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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
I have maintained a heavy zoom contact load in the past week. The connections include several groups that have extended far back in time, pre-covid. I have not bern travelling with my husband anywhere - except one libg day trip to select burial plots in Massachusetts. We love the two plots we selected - and will both be cremated. The lagoon we overlook is near the entrance of the Jewish memorial park and nearby many of my husband's relatives are buried - including his only sibling, a younger sister who died in an accident ehen she was only twenty-one. Back at home, our “Departures” magazine arrived so I decided to create a dream world. Each photograph is from just one magazine: Petra in Jirdan, a Greek island sanctuary, ice bergs in the Antarctic, doorway in the midwest, a throne/ladder art piece, window to nowhere, row biat, tea service, wooden row boat - yearning woman in billowing outfit that is sunlit from a ling side window and the act of collaging brought peace. I shared my collage with zoom folks and members if Write Out during the national write out day, i read a poem on zoom that I wrote - first of my poems read aloud on zoom! I ince Jane Goidhall ifcshe cared to read a piem about her husband in a book she had written. She was lecturing locally and my artwork was on the walls as she read her poem. It was a touching poem as she described how her imagination helps her cope. She looked up after completing the last line and smiled, “No one has ever asked me to read my poem aloud before.” I smiled back in her direction and felt a connection - one that informed me that now in this pandemic, in this tome of great losses of friends who recently died, I would find comfort by sharing my words and showing my collage - so here it is for you to see. My friend who died last March showed a collage in last winter’s art exhibition I curated. I decided to try a collage myself. No civid touches my images, the collage is a safe place where I may travel to anytime!
October 23, 2020
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
I returned from a trip to Texas on Monday the 10th. New Jersey suggests (because they cannot require) that you quarantine for 14 days after a trip like that. As such, I am have been locked in my bedroom for 5 days now, never leaving. I am fortunate enough to have a bathroom attached to my bedroom, one that I do not share with my flatmate. I am also fortunate enough to possess a variety of electric cooking appliances suitable for cooking for one. I have a small counter, a "dressing table" between my bedroom and my bathroom, which I am currently using as a makeshift kitchen. I have a coffeemaker, a miniature crockpot, and a wafflemaker, all electric. I have one set of utensils, a chef's knife, a wooden spoon, and a whisk. I have a mixing bowl, an eating bowl, a plate, a mug, a cup, and a cutting board. I have two dish towels which serve as drying mats after I wash my dishes in my bathroom sink. I use the toilet as a garbage disposal, scraping uneaten food into it - I can't put it in a trash bag, and it won't keep as I have no refrigeration. My flatmate brings any food I order for delivery to my bedroom door; I take it after he has walked away. Under the dressing table I have all manner of nonperishable food: canned fish, canned vegetables, ramen noodles, pasta, tortillas, pita (the latter two will perish, but don't need to be kept cold). I have some produce that can be kept at room temperature: a yellow and a red onion, some red delicious apples, and a bunch of bananas. Oh, and two avocados (which must be eaten today) and a bulb of garlic. I am a teacher, and I have been receiving guidance on how the new school year will go once it begins. They are planning on splitting the population into 3 cohorts and sending them to school for half-days at a time, with one group at a time in the building, to allow for social distancing. I predict that we will close back down and go to full virtual learning sometime at the beginning of October. The pandemic has mostly left me bored. It is summer - my time off, my time to accomplish the things that I couldn't do the rest of the year: play video games, study something new, do large projects, travel. But video games and studying are boring now, since it has become all I can do. Projects are difficult, since getting supplies requires going out. And while Jersey is relatively safe, it is only so because we avoid going out. I want to spend time with people - but that's simply not logistically possible. And now, in the last few weeks before my school year begins again, I am trapped in quarantine. I plan on getting a COVID test today or tomorrow. a negative result will free me from quarantine, but I don't know that it will come quickly enough for it to matter. Which is frustrating.
August 15, 2020