I think I stopped because I went on a trip and then just got so behind that it was too hard to catch up so I just stopped. Also it wasn't popular to blog anymore... nobody was reading or commenting on my blog anymore so I wasn't motivated to write anymore... which is terrible! Why should I care who reads this or comments on it? It's a journal for me!
So this is my attempt to get back at it. Hopefully I stick to it. I know I won't be as regular as before, but hopefully it won't be several months before I'm back on.
This year, 2020, started out great. I was making all of these fun plans. I went on my annual yurt trip with some girls from my ward in Goblin Valley, I had a fancy dinner in another yurt up Big Cottonwood Canyon with Stacey, I met up with my friend Nicole at the Ice Castles, I bought tickets to a concert in June and went to see Dear Evan Hansen with Nicole. So many fun things... and it was just the beginning of the year! Then things changed... and it seemed like it happened over night.
I am not one that loves watching the news or keep up with whats going on around the world. The Corona Virus that was going on in China was talking about in passing... but not something I worried about. Then at the end of February things got serious. It was spreading fast and we had found a couple of cases in the USA. Then all travel in and out of the USA stopped. That is when people really started to freak out. Thankfully, for the first time in a VERY long time, I had no plans to travel. So I didn't have any plans that were ruined over it. Right after I saw Dear Even Hansen, everything started getting canceled and things started shutting down. We were told to not be in goups of more than 10 people, to practice social distancing and stay 6 feet apart from people, no more plays, or concerts, resturants had to close along with nail and hair salons and anything involing a big group.
That is when people really started to panic. Grocery stores were crowded and people started hoarding flour, rice, beans, yeast, rubbing alcohol, clorox wipes, hand sanitizer, water, toiley paper!! I could never find any of those items no matter what time or day I went to the store.
Work at Organa got INSANLY busy! We didn't have the staff or the product to handle it. It was stressful! Everyone wanted silver! We couldn't make it fast enough. While so many other people were losing their jobs and working from home, we were busier than ever. We of course are thankful for the business but it was stressful and not the most fun couple of months and I definetly didn't relate to all the people that were complaining about being bored at home. Thankfully everyone in our family has job security at this time... but there are a lot of people in the country that don't. Our economy seemed to tank overnight.
On top of people working from home and things shutting down, so did schools. They thought it would just be for a couple of weeks, but a couple weeks turned into a month which turned into 2 months and now they shut down school for the rest of the school year. If I were in school this would have made me super sad... so I feel for them.
Along with the schools being shut down, so did church! Say what?! I never thought I would see the day where the prophet would say you can't go to church or the temples! Missionaries from around the world are being brought home. We have been having church at home with the family (me, my parents & my sister Kristy's family) for a couple of months now with the exception of General Conference which we watch at home anyway... which nobody could attent this year and it was just broadcasted from a room. My mid-singles ward is doing church online... group lessons and discussions to stay connected and doing church together since many don't have family to join like I do.
Then we had an earthquake! I know... like if things were not crazy enough. That really freaked out people here in Utah. I actually slept through. Ha ha... I guess my body is used to earthquakes from growing up in California? But then people started to think about food storage and the world ending (Moroni even lost his trumpet on the SLC temple! Thankfully it is getting remodeled anyway) Still couldn't find anything in the grocery stores.
Then everyone in the country was told to stay at home. Movie and TV productions stopped. Talk show hosts like Jimmy Fallon and Ellen are filming out of their home to still put out content and also raise money for different charities. Everyone is binge watching so much tv. They are even offering shows for free that usually you have to pay for an exta package or whatver to try and help out with this crazy time. Everyone is conncecting online. This entire situation is giving people a lot of material to be really funny. I have seen so many parodees and memes and whatever else... at first it was funny... after a couple of months, I really don't want to here the words "COVID-19" "Corona Virus" "Quarentined" anymore. I just want things to go back to normal. But after 2 months... this is the new normal.
When people do go out you have some people wearing masks and some who don't. I haven't been. I honestly have not been worried about getting it. Is it bad that I am not worried? I feel like you have people in 2 categories. People that are not worried and people that are so worried they have anxiety. I am sure if I lived in a place like New York that has lost over 10,000 people to this virus, I would be more worried, but in Utah, we have not had many deaths and everyone that has died as either been old or had a weakened immune system or both. I am healthy. I haven't even gotten sick at all this Winter/Spring. Am I still trying to follow the rules? Sure. I am also trying to support local business though. It has been so difficult though because you can only use the drive thu and hours are now all over the place. Places that don't have a drive through you have to call in and then they bring it out to your car. Yet people are still going to grocery stores and place like Home Depot. Grocery stores also have shorter hours and the first hour they are opened is for seniors only. Home Depot as a line outside the store because they are only letting in so many people at a time. Does this stuff really help? I don't know. It doesn't annoy me... it is just the new normal and I am adjusting.
We have been asked to fast for this pandemic twice by our prophet. The first time was this last fast Sunday, but then during General Conference we were asked to fast again on Good Friday... but this time it was a World Wide Fast where we asked anyone of any faith willing to join us to join. I didn't think too much about that... but then someone started a World Wise Fast & Prayer group on Facebook and within days it grew to over 260,000 people in the group of all faiths from around the world. Everyone was sharing their stories and wanting to fast together for this cause. It was really amazing to see actually. It was a testimony builder for sure. Where so many people have been rude and not handling this pandemic in the best way... it has also brought out so much positive. This facebook group was nothing but love and support for every single person that was volurable enough to share their story whatever it may have been in the group and everyone was better for it. I really loved reading through the messages in that group everyday.
In my neighborhood in Mapleton it brought out so much love and kindness and support. We had Chad Truman (our renters in the back house that is a part of the National Tribute Band) went around with his wife & in-laws with a truck pulling a trailer with a stage and playing fun music and singing and dancing so people would come out of their houses and dance and smile. It worked! Everyone loved it and thought it was so much fun. People had a bear hunt and put bears in their windows so the kids could walk around the neighborhood and look for bears. People in our neighborhood facebook page were letting other people know where they could find toilet paper when they found it themselves or bought extra and were offering it to anyone that needed it and some people were exchanging for other goods like fresh eggs. The list goes on! Just so much kindness. I love my nieghborhood.
I really thought it would be a 2 week lock down... but here we are almost 2 months later... and I honesly don't know when life is going to go back to normal. I am not sure when we will be able to travel again. This really does seem to be the new normal and it is very strange. I don't think any of us have ever experienced anything like this before and hopefully we won't experiecne anything like this again. In another way... I don't feel like my life has changed that much. I still go to work. I'm still with my family. I was already spending this much time a lone before all of this happebed so I don't feel any more lonely now than I did before. So I don't know if that is pathedic or not. I have been sad not to go to the gym, not to go to church (although there have been plus sides to home church) and not to see certain friernds. On a plus side... because of all of that, I am able to work on other projects! Don't really have an excuse not to espescailly now that work is starting to slow down a bit. I will blog about the projects I have done in other posts. I will just leave this post just about COVID-19.
I guess I will sign back on when life goes back to normal. Well... just to write anyway... I will still blog about other stuff I'm doing.
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