The Coronanvirus

I'll always associate the start of the Coronavirus with the night that Al and I went to go see Les Miserables in Durham. I was thrilled with our sisters' night out because 1) we never get to go out by ourselves and 2) we LOVE Les Miserables (we practically grew up with this musical!). It was a sweet gift from Ryan to Alli (2 tickets to the show), and I was the lucky recipient of the other ticket.

I went to Durham early in the day because I had an urge to catch up with Kim Garcia- my old boss at Duke. How I enjoyed working with her, and I miss talking to her. She was able to meet us at Gonza's for a drink. But she texted last minute- there was an urgent meeting called last-minute, and she was going to be late.

It turned out that that meeting was Duke deciding to cancel their special events over concerns about the spreading Coronavirus. This was when I realized that this virus was not just something affecting people in China and other places in the world- but it was something that would find us here at home. We sat there in that empty Mexican restaurant drinking margaritas, wondering what this virus would mean for all of us. It was a little spooky to hear everything Duke was doing to be proactive with the virus, and it was even spookier to head to a performance afterwards where we were seated with 3,000 other people. That was the first of many times I would ask myself if it was "safe" to be in that situation.  

Turns out that we lost ourselves in the show- it was simply amazing. I had forgotten what an emotional reaction you could have to a musical performance- especially one where you knew every single word. I cried, I was elated, I was sad- all these emotions from a story about a French orphan. I'm so happy we got to go.

We saw the Wednesday, March 11, performance- the second and last performance that cast would make. The next day DPAC closed its' doors for fear of spreading the Coronavirus to theatre-goers. I watched in shock as other businesses followed suit. This virus was real, and it was now HERE. So how in the world were we going to deal with this?