Day 46 of the California quarantine
Covid 19 finances…
5/4/20. Monday
9:30 - I wake up before the dog and go downstairs. She is still asleep so I wake her up and take her outside. Cheese for her.
10:00-11:00 - I sit outside on my patio, drink my 16-oz Hydroflask of lemon water, and finish Notes to Self. I go upstairs and put on a work outfit: cropped houndstooth-pattern pants and a green, V-neck T-shirt. Black heels.
11:00-12:00 - I grab my coffee and read the online news before I leave. This weekend’s account is unbelievably terrifying. By June 1, deaths will skyrocket to 3000 per day and the new projections, based on a secret, internal model uncovered within the Trump Administration says there will be 200,000 deaths. Alas, the social distancing Americans have been practicing - some for as long as 6 weeks - has done very little to slow the virus down. People continue to die. I’m incredibly anxious and no longer want to go to work today, even if it only involves dropping off correspondence.
12:00-1:00 - I don’t go in. I e-mail my mileage log and all of my correspondence to our OT and ask her to mail everything out. I also prepare a thank-you card for the neighbors behind us for leaving us a bag of oranges last week - very thoughtful.
Mondays used to be my class days for my side hustle - 2:00-9:00, with one half-hour break in between - so I try to be available for questions and comments [for the most part] during that block of time. I check email and one of the students can’t access the video I assigned and says she can’t take the quiz. I email her the link for the video’s script and she says thanks. Later I will discover that the student never bothered to take the quiz. I e-mail my International Relations students from my other class and remind them their papers are due next week.
1:00-1:30 - I warm up a chocolate muffin that L.’s friend, J., dropped off last night, and add butter. It’s delicious. This is my first meal of the day.
1:30-2:00 - I am super stressed out. I’m not sure if it’s basic Covid-19 anxiety or also the fact that L. has a first date, at 5:30, at an isolated park, with a 25-year-old barista she just met last week. They’re having a picnic, as there is nowhere else to go. I get R.’s first and last name and his phone number, then tell L. to text me the make/model and license plate of the car when she arrives at the park’s destination. I might not have mentioned this earlier, but my state job is actually law enforcement. I’m a cop. On top of everything, what if R. has the Corona virus?
2:00-4:00 - I am extremely worried about our finances so I roll all of our coins in preparation for when the banks finally open. My Dad gave L. a box of pennies a couple weeks ago - I roll those and they total $27. I roll my own money from my personal coin jar that I’ve had for a year and come up with around $75. I listen to The Daily, Today Explained, The New Yorker-Politics and More; and Crime Junkie while I roll.
4:00-5:00 - I finish cataloging all the photos for the photo album project (see Day 45) and it turns out to be an extremely sad task, as I remember the great time we had in New York in August 2018 and our Napa trip in November 2018. All those great restaurants - closed. Will they ever come back? I took traveling for granted and I feel like crying, but I don’t. L. leaves for her date. I’m very anxious and somewhat panicked.
5:00-5:30 - I eat some of the fruit L. cut up for her picnic (I get the leftovers) and three crackers with a few slices of cheese. Not hungry today. I listen to Southern Fried Crime while I eat. L. texts me the make/model and license plate of R.’s car, per my instructions.
5:30-6:30 - I go on a bike ride. I ride to Trader Joes, via the paseo, which is pretty far for me, but I don’t go in. I think I rode 4 miles, but I’m not sure. I listen to Southern Fried Crime while I bike. It feels like my bike chain is about to go out.
6:30-7:00 - I eat the tortellini that I made several days ago and have some of the Sugarfina candy L. bought for me for Mothers Day. I try not to think about her date. I listen to Market Place and have a glass of champagne.
7:00-11:00 - I have a few 1/2-pg extra credit assignments that need to be graded so I get started. I find a new serial podcast - Accused - Season 1 but then I switch to Accused - Season 3-which is really good! It’s great to find something new and fresh that I can listen to while I grade papers. In between grading papers, I update this blog. More champagne. I’m stressed out. About everything.
11:00 - L. returns. The date went great and she is still alive, so that’s what counts. I find out that R. lives at home and his mother is a RN. L. knows none of the details of his mother’s employment and probably could care less. She reports that they walked around the park and held hands. I don’t think the youth [ok, Gen Zers] understand that we’re in the middle of a pandemic and are supposed to practice social distancing. It is at this moment, while talking to L., that I think, “I am probably going to die from this.” But, what am I supposed to do, exactly? L. deserves to have a social life…it would be great if I could truly, systematically quarantine, in my own home. But that doesn’t seem possible. I do the best I can, but I think I will ultimately die from this virus and it will probably occur, inadvertently, from contamination received from L. There is nothing I can do.
11:30-1:30 - I continue grading papers, then call it and head to the kitchen for clean-up.
1:30 - I go upstairs for McMillions with L.