Sidney Bush, March 30 to April 5, 2020

Monday

Today, the neighbor that we have been sharing supplies with found 6 rolls of toilet paper when she went out grocery shopping. She was so excited when she came out onto her back patio. She yelled to my Mama and said she had found gold. Without even turning around to see what she was holding I knew she meant toilet paper. She gave us 3 rolls. It was so weird to have that metaphor immediately make sense to me. This has only been going on in the U.S. for about a month and my brain has already changed.

 

Tuesday

The governor has issued another executive order to close all non-essential businesses such as hair salons and nail shops. My Mama and I went to the grocery store, and I found myself clutching the shopping cart until my knuckles turned white. Going out to public places is so stressful and exhausting – my Mama went and laid down when we got home.

 

Wednesday

My Mama found toilet paper online for the first time since this whole panic started. She ordered it and we’re splitting it with the neighbor. She was very excited to find it. I wish the governor would issue a stay at home order like the majority of states already have. South Carolina is the only state on the East Coast that hasn’t issued an order yet.

 

Thursday

My Mama and I went to my Nana’s house to drop off some supplies for her. Just some bananas and yogurts. We left them at the door and rang the doorbell, and when my Nana came to the door, she waved and blew kisses to us threw the window. We stood at the end of the driveway when she opened the door to grab the stuff, and we told her about some of the things we brought her and that we loved her so much. She was grinning and eating one of the bananas before we even got into the car to drive back home. I miss her.

 

Friday

My best friend just got furloughed from her job at Hobby Lobby. Originally, she told them she couldn’t work during the pandemic, but they fired so many people that they asked her to come back in and work. She was getting a lot of hours, and then the company decided to close all of the stores down because they are not sure if they should be an essential service. My best friend told me that the only reason they were open was to sell the supplies to people who wanted to make masks, but she said her store ran out of elastic days ago and they wouldn’t be getting another truck in for at least a week, if not more. They had screens up in front of the registers to try and protect the cashiers, and they were sanitizing the registers as often as possible. It made me sad that people wouldn’t even take their change from her. I understand the fear, but it made her feel dirty and unappreciated. People can be so rude when they are afraid. To be completely honest, I am glad that Hobby Lobby finally closed their stores – at least my best friend isn’t out there risking her life and the life of her family to sell elastic and paint anymore.

 

Saturday

I miss school and my friends. Online school is not the same, but I’m glad that I have the opportunity to continue getting my degree during this pandemic.

 

Sunday

The toilet paper that my Mama found came on Friday, but we finally got to open the box today. We had to wait 48 hours for any potential coronavirus on the cardboard to die before we could open the box. We split it with our neighbor and carried it to her back door for her, so people wouldn’t see it on her front door.



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