Corona Chronicles: Day Who Fucking Knows

It’s been nearly a year since we first locked down. I started the Corona Chronicles for the Social Studies class I was teaching in March.  I was sitting in my room, at my vanity, updating my students on my mindset and the world around us.  I never would have thought ten months later I would be writing to update JDKC on the fact that I have tested positive for COVID-19. 

So let's talk about my journey and how I got here...

I wear a mask everywhere I go (except like my friends houses because I have two friends and they also wear their makes everywhere they go).  I only take my mask off at work to eat or drink anything. I go grocery shopping. So work, two friends, and grocery shopping. Those are the three places that I could have caught it. 

It was definitely work. I was exposed on a Wednesday or Thursday. And then got tested the following Wednesday and Thursday. I tested positive on both the rapid test and the lab test.  So it is real.  I had zero symptoms. My quarantine started on a Thursday - this is 10 days of no work, no shopping in person, no seeing people who are not my dad, living in my bedroom and having my mask on anytime I leave my bedroom - and my first symptom showed up in the form of a stuffy nose.  And now, Sunday, I cannot smell. I can still taste things. Which in the grand scheme of things is great, but I also like being able to smell.  

So the new Corona Chronicles is going to be about my time in quarantine - the real quarantine, the one where I can’t even go running. 

I’ve watched so much TV just in a few days.  On Thursday, when I got home and accepted my fate, I watched six episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and cried the whole day. I’ve also started watching Euphoria, but I can’t watch more than two episodes at a time because it is a lot to handle. I’ve watched True Blood, Get Out, History of Swear Words, and football. And that’s just in three days. Seven more days and I can only imagine how much more I can watch. 

I weirdly miss work.  I miss my friends. I miss my dad even though we live in the same house.  I miss hugs. I’ve missed hugs for the last year. But hey, at least I’m not depressed, right? 

Another thing that has happened in quarantine is that while I’m watching TV I tend to forget that there was a time when people didn’t wear masks and could have huge parties and gatherings and it was okay.  Like, why don’t these people have to wear masks? I guess it makes sense because most of them take place pre-covid (I’m not watching anything new…) and they’re fucking TV shows meaning they don’t have to live in the same reality that I am and you know what? Thats not fair. 

So I’ve decided next time I can leave my house (or actually I might just do it at home by myself for the next week), I’m going to start a drinking game where you tape a mask to the tv and you have to drink every time the mask fits a person’s face. I like that challenge. 

I have spent an entire day writing this because I wanted to wait for the Browns game to finish. It was a good game.  Cleveland gave Kansas City a run for their money, but unfortunately we did not come out with the win.  Maybe it’s better this way.  The heartbreak hurts a little less when the super bowl isn’t on the line. We played an amazing season and I wouldn’t take it back for anything else. So next year we can continue to be playoff bound team without everyone else’s snide remarks. 

I still cannot smell - yes I thought it would miraculously come back quickly - but I can taste.  I had a couple scares, but I am positive I can still taste.  

I will keep the Corona Chronicles growing as the week goes on.  Quarantine is going to go by so slow that I might be forced to update about even the most mundane events of my life. 

So here we go on this adventure together.

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