I was scheduled to fly from New Jersey to Florida on March 12 for some sunshine and baseball (and also a little hockey). Even with everything building up that week, I was determined to go. I needed the break from work. This was a long-time ritual to head down to Spring Training. I couldn't fathom not going and I still didn't comprehend why I shouldn't go. It was in my head that something could happen or things could get bad while I was there. I considered bringing my work phone with me in order to stay in touch in case I got stuck in Florida. I ended up packing my work laptop instead, so that I could work from Florida in case I couldn't leave to return home as scheduled. Nothing in those two last sentences convinced me to cancel my trip. Every night after work I was searching stores for travel-sized hand sanitizer and a small package of Lysol (or comparable) wipes, both with no luck. The closest I got was finding containers to take a portion of my home-sized supplies of each with me.
Even when I arrived home from that errand, with suitcase and carry-on bags packed in my living room just waiting for a few last-minute items to be added, I was still determined to go, do whatever I could while I was in Florida, accepting some amount of risk (with pretty much no protection). I started reading my Facebook newsfeed, as I often would do after arriving home from work, and a friend had shared an article about the risks or dangers of COVID and what we needed to do to protect ourselves and everyone else from it. It wasn't from the "mainstream" media (Washington Post, NY Times, CBS News, CNN, etc.). I think it was from The Atlantic, or one of the publications like that. I read it and it finally hit home that the risk of going wasn't worth the enjoyment and relaxation I would get from going (based on what events were still planned at the time). That evening, the President finally addressed the nation (which at that point didn't change my mind at all, since I was already 90% sure I was cancelling), and the NBA announced its first positive case and subsequently cancelled a game on short notice.
Once sports had COVID cases and protective shutdowns, somehow, it became real. That got the last 10% of me convinced to stay home. I also knew that once one league stopped play, the other leagues would follow within about 24 hours (I think all but one hit that 24 hour mark, and the last one was just after it), which meant there would be nothing to see on my vacation. I communicated my decision that night to a few people that I staying home, and I just sat stoic on my couch, almost curled up, and in a state of shock about all of this - both COVID in general and also not travelling the next day. I started cancelling my different travel arrangements (4 hotels, 2 flights, 1 car, various tickets, and different plans), mostly the ones I needed to do that were time-sensitive for that night. I eventually moved to bed, to try to figure out the rest in the morning (since I now had no place to be - not the airport and not work).
Thursday was more of the same. There were still a few games that hadn't been cancelled yet, and there was news. I mostly looked for distractions (binge watching a show on a streaming device, and then watching a channel which plays old game shows 24 hours a day; basically anything but a news cycle). I also had to go food shopping, since I purposely leave myself with little perishable food when I'm going away for 12 days. The one thing I had figured out was that not only did I need food, and takeout may not be a safe option (at least not right away), but I needed to try to build up a supply of food in case I was quarantined at home or got sick and couldn't go out to buy food. I still needed my vacation time away from work, even if it was planned at home now. I had a few home projects that I wanted to start working on for which I needed some supplies, and thought to jump on it before stores would shut down (or even before I realized how unsafe it would be to go to those stores). My suitcase sat in the living room for a couple days, somewhat in defiance of staying home.
That was a year ago. Then came a few months of "flattening the curve", staying home, staying away from others, staying outdoors when you couldn't do that, and within a few weeks, wearing masks.
