Items
Subject is exactly
Consumer Culture (shopping, dining...)
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2020-05-14
Toilet Paper Crisis
At the beginning of the pandemic, people were stockpiling toilet paper and cleaning supplies. -
2021
Essential Workers
While the pandemic is still going strong, this type of post reflects some of the aftermath of the pandemic. Restrictions have loosened in enough places that people are able to return to restaurants, but there are still so many challenges and obstacles these essential workers are having to face. This picture left an impression on me because it is enforcing that sense of community and having to stick together to make it through these strange times. -
2020
Going Out of Business
This was one of my favorite places to go in college, and they were unfortunately unable to make it through the closures. It was especially upsetting because they were always busy every night and the continued restrictions in California were too much for them to afford to hold out until people could return. -
2021-10-06
Getting out feels like a Resident Evil game
Getting out and gathering groceries or even running errands makes you feel like you're the protagonist in a Resident Evil game. I'm always vigilant when I go out and I make sure I comply with mask rules and social distancing. As a Resident Evil fan, this made me chuckle. -
2020-04-11T16:55
Standing in yellow box
When covid-19 getting serious in April 2020, every store limits the capacity and people need to keep the social distance. It's my first time in life to see this beautiful and organized queue. -
2020-05
The Year That Never Felt Real
When COVID-19 first started spreading in the United States I remember the hysteria that spread so quickly. Not very long ago the aisles in every grocery store in America were empty of non-perishable goods, water bottles, and toilet paper. In the first Fam Bam group chat messages we were making fun of the people buying up all the water bottles, and toilet paper but when we couldn't find toilet paper literally anywhere a little bit of fear struck our household. Just as everyone else did, we began to realize the reality of the new world we were living in and the differences it would make in our lives. In the initial isolation stages I am not going to lie, there was some enjoyment. No work, mandatory social expectations, I was isolated playing my video games, reading my books, ignorant to what was going on in the rest of the world around me almost. It is unhealthy to spend days on end in your room without much social interaction outside of family, sunlight, exercise, just normal day to day life. The walls of my room felt as though they started to shrink day by day, finally when I was called back to work everything was just... different. We were wearing masks, which in my opinion was not really a big deal at all at this point I had begun to understand the reality of COVID. What I experienced from here on was not enjoyable to say the least, when we began doing things in public again everybody felt sort of tense all the time, the energy in places felt dystopic. As a Starbucks Barista we had to mandate masks to every person that came into our store, as a 24 year old working as the manager on the floor I had to deal with some brutal harassment during this time. Every time a customer came in maskless it was my job to ask them "is it okay if I get a mask for you?" if they said no, I had to ask them to take their order outside or refuse them service. Whether I agreed with the policy or not was irrelevant, I had a job to do if I wished to maintain an income so I did my job. Sometimes I would get cursed at, called communist, and just dealt with genuine harassment on a regular basis. When the governor relieved the state of their state wide mask mandate but Starbucks maintained there's it was even worse for us we were the scape goats for a mask mandate and political arguments between two sides we had no part of, the community treated us like political punching bags. To be quite honest, the transition back into society was emotionally exhausting for everyone, but I will never forget how people treated me as an employee just doing there job. At the end of it, I didn't even realize the year had past it just didn't even feel like it really happened. -
2021-10-06
Pandemic Reflection
Last year as we all know was the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic. Funny enough, I had actually started an Epidemiology class in January 2020 of last year. It was interesting timing. For me, it was cool to learn about Covid 19 in real time, however it was also scary to learn about how much it would impact us in the incoming months. I remember telling all of my friends and family about how we should be prepared and how it might affect us. A lot of them brushed me off, but a few took my advice seriously and started to prepare for the worst. My mom, who is always the most prepared for everything, started to buy canned foods and toilet paper for our family before the toilet paper craze started. Then as the months passed, and the pandemic grew worse and worse, we started to see how everyone was reacting differently. Leaders of the old church that my family and I used to attend, started to tell the church members that they should not get the vaccine as it was only there to ‘control the masses’. Watching news on T.V. meant that there would be political fights over science. Or social media would be divided often leading to people disowning those with opposing views. Now here we are, over a year later and the divide is stronger than ever. Some religious affiliations advocating for vaccine exemption or workers going on strikes because of vaccine mandates. We are now able to look at world data and see how different countries have responded to the pandemic and how their cultural beliefs have either hindered them or helped them. As for me, life has been hard. I started the pandemic off working at Starbucks and being an essential worker, we really took the brunt of it. We were over worked and spread thin meanwhile the customers were demanding and impatient (to say the least). Out of the many reasons I left Starbucks, this was one of the main ones. Home life became almost toxic because of disagreements regarding the covid virus. Lost some friends as well. Lost some faith in religion. Preaching about loving your neighbor while also putting them in danger. Lost some faith in humanity. My distrust in the political field grew even more. Through all of this, I am grateful. Although its been hard, there are others who suffered way more than I. They suffered the loss of their loved ones or they lost their only source of income. I hope that this next coming year bring us all the relief that we have been needing. But only time will tell. -
2021-10-05
Life During a Pandemic
This is a brief look into life during the pandemic and how society has changed as well as what I have learned about the world and myself throughout the last two years. This is important to me because history is a great way to learn more about where we are today, if I am able to contribute to giving an insight to future generations about how our lives were affected by the global pandemic, I would be happy to do so. -
2021-10-05
Wide Range of Acceptable Socializing during Covid-19
This meme shows the four members of the "family" in the movie "We're the Millers" reacting to houseguests during Covid-19. The "Dad" says, "My houseguests won't come unless we wear masks!" The "Mom" says, "My houseguests won't come unless we text them our vax cards!" The "daughter" says, "Our houseguests won't come unless we've had a negative covid test in the last 48 hours!" And the son says, "You guys are having houseguests?" The meme represents the wide range of "rules" that people are setting for themselves during Covid-19. Where I live in Utah, there are no official rules right now except that mask mandates are banned in public schools. In public, most people are not wearing masks and very few students are wearing them in schools. This meme, although it describes having houseguests, represents the varying degrees that people are socializing in all venues: at home, restaurants, movie theaters, amusement parks, family reunions, etc. Some people are still very cautious while others are "back to normal." -
2021-10-04
Before & After
This is a quick reflection on some aspects of how life is different now due to covid-19. -
2021-09-28
The trashiest place on earth
Mask trash at Disneyland California -
2020-03-16
My life with COVID
The COVID pandemic has affected everyone around the world. Going into march of 2020, I had a lot of pressure put on me by my parents to either quit my job, or take time off because they didn't know how serious the virus was and wanted me to take no chances. I also have an autistic brother who cannot speak so I didn't want to risk giving COVID to him. At the time, nobody knew how severe the virus was, but as time passed I witnessed first hand how serious it was. When I got back to work after taking time off, I saw what I thought was a joke. Shelves of foods completely empty, and all toilet paper sold out as well other cleaning products. This went on for about a month before people stopped buying a lot of things in fear. There would be lines outside of my job because too many people were coming and we didn't want to have a lot of people gathered in one place for safety reasons. More time passed and things sort of went back to normal but people now wore masks and practiced social distancing. Now over a year later, things are more calm and people are finally doing the right thing and wearing masks to prevent the spread of the virus and end this pandemic. -
2020-04-22
Enjoy Every Second Life Presents to You
I remember when the pandemic first started just like it was yesterday. It was a very frightening time to be alive. A couple months before the pandemic, I got my license. I couldn’t have done it without my driving instructor. He was a family friend that we’ve known for a very long time. He was full of charisma and always energetic. When he found out that I passed my driving test, he promised to take me out to a local restaurant and celebrate. Everytime we would schedule a time to go to the restaurant, something would either come up on my end or his end. We were always cancelling on each other. March came around, and I went to his driving school site to pick up some paperwork. We were talking about the pandemic not knowing how serious it really was. We scheduled our lunch towards the end of March. Everything was cancelled due to quarantine. I didn’t hear from him or see him for about a month. We found out that he had passed from Covid-19. That changed my whole perspective on the virus. I began taking it very seriously and took every precaution I could take against the virus. What they say is true about people not taking the virus seriously unless someone close to you gets affected by it. You wouldn’t expect someone with such a good heart to be taken off this earth so sudden. -
2021-09-29
Covid in Altus Oklahoma
When reflecting back on the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2019, it is strange to think the whole country was isolated from other people for an upwards of three months or more. I was residing in Altus Oklahoma during the pandemic and there was a point where no one was allowed to leave their homes to even enjoy the fresh outside air. With this, a lot of local organizations were shut down for months including Churches, local eatery's, stores, and even some grocery stores. While I know my story is similar to many others, I believe that it is important to share all experiences with the community. Sharing will create a complete picture of how the pandemic shaped our society today. -
2020-05
Remembering NYC 2020
These photographs taken from April-June 2020 capture New Yorkers interacting with the empty stress of the city during COVID-19. The first image displays an off duty fireman walking down vacant 5th Avenue, apparently in tribute. His body position highlights the stress, grief, determination, and exhaustion experienced by so many New York frontline workers. The next image was taken of the once bustling streets of SOHO. In this photograph, an older man appears exhilarated during a moment out of quarantine. Getting some fresh air, he turned up his car radio and bellowed out the lyrics of “New York, New York”, the anthem for New Yorkers. The third image captures young cyclists riding, practicing tricks, and laughing. The final snap is of two jazz musicians near the entrance to Central Park, a spot they often inhabited pre-pandemic. They played exactly as they once did, only masked this time. As a twenty year old who would normally be thrilled to spend the summer at home, surrounded by the lively energy of NYC, I was determined to find a way to interact with my city in a creative and safe way. After completing many projects from home (such as making filter masks for medical staff and collecting supplies for donation), I decided to use my knowledge of and passion for photography to capture fellow New Yorkers doing their part to help lower the spread of COVID and to find moments of camaraderie to fuel their, and others’, fight against this virus. In turn, the act of getting in my car and driving throughout the city, equipped with my Canon Rebel 55mm was my way of finding a measure of peace, purpose, joy, and meaning during the six long months in quarantine in New York City. -
2020-10
A Journal of a Plague Year
The object I am uploading shows us how fashion is also impacted by Covid, it is really interesting. -
2020-04-28
Don’t Be Afraid to Order Takeout or Delivery
A blog post from Banner Health about the safety of takeout and food delivery and Covid-19. -
2021-08-22
The choice is yours
More and more I am seeing signs like this all over businesses in Arizona. Although the state of Arizona no longer has a mask mandate, businesses are going the extra mile to make it clear that mask wearing is now a personal choice. I liked this sign because it asks customers to be respectful of the choice to wear a mask or not now that it is no longer a requirement. -
2021-08-10
Street Art
A friend of mine posted this photograph on social media -
2020-03-17
Your Coronavirus Shopping List: What to Buy and What to Skip
A blog postfrom the Banner Health Blog about what people should buy after the WHO declared a pandemic. -
2020-05-15
PPE as litter
One of the most frustrating parts of the pandemic is the return to single use items. While we're talking about building back better, people are also using more packaging via online orders and disposable items to avoid sharing. Single use masks are particularly problematic and can be frequently seen on the ground as litter. The strings get caught around birds' legs and cause problems for wildife. -
2021-02-22
Leaping lizards! Reptiles in-demand pets during pandemic
Can't find a puppy since the pandemic began? You're not alone - and that's left East Coast residents desperate for companionship looking at new avenues. One of the most popular options? According to Google Trends, Atlantic Canadians are all about lizards. -
2021-04-23
Brazil's pet market benefits from COVID-19
Not everyone is losing out from the pandemic. Some businesses are reaping big profits due to rising demand. The pet market has exploded in the last year as people got animals to fight loneliness. -
2021-08-03
Quarantine Hair
Christmas 2019 we gifted my kids (and mom) a Disney cruise for August 2020. Our plan was for my daughter and I to chop our hair right before the cruise. The cruise never happened, and neither did our haircuts. Fast forward to a year later. My hair dresser now works from out of her home, having lost her shop. Knowing that she is vaccinated and only sees one household at a time, I decided to finally get our hair cut. My baby’s first haircut only took (almost) 11 years! It was refreshing to say good bye to our quarantine hair, if only we could say goodbye to COVID, too. -
2020-03
Carla Dollar Oral History, 2020/03
I was given the assignment to share a recipe I made during quarantine that started March 2020. However, the reality was that as an essential worker, I had no time to cook. And in my tiny, conservative town, we rallied together to support local business. We ordered more take-out foods during that time, to support our friends and family who owned restaurants, but also, just didn't have time to cook. -
2020-04-09
Pandemic Dinner of Gluten-Free Orange Chicken is a Sensory Reminder of Evolving Grocery Shopping and the Effect on My Mental Health
Pre-Pandemic, my small family of three went shopping altogether at our local Frys Grocery every Sunday. As the type of person that lives inside their head and has difficulty multi-tasking when distracted, this was usually an overwhelming experience. It involved avoiding people parked sideways in aisles, answering questions from my wife and daughter (somehow usually at the same time), and being interrupted by loud intercoms. To me it was sensorial overload every week of my hearing and vision to the point where I wanted to leave. When the pandemic really started up in April of 2020 my wife and I decided that my daughter should stay home and we would take turns shopping every week individually to decrease the chances of affecting the employees, the other customers, and ourselves. Along with this was my increased effort to come up with meals and recipes on my "turn." The recipe attached, gluten-free orange chicken from https://www.evolvingtable.com, reminds me of this interesting evolution in shopping that still takes place, as it is my turn to shop today. While my wife looks upon the idea of shopping individually as a loss and misses it...I am able to shop without being overwhelmed. Between less customers in the store (due to ordering online and pick up), the store progressing to using handheld radios, and being by myself, I can really focus and no longer am stressed and overwhelmed to the point where I just want to leave. Every time I make this recipe and taste the delicious orange flavor and smell that hot sesame oil that I had never used before the pandemic, it reminds me of how a stressful pandemic has strangely (and selfishly) made one recurring weekday of my life less stressful. -
2020-03
Baking: Impossible
Back in December of 2019, my wife and I were visiting my parents and grandparents in Mesa, Arizona. It was Christmas time, so we were enjoying a bit of leisure time that we typically didn't have. I had just graduated from Brigham Young University-Idaho with a degree in History Education, and my wife just finished a rigorous semester in her study of English at the same school. We were ready for a break. Before meeting up with the family, my grandmother brought up the idea to teach my wife and I how to make homemade bread. It was her grandmothers recipe, and I loved it, as she would occasionally make the dough to make scones or kraut biscuits. This particular recipe made a lot of dough and needed to rise three times. Because of this, making bread was an all day event. Just a few short months after learning to make bread in my grandmother's kitchen, COVID-19 shut down the world. We were living in Rexburg, Idaho at the time-a small town of around 28,000 people located in south-east Idaho. Given that we were in a rural location, we didn't feel the immediate effects of the virus like Seattle, New York City, and Los Angeles. However, around early March, schools shut down and we were told to stay indoors whenever possible. Given that I was a teacher, I was suddenly learning how to run applications like Google Classroom to teach from home. The school district wasn't sure how long I would be working from home for. Initially, they only wanted to close for two weeks to deep clean the school. However, this ended up lasting through the end of the school year. My wife was now also at home. Her studies switched from in-person courses to online courses. Professors who had spent their life in the classroom were suddenly figuring out how to teach via a new medium. It was challenging for all, but everyone seemed to be more patient with each other. Given that my wife and I were home, and given that we had more time, we decided that we would make the bread recipe that my grandmother had taught us over Christmas break. Everyone was encouraged to only shop when absolutely necessary, so we added the flour and yeast to our shopping list. However, when we went shopping only a few days later, the baking isle had been decimated. The only types of flour that were left were expensive bags of specialty flour that came in much smaller portions. Yeast was nowhere to be found. Even things like baking soda were gone. When I think back to the early days of the pandemic, I think of panic. While my wife and I were able to remain calm, many people worried they would not be able to find basic necessities. Grocery stores ran short on many items-toilet paper, canned food, flour, sugar, paper towels, cleaning supplies, amongst other things. Many things that were taken for granted were now an uncertainty. So while we did have more time on our hands, baking bread wasn't an option. -
2021-08-07
Diane Ramirez Oral History, 2021/08/07
How one Hispanic female dealt with the cooking challenges that took place in the early months of the pandemic. In particular, one meal she prepared on September 26, 2020. -
2020-05
Food Shortages During a Pandemic
While most people tried new recipes during the pandemic, what I remember most is the food shortages that forced me to constantly change what I was planning to make and how I made it. I began using grocery pickup before the pandemic, and since I am a full-time caregiver to my mother who is high-risk for COVID, we continued to use grocery pickup as much as possible to limit any exposure to the virus. Unfortunately, this meant that I could not get halfway through the store, realize that I could not make what I was planning due to unavailable items, and put stuff back and try to buy something else. Though I do have the store substitute most items when they can, especially during lockdown sometimes they couldn’t provide any substitutions, which would leave me without one or two crucial ingredients and unable to fix anything to eat. To combat this, I started getting enough food for two separate dishes for every meal, so if plan A didn’t work out, hopefully plan B would. I also started planning for meals that could be used with the same ingredients, except for one or two, and then get both options just in case one was out of stock. Beef and noodles and chicken and noodles would be one example of this, where the main recipe and ingredients are mostly the same, the only difference being the frozen chicken with chicken broth versus prepackaged beef tips with beef bouillon. Due to their minimal ingredients and their easiness to make, these two interchangeable recipes to me most represent the pandemic and what I fixed the most of during the lockdown and food shortages. I have attached the recipe for both. -
2021-07-02
1. Missing Breakfast
During the pandemic, we were kept at home and therefore had to cook many of the foods that we normally would have gone out to eat. For my family we normally went out to have breakfast and one of the main things that we would have is pancakes. They taste so much better when they are served in a restaurant, with the warm syrup and butter. At home we tried to replicate them however could not find a syrup that we really like and had to buy a griddle to cook them. It was something that for my family we really missed and the taste and smell of fresh pancakes is now something that we cherish when we are able to go out and get them. -
2020-02-01
Starbucks Egg Bites @ Home?
While this may be a trivial struggle, the pandemic minutely affected my morning traditions. As someone who wakes up with just enough time to get ready and run through a drive-thru before work, the closure of my go-to Starbucks caused an abrupt halt in my morning routine. I could no longer grab my morning coffee and signature egg bites or great my favorite baristas as I headed off to work. After the swift investment in an Instantpot, I read through numerous recipes in an attempt to get my mornings back to "normal." As I located a sous vide egg bite dupe for those made at Starbucks, I quickly began experimenting with numerous combinations of veggies and meats for my sunrise snack. After several attempts and failures, I eventually mastered the egg bite, and now I consider them a staple of my repertoire. While my mornings were still far from "normal" due to the numerous restrictions set because of the pandemic, a little piece of me felt the comfort that stemmed from the creation of these little egg bites and my coffee in the morning. This experience that spawned out of the events caused by the pandemic forced me to become a better cook and an ingredient-conscious one at that! I've found the kitchen to be a place of comfort and artistic expression now that I know how to appreciate my ingredients, tools, and desire to learn more about cooking! -
2020-08-17
Comfort Food in an Uncomfortable time.
In the midst of the chaos of: at home learning, quarantine, and the endless stream of commercials asking to support major corporations such Mcdonalds and Taco Bell, the epiphany that fast food could be made...slower, safer, but just as nostalgic, came to mind. No longer will you have to put your life, or an essential workers life, on the line for mediocre fast food! In order to emulate the staple dish of a CrunchWrap Supreme, the following ingredients are necessary. Recipe Ingredients: - 16 oz of Ground Beef - 4 Large Tortillas - 8 medium size tortillas - 1 head of lettuce - 4 oz of tomatoes - 2 oz of peppers - 4 tablespoons of sour cream - 6 oz of cheese - 1 tablespoon chili powder - ¼ teaspoon garlic powder - ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes - ¼ teaspoon dried oregano - ½ teaspoon paprika - 1 teaspoon salt - 1 teaspoon black pepper Steps to Make It 01 Layer skillet with oil and heat to medium or medium-high heat. Allow the oil to heat before adding the medium tortillas. Once the oil has begun to "pop" place one tortilla into the pan. It should sizzle immediately, cooking for about 10 to 15 seconds. Repeat until 4 medium tortillas have been cooked. 02 On Medium Heat place the ground beef on the skillet. Add powders, spices, as meat cooks. 03 As the beef is cooking, dice the tomatoes, peppers, and place in a small mixing bowl. *note a food processor may be used as a substitute 04 As the beef has finished cooking, set aside for 5 minutes 05 Assembly: Place 2-4oz of the cooked beef in the center of an uncooked large tortilla, 06 Apply a spoonful of cheese, and diced peppers and tomatoes, and lettuce 07 Place a medium fried tortilla atop the meat,cheese, and lettuce mixture 08 Spread ½ tablespoon of sour cream, place another spoonful of cheese, diced tomatoes and lettuce 09 Place a medium uncooked tortilla atop the fried medium tortilla 10 Begin to fold the large tortilla’s outer edges over the filling, creating a five sided shape 11 Reheat the skillet to medium heat and place the CrunchWrapSupreme, seam side down, on the hot pan. Cook until lightly golden. Flip and cook on the other side for 1-2 minutes. 12 Repeat steps 5-11 13 Enjoy! -
2021-07-19T11:41
Trading Post Maximum Occupancy Sign
This photograph shows a sign at the Camp Wolfeboro Trading Post that says "Trading Post Maximum Occupancy: 5", with the Camp Wolfeboro logo before it. The sign also accompanies a nut allergy sign that is present every year. The Trading Post only allowed five people to enter at a time, and any overflow had to wait outside for someone to leave the building. Masks were also required in the Trading Post, regardless of vaccination status. The photograph was taken on July 19, 2021 at 11:41 AM. -
2021-02-01
Why is Arizona worst for COVID-19 nationwide? Here are 7 contributing reasons
This article discusses why Arizona's Covid rate was the highest in the country as of February 1, 2021. Contributing factors included a lack of mask-wearing and cross-border traffic. -
2020
Humorous memes about coronavirus
During quarantine I collected many humorous memes about staying at home and the problems that brought. All sorts of subjects were covered: cooking, getting along with your spouse/roommates, homeschooling the kids, learning to bake bread, being stuck at home, sanitizing, facemasks, people hoarding toilet paper, boredom, effects of isolation, etc. Here are a few of those memes. -
2020
Humorous Memes about Coronavirus
During quarantine I collected many humorous memes about staying at home and the problems that brought. All sorts of subjects were covered: cooking, getting along with your spouse/roommates, homeschooling the kids, learning to bake bread, being stuck at home, sanitizing, facemasks, people hoarding toilet paper, boredom, effects of isolation, etc. Here are a few of those memes. -
2020
Humorous Corona Memes
During quarantine I collected many humorous memes about staying at home and the problems that brought. All sorts of subjects were covered: cooking, getting along with your spouse/roommates, homeschooling the kids, learning to bake bread, being stuck at home, sanitizing, facemasks, people hoarding toilet paper, boredom, effects of isolation, etc. Here are a few of those memes. -
2021-07-14
Protests in France against COVID-19 'health pass' rules
Police in Paris clashed with protesters railing against President Emmanuel Macron's plan to require a COVID-19 vaccine certificate or negative PCR test to gain entry to bars, restaurants and cinemas from next month. Macron this week announced sweeping measures to fight a rapid surge in new coronavirus infections, including the mandatory vaccination of health workers and new health pass rules for the wider public. In doing so, he went further than most other European nations have done as the highly contagious Delta variant fans a new wave of cases, and other governments are watching carefully to see how the French public responds. -
2021-07-13
Essential AF
Most people think of essential workers as public servants, mainly hospital staff but this picture shows that there were some unexpected jobs that were at one point labeled essential. This photo got some unexpected comments on Instagram like this one - "In that dark time, you helped people stay positive thru a pandemic man! That was the most essential work then." And this other one "But ice cream was essential during the pandemic! It was basically my only reason to live for a lil while." A lot of people found this picture funny but surprisingly many were quick to point out that it was the simple things, like mascots and ice cream, that kept us all smiling. -
07/08/2021
Christopher Hall Oral History, 2021/07/08
The interviewer describes his experience as a teacher with remote learning, how he viewed the pandemic when it first was in the news from China, how it affected his parenting and his daughter, how he feels New York State and the country have handled the pandemic, where he obtained his news on the pandemic, and his view of how people handled the pandemic. -
2021-07-05
Gonna Dolly Myself Up
For the past year, I cycled in and out of a few uniforms. At the start of the pandemic, when the weather was warm, I wore a simple, roomy, tan linen dress that could have fit in at a nice restaurant for lunch, if I'd dressed it up with accessories. A chic friend recommended it over a Zoom call as her Amazon "find". During a year of lock-down, it became more of a "housecoat" than a chic dress and I wore it a lot, usually barefoot. If I wasn't wearing the tan housecoat, I wore the green or black one. (I'd bought three at my friend's exuberant recommendation.) As the weather changed, oversize jeans (my husband's hand-me-down) and my favorite navy sweatshirt from Paris became my go-to. This outfit coincided with learning how to clean the house (nobody was allowed to come inside, not even our cleaning ladies). I got a bleach stain on the sweatshirt and eventually a hole formed at the elbow. It's still my favorite. Another pair of loose jeans and a couple of other sweatshirts bought on Amazon got me through the rest of the winter. Socks were usually all I put on my feet. The weather is warming up and I've started shopping again, in-person! I've bought a few wide-brimmed hats, a couple of skirts, and even a silk blouse. I'm eyeing some nice sandals. I won't be cleaning the bathrooms in these new clothes. I'll be wearing them out to museums, to lunches with friends, to dinners on new outdoor dining patios, and maybe even on airplanes. I'll be mixing and matching, accessorizing, dolling up and down. When I'm home, though, I'll be back in my uniforms. I've grown to love them. -
2020-07-12
Whole Foods cash register
This is a photo I took on July 12, 2020, at the local Whole Foods, of a cash register. There is a plexiglass shield at the register, and a sign announcing a change in hours. The sign also promotes a biweekly special shopping session for the elderly and those at high risk for COVID-19. -
2021-06-25
English, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog COVID signs in SF
On June 25th, I saw this set of posters next to a bathroom in Japan Center, a Japanese shopping center in San Francisco. The posters are in English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Tagalog. -
2020-03-20
The Signal of Approaching Silence
On Friday, March 20, 2020, I was grocery shopping at Hy-Vee in Canton, Illinois when my mobile phone pinged with an alert from a local news app: the Illinois governor had officially issued a stay-at-home order to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Rumors of the impending order had been circulating for the past few days. I teach English at Canton High School, and we were scheduled to start a week of Spring Break that Friday. That morning the principal had cautioned us to take home our computers and any teaching materials that we might need, just in case we did not return to school after Break. So, the text message confirmed a stark reality. Talk of the stay-at-home order overtook the conversations of shoppers around me. People were speculating about what would come next, now that schools and businesses would be closed. I remember passing the meat counter where I overheard the department manager taking a phone call from a gentleman who wanted to place an apocalypse-sized order of beef. This is it, I thought to myself, trying to figure out what kind of groceries to buy that would sustain my family over for an indefinite period of time, because even though the stay-at-home order was for just two weeks, I had a sinking suspicion we were not going to best Covid-19 in two weeks’ time. I began pushing my cart up and down the aisles faster, a little more frantically, in response to a burgeoning awareness that the virus could already be circulating within our community. Looking back now, I see that we were somewhat cocooned in Fulton County, Illinois, a mostly rural county. The health department announced the first positive case on April 10; the first death occurred on October 21. The virus was slow to take a foothold, but eventually it did. In late July, our school district’s board unanimously voted to start the school year fully remote. Each school day, teachers reported to ghost-town school buildings and holed up in their empty classrooms, with admonitions from administrators not to co-mingle with each other. During that time, I dutifully logged onto Google Meets for each class period, where various avatars greeted me because students were not required to turn on their cameras, so none did. Sometimes I got to hear tinny student voices, which sounded a lot further away than across town, and I wondered if each voice matched the person I pictured in my mind’s eye. I had never met the majority of my students in person, and the photographs on our school’s student management system had not been updated since the fall of 2019. I remember the frustration I struggled to keep capped when I would call on students and be met with silence. Were they even sitting by the computer? Were they afraid to say something in front of their classmates, lest they look stupid? Were they just willfully ignoring me? Were they okay, physically and mentally? I pulled more words out of students through written assignments and chat boxes than through Google Meets. Although part of the student body returned to in-person school in January of 2021 while the rest remained remote by choice (we taught both groups concurrently), it was still difficult to get students to speak, even to each other. Sadly, many of our students had become so accustomed to the idea of school as a radio broadcast—one from which they could easily disengage if they so wished—that they no longer felt it necessary to contribute their voices. In Illinois, we’ve been told that all students will return to in-person learning in the fall of 2021, with few exceptions, but I fear the virus has done irrevocable damage to our students’ speech. -
2020-03-13
Last Costco run before shutdown
It was two days after the NBA had shut down and the first day our school district had shut down. Not sure about what was to come next (and honestly pretty scared to go) I took on last trip to Costco to buy supplies for the lockdown of unknown duration that was about to begin. The scene was chaos, with the lines running the full length of the store. The most eerie part, though, was someone who decided to “play us off” in a sort of Titanic-style farewell to our old life. Having endured the line for longer than I can remember, I chose to record the moment (which I felt would be one to remember. -
2021-06-28
My Pandemic Experience
When the pandemic was coming, I was initially relieved. I was supposed to fly to Chicago to visit my sister and go to our favorite band’s (Keane) concert, but as a person with anxiety and panic disorder who is terrified of airplanes and crowds it allowed me to back out. The concert was cancelled. It was the excuse I needed to back out without shame or blame. It seems silly now, but at the time covid seemed more like a bad cold or flu to me. It seemed like another Swine Flu or Avian Flu or other scare in recent memory which hadn’t amounted to a plague style pandemic. Lockdown was even kind of nice at first. My husband, daughter, and I got to spend a lot of family time together. I had taught ESL online for a number of years previously, so converting my in school classes to online was easy. I had no problems teaching over Zoom. I’m a homebody anyway, by habit and by anxiety, so this was great… until the body count started. I was horrified and sickened to hear about the freezer containers being used in New York City to store the overflow of bodies. The germaphobia that had plagued me in childhood, that I had gone to years of therapy to overcome, came roaring back with a vengeance. Like everyone else, I went to the grocery store to stock up so I wouldn’t have to leave me house for awhile, only to find shelf after shelf empty. As a super health conscious, organic, vegan my choices were extremely limited. My husband and daughter aren’t vegan, but they do eat only organic, which became impossible. Soap, disinfectant, cleaners, and hand sanitizers were nowhere to be found. At a time when it was so important to be as clean and healthy as possible all those modern conveniences were utterly gone. I felt helpless. I imagined that people living during pandemics like the bubonic plague and Spanish flu must have felt similarly. After a couple of weeks, quarantine started to feel more like a claustrophobic prison sentence than a family vacation. I missed my sister, my parents, my friends, my colleagues, and my students. On my birthday and Easter I just had to wave at my parents through the glass door. My favorite hobby- taekwondo, which I had started in order to relieve stress and help with my anxiety was taken from me. I had to do the classes online from my living room, which was nearly impossible. I felt trapped. A raging epidemic across the planet from which there was no escape. If I spent too much time thinking about it, I would start to feel the claw of panic. By the time summer arrived I was at breaking point. Luckily with summer we had some reprieve. Case loads declined, and I started meeting my best friend outside. We socially distanced ourselves and wore masks, but we were together and that was a start. By the end of summer she and her boyfriend were on our “quaranteam” that is we decided we could see each other since we weren’t seeing anyone else. In the fall school started. Since I teach at a Catholic school we were able to have school in person full time, though we had students in every grade who opted to go remote. But my bestie and I were back in the building with most of the kids, and I started to feel less trapped. I was going to stores masked and my daughter was also in school. But as soon as Thanksgiving hit everything changed again. So many people ignored all of the recommendations and restrictions and got together with family and friends. It made me so angry that people were so careless. A friend of mine had a large family in Pennsylvania who all got together for Thanksgiving. She didn’t go because she thought it was reckless. 8 out of 14 people at the family dinner got covid and 2 of them died. Then at Christmas, my great uncle passed. No funeral. No wake. Nothing. Schools shut down again. We were trapped. Then the vaccines came. It was nearly impossible to get one for a long time even if you were eligible. Slots filled as fast as they were posted. You needed to present a lot of proof of eligibility in order to get one. As a teacher, I was able to get mine earlier than many others. I got the Moderna. The first shot made me feel a little sick for a few hours, but with the second I had a fever of 103.5, aches, chills, nausea for 12 hours and a general malaise for 3 days. A friend of mine in taekwondo, who has some autoimmune problems, had a severe reaction after her first Moderna vaccine. She has had side effects for a few months now that are not going away. She has dizzy spells and heart palpitations regularly. She is undergoing testing and being monitored by the CDC. Despite some horror stories, the vaccine is still the absolute best thing that we could have hoped for. I would like my daughter to get it as soon as they open it to the under 12 population. A lot of people won’t get the vaccine because they are in the “Science is fake, I’m a Trump supporter” camp. In my opinion, Trump’s misinformation and mishandling of the pandemic cost tens of thousands of American lives, and his diversive legacy is going to cost us dearly for many years to come. It is now June again. School just finished. New York State is allowing people to enter buildings unmasked if they are vaccinated, but few people are actually requiring any proof. Given that the people with a cavalier attitude toward wearing masks are many of the same people who are against getting vaccinated, an honors system policy towards wearing masks is really just a no-mask policy. It is very frustrating to me that people can’t just deal with masks for a while longer to fully insure this disease’s eradication before we have another relapse and find ourselves back in quarantine again. -
2020-06-14
Solace in the Smell
This is a story about how hand sanitizer kept one woman hopeful during the pandemic. "Sanitation theater" was a coping mechanism used by individuals, businesses, and organizations used to convince ourselves that we were safe. So much of what we needed during the pandemic, was respite from the dread and insecurity. So much was unknown and so much felt out of control. The smell of the hand sanitizer produced by my local distillery instantly evokes the emotions I felt at the height of the pandemic -
2021-06-18
A Linguistic Tour through Arthur Avenue
I traveled to New York this summer, and one of the places I visited was Arthur Avenue, located in the Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx and the main artery of the Bronx's Little Italy. Arthur Avenue provided a unique insight into the function of immigrant languages during the pandemic. Most of the people I heard talking as I walked down Arthur Avenue and went into the stores were speaking English, as would be expected in most of the United States. Some had an accent similar to a "standard" American accent/my Californian accent, while others spoke in New Yorker accents. I heard some people speaking Italian, mostly if not entirely elderly people, in several stores, including Cerini Coffee and Gifts. I also heard expression of language through music, in the form of a speaker in front of Mario's Restaurant playing "Tu vuò fà l'Americano" ("You Want to Be an American") and "O Sarracino" ("The Saracen"), two famous Neapolitan language songs. I didn't expect to hear music in Italian "dialect" (called so even though Neapolitan is a proper stand-alone language). However, Belmont is no longer just Little Italy. It also has a large Albanian presence. I saw a flyer on a street pole in Albanian which I presume to either be a missing sign or a flyer for a funeral. I have no idea what the flyer said because I don't know Albanian, but among the text were two pictures of an elderly man. In front of Randazzo's Seafood, I also saw a sign advertising some type of shellfish (I can't remember which) in Albanian and English, though not in Italian, which I thought was interesting since the store is owned by the grandchildren of immigrants from Sicily. There was also an Albanian television provider called TV ALB, which indicated to me that there are enough Albanian speakers in the area to sustain an Albanian-language cable or broadcast provider, even during the pandemic. I didn't hear any spoken Albanian. This could be a purely anecdotal observation, but I saw Italian primarily as a spoken language and Albanian primarily in writing. There was some writing in Italian, but most of it was either names of food items that couldn't be translated into English or sayings like "mangia bene vivi bene" ("eat well, live well", as a command; the picture of which is attached to this story) for promotional purposes. There was no actual communication occurring in written Italian. On a non-linguistic note, most of the restaurants also had outdoor seating under canopies, a consequence of COVID. -
2021-05-31
Pandemic pets: Pet shops seeing more abandoned reptiles
Pet shops in Charlotte, NC report that alongside the increased demand for exotic pets, there has been an uptick in animal abandonment as well. The pet shop in this article reported that the number of rescue calls they received doubled during the pandemic. Exotic animals abandoned outside raise environmental concerns. If some manage to survive the winter, they could pose a threat to native wildlife. -
2021-02-02
Exotic Pets and Reptile Gain Popularity in Australia
According to the article, Australia is experiencing an increase in exotic pet popularity during the pandemic. With people having more time and resources, the demand for pets, in general, is on the rise. The fear of reptiles exhibited by Generation X is not there in younger generations, so demand for these cool and unusual creatures is on the rise.