Pandemic
1st Jab
After preregistering with two different agencies and waiting in a digital line for nearly an hour to make an appointment, I finally got my first Moderna shot at a wellness center. Despite having a QR code in my confirmation email, the facility was “so small,” according to one of the employees, they didn’t have the … Continue reading
Vaccine Envy
There was never a doubt in my mind that I’d get the vaccine. I had no hesitation like my mother who feared it would make her sick like the time she got the flu shot. Different virus, different vaccine. Or my sister who feared the historical systemic racism within the medical community against Black people. … Continue reading
No Longer Alarming
I learned at least one valuable lesson when I had no running water nor electricity during a series of five snowstorms within a yearlong pandemic: I don’t need a fucking alarm clock. I’d been holding out for a long time. I had my telecommuting routine years before the pandemic, so there wasn’t a need to … Continue reading
Welcome Back to the 21st Century
February 15th through the 21st will forever live among my select memories as “The Lost Week of 2021.” Karma also kicked my ass. I no longer enjoy most time travel movies, so the sudden loss of all the amenities that contribute to life in the 21st century, fetched my daily survival back to the 19th … Continue reading
Snow Apocalypse
Presidents’ Day: Monday, February 15th, 2021 My battery-operated alarm clock sounded at 6:30 AM. Presidents’ Day: Monday, February 15th, 2021 My battery-operated alarm clock sounded at 6:30 AM. I blindly slept walk to my bathroom, flipping on the light. Except there wasn’t any light. Just the empty gesture of moving the light switch. Even in my morning brain … Continue reading
2021 Inauguration
Never has an inauguration been so riveting since when Obama was first elected. Back then, I lived and taught at an American school in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. In order not to miss the historic moment, I got permission from the high school principal to organize an assembly just so I could watch it. This time around, … Continue reading
The Best Monday Ever
On the first Monday of 2021, I received two things that I’d been expecting for a while, which I hope doesn’t mean my good fortune has peaked too soon. After being in a pandemic along with all its accoutrements, January 4th felt like a holiday grande finale. The government stimulus had been deposited, then later … Continue reading
NYE 2020
If I’d been absolutely oblivious to the fact that I lived in a capitalist country, I would know it without a doubt with all these offers to buy New Year’s Eve tickets. As if I need to pay money to sit at home, drink my own alcohol while looking at a screen. And for those … Continue reading
Superspreader Santa
If anyone’s irresponsible enough to tell their kids that Santa’s coming to town in 2020, I just hope they update that creative lie by incorporating how Santa’s visiting everyone’s homes safely during the plague. Of course, the beauty of lies is that they aren’t confined to the truth, so there’s a lot of room for … Continue reading
2020 Capital City Black Film Festival
Last year, I volunteered for the CCBFF for the first time because I had never heard of this festival before. This year my very first short film, There’s Always Something, had been selected to participate. With giddy excitement, I experienced the behind the scenes activities of being selected, starting with participating in a prerecorded panel … Continue reading