MARCH 14, 2020 BY CASSANDRA JOHNSON
My heart is heavy with all the many lives, now lost to Coronavirus (COVID-19) in China and throughout the world. With my company’s new option, starting Monday, of being able to work from home for a week, I will do so accordingly. As someone who takes public transportation for quite some time to get there and back, I want to diminish the chance of being a harm to others or myself. Not everyone has options like I do, and I think people are commendable in all the various situations they are facing.
The gym has been a good healthy outlet for me to visit daily (save one alternating day). Working on my healthiness has done some work for my psyche in general and a nice bonus is that it is within walking distance. I also find it healthy to be able to be out and about and socialize in these continued smaller ways – being out – getting to the stores and the gym has been nice.
Ironically, I already imagine I will get more done working from home. I already know, per the chance we got to do so for about a month during our renovation. It has been quite the year already, well actually two years, I would say, starting with the flood that totaled most of my coworkers’ cars in the parking garage. We’ve had many ups and downs as a team.
Cuba. I coincidentally got a loving message from Dignora yesterday. I recalled her in my spontaneous audio suggestion on Wednesday as the first casa particular in which we stayed in 2016. She reached out to check on me and let me know they were okay. I think going through our tasks with extra special precautions is key. I think deeply even more of my fam in Ohio (where I grew up) and friends everywhere. I thought I had some gratitude before but I’m really appreciating life and how friendly and well-intentioned most people can be.
A lady asked me if I found any food as we were leaving the grocery store today😊. I said, “some” and asked her how she did? We’re lucky, in this particular store in DC, in Friendship Heights. I can’t speak to the whole DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia area) but it wasn’t rough at the store just a little up the street. Even when the toilet paper section was starkly bare, next to a lot of other products, there was a considerable number of items left. You only had to reach further back than normal for what you would normally get or settle for brands or items, close enough to what you might desire. Also, there was plenty of food stocked in the perhaps not so healthy areas😊. Then, lo and behold, a smiling Safeway employee rolled out a skid of toilet paper next to the self-checkout line to which I was heading. Even then, people only gingerly started taking one 12 pack two-ply at a time. I don’t know what happens after I leave or what’s going to happen but did I ever really know? We’re just kind of very accustomed to life being a certain way – and that’s okay too. A journey is a journey even when we’re close to home.
Lots of love, Cassandra