March - the Coronavirus Diaries

Thursday, March 12

Things are feeling weird. Most of my company offices around the country are closed, but I'm still waiting for the SLC announcement. In a work planning meeting this morning, we got a notice to drop everything and turn our attention to supporting schools now going online as they close up.

Delta calls me and cancels my trip to Japan in April. Wah! Boo!

I leave work early afternoon, and Anthony and I go grocery shopping. Harmons is busy, but not crazy.

Friday, March 13

Official work closure until further notice.

Church activities come to a halt, and I won't be getting up at 6:30am the next morning to take my YW to the temple.
We visit Anthony's grandpa in assisted living, probably the last time for awhile. Then grilled a nice dinner.

Saturday, March 14

I go to the gym for the last time before it closes up. We volunteer at the food bank for an hour, because volunteers have dropped off.

Sunday, March 15

No church.

Anthony goes to help my friend Cher move into her new house.
That night we go to our niece's birthday. I feel like maybe we shouldn't have gone. Too many people in one place.

Monday, March 16

Work is so busy getting things going. Feels good to help.
Managed an afternoon walk.

Tuesday, March 17

More of the same.
Put a shamrock on our door so the kids in the neighborhood could do a little St Patrick's hunt.

Wednesday, March 18

Woke up to an EARTHQUAKE. WTH?!
Felt a second in the mid-morning and a third early afternoon.

Had planned to go to the grocery store that day, but figured it was madness again, with people stocking up on water and gas. We stayed home and assembled our emergency escape pack, also now including gear for the cats.

I started preparing our bedroom to get painted. We finally ordered a bed frame and so I got in gear to paint our bedroom, even though I was planning to paint the guest room first. It was calming to spackle walls and tape edges.

Thursday, March 19

Managed to get to the grocery store. Nothing left on the shelves in terms of canned goods and pasta, but there was plenty of produce, meat, milk, eggs, bread. Totally fine.

That night I started coughing and had a panic attack. We quickly got out of the house for a walk to calm me down. It was colder, but felt good to be outside, even for a short time. I'm not sick - maybe sinus-y things. But the panic of thinking about being sick and not knowing what to do. It seems like no one knows what to do or how to get tested or get treatment.

There are two cats in this photo. We are slowly learning their hiding spots.

Friday, March 20

Busy work today - good projects happening.

Started painting. It's more purple than gray, but we'll live with the color for now.
It's cold-ish and may have snowed a bit overnight, but we walked around the neighborhood.

Saturday, March 21

Weird to realize that I have zero plans for the weekend. No morning gym, per usual. No errands. No friend gatherings. No date night at restaurant. Anthony went out to the desert. He's always going to the middle of nowhere places, so no worries of being around people. I stayed home and worked on painting!

Sunday, March 22

No church. I slept in majorly and then went on a long walk in the afternoon listening to scriptures. Nature church. It was a really nice day. Spring is coming!

Also got an email from a long lost college friend. It's even rare these days to get friend emails. I'm just used to passively watching someone's life via social media. So happy to hear from you, TWQ! Plus a bonus phone call from an old LA friend - we got to catch up for awhile. Yeah, JWelch!

Monday, March 23

Busy day at work, cranking things out for all the new teachers trying to figure out online school. I feel happy to have meaningful work that's helping people. It's a good structure to my day.

Also our bed frame arrived! We haven't had one since we moved in. I assembled the headboard and frame, and of course the cats immediate claim it. It's so nice to finally be off the floor.

Tuesday, March 24

Tiger King - whhhhaaaaat?!

Finally got around to doing OTF at home. Felt good.

Wednesday, March 25

Made a delicious curry for dinner.

My team at work took a break and played Jackbox games via Zoom for a bit. Nice break and the games are so fun. I should buy some.

Best social distancing snacks. Need to stock up again on the next grocery trip. Feels like we're going to be in this for another month.

All temples closed up as of today, and Summit County next door announced a full lock down. We're next.

In the meantime, maybe I'll pick out fabric for custom chairs from Interior Define. They are having a sale right now!

Thursday, March 26

Spring is coming.

Yes, Tiger King is everywhere.

Friday, March 27

Woke up to snow. Ugh. 

New bed is the cats' new favorite spot.

Grilled up some excellent veggies.

Saturday, March 28

Brother's birthday. Didn't get a chance to talk to him yet, but it must be weird to not get to celebrate with anyone.

Our fridge has never been so full. Plus we got a Hello Fresh box delivered today.

Took a social distancing walk around the International Peace Gardens. I'd never been before, but it's a lovely place. Gray skies, got a little rained on.

Snuggles.

I'm giving up on what to do with this room and the orange wood everywhere. Signed up for help from Modsy today. We'll see how that goes.

Sunday, March 29

I did participate in the worldwide fast to ask for relief from all that's going on in the world. Facetime'd with a friend, but otherwise didn't do much. 

Monday, March 30

Managed an OTF workout. Cats didn't want to participate. 

Ordered a shirt to support the local community. Utah does have some rad companies doing good things. 

Tuesday, March 31

Work is still decently busy. Hoping to get a big project out the door after this week. 

Weather was pretty good, no rain/snow, so we did a good walk in the afternoon. Came home and made a Hello Fresh meal. It's nice to get something new in the mix that we don't have to go get in a grocery store. 

October 2019 - Austin City Limits Festival!

ACL Festival!

I kinda thought my music festival days were over (I last did Coachella in 2009), but I'd heard that Austin City Limits Festival is a little more chill (not so many flower crowns and boho Instagram outfits and celebrities), and the lineup was pretty killer this year, PLUS Meghan and Kevin are still living there, so I knew we had to go for it.

I bought festival tickets at the end of May and looked forward to it for ages. The big draws for me were Tame Impala, James Blake, Thom Yorke, Robyn, The Cure, and Kacey Musgraves. Totally worth the ticket price. We flew in late Thursday night and woke up Friday to rain and very cold weather! I'd heard the weekend before had been 80+ degrees, and here I was looking at high 40s in the rain. We didn't bring coats, so we ran to Walmart to grab some warm gear since we would be outside literally all day.

First Friday stop - seeing our Utah gals, the Aces! I really do think they're rad. Shame I've never seen them play any local shows at home.

Trying to stay warm under a tree. They food vendors are pretty solid, and there were lots of spots to sit and take a rest, cause concert-ing all day is tough.

I guess next time we'll know to bring funny things on poles.

There's Jack White and the Raconteurs. I wish I could get into him more.

Time for Thom! I feel really lucky we got to see Radiohead + Thom solo twice in about a year.

Then on to Tame Impala - the Friday night highlight.

Saturday morning we met up with some of Anthony's family. His teenage sister lives near Houston with her dad, so they drove over to Austin and we had breakfast together. Food was pretty good here, if you're near the Austin airport.

Then we decided we had a couple more hours to hang out before getting back to the music, so we drove with them out to Schulenberg, where Anthony spent several childhood summers.

We went out to their family property, where they have a bunch of jeeps and toys to ride around in.

Alright, back to the big city and the music. There's Gary Clark, Jr. I think we had just missed Brittany Howard, which I'm kinda sad about.

We ventured over to a smaller side stage and stumbled upon Natalia LaFourcade. She is a gem! We both loved her set.

Then it was time for James Blake. Swoon. I'd only see him once before, and it was so incredible. It's like his music takes on a new form when it's performed live. I just think he's a genius.

I wish I could see him all the time.

Then we popped over to see Childish Gambino.

Didn't stay with him too long, because The Cure was playing at the other main stage. And they're amazing. I remember them headlining Sunday night of the last Coachella I attended. I needed to leave and make the drive back to Phoenix, so I was leaving the venue while The Cure was playing, and I just couldn't leave. They were mesmerizing. I had to stop and listen. And I'm happy I got to see them again. Legends.

Sunday - the final day of the concert marathon, and Meghan & Kevin joined us.

Rosalia's got some cool sounds going on. And I'm always cheering on the Spaniards.

Here's some of the crowd. I thought this was fun.

Time for Kacey Musgraves! So stoked to see her. Her latest album was one of my favorites of 2018. I might have shed a couple tears during her set.

Then it was the Lizzo madness. She really took off this year, but somehow ACL had her playing on a secondary stage that simply could not contain the crowds. I heard the first weekend was a total mess. The second weekend they did broadcast her video on the main stage, but it was still madness. I should not have gone anywhere near it. We fought crowds to get out and away, and nearly got stuck. Close to panic attack with nowhere to go. People everywhere.

Anthony and I managed to get out of these and over to a smaller stage to see LANY. I dig their pop.

Robyn closed it out! I'd also only see her once before, and she was opening. She's so so rad.

I saw a tiny bit of Mumford and Sons after Robyn, but eh. They're alright. What a festival.

Monday morning, time to leave. We caught an Uber to find breakfast, and ended up with an Iraqi driver. Anthony got to practice his Arabic during the 20-minute ride. We hit up Kerbey Lane near UT campus. I jumped on the seasonal gingerbread pancakes, but I found them a little dry. The chilaquiles were pretty good though.

Then we took a bus to the airport! How novel. It left from right near the UT campus and was an easy smooth ride to the airport. 2 bucks!

Thanks, Austin. You were great as usual.