Grounded!
On Monday, reality hit us hard. We got back from our vacation to Costa Rica the same day the New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency. Nevertheless, we were happy to be back in NYC and Spring coming to town.
After the first COVID-19 case on March 1st, our company moved to a strict work from home order starting March 9th. Our routine changed quite dramatically. From travelling every week to spending almost all of our time in our apartment. We tried to avoid being outside as much as possible and food shopping became a challenge. New Yorkers fell into a panic and shelves were empty on the day Trump declared national emergency. A day later, the first two COVID-19 deaths occurred in New York state.
On March 17th, bars and restaurants closed and delivery became the only option to remain in business for them. As the situation got worse and more scary, we spent all of our weekends inside and only left the apartment for our daily vitamin-dose walk. The city started to look like doomsday pretty quickly. Especially, after all non-essential workers were ordered to stay home on March 22nd.
A new routine
To keep up some positivity, we started our weekly Friday ritual of ordering food to keep ourselves and hopefully some restaurants afloat. To pass time and to distract ourselves from stressful news, we picked up new and old hobbies. Franzi spent time baking braided yeast buns and banana bread and Alex spent more time in the garage than usual working on his Triumph. We both spent time drawing and many hours were spent on Facetime with friends and family to keep each other updated about what’s happening around the world.
On the 27th we took a tour around NYC which felt surreal: Times Square, Fifth Avenue and Dumbo were as if swept empty. March 29th marked the first COVID birthday of Franzi’s brother Lukas. We celebrated the long-distance way. By March 31st, NYC passed 1,000 COVID-19 deaths with about 5,500 cases in the city alone.
