The Chronicles of 2020: March On
man·date
/ˈmanˌdāt/
an official order or commission to do something.
March 2020. A month that felt like a year… and will surely be one that goes down in the history books.
We started off March with Super Tuesday on the 3rd, remember that? It feels like an irrelevant eternity ago.
That same week, I started interviewing for potential new jobs, and even found myself being offered a position for what very much felt to be a gimmicky pyramid scheme. I cried the whole way home from the interview, and returned the blazer that I had bought for it, insisting in my head it was bad luck.
Daylight Savings rolled around, and made getting up in the mornings seemingly impossible. Although it’s always great once the sun starts staying up past 5pm, I can’t complain about that.
I got a haircut on March 12th, which just so happens to be the last time that I sat in a public place, if I remember correctly. I adore the man who cuts my hair, and trust no one else to do it. He was telling me how he was getting married that upcoming weekend in Arizona, and was worried how all this would affect their flight and travel plans. I keep wondering how that wedding went. And if they’re ok. And when he will be able to cut my hair again.
That same day, Maryland declared a state of emergency. The rest of the month kind of felt like a snowball of shutdowns, mandates, and orders.
On St. Patrick’s Day, I sat on a Zoom interview in a nice sweater with green leggings, and followed it up afterwards with a celebratory self-dyed green beer. I also successfully made corned beef and cabbage for the first time ever, which was a small but mighty win in my book.
That company followed up with my shortly after, to let me know they were implementing an indefinite hiring freeze.
Tom Brady announced he was leaving the Pats, and I think we could hear the cries and screams in Boston from down here in Annapolis.
Schools closed, businesses shuttered, malls locked up. They postponed the Olympics, and a million other events.
During this same time, a large majority of the country started binge watching The Tiger King together, and we all sat in the front of our TV’s with our mouths half open, a combination of sheer disbelief and terror.
I’m still honestly not sure if I actually enjoyed the show, or if I was so shocked and emotionally vulnerable that I couldn’t help but to watch that trainwreck of a series.
If nothing else, we have gotten some great memes out of it.
March 25th, my sister got word that she had been furloughed.
“You’re going to have to teach me how to be unemployed,” she joked.
I sent her a calendar invite so that we could hop on a Zoom call, and walk through best practices together.
