It’s April 2nd and Day 17 of the Bay Area Shelter in Place. I’ve been meaning to document what’s been happening so far this year but hadn’t gotten around to it until now.  Unfortunately, we are still bracing for the worst of it here.

In late January, we were hearing about a virus that had originated in Wuhan, China. At work, we had regular huddles to discuss new screening processes at the front desk. We were still seeing patients in our clinic and it was mostly business as usual. At home, we were still going to large gatherings for Super Bowl and Chinese New Year.  The kids were in school and we had just signed up KK for Spring Soccer.

It was around this same time (end of January through Chinese New Year), Jia and the twins went to Beijing for a trip and they arrived with everyone starting to wear masks all day long. She would send us photos and updates from Beijing and saw that they was quarantined to their relative’s home for the last part of their stay. She also sent photos of what it was like to go to the grocery store with everyone getting their temps taken before entering. We were wondering if she would even be able to fly back to the states. They got home safely but had  to fly through Japan and Dallas before arriving in LA. They also self-quarantined at home for 14 days with Jason staying away at a different house.

We went to Vancouver for ski week (2/15-2/22) and the usual bustling parts of Vancouver were already getting quiet. We went to a Chinese restaurant where they had a sign on the door that said it had been “fully disinfected”. We also went to Cypress Mountain on the busiest day of the year. The crowds were annoying but had different meaning to us then.  We got lots of time on the ski slopes that week and were excited for the rest of the season now that the kids were getting a lot better.

At the end of February, we drove down to Cerritos to take care of our taxes and spend some time with the family. That feels like it was so long ago. We were also relieved that my mom canceled her trip to Italy. She was supposed to go a couple days before that weekend and just days later there was a surge of cases and Italy was experiencing an outbreak.

By March, there were some new reports of cases in Washington state. We were JUST THERE traveling through Seattle to come home from Vancouver. Work was getting a little more stressful with an increasing number of memos and changes to screening procedures at our registration desks. People were asking for masks and stealing the hand sanitizer off our receptionist’s desk while she was on her lunch break. At that point, Jes’ company was having some trial “work from home” days and other companies already started closing their offices. There was also a cruise ship that had 9 positive cases on board and they were going to dock in Oakland sometime around 3/9/20…scary!

On 3/8/20, we were still hearing about cases outside of California and I even had some friends over for brunch that morning. That would be the last I would see of them (except Teresa) for a while. Later the following week at work, we had converted all our in-person therapy appointments to video or telephone visits.

On 3/12/20, Jes worked from home and I was off so we took a casual trip to Costco while the kids were in school. We hadn’t gone for a while and we were out of chicken and running low on toilet paper.  When we arrived, we saw that all the whole chickens and toilet paper were sold out and there was only one flat of bottle water left. The panic-buying has started and most stores were running out of hand soap, toilet paper, sanitizer, and rice. On the evening of 3/12/2020, the school district announced that if parents chose to keep their children home from school that they were be “excused absences”.

We still sent KK to school on 3/13/20 and she was only one of 6 in her class that attended. On that same day, it was announced that school would be closed starting 3/16 and continue through Spring Break (4/3). Earlier that week, there was an increasing number of reports of COVID-19 cases – mostly in Washington state and the Bay Area was starting to prepare for its inevitable arrival. By that weekend, Disneyland announced they would close (!), the NBA season ended (with one player already testing positive for the virus), and large gatherings in the Bay Area were already canceled.

That weekend, we took the kids to their last swim class and last kung fu class that had only 1 other kid in Peanut’s class and a handful in KK’s class. I did my best that weekend to keep it together but things were sounding worse and worse on the news. By Sunday evening, the governor asked all at-risk people (including people over 65) to stay home as much as possible. I was also getting emails from various organizations and companies announcing they were be closed for a while – including the Tahoe resorts. NOOOOO!! It was JUST STARTING TO SNOW AGAIN!!!

I couldn’t sleep on Sunday night. These memes I found truly depicted how I felt.

Everyone was going to be staying home but I had to go to work on Monday.

To help me sleep, I went back downstairs and taped some butcher paper on the wall and wrote out a rough schedule for KK for her first day at home.

On 3/16/20, the Governor announced that 6 Bay Area counties would be ordered to “shelter in place” starting at midnight. That afternoon, Jes and KK went to Costco, Trader Joe’s, and Safeway to stock up. There was no toilet paper or chicken but they managed to get a good amount of fresh produce, other meat, and plenty of coffee and wine for me. 🙂 Luckily, daycare was still considered an “essential service” so Peanut was able to continue going to school. In the meantime, they also allowed families to withdraw their enrollment if they chose to keep their kids at home. So, he was one of 5 kids in his class and by the end of the week he was one of 6 kids in the entire school!

At work, the parking structure was not as crowded and the streets were not as busy around the hospital. It was also eerie to see everyone at work but no patients in the waiting area.

We were taking it all in stride and people were getting creative with their virtual visits and social distancing.

On 3/21/20, Peanut’s school sent an email saying that they too were going to close. So, starting on 3/23/20, Jes would be home with both kids and still have work to do. In the meantime, we canceled my mom’s trip to come up for Spring Break. It was a tough decision but the right thing to do. Southern California had not started their “shelter in place” until a few days after us and Los Angeles County was having a surge of positive cases.

We also upgraded from butcher paper to a large dry erase board and everyone has a section (even Jes).

KK is navigating the internet as best as she can and has become very good at texting and starting Facetime and Zoom meetings. She checks in with me and I also Facetime during the day to check on what their doing.

The kids have Zoom meetings with their classmates and KK is doing a great job helping out with Peanut during the day. They are getting better at checking the board during the day and checking off their tasks.

I am still going to work at my regular schedule and while it’s scary out there, I am comforted by the company of my co-workers and knowing that we are doing everything we can to help people while protecting ourselves. We haven’t had a surge yet and PPE is still at a good level for now.

Last week I even helped pick up donated masks, gloves, and wipes from local dentists that were no longer seeing patients.

We also managed to have a couple virtual Happy Hours last weekend, which was a nice way to stay in touch.

It is now 4/2/2020 and KK has been out of school since 3/16/20. Peanut has been out of school since 3/23/2020. Tomorrow will mark the end of the 3rd week of this new normal. School has officially closed until May 3rd but it looks like we will be out of school until fall now. I have no idea if Summer Camps will even be available by June or July. We don’t know what the next month will look like but hopefully it will be uneventful for our little family of 4.

KK will turn 8 this month and we will have to be creative with how we can make it special at home. There will be no egg hunt outside with the neighbors and who knows when the kids will be able to take their belt test (supposed to have been on 3/28). Peanut will likely not have his Preschool Graduation in June as well. Things are put on hold, other things are canceled, we are getting refunds for some things, and some costs will get eaten. We still get to go outside as a family and happy that Peanut still learned how to ride a bike through all this. I’m thankful for our health and thankful for a dual income that is not impacted by this pandemic yet. I will never take those for granted.

Can’t wait for all this to be behind us.

Stay home. Wash your hands. Stop buying all the toilet paper and chicken.