop, just to be safe, and that was weird, seeing the campus completely shut down. And while most people were thinking it would only be a couple of weeks before we were back, I had a feeling it was going to be much longer.
Those two weeks turned into 18 months for me and my staff - some others went back sooner - and honestly, once I unearthed my desk and figured out a good setup for working, I loved it. I loved working from home every day and being able to walk around my neighborhood regularly. I didn’t mind going to pick up food and not actually eat in the restaurant. I didn’t mind not doing things. I thought I would read more, but I couldn’t get my mind to focus on books until August of 2020. I took a week off from work and read 10 books. And then I sort of got back on track.
I know a lot of people didn’t like being by themselves and felt isolated, but I never felt that. I met with my staff daily via zoom, still talked to my friends and family on the phone and via zoom or FaceTime, and never felt disconnected from anyone. I also discovered that I didn’t actually miss doing all the things like going to hockey games and concerts. I missed the Broadway shows and eating out more than anything else, but even then, it was okay to have a break from all of it. I wouldn’t say I slowed down necessarily, because I was still working 50+ hours a week, but I didn’t have anywhere to go after the work was done. I did build a number of LEGO sets during the lockdown months, and did a couple of purges around the house, but I didn’t learn how to bake bread or knit or anything like that. I did watch the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe in order, including several of the TV series, so that was an accomplishment.
Some of the chatter online of late has been about whether or not things are better now than they were four years ago. I’m not sure if they’re better or if they’re worse, but they are different. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. They’re better from the perspective that we do have vaccines, and we know the right kind of masks to wear, and we have medicine that can help. But we’re worse because we lost millions of people, many of whom never believed COVID was real.
The thing I miss the most about that first year and a half of the pandemic - that we are still in - was working from home every day. I’m thankful that I still get to do it twice a week. That’s certainly better than nothing, but I wish I could go back to full-time remote work. The thing I’d like to start doing again is walking more frequently. I truly enjoyed that and am not completely sure why I stopped.
I’d love to hear some of your thoughts about all of this in the comments. While you’re reflecting, here are some photos of my 2020 trip to New York. If the blue gloves make you think of a certain TV show that should have had more than one season, then it’s no wonder we’re friends. Two by two… If you have no idea what I’m talking about, ask me in the comments.
I finally made it to Manhattan last year, almost three years after I was supposed to go. And it was great, until I got COVID from someone on the plane on my journey home. I suppose it was only a matter of time at that point, but I’m still a little salty about avoiding it for so long, doing all the right things, and getting it because other people had already decided the pandemic was over and everything was safe. So when I got home from that New York trip I had one more day of vacation - and still felt fine - and then it hit me. And as you know if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, it took me down. So I got to be home for another month - some not working, some working - and it was HARD to go back to the office after that. In fact, that’s probably what started me thinking about when I might retire and do something completely different. If you’ve had COVID, I’m sorry. I hope your case wasn’t as bad or as long as mine. If you haven’t had it? Hurray!! Make sure you do all the things to avoid getting it. I’m still struggling with several aspects of long COVID so if you can avoid it, please do!
Okay now I’m curious…and because I love this new poll option, let me know…have you had it?
Okay, that’s it for now…Happy Tuesday, everyone!
Video of the day:
I've had COVID once; Philip has had it 2x. Fortunately, our cases were mild - a big thanks to Paxlovid. The scary thing now is Philip can't take Paxlovid bc of his other medications - and the option he can take (molnupiravir) is over $2000 bc the gov't no longer subsidizes it and insurance doesn't cover it. So he has to be really careful.