COVID-19 and Quarantine 2020

A pop-up screen from the Airline asked if I’d been in China. Nope, just coming back from Mexico City on February 19th. On Leap Year day, Saturday, February 29th, Margaret Howell and I went to see Oprah’s 2020 Vision at The Forum in Inglewood. It was one of the last large scale events that wasn’t cancelled. Life as we knew it was about to change.

David Koa and Rhonda decided to still come for their vacation in Southern California and we were happy to see them! As we were having dinner on Thursday, March 12th at the Arthur J to celebrating my 2-week notice from Coke, Norm, Doko and Jim Gilsinger all sent me photos of empty grocery store shelves. Our fancy celebration dinner started to feel like the top floor of the Titanic, string quartet playing and all.

Bristol Farms, the priciest of grocery stores - all empty shelves. We all were told to work from home, well - except Mike. Even with COVID cases at his office, they were still told to report to work. I finished my last day at Coke on a Thursday and started at Docklight the following Monday…all from my home office. No time like the present, I always said. Mike and I were working more than ever. Elsewhere in the U.S., 26 million people filed for unemployment in 4 weeks. The airlines, movie theaters, restaurants, hair and nail salons all closed.

We tried cooking at home at first. Mike stocked the pantry with snacks and “just add water” goods from Amazon.com. But they we started getting take out. Then fancy take-out. It made us feel like some things were still normal and we wanted to support our favorite local restaurants. I baked cupcakes, and switched to generic toilet paper. Hair appointments were missed and Mike started cutting his own hair.

Zoom happy hours. Catching up with friends and family from far and wide. Sunday family Zoom meetings at 11am. Today, we celebrated Ryan’s 10th birthday pandemic-style via Zoom, even though it’s actually on Wednesday. Everyone is doing ok, we have adjusted. This time will pass and we all need to do our part. See Adventure #27 for photos.