Written 4/22/20
Weeks 1 & 2: Prologue.
I am writing this post retroactively because my COVID Diaries adventure began during week 3 of my quarantine. Being as I have a strong desire for order and consistency, I could not let these posts start at week 3. It just felt wrong and has been bothering me, so here we are. As I write this, I am in the middle of week 6. The only reason I know that is because of these posts. I thought I’d summarize a bit of what weeks one and two looked like for me and, if I can, provide some visualizations as well.
My first week of quasi-quarantine coincided with the first anticipated week of Spring Break. This was, in large part, a week of canceled plans. My roommates and I were supposed to go to New Orleans and I had St Patrick’s Day tickets to a Blackhawks vs. Wild hockey game where I was looking forward to getting beat up for supporting Chicago in my Toews jersey. But, alas, that was all scrapped and the only plans I did keep were to go “up north” (as they say in Minnesota) with my girlfriend, Gillian. We thought there would be very few people hiking on trails that were either covered in inches of ice and snow and somehow we were right.
Here’s our path:
We went hiking four state parks, spent one night in Grand Marais at a The Hungry Hippie Hostel, and then crossed the border into Ontario (because why not?) and hiked some more. While this wasn’t exactly a quarantine, we practiced social distancing and didn’t come in contact with others aside from a couple of meals. At this point, the virus was not as pervasive in the US as it is now. If it were, this trip likely would not have happened.
When we got back to Minnesota, we made a big trip to Costco which was out of eggs, toilet paper, milk, and other essentials, dropped half of it off at my house (including a 20lb bag of rice), and went back to Gillian’s apartment to start the real lock-down of quarantine – the plan being for me to stay with her until my roommates had been done working outside of the house for two weeks.
We watched a lot of Netflix, ate a lot of grilled cheese, and went on a lot of walks, trying to walk around a different lake every day. Eventually our living situation shifted. If you’re curious about that, I made a post about it.
Quarantining is a struggle. It’s an abnormal way to live and while it’s less than ideal, writing these “diaries” each week has been a useful way for me to reflect on this challenging time and be a little more intentional with my actions. As I write this, I am weeks away from my virtual “graduation ceremony” and my mom’s restructured at-home wedding. We’re ordering groceries online, wearing masks over our faces, and coveting Purell like it’s liquid gold. Times are strange.
I’ll leave you with my co-star horoscope of the day:
“Your work this month is to understand the difference between feeling truly alive and being constantly in danger.”
I’m not really sure what to do with that.
Tettegouche State Park
This is the prologue for a series of posts From Quarantine. Most posts from quarantine are prompted by Aisling Quigley’s Data Storytelling class at Macalester College. This is not one of those posts.