Has it really been a year (and two days) since that ruthless bitch Covid was declared a worldwide pandemic and changed all of our lives for good? Unhappy anniversary! Booooo!

It was early evening of March 11, 2020 when I heard the news that some shit was going to be shut down. I was getting ready to shop at “Nordstrom”–my pet name for Dollar Tree. (I know the nickname makes no sense, but I’m still using it anyway.) Earlier that day, I heard on the sports radio station I was listening to that an NBA player may have caught Covid. That rumor ended up being true. But! Rather than isolating the player from his team and allowing the game to continue, BREAKING NEWS occurred. The whole NBA league was going to be shut down. Soon after that, the NHL issued the same statement. Two of my favorite sports leagues being shut down! What’s a basketball and hockey ho to do? Buy more stuff at “Nordstrom” than intended. Shopping, even for cheap shit, makes me happy.

I was still working my regular job then, and I had some massage bookings the rest of the week. Some sports leagues temporarily ceased their seasons, but up until March 17th (IIRC), nothing else was shut down. No face mask mandates, no social distancing protocols, no limits on crowds–none of that. Us normal folk still lived life as usual. Even when our county chose to shut things down a week later, I know I was going around without a mask. (Face masks weren’t mandatory until April, I believe.) I was breathing shared air with strangers, which, just weeks later, would be considered living life dangerously. (For the record, I never had any Covid symptoms during the time before free Covid testing was provided. Maybe I was asymptomatic, maybe I was lucky.)

The last two weeks of March 2020 were weird. Weird because I was not use to staying home the whole time and not working. My spa had shut down and I was out of work. I don’t recall the last time I was unemployed, let alone being unemployed that was not due to being laid off. Even worse, I was (and still am) considered an Independent Contractor, and, at the time, I couldn’t claim unemployment benefits. And it all had to happen when I just moved into my apartment and my rent bill was coming up. And other bills, too. Out of despair and dumbassery, I once thought, should I really consider retracting every single awful thing I said about the Kartrashians and Crappi B so that maybe things can turn around for me?

Luckily, I did not do that; that lot of talent-exempt, pea-brained twunts would become even bigger assholes later that year (more on this later). I chose to hit up Indeed.com, and after throwing my resume at almost any job I could do (LOL at my no-HVAC-knowledge ass thinking I could do HVAC work), a grocery delivery company (not Grubhub, Doordash, or Uber Eats) called me back. I accepted the job on the spot. Little did I know that the demand for grocery delivery would be huge. The money I made the first two weeks of working delivery (and I was working only four days a week) was more than enough to cover rent and my car payment. I made bank in my first month on the job.

I may have gotten my financial situation back on track, but what really opened my eyes was seeing the ugly and idiocy come out from others. It wasn’t surprising when it came from asshats I already hate. But when it came from people whom I once respected, it really made me question my faith in humanity. Ingrates believing the virus was a hoax, thinking masks don’t work, fighting to reopen businesses and schools, operating non-essential businesses that should’ve been closed down…where is that human meat grinder when you need it?

Speaking of which, then there were the celebrities. Again, forget about the asshat D-listers that ended up breaking Covid protocols. But witnessing the so-called Internet’s Boyfriend going around maskless, meeting fans, and partying (!), watching a pop idol of yours travel abroad for her birthday, and having Wonder Woman badly serenade us in an attempt to boost morale just boggled my already-boggled mind even more. As someone who used to check out celeb gossip/news sites daily, the pandemic also brought out the worst in some stars–even the “nice” ones.

But back to the most important subject here: me. Was the Covid era the worst ever time I lived through? Ehhh…I can’t say. I believe I have many more years ahead of me and who knows what those years will contain for me. All I can say is that while there were times when things really sucked diseased warthog rectum, there were some positives. I was able to stay financially afloat (although I should also be grateful for deferred payment on some of my bills). I was never bored out of my head from staying home because I drive a lot for work now, and thus I cherish my home time even more. (Having a Wii, books, and a drive to write also helps.) I cooked some fun eats I never made before. I marched for racial justice and saw that my vote mattered. I got to finish up the final draft of my story that you all will be reading (hopefully) soon. Everyone that mattered in my life had not caught Covid. And all my Covid tests that I took up until getting my vaccines were negative.

Now that I got both my vaccines and the side effects from that 2nd shot have faded, and after hearing more and more people getting vaccinated, I’m looking forward to the upcoming months. There seems to be some promise ahead. But even when things get better and back to normal, I shall not forget!

Also, I am soooo looking forward to that day when us baseball fans will finally get a chance to boo the Houston Asterisks in person!

Pics courtesy of a Google image search on Covid cakes