COM0014-Blog#1- What I Did On My Christmas Vacation 2020

I’m choosing to talk about my Christmas 2020 vacation because of the times, and the fact its been 10 months since I’ve left Ottawa. #sigh. This Christmas vacation was kind of ironic for me, it was the first time in a long time I got a full two weeks (paid) off from work, but no where to go and no one to see because lock down happened…AGAIN. I had big plans of going out every night, having friends down who don’t live in the city and overall spending too much money. #badidea. I am sure I can speak for a lot of people in this country who are just tired and emotionally drained from this pandemic.

I started to think about how to turn this into a positive experience. The lock down happened after a very busy month of Christmas activities and work/school projects so I took the time to catch up on sleep, try out some new workouts, keep in contact with friends and family through social media and texting and start a new book. After recently going on a more plant based diet I also was looking up recipes to try! If anyone has any yummy vegan or vegetarian recipes they love, please comment them below! I was extremely lucky and had my new house close on time, it closed in the beginning of December. So I took the quiet vacation to also organize my new house and empty most of the boxes.

As the world we know keeps evolving it is important to try and see the light at the end of the tunnel. However hard that may be. How was everyone else’s Christmas break? I’m loving to hear some creative ideas on how to spend your lock down time!

How social media helped me stay in touch with family and friends during the pandemic

As soon as the pandemic started and the stress and fear kicked in to everyone’s daily lives, that is when people’s social lives started to fail as well.

I was lucky and my family, friends and fiance all live in Ottawa, with the exception of a few, but for others that is certainly not the case. A personal example I have of that is one of my friend’s boyfriend lives in Ohio and she hasn’t seen him since December 2019, and doesn’t know when she will.

This is where we thank God we have social media and the means to keep in contact when we can’t do it face to face.

Obviously texting and phone calling is great, but so is sending a funny meme to your Instagram group chat to create a quick laugh, or doing a Facebook room to get a lot of people together. Or Zoom and Houseparty, where you can even play virtual games with friends. It is just so great what technology has done for us.

An article in The Drum was talking about the positives and negatives with social media during the pandemic and one of the positives was the communication between people. “Around the world, those suspected of harbouring the disease are quarantined inside their homes or in medical institutions. In these conditions, social media serves as the only reliable way for the victims of this virus to communicate with the outside world.” (para 9).

Did social media help you guys keep in touch with friends and family? What sort of apps did you use during the quarantine part of the pandemic?

References:

Sokolov, M. (2020, March). The pandemic infodemic: how social media helps (and hurts) during the coronavirus outbreak.

The Drum.

https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2020/03/03/the-pandemic-infodemic-how-social-media-helps-and-hurts-during-the-coronavirus

Online Shopping in COVID-19

Ok, so as someone that likes to online shop during the best of times, doing it during the pandemic was a different experience. First of all, the shipping delays were so far fetched it was nuts. Blaming it on ‘international’ shipping when I ordered from Sephora and it took ten weeks, not anyone’s fault but there’s, in my opinion. Second of all, people are spending their money when they are broke and bored, please don’t make them wait.

I think a lot of brands and companies took advantage during the pandemic and the fact that people could’t leave their house so they were kind of forced into online shopping. Amazon definitely made a fortune. I think a way online companies took advantage of COVID-19 and of people online shopping was that they could put a premium price on shipping and handling fees. People wanted their products fast. In the middle of the pandemic, there was an article written in CBC Magazine (2020) that said “Online sales totalled 3.4 billion during the month, an increase of 120 per cent from last year’s level. In total, online selling made up almost 10 per cent of everything sold during the month, an all time high.” (para 8). This is evidence that people were bored and scared, so they found online shopping and found how easy it is to get things delivered to your finger tips no matter the circumstance.

In conclusion, I think online shopping during the pandemic was important for most of the population. It kept us sane, it made people feel like they were still in contact with the real world and it helped local businesses. However, we need social interaction. The world can’t survive on everyone in masks and showering in Purell. I do think that some major online companies (Amazon for example) thrived during the pandemic because people had to buy online, they really had no choice.

My point of my blog is that online shopping is great and necessary, and fifteen years ago a global pandemic would’ve been a very different thing. BUT, we need to remember that the huge websites want us to spend our money and they are using the fact that people staying home and not working as much are making us online shop more!

Don’t buy things you don’t need!!!! If you can’t stop thinking about an item for 3 months, sure, but don’t impulse buy. You and your bank account will appreciate the favour!

References:

Evans, P. (2020, June). Retail sales plunged, but online shopping soared as COVID-19 settled in April.

CBC

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/retail-sales-april-1.5618839

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/business/news/instagram/how-customers-can-shop-through-covid19

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WorldlineCanada/status/1240692188964466688

How Social Media Helps Me Plan a Wedding During COVID-19 (And Feel Normal)

I’ve been dating my boyfriend for four years and been living with him for over one year and he finally proposed to me this past week. I was over the moon (and the ring is quite the rock to). With all this excitement I forgot about the reality we are living in, COVID-19. With the gatherings pretty much having to be outdoor….and living in Ottawa where the weather is super unpredictable, I am understandably a little nervous. I basically have two months to plan an outdoor engagement party (who knows what the gathering limit even is anymore??) and every Saturday for 2021 is booked up. Great.

My boyfriend is also ten years older than me and is very close to his grandparents who are in their mid 90’s. So having the wedding next year and not waiting until 2022 is very important to him, which in turn puts more pressure on me.

I think a lot of families are stressed and confused about their daughter or son’s current situation and that can add some pressure as well. But looking on Facebook and Instagram and seeing other women going through a very similar situation makes me calm, this situation is out of our control and we are not alone. A great group to look for support is Ottawa Weddings on Facebook, it is a great sound board. I have learnt that everything happens for a reason and that this day is about you and your partner. Do what is best for the two of you. I have also learnt that there are a lot of positive online articles about what you can do to a) keep calm about your wedding and b) and make it the best it can be due to the pandemic. Listed below is a favourite article of mine. https://www.todaysbride.ca/articles/covid-19-and-wedding-cancellations/

Some people may call it ‘princess- like’ but I call it just wanting my dream wedding and not expecting to have it during/at the end of a pandemic. What would you guys do in this situation?

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ottawaweddings

Twitter: @covid19wedding

Supporting Local During A Pandemic

As somebody that loves to go out for a nice dinner or a quick drink with friends, when that came to a halt in March I learnt to not take things for granted. As I was having an un-warranted pity party for myself I was also thinking ‘OMG imagine owning your own restaurant right now?!’ While the world was sitting at home worried about COVID-19, the other half of the world was worried about how the deadly disease can ruin their source of income (family run restaurants, boutiques, etc). However, restaurants adapted greatly and started doing takeout including wine and beer!

I personally think that supporting local businesses during a global pandemic is extremely important. It is important for our economy and it is important so that those restaurants keep a float during these hard times. Imagine a world without your favourite local Italian restaurant?

Fast forward three months and restaurants have partially opened, meaning patios can operate. Personally I was so excited that I went out the first night they opened (lol). I was talking to some of my girlfriends about me going to a local restaurant that weekend and some of them disagreed with me about going. They were saying that we should all still stay home and that basically going out in public is not safe. I found myself disagreeing with them. If you are healthy and able to financially go out and support locally, you should! Especially because there are so many people that have compromised immune systems and need to stay home. If we don’t support our local businesses then our world as we know it could enter in to a repression, which in some cases is worse than COVID-19.

Fast forward four months and I now work as a server because my previous job was stopped due to COVID-19. So, I now really understand how difficult this pandemic is to people that are working in local businesses, specifically the restaurant industry.

Obviously, I am not telling everyone to go out and risk their health and bank accounts so that people can go out and get a plate of pasta. I am saying, think about how the world and economy is being affected during this pandemic and how our society could really take a turn for the worse if local businesses deplenish.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sandi.johnson.121/posts/10157223449071538

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/MinutemanIntl/status/1281587573673078785