Sundance & Sam

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, who is alarmingly close to my own age, closed the bars and restaurants yesterday. Tomorrow he’s closing the gyms. Shit just got real.

A report by actual scientists in the UK has just convinced their government and our government that COVID-19 is actually a big deal. President Trump wants Americans to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people. This is okay for me, since I cleverly planned ahead and managed to make it to this point as an unmarried woman living alone with pets, technology, and bourbon, but even I can tell that 10 people isn’t really that many.

I’ve been handling all of this pretty well, considering that one week ago everything seemed pretty much normal in these parts and today I can’t go out for a Manhattan and uncomfortable advances from a man twice my age without driving out of state. That study out of the UK says this situation could go on for a year or more, and I’ve gotta be honest. There’s no way the world comes out the other side of that the way it went in. As for me, I just hope I come out the other side without having turned into a crazy old hermit with too many cats and an inability to wear anything other than sweatpants and slippers.

The novelty of stay-at-home moms posting adorable homeschooling pics on Facebook is going to wear off. The deep wells of things to binge on Netflix and Hulu are going to go dry. Maybe America ends its long, dark, isolated night with a rekindled sense of social solidarity and an exciting new set of tools for social engagement and cultural exploration. Or maybe we splinter into a hack TV writer’s most unexpected vision for a post-apocalyptic, post-American era world. I don’t know what I’m going to watch on tv tomorrow. It’s definitely too soon for me to guess how the entire country is going to figure this thing out.

All we can do, I guess, is hold our breath and hope for the best. Check on our neighbors. Only buy what we need. Trust that the people next to us at the few establishments that remain open aren’t coughing where we can’t hear and aren't running a fever. Take care of ourselves, find new opportunities in the new world, give our bodies and minds a chance to heal from what ails us, even if that ailment isn’t a coronavirus. I’m not sure if all of that is not enough to keep me busy or more than I can possibly handle. I’ll let you know how things proceed on my end. You do the same.