Letters to the Outside World

02 April 2020

-CONTENT WARNING: Eating Disorders-

Good morning Jeanette,

I know I woke up literally two minutes before noon, but it still counts. Today marks:

-93 Days since the first case was reported
-73 Days since the first case was reported in the US
-64 Days since it was declared a GHEIC by the World Health Organization
-23 Days since it was declared a pandemic
-21 Days since Trump declared a National Emergency
-15 Days since California went on lockdown
-6 Days on leave

The number of cases in our county has gone up, but only by half as much as yesterday. Yesterday it went up by 104 from 502 cases to 606. Today it's gone up to 656 cases, so a little less than half as many.

I have tonsil stones. Nothing requiring a doctor visit, and although there's a blood vessel on top of one of them it's pretty easy to take care of at home. Most days in quarantine have been more on the lazy side. This doesn't make for a ton of things to write about, or at least not a ton of really interesting stuff. That said though, modern archaeologists spend their entire lives and careers looking for things that could help them piece together the little things and day to day lives of of people in the ancient world. It'd be stupid of me as a writer to brush the smaller and more mundane details aside. They may seem small and mostly not noteworthy now, but who knows? Here's hoping the smaller sections of the tapestry of our current society end up painting our era's big picture. For all those who carry on humanity long after our generation has left this earth to know and understand where they came from.

Speaking of little things, I've been doing a few BuzzFeed trivia quizzes this afternoon, and I've also been meaning to download some new songs lately! Here's a few on the list:

-We Are Young by FUN
-Shalala Lala by the Vengaboys
-Africa by Toto
-Moskau by Dschinghis Khan
-Dragostea Din Tei by O-Zone
-Ain't It Fun by Paramore

I just want to give a quick shout out to the people I've kept in touch with. They're currently my core connection to the outside world right now and knock on wood they don't get sick because they are helping me stay sane <3 I've been really depressed lately, and now my anxiety is worsening a little bit, but that's actually a good thing. It means my brain is balancing itself out now. Unfortunately my throat is actually starting to hurt a little, so I'm going to have to get those tonsil stones out tonight.

-After Tonsil Stone Removal-

Okay! Not doing that anymore! I'm definitely going to floss a little more often though. There was a bit of blood, but I did go kind of hard on some pretty soft tissue and mom said it's fine. I'm not in any pain though. Ultimately everything is fine, but it wasn't a great experience. It's weird. I want to cry, and can almost feel myself deciding whether or not I'm on the verge of tears, and it's not out of fear or pain, but also I just want to be comforted right now. It wasn't traumatic, so it feels childish to want to be comforted over something that's ultimately pretty small, but here we are. Removing tonsil stones, while pretty painless and easy to fix at home, is not fun.

In other news I never really paid much attention to the Governor's work. I usually cared more about what the President said. Now though, seeing how much Governor Newsom cares about this, about us, and seeing how proactive he's being has made me care a lot more. Especially when you compare our Governor's response to our President's response. One is giving scientists hope during a deadly and quickly spreading pandemic while the other has the rest of the world rolling their eyes. I'll let you figure out which one's which. Both the Governor and the President are on Twitter which I appreciate because it makes a lot more information a lot more accessible for a lot more people.

There are now over one million cases worldwide. I'm looking up the stats. According to Wikipedia*^ there are 245,175 cases total in the United States, 10,403 recovered, and 6,059 deaths. Also from Wikipedia^ there are 9,937 cases total in California, 60 recovered, and 215 deaths. These were updated less than 6 hours ago. Worldometer^ shows 245,373 cases in the United States and 1,016,693 cases worldwide. Updated 8 minutes ago. Lastly, Live Science^ shows 10,080 cases in California and 219 deaths as of Thursday evening. This data comes from Johns Hopkins University^. With 117 cases our county has the 4th highest case count in the state.

Governor Newsom initiated a Health Corps. It's amazing how many people have already joined and jumped in to help within less than a week of it being established. He's also begun taking measures and creating programs to cushion fall and keep the education system from failing in the first place. Despite what it may sound like I don't blindly worship Governor Newsom. I really don't. Look at our President's response and what's happening in Italy and New York. I'm not saying the guy's doing everything right or that he's even close to perfect, but it's nice to go on Twitter and see that at least one of your leaders is taking positive and progressive action.

Is it getting any easier? No. I'm counting down the days until I can call back into work. I'd lost 11 pounds since I started this job and I've already gained one of them back in just the first four days of quarantine alone. Despite getting my binge eating disorder under control if I don't get the rest of my ish together well... Obesity and a hereditary predisposition to diabetes DEFINITELY won't help my case. If I have any control over what could make me more susceptible or put me more at risk I need to take it and make sure these things have as little of an impact on me as possible. On that note, after not falling asleep until 4:30am last night it's time for bed.

Stay healthy please.
Love,
Luna

*I was going to make a bibliography for this but I kept procrastinating. That or there's at least a partial one in my notes somewhere, but if and when I find my sources I'll add them at the bottom of the entry
^ means I need to find and site that source