Featured Refresh
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
Around March 15, Brooklyn and New York City went into PAUSE - meaning we were told to stay home and quarantine - (those of us who could afford to.) My partner has prostate cancer and a compromised immune system, so I'm a caregiver and have to be very careful of any interactions I have outside our home, for fear of bringing the virus home to him, and for fear that I might carry it in an asymptomatic way. In order to keep myself calm, and to prevent myself shutting down emotionally, I began to do a sketch in my sketchbook as frequently as possible to record and remember what these days are like. It helped me slow down my own racing thoughts -- and to focus on at least one thing that day that I noticed. I found lots of beauty in the simple things. And gratitude for things I wouldn't have noticed during "normal times." At first, time seemed to stretch out slowly as we were quarantining. When I was kid, I used to to draw to calm myself down from stormy family situations. Now I'm 63, and sketching still brings enjoyment and meaning, and helps me to relax and slow down. These are like sketch meditations. The first sketch is of D. sitting outside in the back garden. We tried to get out back whenever the days were warmer, because we were protected from outsiders there. This is dated March 15, 2020. This is one of my fast pencil sketches. The second sketch is dated March 24, 2020. My son and his girlfriend live upstairs. She is 31 and undergoing post breast cancer treatments so they quarantine deeply. They don't go to the laundromat, so I do their laundry. My dryer was broken at the time, so I had to drape their wet laundry all over the dining room.Every article of clothing seemed a bit stressed and restless, so I tried to capture that -- in this sketch.
January 5, 2021
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
I had my vaccine last week. I am only 22 so most people my age (minus those that have healthcare jobs) are not being vaccinated yet but I am an unpaid carer for my grandparents who are shielding due to having health conditions including weak lungs so I was eligible to get mine early to protect them when I go in to clean and look after them. The vaccines were being done in the town hall on a nearby town. I had mine at 6.30pm on a Friday night. You did not need to show any email confirmation or paperwork and obviously no bill as we have the NHS in the UK. I just went in and said my name and took a seat. It was quite quiet. A woman that was waiting at the same time I was said to her nurse that her husband had been in for his vaccine a couple of hours earlier but they could not come together as her appointment was later. The nurse said that in future for her second dose she could probably just turn up with her husband and ask if she could have hers at the same time as her husband as there are usually spare appointments. I had the Oxford Astra-Zeneca vaccine. This week there has been lots in the news about whether it is safe to give to young people due to blood clots - they are saying they might give young people my age a different one when it comes to mass vaccination of 18-25 year olds. But oh well, I have had it now and a week on I feel okay. I felt very tired and droopy the evening after I had it and then had a bad night where I woke up multiple times vaguely conscious of being sore and aching. It felt like a cross between flu and a bad period. My fingers felt like they were thrumming. I took ibuprofen and paracetamol and kept hydrated. I did not realise I had a temperature until my mum came in and asked why my windows were open and why the room was so cold. Turned out I had a temperature of 100 F. I felt dizzy and weird all that morning but actually found I felt worse lying down in bed than walking about. I had a shower and felt better. That afternoon I managed a nice walk in the sun and saw some frogs. I was tired after again but it was fine in the long run.
April 10, 2021