March 11th we were told that we would likely be working from home in the next couple weeks. The COVID-19 virus was officially all over the US and the numbers were climbing exponentially.
On March 19th, I was at the desk in my home office, preparing to log on to the first of many Zoom meetings that day. There were twelve more to be exact. At 7:30pm that evening I made my way downstairs, yelled "Honey, I'm home!" and began shopping on Amazon. I had decided that lounge pants would be part of my work from home (WFH) signature wear...as well as comfy socks. I had no intention of wearing shoes while this WFH requirement was in place. The top half of me, that would be "normal". At least I would keep telling myself that.
I suppose, like many, I was naïve to the reality of this virus. I honestly thought we would be back in the office by May, provided that we all followed CDC guidelines and limited exposure. Clearly, I was being unrealistic, given I had never experienced a pandemic, my optimistic nature far extended the realities of our environment. Like REALLY extented the boundaries of reality.
One example of this hyper extended reality was demonstrated in my excitement for an upcoming wedding. My son was marrying the girl of his dreams at a beautiful venue they picked out in Oklahoma City. The wedding date - May 29th. I spent a lot of time in mid-March convincing him that his wedding wouldn't be affected and the thousands of dollars we had paid would not be lost. Heck, it was six weeks away. Plenty of time for this to get cleared up.
A second example....vacation planning. I pushed out our family trip to Florida over to September, booked the resort and airline tickets and relaxed with the confidence that all of this virus mumbo-jumbo would pass well before the ten of us descended on Orlando for a week of sunshine, golf, swimming and umbrella drinks. With this trip months away, I believed we had plenty of time for stabilization of businesses and all would be "normal" by Labor Day.
As if two examples are not embarassing enough, a third involved a trip that had sat on our calendar since August 2019, when Nick and I had found a great rate for an Alaskan cruise. It had been on our bucket list for a few years and now, almost a year later, we were anxiously awaiting the June 1st embarkment date. We had set up our cruise dinners and entertainment on the ship and booked our port activities. It was now time to figure out the outfits for theme nights, rain jackets for sight-seeing, binoculars for checking out glaciers and wildlife and other gizmos we might need on the ship. Yes, more shopping on Amazon. While June was sneaking up on us, the trip was still a couple months away and the cruise lines seemed to be addressing the safety issues. We decided to let it play itself out and not make any decisions about rescheduling until closer to the date. Besides, Norwegien still had our trip on their schedule and all of the ports were opened.
I spent a lot of time surfing Facebook and Pinterest in March. There were two things I quickly realized were happening, people were a bit out of control at the grocery store and overnight it seemed like everyone was selling homemade masks.
The grocery store issue was disturbing. People were behaving insanely. Shelves were bare. A visit to Amazon verified the stories that people were gouging consumers on hand sanitizer and toilet paper, the two commodities that were nearly impossible to find at the store. I found myself disgusted with the neighbors who shared that they had a garage filled with toilet paper (still not talking to them) and anyone I saw at the store loading their carts with more than any family could possibly need in a given week or even two.
As for the mask sales, I was disappointed that people were taking advantage of a pandemic while hospitals, nursing facilities and other essential businesses were desperate to obtain personal protective equipment. I have to admit that I have felt incredible disappointment in the monetizing of something that has so much impact on health and safety. While I had not reaction to the "unique" masks being sold, you know, the ones that have bling all over or open up a big teeth-y smile. If people want to have a specialized mask, by all means, pay for it. But a basic mask...for $20.00, when it’s so hard to find...wow, may karma find its way to their capitalistic hearts.
While I couldn't address the needs of the many, I could do my part to contribute to the needs of caregivers in Pennsylvania. The weekend after our stay-at-home order I began making cloth masks. I could solve two needs, help my community and reduce the yards and yards of fabric (unbelievable amount) that I had collected during the few years that I was going through my quilting phase.
I began making about 20 masks a week and mailed them to one of the non-profit Centers for Independent Living in PA. Within a couple weeks, I had four other ladies sewing masks with me. We were sending out over a 100 a week. To date, we have donated around 1100 masks to non-profit caregiving organizations in PA.
Here is one of the simplest pattern/instructionsfor mask making. Really quick to sew and could be done by hand if a machine is not available. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/647462883917010246/
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