Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

a selection of key infuriating quotes from that New York mag cover piece article upthread, each of these is from a different covidiot

My friend wanted to have a party for her 25th birthday, and her options were incredibly limited, so I said she could do it at my apartment. I found it quite stressful because I wanted to do somewhere on the cusp between having enough people that it was an actual party and having it become a massive shitshow with hundreds of people. There were probably around 50 people there. We had security watching the numbers and taking temperatures at the door. They did end up turning people away — one person because their temperature was too high, but they came back ten minutes later and they were fine.

I kind of got comfortable being in large crowds. I still try to keep my distance and still wear a mask. I’ve always been nervous about COVID because my parents don’t have health insurance. If they get COVID, it’s going to be a big problem. I was doing all of this behind my parents’ back. I would sneak out of the house or just come home late. On TikTok, people will be like, “You guys have no mask; you guys are spreading the virus.” I don’t really know what to tell them. I’m aware that what we are doing is pretty stupid because we’re putting mad people at risk. For some reason, we still kept doing it.

Sometimes you can forget that COVID is a thing at all at these parties. I’m not saying COVID is not a thing, but I’m sure the transmission rates in New York are not that high.

On Halloween, I was at a party that was slowing down when my friend told me to come to another party in a small apartment in Soho. There were 50 people, maybe. I didn’t know anyone, but there was a DJ, and the people who were there hadn’t been partying during COVID. It was their first party in a long time, and it was a good, cute party. People were dancing. I don’t think it was against the guidelines. After the party, six or seven people tested positive. It’s crazy to think the one thing that I attended that wasn’t against the guidelines ended up being the one that was the biggest spreader. I’m pretty sure most of the people in my bubble, people who were going out constantly, had it back in March.

People weren’t freaking out over COVID, but they were worried that the police were going to shut it down. I went to a few parties in private residences in Manhattan. There was no talk of needing to be tested or needing to wear a mask. COVID wasn’t even mentioned, really. The sort of people who are out downtown after-hours are just not the sort of people who have that on their minds. I thought at the beginning of lockdown that people were never going to share keys of coke ever again, but that was not the case.

thank you for your service

So we always spend Thanksgiving with my family and my wife's family for Christmas, just a regular pattern that worked out early on and has worked well for all sides.

I was very nervous about telling my mom we weren't coming this year, but she was surprisingly fine with it and is actually not having anyone over at all (much to my relief!). We found out this morning that my mother-in-law is hosting anywhere between 11 and 15 people at her house, including multiple people from out of state and a family with three kids who have been in daycare for months. My wife is, understandably, furious. These are all supposedly smart, liberal, non-COVID deniers, but it's just a shock that they are all getting together. Even more so considering that my brother-in-law has been posting nothing but "stay the fuck home" memes on social media for the last month, but I guess he doesn't think it applies to himself? I don't know, it's infuriating on so many levels. I mean, even if people who otherwise have been taking it seriously are still saying "fuck it", I fear for how absolutely terrible things are going to be in December. Needless to say, we are staying the fuck home.

lol we actually asked my mom if she wanted to come visit over Thanksgiving, and she was basically no fucking way. And this was a month or so ago! We're doing our best to rope in our scattered family over Zoom, everyone but my sister in England, who came up short on the time zone stick. The Aussies, though, they just squeak in, timing-wise.

i absolutely cannot comprehend how anyone could decide that is a wise thing to do, other than complete denial of logic and facts

we've been with another couple now for three days, but all seven of us were completely isolated with no outside contact for over 14 days prior. and we still feel guilty and paranoid, like there's some flaw in our system somewhere and everytime someone coughs or sniffs even slightly everyone else half jokingly yells at them for spreading their covid around

A lot of people take negative tests as a permanent result.

"I tested negative 2 months ago, i ain't have it!"

My brother is having Thanksgiving with six people he doesn't know that well, then flying in after Thanksgiving to go to a wedding and staying at my mom's house for a week. She's not happy about but she won't tell him no.

If he gets her sick I'm going to have to drive across the country to break his nose.

https://i.imgur.com/NPx1PrT.gif

btw, the douchiest story in that new york mag profile isn't anywhere near the most egregious, but what an amazingly horrible person

SEPTEMBER - Travis Kalanick’s Penthouse* in Soho
Cat Marnell, 38: I’m sort of naturally a quarantine person; I am not a party animal. But sometimes, the night starts somewhere and you end up at some party. In September, I was just chilling on a rooftop with friends near a gallery somewhere, respecting the rules, when my friend asked if I wanted to go with her to this guy’s apartment. She wanted to go in the pool. So we go to that weird part of Soho down by Varick Street, to some super-fancy building, and go up to the penthouse. It was like something out of Billions. It was so big, with walls and walls of glass, and I think there really was a private pool. Because I guess it was the fucking former CEO of Uber’s apartment? Travis Kalanick? But it wasn’t even cool. They asked us to take our shoes off. It sounded like they were playing lounge music. Everyone was drinking red wine, “adulting.” There were tons of people there, and of course no one was wearing a mask. I walked over and sat on the couch and felt like they were all looking at me with such contempt. Then a pack of people came over and stood over me and were like, “She needs to go.” That’s when I started acting like I was in slow motion. It was just so ridiculous. I haven’t been kicked out of something like that in a way that I didn’t deserve since Lindsay Lohan had me thrown out of Le Baron because I gave the guy she was with a drag off my e-cigarette in 2012. Fuck them. Anyway, rich people are having maskless, indoor parties. I had some paint in my bag, so when we got downstairs, I went to the wall across from the building’s entrance and wrote, “CAT MARNELL BITCH FUCK U SNOBS.”

*A representative for Kalanick says he had lent his apartment to a friend and was unaware of the party.

i have never heard of this person but apparently she's famous or something?
anyway
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Enh2_XcXIAYhRH1%3Fformat%3Djpg%26name%3D4096x4096

Photo to accompany New York mag thing -- SOHO September 2020 ... fuck those people!!! pic.twitter.com/jzif6Vm8cg

— 🤡💄🌈 CAT MARNELL ✈️🏀🎨 (@Cat_Marnell) November 23, 2020

Imagine being 38 and using the word "adulting" to describe people drinking wine. I hate the internet so much sometimes.

imagine being 38 and being kicked out of a party and spraypainting the entrance with your name!
she seems like a genuinely unpleasant human being who has scammed her way into being like this for a living. kudos?

Ha, yeah, all that too.

I totally lend my luxurious multi-million-dollar apartment (with its private pool) out to people so they can have a party there that I am totally not aware of.

Everyone is coping with these unusual times in their own way I guess

idk

actually surprised you have never heard of cat marnell. she was big in the 00s.

drug-addicted media socialite gadfly of manhattan

I was also on drugs during that time, forgive my memory.

this person is genuinely insufferable, something I learned listening to this:

https://www.dopeypodcast.com/2019/10/dopey-210-cat-marnell-overdose-pcp-nba-basketball-self-tanner-for-the-soul/

unless they dress up in innovative/weird costumes, dance brilliantly, do standup or act, play music or sing or program late night entertainment, I have gone out of my way to avoid the media socialite gadfly of manhattan class for the past twenty years

she's probably "good at twitter"

I don't think she has a significant twitter presence, she came up before that

i meant as of now.

She used to work for xojane, and that site's whole thing was to be insufferable and publish terrible takes that people would hate-read, so I guess she must have been good at that?

xojane was actually extremely popular though also. it's revisionist to say that its popularity was based on hate-reads.

sorry for derailing this thread with cat marnell talk

Doesn't everyone carry a can of spray paint about? All totally normal

She's a secret tagger, she was catching throw-ups on construction sites.

*A representative for Kalanick says he had lent his apartment to a friend and was unaware of the party.

Ah, the Jack Nicholson defence

articles in this are why I hate the "uwu people are just confused because the government won't tell them what to do don't be mean to them!" consensus that seems to be developing. everyone in here knows exactly what they are supposed to do, they just don't care

I'm certain that Cat Marnell is terrible but I'm not sure why everyone else described in that story isn't equally terrible or worse.

like, why is this thread saying "oh my god, she sneeringly used 'adulting'" instead of "who are the plague-addled fucksticks chugging wine at a private pool"

oh no question those people seem awful, just having been exposed to her already I suspect they were justified in giving her the boot

different brands of shittiness not mixing

what happened to her friend?

did she really get kicked out for sitting on a couch?

this 'editor' seems to have omitted a few crucial details

lol for real - an obvious gap in that story big enough to tag your name in 6ft letters across

also, i always love hearing needy posers deploy this affection, have heard it so many times from ny wannabes: I was just chilling on a rooftop with friends near a gallery somewhere

Wow, really, were you? Were you near a gallery somewhere? One of those hip, funky, boho galleries I've heard so much about? And you were near it?

likely was "shitting on a couch" and the proofreader corrected

I'm certain that Cat Marnell is terrible but I'm not sure why everyone else described in that story isn't equally terrible or worse.

― DJP, Wednesday, November 25, 2020 10:19 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

ha i thought the quidditization was directed at the people she was writing about, not at her.

there’s room in this shitass world for all of them apparently

I couldn’t just walk past this Tweet, so here is some fun #dataviz

Scented candles: An unexpected victim of the COVID-19 pandemic 1/n https://t.co/xEmCTQn9sA pic.twitter.com/tVecEiX5Jc

— Kate Petrova (@kate_ptrv) November 27, 2020

That's also a great illustration of how the existence of the internet provides oceans more data for research than anyone could dream of pre-internet.

2020: a natural experiment

Couple of things I noticed. Driving around yesterday I actually came across a real police wiping down a bike parking station, which was encouraging. The other thing I've noticed, which was similarly encouraging, is that the handful of people I've noticed wearing a mask incorrectly seemed to be doing so inadvertently. I don't need to wear a mask 12 hours a day, let alone one hour, but I do notice that when I wear it for a prolonged period of time, especially when I need to talk to people, my jaw naturally pulls it down and I constantly need to adjust it up again. I imagine for anyone wearing it all day that must happen a lot, maybe enough that they don't even notice it. Anyway, that's my observation. Few people flat out flouting recommendations, more people making honest mistakes.

Just came back from a 2.5 mile walk on the trail through the local park, where I saw about 20 people, jogging, walking their dog or just out walking like me. The trail averages about 6 feet wide, so maintaining the recommended distance as you pass is nearly impossible.

Of the 20 or so people, I think four or five of them either wore a mask full time or put on their mask a good distance away when they spotted me, another five or so made empty gestures like putting on a mask or pulling their coat over their mouth, but only when they were practically on top of me, like ten feet away but closing fast. The remaining half didn't bother to mask or even make an empty gesture at it.

I used to walk that trail almost every day, but because of this stuff I now walk it maybe twice a month and instead opt for streets or the parking lots of empty office buildings, where I can genuinely distance myself.

My dad, for very similar reasons to yours, I would think, has been taking his 1.75 legs for a daily stretch around the local office block car park since it all began

I imagine for anyone wearing it all day that must happen a lot, maybe enough that they don't even notice it. Anyway, that's my observation. Few people flat out flouting recommendations, more people making honest mistakes.

If the mask is so tight that it's cutting off enough circulation that they've lost all sensation in their face, and cannot feel whether the mask is still covering their breathing holes, that's a more serious mistake.

I personally wear a mask both inside and outside of my face

Because of the pain inside

The Breathing Hole is my favorite oxygen bar

Just coming to vent because my friend in the hospital is in bad shape after a day of seeming a bit better, per her husband — she's back up to needing full oxygen support. (No ventilator yet, thankfully, but this is like almost a week since she went into the ICU.) And in the meantime I've had two complaints from subscribers (to the local journalism website that I run) about "too much COVID news." One of the complainants called it "the wuflu." AND today we have a record 437 new cases in our county and a record 129 people hospitalized with COVID. It's all so dispiriting.

Vent away.