Picking up where we left off yesterday, Wednesday March 11th. I had no idea the magnitude of how much things would change that day. I still hadn't thought to screen shot the statistics but I was monitoring the Johns Hopkins COVID dashboard all day. Which, now when I look, I'm amazed I was horrified then because the numbers were SO much smaller. But I had concerns about the day-by-day growth in Europe, especially Italy.
A thing I forgot to mention yesterday (and btw, this is all going to be word vomit because I just want to get stuff out), my brother and SIL went to Amsterdam and Paris on Friday, March 6th as they were scheduled to do. There just wasn't enough compelling info at the time for them to cancel. I would ABSOLUTELY have gone and in fact, from where I sit, I'm super jealous they got to go because God only knows when we can travel again.
Another thing I forgot to mention that now seems almost cryptic looking back, Owen's school had a Market Days on Wednesday morning. I was there and one of his classmates' moms, who happens to be French, came up and started kind of going crazy at me. Due to her accent and the fact that she was speaking panicked and fast, I had the hardest time understanding her but eventually figured out that she was yelling at me about the school still having this event with all the parents there and why hadn't they canceled anything else yet and why was no one taking coronavirus seriously. I was pretty shaken up because LITERALLY NONE OF THAT is/was within my control. I understand that she was upset but it was just such a weird encounter. I emailed the principal to tell her what had happened and we both dismissed her as a germophobe (at this point, the district had already said you didn't have to send your kids to school if you were concerned about COVID.
I was talking to my dad daily that week as things were building and I remember getting this not so great feeling from talking to him on Monday 3/9. He seemed nervous about them being over there, about the virus being a big thing here, about Eileen getting sick, it was just so weird and out of character for him.
Anyway back to Wednesday.
Once the rodeo canceled things got REAL in a hurry at work. It seemed like a closure was imminent and the real questions were: 1. How long? 2. Would we make it to Spring Break on Friday?
Most of the school districts in Houston were out on Spring Break, with the exception of us, HISD, Alief and Montgomery that I know of. Montgomery immediately canceled for Thursday and Friday since the community spread case was in their county but HISD and SBISD were still planning to finish out the week. Senior staff was in non-stop meetings and conference calls. The stress level in our office was high as we tried to do our normal prep leading into 9 days out of the office anyway + all the other coronavirus stuff going on. I don't remember much about those two days (Wed/Thurs) other than being strung out.
I picked Owen up from school on Wednesday. We came home and turned on the news. I was peeved because there was some dipshit involving the cops in a high speed chase so that was all we were able to see before his baseball game. We headed there and obviously the Rodeo cancellation and impending school closures were all everyone was talking about. At this point, as I was talking to our friend who we had concert tickets for the next night with, I was still planning to go to the concert and planning to go to Cozumel on Sunday.
We got home from baseball, Adam was on his way home from Detroit. I put Owen to bed and then headed to the couch. I normally don't like to drink when Adam isn't home but I was so emotionally exhausted from the day at work and the mom yelling at me that morning and the general stress of impending doom (remember, I had been intensively studying the data from Italy all week) required a beer.
I'll never forget the whirlwind of that night sitting on the couch. I can't remember what I watched. I think I missed most of Trump's address from the Oval Office. I just know that I remember texting friends at one point and saying "holy shit, when Adam lands and gets cell phone service he's going to be overwhelmed by the world ending while he was on that flight".
Things that happened in the space of maaaaaybe 2 hours:
- an NBA player, Rudy Gobert, tested positive for the virus just before he was supposed to play in a game (Jazz vs. OKC Thunder, in Oklahoma)
-Tom Cruise and Rita Wilson came out on Instagram saying they were positive
-the NBA suspended their season indefinitely
-Trump instituted a travel ban from Europe (which was especially nerve wracking with Mikey and Sara being in Paris)
-Italy was officially a nationwide "Red Zone" instead of the previous Red Zone just being the hard hit areas in the north of the country
It was as though we couldn't ignore COVID-19 anymore. I remember reeling. It was living in the information age gone wrong. Too much info and too quickly.
Consequently, I can't remember much about Thursday. Work was insane. I realized about halfway through the day that everything I wanted to do for the next several months was canceled. I realized that we couldn't go to Cozumel. I realized this was way bigger than I could ever comprehend.
And that was only the beginning.
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