It’s December 31st, 2019, at 11:59 pm. I’m holding a glass of champagne and counting down the seconds before yelling, “Happy new decade!” Little did I, or the rest of the world, know what the new decade had in store for us.
I have said countless times, “it’s a really weird time to be alive.” 2020 has had several negatively impacting significant events occur. I would say the most disruptive to the entire world has been the COVID-19 pandemic. A pandemic that has shut down countries around the globe and has caused significant downturns in the United States economy. I admit, I never imagined living in a world where our day-to-day lives have changed rapidly as a result of this pandemic, from the way we interact, go to the store, and our jobs.
As an avid Redditor, I caught wind of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan in late December. As someone with an irrational fear of deadly viruses, such as Ebola, it’s a topic that piqued my interest. While the virus seemed isolated to Asia, I felt comfortable going on my Bachelorette party with a group of friends in Cancun, Mexico, where we stayed at Breathless Rivera.
On January 20th, we had our first case of COVID-19 in Washington state. Joshua, my husband, and I continue the preparations for our wedding on March 14th. As we near our wedding date, several guests begin to cancel in fear of traveling amidst the viral outbreak. On March 14th, we had a beautiful wedding ceremony at Reflections Venue and Gardens in Plano, Texas. The next day, with approximately 1,300 cases in the United States, the CDC announced limitations on groups of no more than 50. Although it rained, and half of our guests were unable to be present, we consider ourselves extremely lucky to have had our ceremony. We’re even more fortunate that it was not an infectious event.
Skipping ahead to July and a lot has happened in the past four months. The United States leads the world in the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths (4,170,318 cases, 147,349 deaths as of July 23rd.) Joshua and I have foregone our Friday night date nights, hair cuts, and public events. We always wear a mask when out in public and spend most of our days in the comfort and safety of our home where we eat, sleep, work, play, repeat. Some days we get a bit stir crazy and miss the days where we could just walk around the mall, but with an average of 10,000 new cases a day and an increasing death count in Texas, we would rather not risk it.
So, until we start to see the light at the end of the tunnel we’re bored in the house and we’re in the house bored.
