A Crate of Bananas, and Danger to Vegans, and Alcohol Related Pranks: Stories of the Quarantine

Quarantine Diary: Week 1, from A, a 21-year old statistics major at CMU

Age: 21 | Gender: Female

Occupation: Senior, Statistics Major, CMU

Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA (at time of these entries)

Displacement Status: Quarantined with Friends

State of calmness: 4/10

Reaction to local/state/federal response to the area: General US recommendations, nothing specific to pittsburgh at that time

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This whole situation has definitely caused me to feel pretty panicked and I think I’m generally struggling with feeling like I have no control over the situation. I think the diary could be helpful in creating structure and also will keep me accountable. Also, I think this might be pretty interesting to look back at in 20 years/show our kids. Right now, I’m quarantined with my housemates + one of my housemates’ bf in my off-campus house in Pittsburgh. Goals: continue my fitness grind, work on getting more flexible (yoga?), finish my python for data science online course, read more books

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Day 1 (March 15, 2020)

9:30am I slept pretty well last night and had a dream about saying bye to my acapella group. I get a little sad when I wake up and cry when I see some texts from some college friends. I’m trying really hard to stay calm and keep perspective so I take a few deep breaths and force myself to get up and open my window. I feel a lot better just doing that and I scroll through Instagram and Facebook. I see that Miami is in a state of emergency and cops are literally kicking people off the beach which is wild since we were there only a few days ago. This is scary but also calms me down because people are actually starting to take action! I get up and head downstairs to get coffee.

10:30am Things honestly feel so much better when everyone’s downstairs together and I feel calmed down again. I read a super comprehensive update about national responses on NYT and A (my housemate) and M (my other housemate C’s boyfriend) joke that this reminds them of this game called Plague in which you’re a virus trying to infect the whole world. I make myself a smoothie and decide to finish this trashy rom-com book that a friend from home recommended to our group during winter break called Red, White and Royal Blue! I also try to listen to find some new music on Spotify because my playlist is LACKING!!

2:30pm We actually have to break quarantine to move M out of his housing so A and I go grab the Zipcar. It’s actually kind of nice because I get to say bye to a good friend who also lives with M, but that ends up being super sad!!! We hug like 8 times and I almost cry but I promise I’ll visit him in DC. We also all run into C’s ex outside and say bye which is ALSO WEIRD!! A and I move M’s stuff to our house and then head to TJ’s and Whole Foods. We’re surprised that there’s actually a good amount of food at TJs and Whole Foods except for milk alternatives and our favorite frozen Japanese fried rice.

5pm I shower post-being outside and sanitize everything as we’re now officially on our real quarantine. I gobble a burrito from TJs and read more Red White and Royal Blue.

6pm I facetime with N and catch up on our spring breaks! I miss her a ton but I have so much fun talking to her and we make plans for when this is all done. I wanna road trip with her around Arizona and check out all the cool national parks.

9pm We watch Frozen because A hasn’t seen it yet and we want to watch Frozen 2 tomorrow! I forgot how fricking good this movie is!! My little sister and I used to watch it all the time because she was obsessed with it. I feel weirdly calm but I wonder if it’s just because I was able to go outside today. A and I plan to work out tomorrow at like 8ish and I have a club meeting at 3pm so at least I have a few things to keep me accountable.

11:30pm I’m attempting to sleep but our neighbors are having a full on party outside?? SOSOSOS I want everyone to self-isolate!!! This is freaking me out!! Also, it’s just so loud like I can literally hear their conversations. I’m hoping this is like a last hurrah sort of situation and not a continuous thing.

Day 2 (March 16, 2020)

8:30am I wake up before my alarm and mobilize to work out! I’m excited to get back to working out after a week of indulging in alcohol/gross food and zero exercise in Miami. A and I do a HIIT workout and I’m happy because I can do a couple real pushups??? I’m actually shocked. The weights we ordered from Amazon haven’t come in yet, so we just use resistance bands. I’m glad we ordered weights last week in Miami because they’re literally all sold out on Amazon now.

10:00am After we workout and shower, we see that our Amazon prime food delivery has come in. A and I ordered some of this stuff while we were tipsy in Miami so we accidentally bought A CRATE OF BANANAS?!?!? Like 80 fucking bananas!!!! DISASTER! So, we’re going to be making lots of smoothies and banana bread in the next few weeks lmao. C and I spend a while reorganizing the kitchen, consolidating all the food that we have duplicates of into huge ziploc bags. We mark all the meat items with stuff like “DANGER TO VEGANS” so A (the resident vegan) doesn’t eat them. Our kitchen has never looked this organized! If anything good is coming from this situation, I’m WAY more clean than before but I wonder how long that’ll last once all of this is done.

12:30pm We’re finally done organizing stuff and we say bye to one of my really good friends from our porch like we’re in Romeo and Juliet. She is going back home to Taiwan so she has a ton of excess food to distribute to other Pittsburgh quarantiners. She drops off some alcohol and a yoga mat for us and we give her some of our EXCESS BANANAS! I eat some oatmeal (with bananas lol) and I get slightly annoyed by A’s chewing so I go upstairs to fold some laundry.

2:00pm I realize I’m pretty hungry and make some eggs with spinach and a slice of bread. I try to plan what I want to get accomplished in these next weeks, but instead watch the Mindy Project. Classic!

3:30pm I’ve been reading random articles and killing time before a club exec meeting. It’s nice to talk to everyone on exec and we hash out how to move forward. One of the club members makes a “virtual wine wednesday” fb event and somehow 300 people have clicked GOING!!

7:00pm A and I cook up some buckwheat soba noodles with stir fry veggies and fake chicken for dinner! C makes me some “banana ice cream” by blending frozen bananas with a bit of almond milk and we top them with almond butter and chocolate chips. Our quest to finish our aggro amount of bananas continues.

8:00pm We watch Frozen 2 and it’s decidedly bad. I spend most of the time on my phone scrolling about and making a list of movies I need to watch as I haven’t watched a surprising amount of classic movies.

12:00am Zoom with my friends from home for a bit and then become sleepy!! Gnite all.

Day 3 (March 17, 2020)

9:00am I wake up later than anticipated because I’m really tired for some reason and couldn’t get out of bed at 8. I debate whether or not I should go to the zoom testing classes I have today that are technically optional. I decide against it because I’ve used zoom for a club meeting and to videochat friends, so I know my stuff works.

9:30am I change into workout clothing and meander downstairs for a cup of coffee before I work out with A. M is working out in the dining room and panting very loudly and C is making coffee. It feels slightly CHAOTIC but I’m also thankful for the bustle because it’s distracting.

10:00am A finds some intense shoulder/arm workout that’s a mostly pushup HIIT rotation and includes decline pushups off our couch. C is watching us while we pant and sweat and I feel bad for judging M earlier because we look and sound like we’re dying. We finish up with a 7 min ab workout and collapse on the floor. I make a protein shake with frozen veggies, a banana, some oat milk and chocolate protein powder topped with chia seeds.

12:30pm I am finally showered and decide I will skip my other zoom test class for no good reason and finish Red, White and Royal Blue instead. It’s SO CUTE and I tear up a little bit.

2:00pm I realize I haven’t actually had lunch yet so I make some eggs with spinach and a piece of toast. I douse it with sriracha as I mess around with this app Notion that A uses to organize his life. It’s like a goal tracking/notes desktop app and I think I’ll try it out for a week and see how I like it. I put a book tracking list on it and a fitness tracking list. I also want to finally start a python for data science course so I’m going to try to use this to track my progress/set goals.

4:00pm I start Trevor Noah’s book and I’m super surprised about how much I enjoy it. I can’t put it down!! He’s led such an interesting life and his writing style intensifies my SQUISH on him. I would love to date an intelligent comedian. Friends, please acquire one for me.

6:30pm I realize I’ve been reading for a while and I’m halfway through the book so I make some dinner. I use half a bag of this Trader Joe’s asian salad mix and add an avocado and some vegan chicken and gobble it up while watching some Mindy Project with A. My dad calls me in a panic while he’s on a walk telling me that if there’s a domestic travel ban, he wants me to get on the next plane home to the Bay Area. I’m stressed because I don’t want to make a decision about this right now and I’m not sure what the right move is.

8:30pm C starts the 1000 piece puzzle we got (it’s a picture of cinque terre in Italy). We realize that it’s St. Patty’s day so M floats the idea of drinking some beers. He makes us try this Sour Monkey beer and it’s suuuper good. It’s like half sour beer, half pilsner and I’m obsessed with it. It’s also HELLA strong because it has like a 9.5 ABV percentage and we all get pretty buzzed off one.

9:30pm A and I watch The Mindy Project while buzzed. I’m so happy that people are watching this show with me!! It brings me back to my high school youth when I was obsessed with it and everyone thought it was so bad!

11:00pm We somehow watch until the late night (lmao is 11 pm late night) and I decide to go to bed. Pop two melatonin and set my alarm for 8:30!

Day 4 (March 18, 2020)

8:10am I wake up before my alarm! Best feeling ever. I change into my workout clothes and trudge downstairs to make some coffee.

8:45am A and I do a more intense workout today. We have a warm up 10 min HIIT session that includes burpees and high knees etc. Then, we use the SWEAT app to do a lower body circuit. I’ve been trying the non BBG ones (for people who use SWEAT) and did the FIERCE lower body circuit. It’s super fucking intense and by the burnout circuit I’m drenched in sweat. I feel bad because there is NOT a lot of ventilation in the living room and we must smell nasty, so I open the door. Ahhh the outside world!!! I do my post-workout stretching out there and it feels dystopian because there’s nobody outside. A points out that might be because it’s an ungodly hour.

10:00am I make a protein smoothie with frozen veggies, water, almond butter, a banana and chocolate protein powder. I top it with chia seeds and dried mulberries and sip it while reading my morning briefing newsletters. My mom sends me a panicked text to call her.

11:00am I finally call my mom and she’s trying to convince me to come home and says that if something happens to her and my dad that they want me to be there?? I’m so conflicted cuz a) I will be the one that gives them the virus if they don’t have it already and b) they are not going to DIE but I might if I go back home and am quarantined. That’s called high school and we already lived it!! No THANK YOU. I push back and she says that my dad will call me later. Yikes.

3:00pm I finish the Trevor Noah book and it’s so so good. I want to know more about how he became a comedian since the book really doesn’t cover that. He’s so COOL!!

6:00pm I make dinner with the remaining salad mix and use an avocado and some tempeh to top it. I munch on it while I facetime A, one of my best friends from home, in my room because everyone is perching downstairs.

7:00pm Videochat with home squad to hash out the details of these quarantine diaries and somehow end up chatting for like 2 hours. I miss them a ton!

9:00pm I go downstairs to play drunk catan which turns out to be pretty difficult and we make slow progress acquiring victory points. However for some reason, I’m getting increasingly SAD. This is definitely NOT the intended purpose of this night, but now I’m bummed because on a usual wednesday night we’d be pregaming with all our friends and playing pong and rolling up to a bar. Instead, we somehow launch into a heated debate and there’s no escape!

1:00am Everyone continues to argue, but C and I bow out and sit on the couch. Unpleasant! They’re fighting about politics and it’s clear that neither of them will concede, so I get annoyed and go upstairs to videochat another good friend from school. We talk about random stuff and some podcasts we’ve listened to. He sends me a list of 10 potential pranks I can pull on A throughout these quarantine times (our house has been engaging in an ongoing prank war) and I choose one to do tomorrow hehe. Off to bed!

Day 5 (March 19, 2020)

9:00am Ugh I wake up so late post drinking it’s annoying. I take a shower and get ready for my first zoom class!

10:00am PRANK TIME! I pour some vodka in A’s water cup while he’s taking a shower and drink some coffee while I wait for him to notice. A adds some more water to his cup and drinks it in front of me??? HE DOES NOT seem to notice the shot and a half of vodka I’ve poured into it. This is both confusing and concerning!! I report back to my friend and we decide we’ll need to up the quantity of vodka or do this sometime when he’s not hungover (maybe he just thought he imagined the taste of alcohol?)

10:30 I go to my cognitive psychology research methods class and our professor makes us go around and say where we are, challenges we’re facing and a silver lining. This takes up a lot of time and one girl enters 30 minutes late and is super confused and doesn’t know how to turn off her audio. Another girl seems to be doing her zoom call from an Indian prayer room. Zoom is chaotic. It is a productive class though because we go into our “breakout rooms” and I discuss with my group members how we’re going to have to change our research study given our new limitations. I think having actual classes to attend has reduced my anxiety a bit.

12:00pm I go downstairs to see that C and A have set up our social psych lecture zoom on our TV (A and I are both in the class and C is our TA). Truly a meme! I make some oatmeal while the professor struggles with technical issues and explains how she’s changed the curriculum. I google some potential python data science online classes to take and text some of my friends for recommendations. I decide on a class from coursera which I’ll start tomorrow (I have no class on Fridays)!

1:30pm I make some coffee because I’m feeling kinda sleepy. It’s suuuper grey outside which is not helping me feel alive. I sit down at the dining room table instead of laying on my bed because I need to take notes for my Benefit-cost analysis class. The class is actually pretty interesting but one guy keeps asking questions and is being kiss-assy to acquire participation points. Nobody else speaks and I text my friend from the class and we deem him our new nemesis.

3:00pm I change into workout clothes and venture outside for a walk because I’m feeling highly cooped up. I videochat N while I walk about a nearby park that has some hiking trails. It’s nice to catch up with her especially since she’s been super positive throughout all of this. I miss her a lot!

5:00pm I didn’t realize I was gone for so long but it was much needed. I decide that I need to get outside once a day or I might go crazy. I shower and acquire a snack of hummus and carrots/pita chips while A and I watch a few episodes of the Mindy Project. I get sad as I get another notification on Facebook about a cancelled event. This has been happening so much this past week ugh.

7:30pm A and I make some red lentil pasta with spinach, various veggies and meatless meatballs for dinner. We munch while we facetime a jetlagged C! She is taking her temperature because apparently the Taiwanese government calls daily to ask about every person’s health status so she must report back to them.

9:00pm We all decide we are too lazy to play a game and decide to watch a movie instead. We settle on Superbad and it’s actually really funny. It’s kind of crazy how things have changed since that movie came out because so much of the shit they say is not pc yike.

11:30 Head to bed and kill some time watching an episode of this new netflix show called 100 humans. It’s odd.

1:00am Disaster!! I procrastinated sleeping and now will be unlikely to wake up for morning workout. Sad.

Day 6 (March 20, 2020)

9:30am As expected, I can only force my body out of bed after an hour of snoozing. I go downstairs for coffee and A asks if we can postpone our workout to the afternoon which is fine by me. It’s so grey outside yet again!! Dumb pittsburgh! I look at the forecast and see that it’s raining for the next week straight. Kill me. I will force myself to go on a walk later today even if it’s raining though as it’s clear I need fresh air daily. I sip on my coffee and read my morning briefing newsletters (The Skimm, NYT, Betches Sup).

10:30am I decide to get through a chunk of Sapiens before my workout. The book is very well written but I can’t get through more than like 30–50 pages before I need to read another book and come back to it. C and I make some banana pancakes and I munch while I get another panicked text from my mom. Avoid for now.

11:00am Finally decide to call my mom and I have to talk her down as she tries to force me to fly back to California. I explain to her again that I must self quarantine for 2 weeks to be in the clear and even then the whole point of everyone staying in place is to not spread disease. She seems aggressed and keeps stating claims of potential domestic travel ban and not being able to see me for 6 months. I tell her she usually doesn’t see me for 6 months at a time as I’ve been in college for the past 4 years and she concedes. My dad hasn’t called me yet though so I’m more worried about that.

1:30pm I get through a solid chunk of Sapiens and then decide to start a collection of short stories by Haruki Murakami called Men Without Women. I like the way he writes! C and M go for a run, so A and I decide to work out as well. We find a really intense shoulder workout and because we only have our 10 pound and 18 pound free weights, we are truly DESTROYED by it. Literally typing this hurts right now somehow!!

2:30pm I make a protein shake post workout (frozen bananas, spinach, chocolate protein powder, water, chia seeds) and sit in my room waiting for A to be done showering/stay out of the way while C vacuums downstairs.

5:50pm I work through the first “week” of my online python course which is truly just an hour’s worth of work and then decide to order dinner. I got an email earlier in the day from a restaurant we go to a lot called Roots (knockoff sweetgreen) saying they were doing free delivery through UberEats. We all decide to order there for dinner and chip in for a more aggressive tip than usual for the driver. I abandon my Python class for the day and read my Murakami book again.

9:30pm A teaches me and C how to play poker and we play for a couple hours. I feel like this is a good life skill to acquire! It’s not as complicated as I expected it to be but obviously that’s because I have no grasp of necessary strategy so far. C, M and A all drink and smoke but I have decided to do this quarantine with mostly no substances because it seems to be causing me more stress instead of relieving it. Poker’s really fun!! We didn’t play with money though so I’m curious to see how everyone’s strategy will change if we ever do.

1:00am I migrate upstairs and kill time until 1 somehow!! YUCK I hate going to bed this late.

Day 7 (March 21, 2020)

9:00am After lots of snoozing, I finally mobilize and go downstairs. I make some coffee with oat milk and sip while I read more of Men without Women.

11:45am I make some avocado toast and egg whites with spinach doused in sriracha for lunch.

12:15pm C joins A and I for our HIIT warmup and then A and I do the two aforementioned workout videos. My butt literally goes numb halfway through the butt workout?? Which is good?? Bad?? Unclear! But I’m tired af afterwards.

2:00pm Finally mobilize post-workout to make a smoothie with frozen berries, a banana, unflavored pea protein and almond butter topped with chia seeds and dried mulberries. So good!

3:00pm I shower and join my acappella group’s zoom meeting during which we discuss elections. It’s super nice to see everyone and I’m happy when we decide to meet every Saturday at this time. After the meeting, my friend R facetimes me for a bit and we make plans to use that netflix party thing with some other friends later.

4:30pm I decide to go outside for a walk to get some fresh air. It’s super cold outside so I have to wear a parka and it’s GREY, but I’m still excited to get out! I listen to a couple episodes of the Modern Love podcast including one that tells the love story of the CEO of Hinge (he did not find love through a dating app which slightly enrages me).

6:30pm I watch the second season of Killing Eve and decide to make dinner. I make a stir fry with quinoa, spinach, a frozen asian veggie medley from TJs and some tempeh. I use TJ Soyaki sauce to season it and end up using a lot of sriracha cuz I’ve been craving it today! Gobble some dark chocolate for dessert.

8:30pm My friend S has come back to Pittsburgh to pack up her remaining items so we say goodbye in dramatic fashion. She’s in my driveway and I’m on my porch, Romeo and Juliet style so as to not risk infection. I am awful at saying goodbye and I mostly just assert that we’ll see each other soon even though I don’t know if that’s true (she’ll be working in North Carolina post-grad). I don’t feel like getting emotional and try to keep things light until I get too cold to stay outside any longer and bid her adieu.

9:00pm I have a group meeting for my research methods class. One of my group members is in South Korea right now and the other is in the Bay Area, so this was the only agreeable time we could find.

10:00pm C, A, and I play poker! I try to be less risk-averse and end up losing grrr. This game is addicting though, I can’t wait to play it again!!

12:30am Watch Killing Eve until my melatonin hits then doze off.

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The first week went by faster than I thought it would, maybe because I’m quarantining with friends. My main issue is that I’m feeling really claustrophobic in my house, but hopefully going on walks everyday should help combat that. Also, there’s still some uncertainty around what we’ll do after our 2 week quarantine.