Pandemic Preamble
I am certainly not alone in reflecting upon the global pandemic of 2020 as being a difficult time. It is only now, after 4 months of an Intensive Outpatient Program, that I can identify it as the beginning of when my use of alcohol flipped decidedly into the realm of unhelpful and unhealthy. However, one way I can identify my experience as better or luckier than most during the pandemic, is that I didn't have any short term financial stress or worries. On March 4, 2020 I was fired from the Whole Foods I lived next to after working there for about five years. I lived so close that I could leave my bedroom at 12:52pm and clock in for work at 12:56pm. Exactly one week after I lost my job, on March 11th, the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Also on March 11th, what made the pandemic real to me, was that just before tipoff of a game between the OKC Thunder and the Utah Jazz, officials brought Thunder coach Billy Donovan and Jazz coach Quin Snyder to ...