Items

• 
  2021-07-20

  Disneyland 2021

  In July of 2021 my husband and I took our first trip since the beginning of COVID, to celebrate my graduation from the credentialing program, my birthday, and our honeymoon since we never got the opportunity before (we got married in January of 2020). We decided to take a trip to Disneyland for a few days, stay in the Grand Californian, and get park passes for three days because it was local and affordable, with the discounts they were offering at the time. At that point, there were no restrictions in place in public spaces. It was exciting to get out again but also a bit nerve-wracking as COVID was still an active concern of mine, we mitigated risks by wearing masks whenever we were indoors but decided to forgo them outdoors in the hundred degrees that California brings in July. It was a fun few days getting away from the stresses of daily life, though I wouldn't say that the stress and anxiety it gave me was worth it.
• 2002-06-22

  The Most Magical Place on Earth to get COVID

  Disney has always been a big deal for my family. When I was a kid, we lived near Disneyland and my grandmother on my dad's side was a huge Disney fan. We would go about once a year, or so, when we lived in Southern California, and my grandmother always had a huge collection of Disney movies for the grandkids to watch. She would also give everyone in the family a Hallmark ornament at Christmastime that was Disney branded. When my wife and I got married in 2010, my parents gave us a 5 day Disneyland trip for our honeymoon. Since that time, my wife and I (and our kids), have made Disneyland a priority and we visit at least once or twice a year since 2013. We even had an annual pass one year, and made a monthly trip to Disneyland that year. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the world shut down in March of 2020, that hit us hard. I'm severely immunocompromised, and the idea of being out in public scared me to the point of developing agoraphobia during the lockdown. During Quarantine, from February 2020 to August 2021, I did not leave my house - even to go to the grocery store. I was lucky enough to be able to work from home during that time, but I became a recluse and a shut-in. My social anxiety climbed through the roof, and the thought of being among people was so frightening to me, because I'm prone to getting sick, and I was terrified that if I caught COVID I would be one of the unlucky ones. During that time, in December of 2020, my wife's grandfather caught the virus during a family get-together for Thanksgiving (which I had politely but firmly declined to attend) and ended up passing away because of it, so my fears were not unreasonable. In the summer of 2021, COVID travel restricitions were lifted, and our work from home season ended. I returned back to teaching on campus, (everyone was in masks), and I slowly but surely reacclimated to society. Disney reopened their gates (with masks and restricitions) and our family was itching to return. My parents had recently sold their house in Southern California and moved back to Stockton to be closer to us, and now that travel restrictions were easing back they wanted to take us on a summer trip in 2022 to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. I was put in charge of doing all the booking and the planning, and so I decided that it was time to face my fears and plan a trip worth remembering. I set up a 2 week stay in the Disney World hotels, 10 days at Disney World, and 1 day at Universal Studios with a VIP tour of that park. I wanted to really give my family a trip they would never forget, while also keeping in mind that I was largely uncomfortable with being in public. June of 2022, our trip to Disney World - The Most Magical Place on Earth - began. We stayed at the Art of Animation hotel in Disney World, at the Cars themed wing of the hotel. The trip started out with my dad getting a bug on the flight that had him drained for the first couple of days. We spent our first 4 days at the different Disney World theme parks, getting to see and do and ride as much as we wanted. Because travel restrictions and masks had only recently been lifted, the parks were not at full capacity and it was easy to get to experience everything the parks had to offer without being overly crowded and sparking off my social anxieties. On day 6 we visited Universal Studios. My dad was feeling better, and the VIP tour was incredible. We got to see and experience so many cool things during that tour, and it was great to be taken to the front of the line for all the rides we wanted to go on. All in all, it was a great time. Two days later, day 8 of 14 in Florida, I came down with COVID (for the third time). I spent the whole second week quarantined in the hotel room, while my family (who was not sick or showing any symptoms) enjoyed the rest of the trip. Funnily enough, my catching COVID did not negatively impact the trip at all. On day 6 the hotel informed us that the Cars wing was being remodeled and we were given the option of remaining in that part of the hotel or relocating to a different wing with the rest of their guests. We chose to remain in the Cars wing, because we enjoyed the theme, and it ended up being that we were the only family left in that part of the hotel while I was sick with COVID. No risk of contaminating or infecting anyone else. My family was all fine, and got to enjoy the rest of the trip. I ended up being symptom free on the last day we had in the parks, and got to enjoy EPCOT one last time (masked and medicated). The trip was overall a success, and my family got to enjoy something we'd never been able to experience before and likely never will again. We're Disneyland people, through and through, and Disney World was great but there's no park like home. Since that trip, we've made several more trips to Disneyland, taking advantage of every school break we could. But that first trip after COVID restrictions were lifted was an incredible time, even though I spent nearly half of it by myself.
• 
  2021-05-24

  Disney Escape - Tourism Story

  March 2020: a week before my twenty-first birthday. Working at a senior living community on my lunch break I was watching videos on YouTube preparing for an upcoming trip to Walt Disney World. The next day, I received a signed letter from my supervisor saying I was an essential worker and if I was pulled over to show it to the officer. Two days later, I had to leave home, because a family member was scared, because they are immunocompromised. Plans were cancelled, my birthday came and went, and I was unable to spend it with half my family worrying if I would give my remaining family this deadly, mysterious illness. Fast-forward to May 2021: my sister and I’s first trip to Disneyland since it’s reopening less than a month earlier. Disney runs deep in my family. My grandparents spent their honeymoon there. My parents got engaged there. I grew up going there bi-weekly. Even though I don’t remember it, my favorite photos are of my young family together with the castle in the background, on the carousel or train, or young me with Sleeping Beauty. I have over three hundred Disney pins and my sister almost that many. To say the least, Disney was the first place we planned to go once the world started to open again. As the theme park just reopened, Disneyland was still in its testing phases of what was compliant with CDC guidelines while trying to provide a streamline, enjoyable experience for guests. I remember wearing masks, hand sanitizer everywhere, plexiglass dividers in lines, restaurant windows, and cash registers. I remember how strict cast members were and how I sympathized with them trying to keep guests safe from each other. One experience that comes to mind was while in line for Pirates of the Caribbean. The line was quite long and it stretched over to the Haunted Mansion. A Haunted Mansion cast member directing traffic, while what seemed on repeat: “please keep your mask on” and “keep space between your party and others.” During this time, I was interviewing for a position at the Disneyland Hotel, and if I got the job (I did), I knew this would be something to look forward to. Anyways, a guest in front of my sister and I continued to lower her mask and become confrontational with this cast member. Seeing, my sister and I were siding with the cast member and not her even though we didn’t say anything, she started to become confrontational with us. It was an awkward incident, which led to my sister having a panic attack. We left the park soon after, cutting the day short. What was once a place of escape became the place we needed to escape from. Her anxiety stemmed from the crowds, the unruly guest, and the uncertainty of if this day of leisure would be worth it or cause us to become ill as neither of us had gotten sick with COVID-19 by that time. Years later, it is once again a place of comfort, but back then, I wish Disney would have stayed closed longer, trained cast members how to handle guest confrontations rather than throwing them out there, or that we didn’t jump into going so soon before proper guidelines and safety measures were enacted.
• 
  2021-02-17

  It took my world

  This is a photograph of my best friend, my mother. In December of 2020, we went to Disneyworld and came back with Covid-19. I was barely pregnant at the time, but my Covid symptom was only a cough. This cough would only hurt my uterus, so when I started to miscarry, I wasn’t too surprised. My mom, on the other hand, thought that her muscles were sore from walking around the parks for a few days. She had a cough and a bit of a fever, but was still walking around the house as we quarantined together. She was cold, which only ever happened when she was sick. One day, she didn’t leave her room because she was struggling to catch her breath if she did too much. She had me turn the heater on for her because of how cold she was under her blankets and comforter. She had been keeping her C-PAP machine on to give her the extra air support, but when we checked her oximeter, it was only at 70. So I called the paramedics like she asked me to, they came, we met them at the door, her vitals were taken, and they said that I could take her to the hospital or they could. I told her that I would drive. I had to take her to the emergency room that was not in our normal network because that’s what was open. I took her there with the expectation of getting her transferred the next day. When we called, the other hospital couldn’t take her because all of their beds were filled. So, she stayed there, and I couldn’t be with her because they were trying to keep the spread down. She was texting and FaceTiming me for the first 4 days that she was in the emergency room. On the 5th day though, she stopped responding. I called the hospital and they told me that she had spoken to her doctor and they had decided to put her on the ventilator to give her body a break for a few days. It was not a few days. On day 39 of her being on the ventilator, they lowered her sedation medication and she had no eye movement. So, I told them to let my brother go in and say his second final goodbye and to call me when they had ended her fight the next day. They called and said that she took a few seconds off of the ventilator before they called the time of her passing. I was alone now. My dad passed away in 2006 and my brother was a technical part of my family, but it was just me and my mom in the house still. Now, it was just me. A year later, I lost my home because I couldn’t get a loan approval to buy out my brother’s half of the equity. At that time, I was pregnant again with the baby girl that my mom dreamt of me having. This child that she had planned to be overly involved with, to play with, to snuggle, to kiss, and to have memories and adventures with. But now, the nursery would be someone else’s room. A stranger. Covid-19 took my baby, my mom, my house, my stability, and my will to love. I have been able to love my baby girl, but I am always comparing myself to my mother and thinking about how she could’ve been the best grandma. How she would’ve helped me. How we would’ve traveled to so many places together. And now, I struggle to pay rent on a single room. I leave my child at daycare 5 days a week and try to keep her there for each meal in case I don’t have enough to feed her. And I hide away from a lot of socializing because my mom was my favorite person to hang out with.
• 
  2022-03-07

  Regaining Adventure in Disneyland

  My family and I were very cautious during the pandemic and waited a long time before we chose to travel both as individual families and as an extended family unit. We finally decided to travel with a family trip to Disneyland. We have a wide range of ages in our family from over sixty-five to under ten years of age and we wanted to find a place that would have something for everyone. We appreciated the fact that at Disneyland the vast majority of the vacation would be spent outside and we all live relatively close to the location helping with travel anxieties. The fact that the place is excellently maintained helped lessen many of my family members' fears of going out for the first time. The time was very enjoyable and everyone had a wonderful time. There was still the lingering fear of not wearing a mask at all times and walking around the park without a mask did take some getting used to however it was a wonderful way to reenter the world of traveling. In reference to the photograph that I placed in the archive - The photograph does not show the park or us on the trip due to keeping our privacy. However, it helps to represent what this trip meant to my family and myself. The Disneyland Starbucks mug and pins represents the fact that we often bring back souvenirs from our trip in order to remember our time together. The Peter Pan funko is to illustrate the adventurous spirit, joy, and freedom that we had been unable to experience during the time of Covid restrictions. Finally, Disneyland holds fond memories of family, joy, and adventure as a child so it was wonderful to re-enter that world on my first experience back traveling after the exile imposed by Covid.
• 2020-03-20

  A Theme Park on Day 1 of the Pandemic

  Disneyland popcorn comes in a variety of colors and flavors- and with the opening of Galaxy’s Edge in 2019, my new favorite popcorn stand was ushered into being. This stand carried popcorn that had fruity pebble flavoring on its salty kernels, a little sticky, but delicious nonetheless. It was spring break at ASU, and currently, I was enjoying this sweet-salty concoction with not a care in the world, in Disneyland with my family. I was standing under the sad shade of a newly planted tree when my father turned to me, mouth agape, and proceeded to hand me his phone despite the sticky residue I was attempting to warn him about. His cell phone screen, with its glaring blue light and notifications rapidly appearing across the top, shouted a message at me I would much rather ignore: “The CDC has declared COVID-19 a worldwide pandemic.” Given that my father works in medical software, he quickly snatched the vibrating, ringing phone back and began an onslaught of calls that sounded identical, almost always culminating in “I don’t know what this means.” All around us, the previously carefree park patrons were beginning to reach into their pockets to investigate the commotion, and finding the same or similar results. Gasps and shouts were heard all around us, and the sound of feet moving quickly increased. Coughs were now akin to fire alarms and sent crowds scattering on the wind. Large throngs of people began to move towards the park exit, but I was keen on finishing my treat. After all, why rush out with hundreds of people when you can stroll out with dozens? We only remained in the park for about an hour after that, my parents endlessly debating the pros and cons of driving to Arizona right that minute. Would they close the borders between states? Would they get a refund for the cost of the hotel? What would we do with my little sisters’ birthday cake, sitting in a mini fridge and awaiting a dull butter knife later that evening? Families all around us were having the same sorts of conversations, a concert of panic arising in the Happiest Place on Earth. As my parents squabbled and people scattered, I was struck by the monumental meaning of this moment. Disneyland was going to close- and it previously closed for events like 9/11 and the assassination of President Kennedy. Something was very, very wrong...and I figured I should stop eating my popcorn that had seen unknown hands and unknown places.
• 2022-04-29

  My Timewarp

  It started for me when I returned from a business trip in Europe in March 2020. I had to fly through Germany to get home. Early in the pandemic a new country got added to the no-fly list. When I got back home, I went to work for a few days and then was told from my manager that Germany just got put on the list that if you have been there, you had to quarantine, so I couldn't come to work even though I had already been there for 3 days. So, I worked from home the rest of the week. The next week was spring break and I had it off anyway. We had plans to go to Disneyland. We decided to go and had a two-day pass. We went to the park Thursday and were resting Friday and planned to use our second pass the next day when we got notified through the Disney App that the next day would be the last day the park would be open. Almost 10 minutes later our church sent an email that services would be cancelled for the foreseeable future. My husband and I decided it was best to go home even though we still had a day at Disney. It was sinking in that this wasn’t just a few days of inconvenience. It was serious and we should head home. The next few months were hectic, scary, annoying and lonely. My son was in kindergarten and had to miss a lot of first milestones. School at home for a Kindergartner was a joke, but the time we got to spend time together as a family was nice. My work was accommodating and provided everything I needed at home. Two years later I am still working from home. I gained 15 pounds but I am back to what I was when this all started. Things are getting back to normal now, but inflation is insane and the supply chain is a nightmare. I spent some of the evening today searching for formula for my sister-in-law in Utah. A formula shortage. Something as vital as feeding babies is hard to find. Additionally, Russia invaded Ukraine just over a month ago, so even though the pandemic has settled down, the world hasn’t. God bless us.
• 
  2021-09-28

  The trashiest place on earth

  Mask trash at Disneyland California
• 
  2021-05-27

  Slower Pace of Life

  It’s probably a bit tiresome for my best friend when I say “oh man, we haven’t been there in over a year” because for our family, that is everything. Every week, we open up a little more, cautiously, as our case rates continue to decline (under 50 new cases in our county today!) Disneyland, our go to hangout is still out of the question, so we returned to the beach. It’s crazy to think for over a year, it sat 20 minutes away, so close but so far. I feel like COVID not only has made us more appreciative but has also helped us embrace a slower pace of life. Two years ago, a weekday would have seen me at school AP reviews or department meetings, my mom and I coordinating pick up and drop offs for Kumon, gymnastics, piano lessons. I would have squeezed in a Pilates class before picking up my daughter from the gym. My husband wouldn’t be in the equation at all, April and May are full travel months - we barely see him. But here we are. Our pace of life is much slower. My husband is still working remotely, and will probably continue to for at least half the week for the rest of the foreseeable future. Kumon and piano seem simpler to do now that we’re all home. Even gymnastics seems less stressful. If everyone is home on a weekday at 3, why not hit the beach? I know our lives will inevitably speed up. That’s the rat race that is Orange County and I do love our lives. We like being busy, why else would someone live here? Yet, I hope the togetherness we’ve had in the past year and the realization that maybe we should just take more time to run around the beach, get excited at finding a Sea Hare, and just watch the waves without an agenda or a clock will last beyond this pandemic.
• 
  2020-03-10

  Disneyland March 2020

  One year ago today my daughter and I went to Disneyland for spring break and little did we realize we would be lucky enough to be there right before it closed down due to the pandemic. We had four awesome days for our "girl getaway" and three days after we came home Disneyland was closed. We are waiting with anticipation to return to Disneyland when it reopens.
• 
  2021-02-27

  Pandemic Fashion

  Since the beginning of the pandemic, I wore a mask. I think I went one place without one on Friday, March 13, as the world fell apart and I was driving home to Phoenix from my mother’s house in San Diego County. But since then, I have been collecting masks the way I would collect graphic and band tees as a teenager and young adult. I have developed “criteria” for what I like, prefer, and even need in a mask. I think about it when I pick one each day. If I am wearing patterns, I grab a solid mask in a complementary color. Solid outfits open up the gates to lots of options. Very quickly, I realized I needed a way to manage these masks. The two hooks that hang near our front door for stocking at Christmas promptly became something else. A bin of clean masks hangs on one hook and a lingerie bag on another. The routine is simple, grab a mask from the container as you leave, come home and drop it in the bag. When the bag is full, zip it up and drop it in the wash. Done! So here are some of my favorites: • Baby Yoda • Disneyland Spirit Jersey style • Old Navy, Old Navy, Old Navy – they come in five packs, available for every season and holiday, prints and solids, easy to grab, cannot say enough • And, of course – the true hero of the pandemic, masks made with love. My coworkers and I have chosen the raccoon for our library mascot. My boss’ mom had this beaver fabric just sitting around, so she made one for each of us (bonus points, this one has a nose wire), and finally, the same wonderful ex-co-worker of our department who made us all the raccoon masks made school-themed ones for us, the Desert Vista Thunder, one with lightning bolts and one with the school colors in the plaid. • Our other library theme is rainbows and all things equality – down to the matching rainbow Apple Watch bands we have to pair perfectly with this rainbow hearts mask from the Human Rights Campaign. I am not ready to give up wearing masks. I have both doses of Pfizer, and it has been two weeks, but I still think masks are a good idea and something that I will for sure be wearing when I feel any kind of sick post-pandemic if that ever happens. It’s the responsible thing to do, and frankly, I have too much invested into my masks and management system to say goodbye to it anytime soon.
• 2021-01-22

  Symptoms of COVID

  In Quarantine I have had numerous friends who have had or experienced symptoms related to COVID-19. I myself have also had my fair share of symptoms. The weekend before quarantine, me and my family went on a long awaited trip to Disneyland. COVID-19 had made it's way to the USA but it had not yet become an international crisis. When I came home from Disneyland, I felt fine and went to school. On the third day of the week I felt very sick and stayed home. It was the day that it was announced school would shut down so I didn't have a chance to retrieve any of my things from my locker. My entire family got sick and my friend brought my stuff that I would need from school. We all experienced a bad cough and other symptoms related to the coronavirus. Sadly however, due to there being no testing for COVID available, we never knew if we really had COVID or not.
• 
  2021-01-14

  The End of an Era with Mickey Mouse for Californians

  Since 1988, my annual pass has made Disneyland my second home. Growing up within walking distance of the park, randomly deciding to Disneyland to hang out was a normal part of our day. Bored after school? Want to go out to dinner? Want somewhere to walk around? Popping into Disneyland was the answer. It's not just that I spent nearly every 4th of July, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, birthdays, and whatever other holiday there is there, spur of the moment visits for us are like a non Californian deciding to go to Starbucks. Shoot, when my grandparents took me to the park to play as a kid, they meant going to Tom Sawyer's island - to us "the park" is synonymous with what most people call "Disneyland." Married with my own family now, swinging into the park on the regular is still our normal. Before the pandemic, we were at Disneyland a minimum of once a week, even if it was just to go on a couple of rides and grab a bite to eat. Today. for the past two hours, my phone has been buzzing like crazy with people messaging me about the news. As one friend said "it's like our safe space has disappeared." Disneyland has always represented a safe space, a respite from stress and pain and reality. The pandemic truly wasn't real to me until March 12, when Disneyland announced it was temporarily closing its gates by the weekend. We rushed to the park, and, as you can see in my Instagram post, I naively thought we'd be back by April. Reality hadn't set in. Still, through these 10+ months of being home, knowing that we would eventually be back at Disneyland was a beacon of hope. Acknowledging that life after COVID is going to change in ways we didn't consider is setting in now. I realize for someone who didn't grow up in the shadow of the castle, this all probably seems strange. But losing daily access to the place you have been the most for the past 33 years is a sobering moment.
• 
  2020-10-31

  Halloween At Home

  Halloween is usually a month long celebration at our house. We plan our costumes months in advance. We go to Disneyland at least a dozen times to enjoy the special Halloween treats, decorations, and to wear the insane amount of Disney Halloween shirts we own. On Halloween night, we serve at our church running game booths for the community and come home just in time to trick or treat (and usually get A LOT of candy because we’re some of the last trick or treaters). This year, of course, every single thing listed above was cancelled. With so many disappointments this year, we committed to making Halloween a celebration from morning until night. Making our own backyard carnival, the kids bobbed for apples, carved pumpkins and played Halloween soccer (okay, it was just soccer but we were in costumes!) My daughter was over the moon to have us all dress as Hogwarts students, except for her little brother who dressed as her owl. Lunch included ghost shaped chips, jack-o-lantern quesadillas, grape “eye balls,” and guacamole in a jack-o-lantern pepper. To make dinner extra special, we brought out the fondue set we registered for when we got married over 15 years ago and never opened. The kids loved a dinner of dipping into cheese and chocolate. The one thing my son repeated all of October was he wanted to “trick or treat to all the doors in the house.” Undaunted, we turned off most of the lights, put a bowl of candy inside every door in the house, and put either an adult or a dressed up stuffed animal (there’s only three adults here and way more doors) at each door. The kids were genuinely excited to trick or treat and actually knocked at every single door, and gleefully filled their bags with candy. It’s easy to focus on all that has been lost this year, but this simple, stress free, at home Halloween may have ended up their favorite one ever.
• 
  2020-10-07

  Military Edition

  this story is important to me because members who are serving in the armed force, will understand and relate to the struggles that I went through during this pandemic.
• 
  2020-09-24

  「美女と野獣」東京ディズニーランド　新エリア公開(2020年9月25日) - "Beauty and the Beast" Tokyo Disneyland new area released (September 25, 2020)

  新型コロナウイルスの感染拡大の影響で公開が延期になっていた東京ディズニーランドの大規模開発エリアがお披露目されました。 　東京ディズニーランドを運営するオリエンタルランドは、約3年かけて完成した大規模開発エリアを報道向けに公開しました。新たなエリアは4万7000平方メートルあり、ディズニー映画の「美女と野獣」をテーマとしたエリアや「ベイマックス」などのアトラクションが楽しめます。当初は4月15日に開園する予定でしたが、新型コロナウイルスの感染拡大の影響で延期していました。一般公開は今月28日からとなりますが、当面は混雑を避けるためアトラクションの利用は事前に抽選予約に申し込んで当選した人に限定します。 The large-scale development area of Tokyo Disneyland, where the open date was postponed due to the spread of the new Coronavirus, was revealed. Oriental Land Co., Ltd., which operates Tokyo Disneyland, has released to the press the large-scale development area that took about three years. The new area covers 47,000 square meters, and you can enjoy rides with the theme of the Disney movies "Beauty and the Beast" and "Big Hero 6". Initially, the park was scheduled to open on April 15, but it was postponed due to the spread of the new Coronavirus. It will be open to the public from the 28th of this month, but for the time being, the use of the rides will be limited to those who have applied for a reservation in advance and got the tickets to avoid cluster of people.
• 
  07/25/2020

  Anonymous Child Oral History, 2020/07/25

  Shanna Gagnon interviews an anonymous 8 year old girl about the COVID-19 pandemic. She explains her initial reaction to learning about COVID-19. Anonymous describes how the pandemic has impacted her daily life. She discusses how her family and friends are responding to COVID-19. She talks of the things that are important to and worrying people right now. Anonymous details the most difficult parts of the pandemic for her. She shares how COVID-19 is impacting local businesses and schools. She also discusses how she thinks life will be different moving forward and includes her thoughts on vacations and milestone celebrations, such as Halloween and birthdays.
• 
  2020-05-31

  Empty Lots

  Under quarantine I took up biking to keep me active and mentally sane. This allowed me to cruise around the city I live in and sort of go sight seeing in downtown areas and even the area surrounding Disneyland. Occasionally I’d stop by The Outlets at Orange or aka the block and bike around the completely empty parking lots. I wasn’t the only person there as sometimes I’d see people skating, walking, running, or even roller skating. I think the most interesting things I saw people do to try to stay sane under quarantine was the visits to Krispy Kreme, the line for the drive thru were insanely long and wrapped around the curb like a snake. It felt strange seeing the block so lonely but it has recently reopened and is full of cars yet again.
• 
  2020-05-29

  Interview with 5-Year-Old Emily about her Doll "Corona Barbie" and Missing School During COVID-19

  This is an interview from May 29th 2020 with five-year-old Emily of rural Oklahoma about COVID-19. She talks about her doll she named "Corona Barbie" in which she used a high neck dress to cover the doll's mouth like a mask. Emily also talks about missing family vacations, missing school, and especially missing her teacher Mrs. Looper. Growing up in a rural area, she was most excited to be able to share videos of her chickens hatching via Facebook Messenger Kids during the pandemic. Photograph included that inspired the interview is of the actual "Corona Barbie" mentioned in the interview. The photograph was taken on March 16th, 2020. Submitted for the #ruralvoices collection. Contributed by Clinton P. Roberts, curatorial intern for Arizona State University, HST 580. #HST580 #ASU
• 
  04/01/2020

  A meme about the stimulus checks.

  This meme depicts Indiana Jones from the ride in Disneyland trying to shore up the economy with the $1200 stimulus check as it was first going out and not really being able to close the gap. Personally, I don't think the US government is doing enough to help people in perilous situations and a $1200 check doesn't really go that far for people who are low income, especially when people have to worry about healthcare, rent, and food. Many may have lost their jobs or cannot work due to being high risk and/or not being able to do their jobs online for various reasons.
• 
  2020-03-12

  Disneyland Main Street After Closure Announcement

  The night the closure of Disneyland was announced due to COVID-19, the candy store on Main Street had an uplifting message for guests passing by. The picture was easy to take, as the park was already uncharacteristically empty.