Sun Mar 21 23:19:57 2021

Late December 2019, my team and I began paying attention to the situation occuring in China. Chinese media outlets were beginning to show images and videos of the roundup and lockdown of its citizens, looking to curb the spread of COVID-19. Appropriately, we created a #coronavirus channel to discuss internally. Life continued as usual, the western media slowly began to cover COVID-19. As March approached, I began getting Spring and motorcycle fever. Every year, I search for a used Speed Triple within my price range and finally found one. I met the seller on March 11th and completed the sale. Friday March 13th at 19:30, we went for a walk through the city. We cruise through Union Square down to Greenwich Village. The night was cooler, jacket weather with less people out than usual. At this point, there was no mask mandate.

We sat for a coffee at Cafe Reggio and discussed the associated risks. The shutdown was looming, fear and uncertainty were present with the patrons and staff. That same weekend, the work from home order came. Leaders were hopeful that whatever was going on, the situation would resolve itself within a week. The following week, all of New York City shut down aside from essential businesses. On Saturday, March 31st we decided to walk through the city.

The city had become barren; few people were out, only for a walk. If you are in New York City for the holidays, you will notice that the city is mostly empty. It feels as if you own part of the city, there are no lines and you can get a table anywhere. Best of all, it is quiet. You can enjoy a meal without a group of people trying to get an entire restaurants attention! Except this time, there were no cafes or restaurants open, just a voided city. For the first time ever, I could step outside my apartment in Manhattan and hear nothing but the wind. As the weather began to turn for the better, the plants began to blossom. The smell of spring was in the air; death around the corner in refrigerated trailers housing the departed from COVID-19.

The city would remain quiet until the days following the murder of George Floyd. In my lifetime I had never witnessed such civil unrest in America that followed May 25th. The circumstances were right for the people to gather and protest the murder of George Floyd, amoung the coutless others. The morning of May 31st, following a night of unrest in the five boroughs, I had to deliver a deposit on a apartment I was moving to. The apartment I was living in at the time was being sold and I was not the buyer. Despite the location and old New York charm, the two inch roaches were enough to vacate. Walking through Union Square to Astor Place, we saw some of the destruction that took place the night before.

This was also the first night that New York City saw wide spread looting and vandalism. Businesses were beginning to board up windows and doors with plywood throughout Manhattan et. al.

The marches and protests would continue into the summer. The righteous were true to their call.

The occupants in Bentleys with out of state plates looting... well, there seemed to have been a lot of people taking advantage of the situation. As fall came with cooler weather, a couple more trips to a newly discovered cafe just north the city was a welcome retreat on the weekends. Fall quickly transitioned to winter in the northeast. Thanksgiving came with the traditional fare and Zoom calls with family. The December holidays welcomed much less traditional cooking with homemade pork hum bao and ravioli. New Years was met with a glutonous amount of pizza, followed by tumeric lattes at midnight. An entire year without drinking, it seemed wrong to bring in 2021 with a headache, as it does any other day. January 2021 left me feeling with a gap in time and in a similar place where I was before. Waiting for an impending doom on the world and society. I felt as if I was back in 2019, waiting to see where the rising situtation would carry the world. @nullanvoid