California Lockdown

What a time to be alive!

It feels like absolutely nothing is going on, but I guess I'd be doing myself a disservice not documenting this crazy time in our society.

The most frustrating thing has been how fast everything has been changing; policies are double-downed on within hours of being made. For instance, at my work it became: reduced in-office hours for spring quarter. Then it became working remote all of spring quarter, starting at the end of winter quarter. With that in place, this week they announced that we would need to be working remote after this week. Then by the end of the day they said no one should come back if they could help it. By Tuesday they said the building would be locked on Friday at 5p and by Tuesday afternoon they said nevermind, we're locking it at 5p today. It's been really annoying.

Travel, both domestically and internationally, was suspended through May 31, which sucked since I had a trip booked to Central Asia but didn't make much of a difference anyway considering flights are canceled and most countries are completely closing their borders.

Our city/county quarantines getting upped more every day, and as of yesterday the whole state is on lockdown. It's definitely a new and weird situation, but the fact that we're all in it together (and I mean ALL), it actually makes it less weird somehow. It's been nice seeing the community rally and come together though: Internet being offered for free to students, gyms offering free virtual workout sessions, John Legend performing songs live virtually. It's nice.

Of course on the other hand are all the assholes who aren't treating it like an actual quarantine and are still getting out there. Yesterday, AJ and I drove to his coworkers house so I could get something notorized, and I couldn't believe my eyes: I hadn't left the house since Monday afternoon when I got home from work except to walk the dog, and yet it looked like a completely normal day. So many cars on the road, shopping plaza parking lots full, office buildings still operational (and no, they weren't hospitals). It was making me so angry. I saw a great meme today that encompassed the feelings: CAN EVERYONE PLEASE JUST STAY HOME FOR 14 DAYS SO WE CAN GET PAST THIS? I FEEL LIKE A KINDERGARTNER WHO KEEPS GETTING RECESS MINUTES TAKING AWAY BECAUSE A FEW KIDS CAN'T FOLLOW THE RULES.

So far, I've had enough work and things to do around the house that have kept me busy and mentally stimulated, so that's been good and I'm just trying to take it one day at a time, because thinking about how this is going to last for AT LEAST two weeks, cause man, that's a lot. I've been working on integrating small physical breaks into my day and that's been working really well because I've been able to rotate out walking Anana, going on the treadmill, doing YouTube videos of yoga and playing my Just Dance 2020 game (the best!)

I know we'll all come out the other side okay just like we have with every other global situation, but being stuck in the middle of it and not knowing how long it's going to last is the stressful, frustrating part. But man, if any generation could do this, we could! FaceTime, Google Hangout, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Petcube, Facebook Live, Instagram, Twitter... we're literally as connected as we can be without coming into contact with one another. It almost feels wrong to bitch about it.

Fun fact: Jayna, who grew up in Germany, mentioned how everyone had to stay indoors after Chernobyl and while she doesn't really remember it, it was a big deal that her mom tells her about now, and this will eventually be the thing she tells Annika about that was a big deal that she is too young to even remember. It really will come to define our generation... I mean shit, 9/11 was almost 20 years ago now! I guess we've been overdue for another generational milestone.

Here's to getting through this together, sooner rather than later!