DAILY ROUTINE DISRUPTED | ROSE ADAKAI

DAILY ROUTINE DISRUPTED

ROSE ADAKAI

The virus that had taken the life of so many has surfaced in New Mexico. It is now the evening of March 11, 2020. I come home from work exhausted, but I still managed to do my work out before starting dinner. I know If I wait until after dinner most likely I would make an excuse so that I could avoid doing my work out routine. So, I make it a point to them right away. After preparing my full course meal, after a long day of working and then working out, who has the energy for that? I do not have the time to make such a meal for myself or my family, maybe if I had a personal chef, smiling as I am saying that cause that is something I could not afford. But I could dream about it and that is ok. So, just a simple meal will suffice my family and me. Later that night I had turned on the news, something I do every night before I go to bed. It is part of my daily routine, so that I can catch up on what is going on in New Mexico. My worries of the virus making its way to the state has become a reality. Before the virus surfaced in Gallup, New Mexico, I was thinking and hoping that it would not affect the people of New Mexico, let alone my hometown. The news anchor announced that coronavirus had

surfaced in New Mexico with four positive cases in New Mexico. I was shocked and upset when I first heard about it on the news. You will probably think, why is she upset about it cause the virus kills and it may kill the ones that have been infected with the virus. Yes, I have empathy for them, but my first thought and concern are the safety of my immediate family, and my elderly mom. My initial thought when I first heard about the 4 positive cases was, how can these people be so selfish and just go about with their travel when there is a virus out there that is unknown

to man and no cure available yet. Of course, after trying to rationalize the what ifs and nots about the news, I realized that I cannot change anything that has already happened. So, instead I prayed for healing and good health for the people who were infected with the virus that they recover fast and for the virus not to spread beyond their area. It is March 16, 2020, I am working at the front desk helping customers. I can see the worried expression on their faces and hear some of them talking about their concerns about coronavirus. I am thinking should I tell them not to worry, but then again, who am I to say not to worry about it cause the virus is dangerous. So, I told myself if they should ask then I will let them know to stay calm until they get home to their family where they will feel safe. Because at this time I had not received any direction from my own supervisor as how we should handle this situation like this. I did not want to cause anyone to panic or have an anxiety attack due to giving the wrong information to our customers. Just as any workplace there are always proper guidelines to follow. Then I received an email that was sent to everyone, from the main office. After reading it, I was puzzled about some parts of the letter “implementing limited operations.” But what did they mean for my department, limited operations? I was getting worried because I still had not received any communication from my supervisor as what this means for our department. But I knew in any type of chaotic situation, you want to remain calm and not cause anyone or yourself to panic. I did not want my staff or customers to know I was worried, so I just always smiled and assured them things will be ok once we got more information from our higher echelon personnel. But based off what I’ve hearing in the news, when someone had mentioned that they were worried I told them not to touch their face at this time and

to wash hands often.

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I was surprised how quickly we had sold out of our hand sanitizers in one day of hearing about the virus in New Mexico. It was a product that was not the best seller in our store, but within a day it was heavily demanded. The next morning, we had received an abundance of emails regarding our health concerns for our staff and community. The email was filled with so much information and guidelines as what needed to be implemented in a short amount of time.

I had to shut down the store by noon and my staff out of the store by 1 p.m. I was overwhelmed with so much to do in a short amount of time and because we had

no idea when we were going to reopening the store. We had to make sure that perishable foods were stored correctly, that our point of sales systems were closed correctly, then to top off my computer crashed. I was livid at my computer, asking why now, because I had so much to do before I was to leave work. I had to remain calm and put in a rush request for a replacement for my computer. But still I was getting anxious. How was I going to perform my duties, working from home. Not because I had no internet, because I had internet at home. But I did not have the store inventory control system software my personal computer, I was happy our IT department had told me all the information and software I needed would be transferred to a laptop. So that I could work remote from home. As, I waited for the laptop, I watched everyone being guided out the doors like a herd of cattle being guided out to the pasture of the day. When the last person is out of the building, I see them locking up the front doors for the day, which turned out to days. It felt kind of strange, as I was standing there alone in store with doors locked and thinking to myself when will see my staff or my supervisor again. This is when I felt that my daily routine has been disrupted by a virus. It is 3 p.m. and the IT department delivered my laptop with all the software I needed to work remote from home, they are the best for coming through for me at this crazy time. I could not wait to leave work because some

people were telling me before the campus doors were locked, that people were panic buying at most of the stores in Gallup. So, of course I was so worried, thinking there would be a shortage of essential groceries left on the store shelves when I got there. I arrived at Albertson’s sometime after 4 p.m. First thing that came to mind as I drove into the parking lot was WHOA the parking lot is full. It was full like the day before Thanksgiving. I walked into the store, the first thing I see is the checkout lines were long and customers with cart full of groceries. No matter what aisle you walked down, it was busy with hysterical people with carts full of groceries and essential needs. A thought came to mind that it seemed to be like one of those doomsday movies. It was little scary, seeing people filling up their grocery carts with everything that needed and seeing how the store shelves were looking empty. I bought what I needed and told myself no need to hoard food, save some for the next shopper. We live in a country that merchandise and food can be restocked in a timely manner. It is April 2020, when I heard on the news and on my Facebook feed, that the National Guard had been deployed to Gallup. I was thinking this is crazy, the virus has literally shut down my hometown. As of this month, I refuse to shop at most stores in Gallup, except for the grocery store. Stores that I have refused to shop at since February here in Gallup are Walmart, Home Depot, or the mall because of what I hear on the news about the virus. Now I am afraid to

walk into any of them due to the virus. I thought by now I would be back working in my office. I have never worked remote; I was used to working on a set schedule with a daily routine. But now I was trying to balance work, home, staying active, working on my online spring course, and keeping my immediate family safe—all of this was getting overwhelming. Within the first month of working remote, I had moved my so-called work area from the dining area, to my bedroom and then to living room. I was not finding a comfortable area to work. I have a computer room, but I had set up only for my personal use and for my schoolwork. I was trying so hard to keep everything separated, keeping work related area separated from my personal school related area. But one day in April, I woke up and said to myself enough of this unbalanced living, I need reorganize the computer room into one room for work, personal, and school work. So, I took everything out of the room and repainted the walls and reorganized the furniture. Now it is my office/computer room. The ambiance of the room is so much more welcoming for me to work and not feel too stressed out. It is much better now in my office because I have organized it so my personal computer set up separately from my work computer. Even though It is in the same room, I put in an extra chair/desk so that I must switch desk and not having to sit at the same chair and desk area all day. The important thing is that I feel more balanced now. I called my sister not long after and told her about my one positive experience of remote working, the only traffic I watch out for is the one in my living room. Making sure not to step on our fluffy dog who is always sleeping in the living room and my cat as I walk from one side of my home to other side, to get to my remote working area.

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It is now May 2020; The COVID-19 numbers are increasing. So, I was shocked when I heard that all residents of Gallup were ordered to stay home and go out only for essential needs. No resident of Gallup was allowed into town. I was thinking, what is this, Martial Law, they have the National Guard at several main roads that lead into Gallup and even the grocery stores they were standing guard as you walked into the store. Having a National Guard at entrance of grocery store kind of leaves you with a strange feeling of, I cannot believe this is happening in my lifetime. With all the guidelines being implemented by our town and Governor, I felt like I was being quarantine to my home, even though I showed no symptoms of coronavirus. But I was following all the guidelines, to stay safe for myself and my family during this difficult time. Having the US military present in our town made me more anxious and worried. I understand they were here because the positive cases have been increasing drastically, it was getting scarier just to go shopping for groceries or just to do a load of laundry at the laundromat. I felt like this was something similar to a movie that was based off a true event called The Hot Zone, I would wear my mask, nitrile gloves and carry my sanitizer every time I left home to run some errands. By this time, I was doing some extra cleaning at home making sure that I did not bring home the virus when I had gone out to restock our groceries. The only cleaning solution, I come across each time I had gone to the store is Pinesol all-purpose cleaner or Clorox. I consider these as heavy-duty cleaning solutions, so I had to water them down. At least by the end of each day I clean I felt like I had disinfected my home. It is June 2020, still nothing has changed with work and the community. I am still working remote; things can get a little sticky working from home. Since I do not have access to all my files at work. But one thing it has taught me is going green. I used to print out a few things, now I am setting up files. I thought I was going to be back in the office by the early part of this month, but nothing has changed since March. March is when my daily routine was disrupted. Nothing has been the same, instead I am filled with questions for my supervisor. I had a break down at one-point because I was overwhelmed with work, I am the only one working remote in my department, my staff is on a different tier, they are on an on-call status for work. I found a positive affirmation that keeps me positive and able to attack my task. If you ever read or seen the movie Mary Poppins, you would understand why I felt so overwhelmed and stressed out. I felt overwhelmed because

I felt like Bert the one-man band, Bert was having fun but since my routines have been disrupted, I was not having fun. I must make sure the store is prepared for inventory, ordered some new device for inventory was simple but having it set was a stressful moment, arranging curb side order pickup for our customers (something new so I had to figure out what was going to work best for my staff and our customers), and having to prepare for the upcoming semester has its challenges too. But I am one that will not give up and throw in the towel, just because it may stress. and overwhelmed me at times, but I still enjoy doing my job because there are so much more positive things that happen that it keeps me balanced.

July is coming up, getting my shopping list ready for my upcoming trip to Albuquerque. I do all my non-grocery shopping in Albuquerque. I still will not shop at our local Walmart; it has been since February that I had stepped foot in that store. Shopping in Albuquerque with my friends, takes off all the pressure of feeling the anxiety of going into store alone. We just get what we need and get out the store right away. Jumping to December 2020, I am still working remote from home. My life has been disrupted from a year ago, when I was able to go in and out of store without having to worry about wearing a face mask, carrying a hand sanitizer, keeping handwipes and extra gloves in the vehicle, to use at the gas pumps. What is going back to normal anymore, everything still feels very uncertain. Today, on my Facebook feed I seen that Bealls department store had closed, I was surprised since it was one of the anchor stores in our local mall. This was where I first

got my job when I was in high school. It was the first time, I met one of my staff members. I had not seen him for many years until I was offered my current position. I had the opportunity to work with him for 9 years before he had retired. But then I heard that he had died the

last week of October he will be missed. This virus has really disrupted not only my routines but of many, I had gotten used to my regular routines from day to day, but I am happy that I am able figure out and adjust to making new routines. Wearing face mask, working remote is not going to be forever, before I know I will be back working in my office and having conversation with colleagues, soon again.