I’m writing this in hindsight. It was WAY too much to address or document in real time. This was a strange week. At work, we were told mid-week to take our things we’d need to work for a couple weeks and go home. I was having a mental breakdown because Makai was still in school. Corporate America made their employees stay home for safety but we were still expected to have our kids at school!? Makai had one last meet up in a park. He had his last in-person piano lesson on Saturday. I remember running errands that day, thinking that it was our last day to be in public for who knows how long. Groceries were running out of medicine, toilet paper and other foods. We bought a case of water and A LOT of canned soup. No one knew what was going to happen. In Chicago, we got the official order to stay at home starting March 21, but our family started on March 15.
The public was advised to wash their hands often and not to wear masks.
We thought this was something that was going on far away from us. On cruise ships. It might last a couple weeks. All we needed to do was wash our hands good.
There were a lot of jokes about Corona beer.
People started freaking out because a school in Chicago had a case of Coronavirus and closed down.
I started driving to work every day because I was afraid to take the germ-filled Blue Line, which comes out of O’hare INTERNATIONAL Airport.
Kishore gave me this candybar to take home when we were told to leave work. I said I would eat it in case of emergency.
Literally every company you ever interacted with was sending out emails to assure you they were taking everything seriously and taking precautions.
My last view at work.
People at work were sharing this meme.
People were freaking out because the grocery stores were running out of things like…. toilet paper…
medication….
bread….
frozen foods….
bread again.. .but notice that there is plenty of budweiser!
There was a shortage of hand sanitizer.
It seemed to be getting real when leaders of countries and celebrities were being diagnosed.
ALL conferences and work travel were cancelled.
Makai’s last meet up with a friend – Otis.
At Chopin Park with Otis.
Uh. Or conorona divorces.
Dallas said something about this possibly causing us to cancel our April vacation and I thought he was nuts, but he was right. The beginning outbreak was at a retirement home outside Seattle and we were supposed to go visit Jordan, Liz and Mahea and new baby Lilinoe. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out if we could cancel our tickets. In the end Delta let us, without a hitch, but only gave us a credit, not a refund.