My Corona: Or how we’re coping with COVID-19

Today’s the day.

I’m gonna do it.

I’m finally gonna write something. Hopefully something worth reading.

As you’ve probably realized, it’s been awhile since we’ve posted. 

That’s pretty much mostly on me (Roxi) as the actual writer here.

Since COVID-19 has pretty much ravaged the world, I’ve found it difficult to write.

Difficult to do much of anything creative.

I’m still working, thank God (or the gods or whatever deity you’d care to insert here). Perle is not.

We both left New York and have bunkered down at my sister’s house in Las Vegas for the foreseeable future. 

Pros: My niece and nephew, sister time and my parents (from a safe distance).

Cons: Four adults and two children using the internet at once.

We are healthy. Everyone in my family is healthy. Everyone in my close circle is healthy.

I can’t emphasize how much that means to me.

It’s hard to imagine that it’s been a month since I got to Vegas. Or that two months ago our world was perfect. Well, maybe not perfect, but normal. We worked, saw our friends, sang karaoke at our favourite nerdy pub and saw Broadway (or off-Broadway) shows as often as possible.

When New York got its first COVID case on March 1, I remember thinking: “Oh well, this probably won’t affect me.” 

My biggest concern was getting to go on my Hawaiian vacation on March 14, and the list of Broadway shows I was going to see before and after my vacation. Most of the shows had already been paid for and the trip was one being sponsored by my Godmother and her husband and had already been pushed off for a year.

March 1, we watched my niece play Little Elsa in her middle school production of Frozen Jr. (Spoilers, she was soooo cute). Everything was normal.

March 2, I shared two-minute stories at the aforementioned pub (my favourite) as part of a comedy special called 2 Short 2 Suck. I’m not a comedian, or really a storyteller (aside from writing) and I get frightful stage fright, but it was a fun experience nonetheless. Life was normal.

March 3, I saw Jagged Little Pill with my sisters and March 4, I saw Aladdin with one of my closest friends. I interviewed John Cardoza (of Jagged Little Pill, I’m gonna write that up soon hopefully) that Friday and then headed to my sister’s house in the Philly suburbs for the weekend. Everything was normal(ish). At this point, talking about COVID was inevitable and unavoidable, but it was just talk.

March 9, Perle and I went to a Purim party at a crowded Bushwick bar/club. We drank and danced and met new people and had a blast. Life felt normal.

I saw Hadestown and stagedoored Emojiland (which I had seen the previous week) with Perle and friends on March 10. I saw Hangmen (RIP) on March 11. I had planned to see A Soldier’s Play on March 12. It didn’t happen. And nothing felt normal anymore.

Aside: I remember talking to my coworker the day before Broadway went dark about COVID. He was crushed that all major sporting events had been cancelled. I was not appropriately sympathetic at all, not being a sports fan myself. But the next morning, when Broadway announced it was going dark, I went up to my colleague and apologized. It really sucked when it was your thing being affected.

Despite things not feeling normal in New York, I thought maybe it would be better in other places. Nowhere was really on lockdown yet and though new information and guidance was coming in faster than anyone could track, I still planned to go on my vacation. My one concession to the times was to bring my laptop “just in case” I got stranded somewhere.

I flew to Las Vegas on March 14. I spent the day with my family, hugged my parents and had a lovely 19 hours at home. Then it was off to Hawaii. 

We got to Hawaii Sunday afternoon and upon turning on my phone, I saw that I had a text. Two people at that Purim party we had attended tested positive for COVID. (I later found out that over Purim, pretty much all of the Crown Heights community had been exposed, leading to higher than average rates in my neighborhood). I immediately told my Godmother and her husband and we decided to be super conscientious and socially distant anywhere we went. We were staying in a condo, had a rental car and most of our activities were nature based so we figured it would still be okay to enjoy our vacation while I monitor for symptoms.  

The first couple of days were amazing. We watched the sunrise from Haleakala (but not the summit because we didn’t know you needed reservations, so we made reservations for later that week that were then cancelled), we hiked the acid rocks and down to the Nakalele Blowhole and went to a couple of overlooks to see if we could spot some whales. We drove part of the Hana Highway to hike the Waikamoi Trail and go to the Garden of Eden Arboretum. 

At this point New York had shut down all non-essential businesses as cases skyrocketed. Perle left that Tuesday and by Wednesday, even Hawaii was feeling the effects of COVID. We first noticed it when they cancelled our Haleakala Summit reservation. No big. We went to see some ancient petroglyphs and checked out the charming (and nearly empty) Lahaina. We finished the afternoon by driving to La Perouse Bay and seeing the last lava flow on Maui.

By Thursday, the Road to Hana was closed to all but locals. So change of plans and we instead visited the completely empty Maui Wine (which had closed the tasting room but not the outdoors area or the store). By then, all tourist attractions across Maui (and our Luau) had been cancelled. I went boogie boarding on one of the beaches instead.

After that, it was pretty much just chilling in the condo. I still took solitary walks along the beach across the street every evening and most mornings. I still watched the sunrise and sunset from the Lanai. And I watched an obscene amount of Hallmark Christmas movies.

By this point, I was anxious and stressed and there was no pretending anything was normal anymore. We left Hawaii Sunday and we upgraded to first class for the nearly empty flight home. There were no issues leaving Hawaii and as beautiful as it was and as much as I someday wanted to return to see it more fully and less stressed, I was ready to go home.

After I picked up my bag from baggage claim in Las Vegas, I went to the check-in counter for my flight to New York. It was cancelled.

I called my sister and asked if I could stay with her until Thursday (March 26), when my rebooked flight was scheduled. She was delighted and so was my niece. I was so grateful that I had the foresight to bring my work laptop. I called my boss and explained the situation to her and she said she understood. At this point, all of the office was working remotely anyway so as long as I could navigate the time difference, working from Las Vegas wouldn’t be too different than working from my apartment in Brooklyn.

The day before my flight, I found out that it too was cancelled. I didn’t bother rebooking and instead asked for a refund. I called my boss and we agreed that there was no point in rushing back to New York and potentially putting myself and others in danger so I would stay in Las Vegas for the foreseeable future.

And that’s where I’ve been ever since. In the past month, I haven’t seen The Jury, A Musical About Star Wars, The Music of Billy Recce at Lincoln Center, Little Shop of Horrors, DIMES, Six, Sound Bites 7.0 or The Jungle. (All the shows I had tickets for or plans to see).

I have sang karaoke with my sisters and niece, celebrated my niece’s 8th birthday with her, grown crystals and dug for gemstones, done makeovers, organized scavenger hunts and treasure hunts, played board games, read books, got covered in chalk, build edible houses, learned how to make balloon animals, driven down the eerily empty Las Vegas Strip, listened to an astronaut read stories, played charades, dyed my hair purple, learned how to cut my nephew’s hair and celebrated Passover, bounced in a Disney princess moon bounce, had three terrifying Walmart experiences (one of which was to get fabric for masks and otherwise I haven’t left my sister’s house except for walks/exercise at a nearby park and visits to my parents) and did Unicorn Yoga.

And I finally got to see Bandstand (We were going to see it in Connecticut as part of the tour but that has obviously been cancelled), The Jonathan Larsen Project at 54 Below, Pride and Prejudice and countless parodies, Instagram live performances and original performances by some of my favourite performers.

Because when Broadway shut down, something kind of beautiful happened. 

People didn’t stop sharing their art. They didn’t stop creating.

Instead they moved it online.

It’s not the same. Being in a theatre is solace and comfort. It is peace of mind and serenity. It is hope and love and laughter.

But seeing people still creating, still supporting and still sharing despite the mess that is our world has been incredible.

My heart still breaks when I see all the posts about people losing loved ones.

My heart hurts for all the people out of work and struggling to buy basic necessities.

My heart aches for all those people missing each other, with only the internet to stay connected.

My heart bleeds for all the people getting sick because they are helping others.

But it’s also so full of love and admiration for the multitudes of people who are staying home, staying positive and helping others in so many different ways. My sister-in-law is making people masks. People are donating to good causes. Others are sending messages of hope (Janey Bruce of Jagged Little Pill was sending people postcards her mother makes to people who reached out via Instagram). 

With all the scary news and disaster in the world, there is also so much light. 

And so much from the theatre community that I love.

So thank you to all those bringing light into these dark times. It’s not easy and it’s not good, but with love and kindness and support, we can get through this, together.

Stay home as much as possible and stay hopeful.

We’ve got this.

Sincerely, Me (and Perle)