Dear fellow quaranteens (and quaranpeople),

It’s been a week since I last wrote about my quarantine experiences and about two weeks since we’ve started quarantine. Since last week, COVID-19 has gotten a lot more serious.

The United States now has 85,356 reported COVID-19 cases and 1,246 deaths, passing both China and Italy, and making us the most infected country in the world. In Illinois, there are 3,026 cases and 34 deaths. 

Skokie now has 56 confirmed cases and two deaths. 

This rapid increase in the COVID-19 spike and the effects of it have really started to make me feel like I’m living in a movie. Although, this could be because I’ve watched “Containment,” “Contagion,” and “Outbreak” (on Netflix, for anyone interested) mostly within the span of the last three days.

All three of these movies follow the CDC, government, and American people as deadly and fast-spreading diseases begin to take over the country and the world.

All of these films/shows depict an overcrowding in hospitals, lack of supplies, and an uncertainty of what the future looks like. Pretty similar to our current situation.

In fact, while watching the news this morning with my mom and sister, I couldn’t help but feel like the protagonist in a dystopian film.

Now, we’ve all had those moments in our lives where we feel like we’re in a film, maybe on the way to grandma’s house you put your headphones in, listen to Christina Perry’s “A Thousand Years” and look out the window as if VEVO is filming right beside you.

Okay, maybe it’s just me.

Regardless, this is NOT the movie I would have pictured living in. I was thinking more Nicholas Sparks or “Twilight” and a little less “Contagion.”

Anyways, I’d like to give you all a detailed description of what I’ve been doing during quarantine, but the most detailed I could probably get is the texture of my Cheez-It grooves and maybe a ranking of the best places to fall asleep in my house.

Instead, I’ll walk you through my day.

1. 12-1 pm: wake up
2. 2 pm-4 pm: watch Tik Toks
3. 4 pm- 4:30 pm: take the dogs for a walk
4. 4:30-whenever I wake up: take a nap
5. whenever I wake up to 8ish pm: open my Chromebook, tell myself I’m going to start my GAW essay, watch Tik Toks.
6. 8 pm-9 pm: Read a little (if I’m feeling extra intellectual that day) and eat dinner
7. 9 pm-3:30 am: Watch some random movie or series on Netflix
8. 3:30 am-4 am: Nighttime Tik Tok scroll
9. Repeat

For those of you who may be wondering what my daily Tik Tok average is, you’re going to have to keep wondering. The number is embarrassingly high.

Unfortunately, I’m starting to run out of movies to watch on Netflix. Luckily, my grade seems to be resorting to similar entertainment options from fourth grade, as I’ve seen at least four people from Niles West on Club Penguin. You may be wondering how I know this information, and this I will give you an answer to with no shame.

I reached my breaking point yesterday and created a penguin, because besides studying for my AP tests, finishing projects assigned over spring break, or writing my GAW essay, I could not find a single thing to cure my boredom beside club penguin.

When it comes to the whole social isolation part of the quarantine, I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s going crazy. Luckily, I was able to see Ben on our seven month anniversary. Although it wasn’t how we were planning to celebrate. Nothing says romance like and sitting six feet apart in the park and eating a half mushroom half sausage Village Inn pizza

I also got to talk to my best friend Ela, in person for the first time since our last day of school. We’ve created a master plan where Ela stands in front of my very large window in the living room, and I sit beside the window. We put each other on Facetime so that we can hear each other, talk to each other, and see each other, while still protecting each other from getting COVID19.

Unlike all my friends and the teenagers on Tik Tok, I actually haven’t gotten sick of my family at all yet. This is because my mom works in a hospital, so she still goes to work six days a week.

However, some college tours we had planned before the outbreak led to my mom having a couple of days off (which she and all healthcare workers deserve more than anything right now), so I’ll have to update you all on the family dynamic once I complete a couple of days of lockdown with my mom and my sister together.

I wish I could give you all some advice on what to do to entertain yourselves during this quarantine besides watch Tik Tok and Netflix, but unfortunately, the most creative I got this week was when I walked 2 miles to Costco to get some latex gloves, a churro, a fruit smoothie, and a chicken sandwich. Sure 2 miles there and another 2 back is a lot, but it would be worth it for the meal, I told myself.

Little did I know, Costco is only selling the “essentials” which apparently, are hot dogs and pizza.

Are hot dogs and pizza the most essential things on the Costco menu? No, they’re not. But a fruit smoothie, a churro, and a chicken sandwich are.

Also, I forgot to get the latex gloves, so it looks like it won’t be too long until my next 4 mile Costco trek.

I’d like to end with an update on the list of goals I set last week, so here was my list:

1. Learn how to cook food well enough to not starve while my mom’s at work. PB and J, scrambled eggs, and Kraft Mac and Cheese DO NOT count.
2. Take more than 1600 steps a day (yes, that’s how many I took today, and yes, I may have exaggerated the number a bit).
3. Become Tik Tok famous.
4. See my friends, or have social interaction with anyone other than my dogs, sister, and mom. Maybe put on gloves and a mask and hug the mailman or something.
5. Learn the “Renegade” dance.
6. Sing the song “Bulletproof” on my front porch as the rest of Skokie accompanies me in a harmonic masterpiece (this could go with #3).

And here’s what I’ve accomplished:

#2 (if that one trip to Costco counts, I know I said a day but the four miles should be adequate for the week, right?), #3 sort of actually (I got 329 views and 21 likes on my last Tik Tok), and #4. I’ll have to keep working on 5 and 6.

Instead of making a list of specific goals for this week, I’ll just give you two words that pretty sum it up.

Be productive.

I hope everyone is practicing social distancing and staying safe!

Your friend and fellow Quaranteen,

Alli