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  2020-12-02

  Planet Fitness- Boston

  Planet Fitness Planet Fitness, the place people go to work out and get some exercise to stay in shape. My love and passion for working out had just begun when the coronavirus went global. At first all the gyms were shut down in Boston as exercise was deemed not essential. The state had a list of businesses that were listed as essential or not essential to be up and running while they were trying to figure out how to control this virus. The whole state of Massachusetts had a series of phases of when certain businesses could be open. I am writing right now during phase 3. I do not know how many phases we are going to have, but it has been about 8 months now. When the gyms were finally opened, I was pumped. I was tired of doing home workouts every day since it got boring. I also was getting tired of being stuck in my apartment all day every day. Planet Fitness was a good place to work out but also a good place to meet new people. The coronavirus changed that. Everyone must wear a mask as they work out. You must stay 6 feet apart from everyone else. The worst part is that only about half the machines can be used. Planet Fitness disabled half the machines so no one could use them. This is a major bummer since I am limited in the things I can use. I cannot wait until the coronavirus is finally under control, but in the meantime, everybody needs to play their part and stay safe.
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  2020-12-02

  Ethiopian Cafe Roxbury

  My dad had taken a long trip from his home to come visit me, the college student who lives in Boston. The tradition of eating at our favorite restaurant in town was soon to be. The 2019 red Toyota Tacoma was freshly cleaned and ready for another trip down to Roxbury, Massachusetts. I was picked up from my campus at Wentworth Institute of Technology on a bright sunny Saturday afternoon. It was about 75 degrees with a slight breeze on this beautiful July day. As we started driving down towards Roxbury, we could see nobody was outside. Usually Boston is full of people exploring the city and enjoying the downtown on a Saturday. Even at the Ethiopian Café there was no one in sight. We could see a mailman walking door to door dropping off mail but that was about it. There was hardly any traffic and no noise as most businesses were shut down. The birds chirping and the wind blowing was the only noise around. This looked like a ghost town. Inside the restaurant there was no one inside. There was a sign at the door that stated, “mask required to get inside”. The only business they were accepting was pickup or delivery. This was the “new normal” now for everybody. What was once an upbeat and social place to dine, is now a quiet empty restaurant running off a few customers at a time. I could not sit down with my dad and eat the food we had ordered. They would not allow anyone to dine inside or outside. Everyone had to just get their food and eat it somewhere else.