Yes, Coronavirus is Scary. Go Eat a Bagel.

Last year, my husband was in the hospital for several days. It was a scary few days and it felt like there was very very little I could do to help him, so I just stayed with him, sleeping every night in a sleeping bag on the uncomfortable couch in his room, and did the few things I could do. I ran to go bug nurses when he needed more pain medicine, stole more blankets for him when he was still too cold, and threw blankets over various bright electrical lights and windows so he could sleep.

And every morning, while he was still asleep, I went downstairs to the hospital’s Panera and got a cinnamon crunch bagel with honey walnut cream cheese. Sure, I needed to eat, but that bagel also became something familiar and comforting that I could look forward to every day when things were uncertain.

I wasn’t really a huge Panera fan before this, and I still don’t go very often, but whenever I’m particularly stressed out, I go out and get that same bagel from the Panera down the road from my house. It’s my stress bagel. It reminds me of that time in the past when everything kinda sucked and was scary, but we managed to make it through anyway (my husband is fine now).

I’m currently at Panera, eating my stress bagel, with fashion history books strewn out in front of me ready for me to peruse. I intend to finish the second part of my historical inspirations of the &Juliet costumes today. But first, I wanted to just write a bit about what’s going on in our country and our world right now.

I live in Northern Virginia, near Washington D.C. The people around me are getting more and more scared every day about coronavirus and what it means for our lives. The local schools are preparing for switching to remote teaching set-ups; teachers I know have been asked to bring home two weeks worth of lesson planning materials when they leave for Spring Break. Friends of mine are just starting to work from home instead of coming into the office (lucky me, I telework full time already).

I know people who are scared to leave their houses. I also know people who are terrified of having to live in isolation for a year or more, knowing that such a situation would be disastrous for their mental health.

My husband asked me to go to the grocery store yesterday and stockpile on toilet paper; his boss told him there was a global shortage. I did so, reluctantly, but realizing it wasn’t the worst of ideas. I also bought some basic canned food and mac and cheese type non-perishable foods, in the event that we might have to self-quarantine in the future. I figure we’re going to use it all eventually anyway. The toilet paper at my local store was heavily depleted, but not out. However, the dry milk powder really was all gone. What is it about emergencies that makes everyone think of dry milk powder?

Everyone is scared. I’m certainly scared. But all the panicking is starting to make me panic too, and I can see the fear in my friends’ Facebook statuses as they post their fears about whether life will even be worth living here soon. Even those joking about cheap flights are scared. I seriously understand; humor is one of my go-to defense mechanisms.

There’s only so much we can do. We can be cautious ourselves, wash our hands for twenty seconds while reciting Shakespeare monologues, self-quarantine if we feel the slightest sniffle. But we are ultimately not in control of what happens, and looking at how other countries have dealt with this, I understand the panic. None of us want to see our cities or states or countries quarantined. Even if we understand that most otherwise healthy people survive COVID-19, we don’t want to die or see other people die. We worry about the immuno-compromised people in our lives, or the babies too young to have much of immunity to anything, or the elderly folks we love.

We’re all scared. And we have reason to be scared. I’m not by any means trying to downplay the danger here or forget about the people all over the world who have died from this. But panicking and whipping others up into a panic won’t help anything or anyone. We all need to be kind to each other and to ourselves right now.

Do what you need to to calm down. It’s okay to stop watching the news for a while if it only terrifies you more. Pray if you believe in a deity; meditate if you don’t. Get outside and exercise. Take up yoga. Talk to your friends about anything else. Pet your cats and dogs. Listen to music. Read a book. Write a blog post. Eat a bagel. Everything kinda sucks right now and it’s really scary, but humanity is going to make it through anyway.