Pandemic Part 1

Around February, Forrest and I started getting asked “what are your Coronavirus plans?” with the implication that we need to leave our home.

My only response was “I don’t know, I still have work.” We had no idea what New York City was about to become, but I feared it would be like Wuhan. We were closely following the Coronavirus in China since we were originally supposed to travel there in March. I was following the news closely and knew things were about to change quickly. I felt like I didn’t have much choice for leaving NYC at the time and how do you truly plan for the unknown.

By the week of March 10, I was getting very nervous. I went home from work early that Thursday because I had so much anxiety about the situation. People around me were starting to know others that had COVID-19 and it was getting too close to home. I was also reading the news updates from multiple sources all throughout each day. Looking back, that was way too much consumption for my mental health. I stopped by Target to get groceries on my way home and was met with empty shelves. One of the only canned goods was cheese soup. I never even knew that was a flavor - probably for good reason. We had been starting to stock up but I feared it wasn’t enough.

The lonely cans of cheese flavored soup at Target.

I was getting really stressed that my office was still open and decided not to go into work that Friday. This was an extremely hard decision for me because I take my job very seriously. However I have been learning to take my health even more seriously over the last couple of years. It also did not help that Forrest’s office started working from home from early March and made their work very flexible. If either of us got sick, i determined it would likely be my fault. Friday, March 13 ended up being the last day my office was open and I wasn’t even there. It felt so strange. I went in during the weekend to grab a lot of supplies. Luckily, I am within biking distance so I could avoid the subway. They told us to expect to be home two weeks, but I am thankful that I grabbed supplies for much longer. I am still using them today - over 5 months later.

The last time in my office building and seeing the reality of an empty dance center that is typically bustling with activity.

The next week was a huge challenge. Getting used to working from home was a learning curve for me. On top of that, we were navigating trying to stock up our supplies while still eating fresh and healthy foods that perish more quickly. Not to mention learning to navigate a new world where you probably should wear masks (even though the government said not to) and stay far away from people (impossible in NYC). Everyone looked at each other like we were aliens. People would yell: “6 feet”, “I am in line”, “stay away”, and “don’t touch your face”. I also had a hard time realizing my home and safe space was no longer safe. I couldn’t do so many things that are considered normal. We stopped wearing contacts since the virus can also be transmitted through your eyes. We started wiping down all groceries and quarunteening pantry items and clean laundry. Yes, the clean laundry. Oh, the irony. We also stopped eating fresh raw foods without cooking them first and made all our meals at home. I thought I actually liked cooking until it became 24/7.

One pan dinner saving my sanity.

The news was focused on New York City as it was predicted to become a hot spot for the virus. Seeing the ventilator predictions and the lack of hospital beds became a harsh reality. Family started asking us to leave, but we feared we may have already been exposed to the virus. We had only been in our apartment about a week without leaving for more than a walk. Forrest kept asking me if we should go and where. I have a lot of family and feared picking who to escape to because I didn’t want to disappoint others. We thought the work from home may last longer, but my work had said two weeks and I wanted to believe them. We ultimately decided that New York was not as safe as we wanted - no matter how safe I felt in our cramped apartment. It also proved to be a good opportunity to spend time with our families. We hoped we would have the time to see everyone safely. If only we knew how long we would have, the planning and disappointments would have been so much easier. Spending time with family has been the silver living in all of this.

New York Times headlines in March/April.

Stay tuned to see where our NYC escape takes us first.