Leah’s Letter:
Day 11: this bed is a coffin!
Today’s top three:
- Day11
- A lot of Billie Holiday
- Sleep … kinda
This bed is starting to feel like a memory foam coffin. I sink deeper 1-foot each day it feels, five more feet to go. I listen to sad hurt Black women sing to me what seems to be my life. My dog barks, no screeches, telling me to “wake my ass up.” If only dogs could talk. He’d be saying “You’re 6-feet deeper than yesterday!”
Mike’s Letter:
Stay home – Stay Safe 4/23/20
My wife and I are both working from home now. She is a journalist and I am a teacher. I teach six classes of photography (5) and video (1). We are both viewed as “essential,” which is nice. I also teach advanced photojournalism at CSULB. She has done face-to-face, or rather mask-to-mask, interviews twice in the last five weeks. The rest is done from her home office at home over the phone.
I have become a Zoom animal, also working out of my office at home.
We get our groceries from InstaCart, and our awesome son checks in once a week to see what we need. So we are lucky to have them both. Though I like my son more than InstaCart.
We have a couple of Saturday Zoom dates. One with my family of five brothers and sisters on Friday evenings. They might include wine. We have another with my wife’s family on Saturdays.
We both read a lot and stream shows. I do a daily jog with one of my dogs and then come back to walk the other. I don’t know what I’d do without the dogs, a constant source (only source) of spontaneity.
My plan is to come out of this better than when I went into it. Lose some weight, eat better and love more. We really are all in this together and we will be better for it.
-Mike and Susan Goulding
Tyler’s Letter
4/6/2020
My job’s been deemed business critical, and while it’s an adjustment to work from home, I’m feeling fortunate to still have a job which needs working. It’s not health care – it’s essential infrastructure, engineering in the energy sector. So it’d be a stretch to say we’re saving lives, but fair to say we help keep the lights on (or ventilators running). Truthfully, I’ve always envied the assured virtuousness that comes with working in health care; a nurse never second guesses if what they’re doing is really for the better. But in light of how scared I was yesterday when someone a good 50-feet away started coughing, it’s clear I never had the guts for it. Hopefully a side-effect of all this is a greater appreciation for them and their selflessness not only during pandemics, but their entire careers.
– Tyler
Zach’s Letter
Quarantine Day 5 March 23, 2020
Zach Sorensen
Ive been in quarantine since last Wednesday. It’s been a strong experience overall; I’ve found that I’ve adapted to this life surprisingly well. Anyone that knows me well, knows that I thrive with a full schedule. My normal life has some structure and there are always changes, but I’m always busy and out and about. I though I’d lose my mind in quarantine, but my mind has actually been at ease.
This time has given me the chance to really look at what’s truly important to me at my core. At this point, the health and safety of my friends and family is my top priority. My dad is 73 so my family isn’t taking any chances. In this time at home I’ve tried to productive, cleaning my room, working on home projects with my father and working from home.
Looking back at my weekend in quarantine, I found myself chuckling. On friday night I FaceTimed my friends and we all took a shot and cheers’d to “kicking corona’s ass.” We are all hopeful fo the future amidst the chaos outside. After the shot I turned on a “virtual rave” that was being livestreamed. the concert was so goofy to me, but it actually brought me a lot of joy to watch it while on FaceTime with other friends.
Saturday night I facetimed friends too. Sunday I attended church … online. This new reality of virtually being together is so strange, yet very funny to me. Kinda feels a lot like a “Black Mirror” episode. We’ll be fine though. Praying this all blows over in a month or so. I’m really looking forward to celebrating when this is over.