Love in the Time of COVID

[intimatum]

Virginia Woolf, The Years

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I just binged Next in Fashion, now a dog version seems inevitable...

These Dogs Ooze Personal Style

We dressed them up by their personalities and photographed them in a studio. Just for fun.

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The Great Empty

There is a certain beauty in the expanses of public space, now vacant amid the pandemic, these photos from around the world show. There is also a reminder: True beauty comes when the builders roam the built.

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TGIF (...it is Friday, n’est pas?)

Last night California went into operation “Stay at Home,” joining similar Boston, NYC, San Francisco and Seattle mandates. B is now home indefinitely (he had to report to the studio all week). LA has ordered the closure of all non-essential businesses.

Today in a virtual town hall for the hospital we learned that the peak of all this is a minimum of 3-4 weeks away. Departments are begging supplies off one another through internal emails, and (at least in Boston) a growing number of citizens are offering up their 3-D printers for use to manufacture sorely needed parts for hospital respirators, etc - similar to what’s going on in Italy right now. It’s all very surreal. 

Gas is $3.08 at the station at the bottom of the hill; it was $3.25 last week. We’re picking up a large bottle of margaritas later from a local bar that is currently shutdown but selling its booze curbside (thx again, S!). Florida continues to celebrate spring break.

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Grief in the Time of Quarantine

On February 13th, my father-in-law died very unexpectedly. My mother-in-law came home from work and he looked very peaceful, having died from a heart attack while sitting in his recliner. Hearing my husband receive that news was easily the worst experiences of my life. I still can’t think about it without crying. And now my poor family is trying to grieve this tremendous loss while also dealing with quarantine and the fear of one of us becoming sick. My husband has intense anxiety brought on by his grief and exacerbated by the virus. I am trying to operate in a way that does not inflame this anxiety...he does not want me walking outside with friends and he wants my mother to stop going to the grocery store. He is terrified of one of us becoming sick and also dying like his father did.

This is a very depressing post so I will leave you with this: the baby is bringing us both (and everyone who facetimes with her) tremendous joy. She is rolling, drumming on things, and when she gets tired she actually gets slap happy and will cackle maniacally to herself.

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Zac Bears 🌹 on Twitter

“Iconic https://t.co/NqAKX8ap8u”

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Greetings from Mid-City LA, where Chewy (”Basket Boy”) has taken it upon himself to model responsible social distancing.

Due to a bad sinus infection, I have been WFH and socially distant since the end of February. Time has no meaning. Making and eating dinner is the one thing I’ve been able to keep consistent which is great, otherwise I honestly don’t know where the time goes because I haven’t been reading, watching TV, playing video games, doing puzzles, drinking, or doing literally anything else. Gchat, VC, texting and scrolling through Twitter. Sitting on different surfaces. Thinking a lot about reubens. 

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Thursday’s Highland Park Update

I’ve been self-quarantining in my home since Tuesday, which was the first day my office started WFH. My job isn’t easily transferred to WFH, so I’m still waiting on equipment that I need to actually do work. This means I’ve spent the last two days taking naps, playing Mario Kart, and going through an entire box of pasta (notice there are no workouts listed).

Today I’m starting to feel a little uneasy about my job in general. I heard from my boss that they’re making some cuts, and I am the newest and least-experienced producer on the show, so theoretically I should be the first to get let go. I have no idea what I’ll do if that happens, but it’s very scary!

This morning, Trump held another press conference and said some more dumb stuff, but tbh I didn’t actually watch it. I can’t take anymore tuning in only to watch him self-congratulate and say nothing of actual substance. I’ve had my limit!

In other news, Highland Park Brewery started delivering beer today so I think I will jump on that soon. I’ve already gone through half of my beer supply in the last few nights while doing FaceTime Happy Hours with friends. And yesterday, Tara tagged me in a challenge to get someone a e-gift card to a local restaurant or bar, so I chose to get my friend Rose a gift card to her favorite nearby restaurant called Lemon Poppy Kitchen. They had to let go their staff of 15 people, and it’s now only being run by the two owners, so they’re desperate for any support. So I recommend joining the challenge and getting a pal a gift card to a local spot, then encouraging them to pass it on! It made me feel so happy despite everything else going on.

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Last night’s 3-hour happy hour with the LA assembly (featuring @alysonisntfunny, @atstephanie, #eax, and appearances by everyone’s pets).

Wednesday’s Eastside LA LA Land Stats:

After an extremely sobering call with three neurologists from NYC, St. Louis, and Atlanta, I went for a 5.5 mile walk to crush some anxiety and pick up a bag of chocolate chips from @alysonisntfunny.

Many of the local bodegas and stores are fully shuttered in the neighborhood now, though the two huge markets, El Super and Superior, remain open and fairly busy. Items that seem to be out of stock across the board are paper products, bread, eggs, milk (?), canned chilis, water, and the majority of all canned vegetables. Superior has taken to loading giant pallets of ramen into the store each morning.

Elsewhere in LA, 42 rec centers will be turned into shelters for homeless residents, with 6,000 new beds. Nearby Vegas is shutting down and the Bellagio fountains have been shut-off. Some LA restaurants are starting to offer large format cocktails that just need ice added “to-go” along with your take-out order.

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Today in Seattle they closed the police stations and there’s a new helicopter that’s been flying all over and putting me on edge. They are constructing several field hospitals on soccer fields in King County to prepare for the shortage of hospital beds. I hear the national guard will be coming soon (said with Marky Mark’s accent from The Departed). I went for a couple walks in the neighborhood because its so sunny and it was quiet but not deserted. A really cute woman in her 80′s was taking a walk with her chihuahua. Over and out.

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It’s cherry blossom season, but because of the coronavirus, the UW invites you to watch from home

The UW wants you to stay away from the quad — but you can add the school's cherry blossoms to your home streaming queue.

If you need some cherry blossoms in your browser window!

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Relatable Woman Realizes She's Been Washing Her Hands With a Block of Cheese

It could happen to anyone!

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today in WeHo

lil bb update:

target/whole foods/TJ’s not too crowded by any means but completely wiped of frozen foods/a lot of canned goods. everything else was pretty easy to get.

heard from my landlord- his friend of a friend of a friend (so obv take with many grains of salt) that the white house is considering a nationwide quarantine.

my two cents: because of all the (at least in CA) ordinances re gatherings/closings, I *feel* like hopefully we’ll be at least flattening the curve a little bit.

mayor garcetti & co are meeting today to discuss a “rent freeze” and commercial eviction ban. rent freeze would be amazing, but unsure how, even if it passed, it would trickle down to individual renters as opposed to building owners.

in other news, I bought a hand mixer and am theoretically going to embark on making a key lime pie for erin’s birthday tomorrow. wish me luck, this will not go well!!!!

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Feeling really bummed cause our best friend neighbors who we committed to being exclusive with informed us we couldn’t hang out cause my friend who is the mother of the family has had to go to work and has been around coughing people yesterday and today. Our dreams of having kid play dates during these times are now shattered.

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Gwdihŵ 🦉 on Twitter

“Me interacting with my husband when peak quarantine madness sets in https://t.co/UCa780KfOz”

…tweet sent to me this morning by Alex Caldwell, is relevant in this trying time for all significant others, pets, and pet rocks (sound on).

Other news from East LA:

20 of California’s 21 largest museums are paying hourly employees during closures (at least for now), including the Getty, the Broad, the Hammer, LACMA and MOCA.

This week, Universal Pictures will be the first major Hollywood studio to start streaming new releases the same day as theatrical release

Woke up to 10 texts about Tom Brady’s departure from the Patriots…it already seems cruel in this trying time, but to announce it on St. Patty’s Day?! Thinking of ya, Boston.

The entire Neurological Clinical Research Institute (NCRI - what up, Sarah) and Neurology department are closed. Only essential employees will be allowed in the building and anyone with access has to have been submitted to the hospital administration by EOD today.

Cooking chicken to shred into burrito bowls for dinner

It’s finally sunny after almost a week of straight rain

…do I have enough wine stockpiled?

…and I just called Noodles “Bryant,” so there is that.

[ouravocadotime-blog]

Connecticut is in lockdown (?) starting at 8 p.m. tonight.

We just received word that restaurants will have to move to take out only starting at 8 p.m. tonight. All movie theaters, gyms and fitness centers,libraries, and public schools seem to be closed. There are still, however, cars on the street. Also my car started making an awful noise when I drove home from work this afternoon after we were sent home to self-quarantine. I have to go back to work briefly to rescue the three fish that live on top of the children’s desk. I stopped at the grocery store on my way home to grab a few essentials. We definitely have enough food for a week. After that I will need to go back out again. Things are getting real but I’m happy the library is allowing us to work from home as I didn’t feel super comfortable being around my colleagues at this time.

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The final tofu burrito

Bummed I had to postpone my trip down to LA but I'm expecting them to shut down travel to and from Seattle/Washington state soon, and I didn't want to get stuck. This weekend I did drive down to visit my stay at home mom friend in Portland OR, she was feeling pretty isolated. I was feeling like I hadn't left the house in two months and needed to get out of town for a day or two. I've been unemployed since January and Covid-19 has been around here since Valentine's Day and probably earlier than that, but I had still been going to the YMCA and seeing friends around town, but that all changed two weeks ago. Things were a little more chill in PDX except it was snowing! Starting a new contract job on Monday, 100% remote obviously, I think Amazon is the only company doing well right now, so I gotta go back to doing the Bezos hustle. Last night I rushed to get into the last hair appointment before my stylist had to close her salon at midnight for two weeks per the governor's mandate. I also got one last burrito to go from my favorite restaurant Gorditos, spilled a thing of salsa all over the inside of Daetan's car but luckily I had a jumbo pack of disinfecting wipes to clean it up! All the restaurants and gyms are now closed. Traffic is very light, except for a couple middle school boys taking advantage of the empty streets for skateboarding.