Our Day 1 - COVID19: Work, Life, and Routines

Work, Life, and Routines

I'm blogging this in a retrospective manner and mostly for my family. I've been thinking much about it ever since my brother Steve not only encouraged me but asked me early on to share our experience. I was unsure where to begin and kept putting it off. I kept thinking, "At what moment does our experience with this pandemic start?" I came to the realization, that just as epidemiologists trace and continue to trace the origin and the spread of COVID-19, I too had to trace where my family's experience begins with this new current reality. It didn't start when my husband received his test results, but a couple of weeks before.

DAY 1: Our day 1 is a combination of moments, days, conversations that lead to my husband's departure and return between the end of February and beginning of March.


My husband took the day off the previous day not just because he needed to finish packing and get ready for his work trip but because we had also purchased a new mattress the previous weekend. We had been discussing purchasing a new bed for 4 years now. I kept pushing off the big purchase every year convincing my spouse we were fine. Granted, we complained about not sleeping well and in my case, especially during and after my pregnancy, the back pains were not enjoyable. My best friend Catherine had recently purchased a new mattress. As I enjoy doing with my closest and dearest friends, we had discussed the pros and cons of different beds as well as the costs! It's a major purchase that should never be done lightly. My husband after hearing me have these conversations over the phone suggested we should check out some mattresses as well. He said, we're only looking, we don't have to buy anything. I'm always nervous about making big purchases. I could get into the reasons of why, but that's another blog post. Well, "looking" turned into finding and purchasing. So here he was, the Friday before his trip waiting for the delivery of our new purchase as he packed and got everything in order for his over seas trip. His excitement was twofold: he was going to a country he had never been before and he was going to sleep, if only for one night, in the new mattress.


His mom kept jokingly reminding him the day before and the day he left that she was not going to see him for two weeks after he returned because of the Corona-virus. Though she was joking she was also quite serious. She was worried. She does not like to get sick. I don't blame her. It is because of my husband's family that I take being sick seriously. If you have the common cold, stay home, don't get others sick. People depend on their livelihoods. All of us do. It's called being aware. However, working until you drop seems to be a cultural trophy of sorts in our country and unfortunately, in many others as well. Or, we don't have an option. Cultural reasons as well? I know I don't stay home either. We all worry about our jobs, our careers, about others expressing displeasure for missing a day of work. All of us at some point or another have experienced that frown or flippancy from supervisors,  coworkers, and even family members. To assuage her worries, my husband insisted he would be fine. After all, both his flights would be direct flights with no layovers and moreover, the country he was traveling to was not a high risk area.

There is always nervousness that accompanies trips, whether they be local, regional, national, or abroad. We all feel nervous, worried, giddiness, sadness, excitement, and so forth when we travel or a loved one travels. Taking a trip is a combination of feelings not just for the person traveling but for those that stay behind.  We, my three year old and myself, dropped my husband off at the airport in the middle of the day that weekend. My husband made sure to kiss and hug us good-bye. Though we knew he'd be back soon, it was a bittersweet moment. After all, he would be and was gone for almost two weeks.

My son and I had to change our morning and evening routines quite a bit. He had to wake up a lot earlier and I was making it to work, through rush hour, just barely on time. My husband was working long hours but was also enjoying the experience of a culturally different region. After he completed his job assignment he stayed a few extra days to meet up with his college roommate. It had been almost 20 years since they had last seen each other.

My husband checked out of his hotel and stayed with his friend the remainder of his trip. His friend, let's call him Jeff, had just returned from a skiing trip with friends of his. During the week I made sure to speak with my husband, even if just for a few minutes, at noon every day during my lunch break. When we spoke he told me that Jeff was sick, probably due to all the partying he did while on vacation. We laughed about it and reminisced about the single life over the phone. He said they were going out to dinner that evening and that they'd figure out what to do the following day. It all depended on how Jeff was feeling. Well, they only went out for lunch the next day because Jeff wasn't feeling too well.  He was tired and appeared to have the flu.

After staying with Jeff for a few days my husband was more than ready to return home and be back to his normal routine. As you can probably imagine, back at home, we're beyond excited to see him. We had missed him. Our routine would be back to normal.

Well, as you can deduce by now, it didn't turn out quite that way.

Meanwhile, in the news, the Corona-virus was still something that was only happening abroad or definitely not in our community. Our local, state, and federal officials weren't necessarily showing much concern. At least not enough that our news outlets were dedicating a 24 hour cycle to the corona-virus epidemic. Yes, the news mentioned it, and it would discuss Washington State and its corona-virus spread, but it all seemed so far removed, nothing that had to do with our home, our family, our community, our State. For everyone that was following their day-to-day routines and not necessarily reading, watching, or listening to the news, this seemed like something that was just part of the news. At work, it was being mentioned through emails (I think I received at least one email per week) but not through active conversations. The email memos and briefs encouraged us to be aware and remind our students about washing their hands. We made sure to have tissue and hand sanitizer in the classrooms. Check, check, check. These guidelines however are the norm in schools. But we all know that children do get sick and that they also come to school even when it's just the common cold. Yet, it still didn't feel real. For them and even for me. The children would make jokes. Someone would sneeze and they would blurt out "corona-virus!" They obviously were quite aware of what was happening outside our community, but it wasn't just yet real.