writing it down

 Originally, I thought I would blog regularly during this global pandemic, so that I could look back and remember what was going on at the time, and how we felt, and what we did during all of this. That's still my intent, not just to post photos but to help myself remember this. 

 First of all, I've been working at home now for over six months, and I think I can say I'm getting the hang of it. It was really isolating and kind of scary at first, realizing why we were all at home, and why we were staying apart. Feeling like I hadn't spoken out loud, except to my cats, for days on end. 

 The first few weeks I barely left the house. I think it was around week 5 that I went back to the grocery store for the first time. Luckily I had bought groceries right before the lock down in March, so I was fine until then. Wearing my mask, hand sanitizer in my purse, shopping list in hand, I went into the store and tried not to hyperventilate the whole time. Anxiety and breathing through the mask for the first trip out was overwhelming. I picked up only what I was going to buy, didn't touch anything else, did not touch my face, rang up my food at the self-checkout, and went home. I remember it took me over an hour to get my breathing back to normal and my heart rate down after that outing.  

 Then all of the decisions even after getting the groceries home... wipe them all down? Leave them in the garage for a few hours before bringing anything in the house? Not initially being able to find toilet paper, alcohol wipes, hand sanitizer, even paper towels in any store. People were hoarding supplies, which was absolute craziness. 

 My mom and I decided right away that we would be each other's "person", that we would isolate from everyone else, but carefully be able to see each other. Neither of us have contact with the public, and are taking care if we need to run to a store. It is harder not to see my brother or my closest friends, though we have had a few "driveway chats" and are able to keep in touch over the phone. 

 Now, we're all adapting and keeping in touch with facetime, video chats, zoom meetings and google meetups. And yet no one knows how long this will last. Too many people are becoming complacent, and the numbers keep rising. We need to learn from this, take care of each other, think about someone other than ourselves. It's the only way we'll all get through this. Together.