I want to hear from YOU.

How has YOUR life changed during the pandemic?

Here’s a quick rundown for me:

~Firstly, I want to honor those lives lost. I am consistently shocked by the deaths here in the United States. At least 40,000 lives lost as of today. By the fact that at least 3 runners from just one New York City team have lost their lives to this virus.

This swiftly moving virus has upended the world.

I pray we will honor those who have passed, as well as those risking their lives every day to help the rest of us survive.

~I never thought I’d live in the Haunted Mansion. Seriously. The house I now live in, for 8 days now, is the Haunted Mansion–you know, the one at Disneyland & Disney World. Same ambiance. Same creepiness. This one is in a real neighborhood in Redlands, California, but otherwise very similar.

~I had never been to Redlands, California until 8 days ago. Now I call it home.

~I was not planning to be in the USA until early August. Now, I’ve been here for 23 days, with no end date in sight.

~I departed China on January 22nd for a 3 week vacation to New Zealand, primarily to train for the Seoul Marathon, to be held at the end of February.

Yeah….

After 9 weeks & 1 day in New Zealand, it was either stay there indefinitely–not such a bad proposition, I admit–or return to the only foreign country that would still take me in–the motherland–the US of A.

~As someone who treats running as a job, I not only had to contend with my long term goal race of Seoul being canceled, but now am still training daily, solo, with no idea when I can actually resume training and racing with others.

I had my first solo Test last week. This is my new model and simulation for races. Time trials against myself at varying distances. Test I was how far I could run within 50 minutes. [it was 12.88km last Monday; I anticipate doing better next time as I was not too fresh or bouncy that day]

~I am spending obscene amounts of time alone. Thankfully, at the Mansion I have plenty of outdoor patio space and a beautiful library, but these comforts take one only so far when I am lucky to gather up around 10 minutes of face to face social interactions each day–on a good day.

I’m sending Mom about 150 voice messages a day. I never would’ve thought I would not be able to go see Mom, for fear of possibly infecting her with a virus I may or may not have.

I’m We Chat video calling with girlfriend and checking in with folks on Facebook, and teaching my geography students three days a week–plus a weekly staff meeting–but I now realize more than ever how valuable face to face interactions are.

~My Shanghai apartment sits vacant. I’ve not seen my girlfriend for 3 months. China, as of midnight on March 28th, has blocked all foreigners from returning, with no further announcements that I know of.

The 21st marks 2 years with my girlfriend.

She asked me about a month ago if I’d be home–to Shanghai–for my birthday. April 24th.

“Of course!” I exclaimed, wholeheartedly.

I honestly thought I would be.

Now, like this house,I am frozen in time.

What does the future hold for us?