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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
I took this photograph two days ago in Terminal 4 of JFK. We were on our way to Mexico for work, traveling again for the first time in a year. We're incredibly lucky to be fully vaccinated so feel comfortable traveling but of course, everything is different. The airport was so much quieter than usual, most stores aren't open and as I walked past this lounge I saw a squirrel inside. I did a double take, thinking for sure that it wasn't real but then it started moving. Poor thing was so skinny and was clearly looking for food but with the lounge being closed there was nothing for it to eat. Who knows how long it's been surviving inside the lounge or how much longer it could survive there. I told an airport worker about it but I'm not sure there was anything anyone could do for it. It reminded me of the "nature is healing / we are the virus" meme that was going around in the the early days of the pandemic but without the levity.
March 11, 2021
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Many of us have experienced restrictions on movement and social contact during the pandemic. Talk about any restrictions that have especially affected you.
I kind of touched on this in my last entry but I'll elaborate a little more. I started dating a woman about 7 weeks ago and just before we were landed in to Level 5 again (severe lockdown), I asked her to be my girlfriend. At the time, level 5 was a possibility but not a certainty. Anyway even if it was a certainty, I don't think it would have changed my actions, she is a wonderful person. But it has been hard. We are still getting to know each other and want to spend time together. But at the moment, all restaurants and cafes are closed. Cinemas and museums are closed. No household visits, indoor or outdoor are allowed. And its winter!! In rainy Ireland!! So we picnic in the cold, we walk in the cold, we go to the supermarket together in the hopefully not cold and we get by. But it's hard and there is a great sense of longing for both of us to just do normal things. I dream of the day I will hold her hand across a restaurant table or cuddle in close as we watch a movie on a couch. I suppose it will be ever more the sweeter once it happens.
November 20, 2020