Since we had a week of Spring Break for both Owen and me, it was really boring. I consumed way too much news and social media. I had no real work to do. I think on Monday or Tuesday, they announced the school closures would go until Easter (anticipated return of 4/13) which is where we still stand.
They opened a bunch of drive-through testing centers in our area. Cases went up by a lot but not exponentially so I'm still of the hope that we caught it early here in Houston.
I think it was Wednesday that we decided to make a run to Total Wine and Adam's office to get a few things he'd be needing for working at home. I was in the car in the parking garage waiting for him and Owen to come downstairs when I called my dad. He was on his way home from the hospital where Eileen had just been admitted. She always has a low level cough but she got sick at dialysis and had a fever so they took her to the hospital as a part of their normal precautions. Except nothing is normal right now. Dad left her at the hospital where she was waiting to be tested for COVID among other things. He was crying, she was super sick. Once he went back to the hospital, he'd be there for the duration. He described people sitting in chairs outside the hospital, not able to be with their loved ones. After I got off the phone with him, I lost my shit. The gravity of everything was hitting me. If someone in your family dies right now, you can't even have a funeral or be there to comfort each other. I was upset about all the celebrations and the fun we'd be missing but I never even thought about the human need to be there for each other during the really shitty times, too.
That night was TOUGH. I slept so shitty that whole week. I remember panicking at one point thinking of this invisible virus holding all of us hostage that we can't see or even feel until it's too late. I was horrified and remember crying, "This thing is EVERYWHERE."
Thankfully the next day, we found out that Eileen was negative for COVID but she did have pneumonia. We knew she wanted and the hospital wanted her released as soon as possible so we waited. When I talked to Dad later that day (now Thursday) he said she was doing MUCH better and that we could call her. Owen and I got to FaceTime with her later, which thank goodness for FaceTime during this time or I think we'd have lost our minds.
Some random non-chronological asides:
1. I got a gallon of milk on 3/12 in my panic curbside order, when schools were closed. I looked at the expiration date (3/30) and thought as I put it in the fridge, "this will all be over then". When I threw out the last tiny bit of it today, that made me REAL sad. We are only at the beginning, I'm afraid.
2. Trump said yesterday that we're looking at April 30th. My baby's birthday. That was depressing.
3. At this moment, I'm watching a Harris County press conference and they said it's not a matter of extending the stay at home orders, it's more how long to extend for. I'm waiting for school to extend until at least the end of April at some point this week.
4. I'm sick thinking how many restaurants we love will have to close because of this.
It feels a bit like we are still in the very beginning of a nightmare.
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