Items

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  2021-01-30

  Local McDonald's Reminder of Mask Policy

  Signs such as this one found in a local McDonalds have become commonplace during the pandemic.
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  2021-03-12

  Remembering Our Last Lunch

  On Friday, March 13, 2020 it was pouring rain. My co-worker/work wife/love of my life/bestest friend - the Ann Perkins to my Leslie Knope (very accurate if you know us) bought us McDonald’s for lunch. We jokingly called it “the end of the world as we know it lunch” and played REM while drinking Shamrock Shakes. We were in denial about what was happening around us. Two hours later, it was the end. We have not had lunch together, or been physically together, since then. (However, we probably outdo any teenagers in the amount we text each other. We’ve pretty much live tweeted ever minute of our incredibly mundane days to each other throughout all of quarantine.) Today, we both bought McDonald’s separately (for me, only the fifth time having fast food since shut down last March) to celebrate our year-versary of the “end of the world” lunch. One year later, it’s raining again, but it feels so different. A year ago, everything was closing down. Today, everything is opening up. I am thankful we’ve both received vaccination one, and although we are both apprehensive about school reopening in a week, the thought of seeing her face to face (six feet away and in a mask) makes me happy enough to cry. There is nothing I hope more for than for the efficacy of the vaccinations. I can only hope that the second Friday of March 2022 will see us together in my classroom, eating McDonald’s for lunch, talking about how we can’t believe we lived through a pandemic. A rainbow instead of rain would be a nice touch, too.
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  2021-02-14

  Essential vs. Expendable Workers

  When the pandemic broke out, I was caught in the whirlwind of being an essential worker. I was a manager at my local McDonalds, so I've seen just how cruel people can be, and how corporations have continued to neglected their workers. Many people are minimum wage workers, and its frightening to know that such a large population is suffering so much, only to receive little appreciation and change. Through my personal story, I hope to have readers step in the shoes of a minimum wage worker than a pandemic, so when they step out, they'll raise awareness on the issue of lack of support and care for minimum wage workers.
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  2020-06-30

  Three Months without Fast Food

  Fear of COVID-19 has kept us from ordering any restaurant food, even take out or delivery, since March. Then, during the second week of June, my kids won a contest at (virtual) Sunday school where the prize was the children’s pastor delivering dinner of the kids’ choice to our house, and my husband’s work gave everyone Grub hub credit for their virtual end of the year party. Worn down by hunger, I relented and we got McDonald’s (for the kids’ prize) and Cali Tacos (from Grubhub). Not having either for so long, we may have gone a little overboard with our orders. It did take 20 minutes before we ate, because I removed all the wrappers wearing gloves, transferred the food to plates, threw all trash outside, and washed vigorously hands before we ate. It’s been two weeks, so I’m hoping it was safe. It’s a strange experience, we were used to having 85 Degrees or Starbucks at least once a week. It’s like when I was a kid and restaurant food was a special treat.