Australia bush fires, COVID-19 Pandemic, Kobe Bryant’s death, George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement, Murder Hornets, Beirut explosion, Chadwick Boseman’s death, West Coast Wildfires, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, Donald Trump and the election, and Joe Biden Wins.

What a shitshow.

March 18th, 2020 (212 cases in Ontario) was the last day I worked before being told to stay home until further notice due to Corona Virus. On March 19th, 2020 I applied for EI (CERB didn’t excist yet), application took 4 hours to complete due to EVERYONE attempting to do the same thing. Over the next 3 months I panicked of not knowing what was happening with EI/CERB. No one knew what to do and there was rumors everyday of having to pay it back, have to pay the taxes, having to reapply every month and much more.
Like most people we panic shopped, we didn’t know what was going to stay open or if there would be enough food for everyone. We spent $800-$1000 on groceries in one month. Going to the grocery store was scary as you didn’t know who had the virus, masks were not mandatory and there was 100’s of people in the store at once. Eventually as things went on we figured out we had to wear masks and line up in order to get into the store and wash your hands as soon as you walked into your house. My hands have never been so dry in their life and I’m a hairstylist. My lockdown lasted 92 days before we were told we could go back to work. June 19th, 2020 was my first day back at work and I felt like I didn’t know how to do hair anymore. Masks became normal and being scared wasn’t a thing anymore – we just wanted to work.

September 26th, 2020 was my last day working at my first salon as I decided to move on to a new salon to further my career. On October 5th was my first day at my new job – it goes okay. On October 7th I get fired because the owner has a bad vibe from me. I go home dumbfounded that I just lost my job and we are still in the middle of a pandemic. Don’t change jobs in the middle of the pandemic! Over the next 45 days I job search and panic. I once again apply for EI and panic as the place that just fired me refused to give me a ROE, which you need in order to get money from the government. Eventually things get worked out (at least that’s what I think happened) and I get paid a month later from EI.

On November 21st, 2020 I accept a job at a hair salon in Maple. Panic because Ford was announcing if we were going into lockdown again. Fortunely York Region didn’t go into lockdown and I could work – I started December 1st, 2020. I get happy as I have found a job and the year finally seems to be turing around!

December 11th, 2020 the news announced York Region is going into lockdown. Work turned into an shitshow and hours got extended – I worked 11 hours.
Saturday due to too many workers and not enough room for guest I worked 5 hours.
Sunday, our last day, I worked 11 hours with no breaks. We ate when we could and sat for a 5 mins if we had time. We fit one weeks worth of clients into 2 days. I got home sore AF.

December 14th – Lockdown 1,940 cases
December 15th – 2,275 cases
December 16th – 2,139 cases
December 17th – 2,432 cases
December 18th – 2,290 cases
December 19th – 2,357 cases
December 20th – 2,316 cases
December 21st – 2,123 cases

On December 21st, 2020 Ford announces that all of Ontario will be entering a province wide lockdown starting December 26th, 2020 for a minimum of 28 days. As Toronto, Peel and York have already been in lockdown, this means that I will be sitting at home for a minimum of 42 days.

December 22nd – 2,202 cases
December 23rd – 2,408 cases
December 24th – 2,447 cases
December 25th – they didn’t post the numbers due to Christmas
December 26th – Provincial lockdown 4301 cases (this includes Christmas numbers)

Somewhere in between the 14th and now the UK has report a new strain of the virus that is worse and on December 27th two cases of the UK strain has been reported in Ontario.

This year seems to be never ending with bad news and it’s taking a toll on most people. I have officially been off for 5 months in 2020 and come January it will be a month off. I hope this lockdown gets us where we need to be to have a semi-normal life again. I haven’t seen friends, my dog has separation anxiety with me and people are getting tired of it. People don’t care anymore because it’s been a year long thing, humans adapt to whatever we need to and if the governament doesn’t figure it out this is just going to be something we live with for the rest of our lives.

This has officially been the most depressing blog I’ve ever written. This is just my verison of my year and the small amount I’ve dealt with. There are a lot of others who had it WAY worse and I’m thankfully the only issue I’ve had is to sit at home.

Thanks for reading,

Maeg.