Bailey | A barista, a bike, and a beautiful porch take on the pandemic
Dance brought us together, and throughout the pandemic we’d enjoy the occassional “porch” chat on facetime while I was in Kalaupapa and she was in Chicago. Bailey recently chatted with me a bit more about her journey and lifestyle changes throughout this pandemic. As usual—as we all enter into the pandemic’s virtual world—there are moments of technical gliches.
“It was going to be two-weeks, and looking back it seems kind of silly we thought it was going to be over in two weeks!”
My tape ended early…here’s one final thought Bailey shared that I really liked:
I was just concerned about the mental health aspects of being alone. But it actually wasn’t bad, I think having a pet helps alot and having an outdoor space where I could say hellow to neighbors.
“I work at Starbucks, I am a shift supervisor, and when it first started like early March—we started to do things a lot differently.
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“We got paid to be at home, which was awesome,—but I wasn’t working from home like alot of my friends and family are—so it was kind of weird. That was an interesting six weeks.”
“I live by myself—I started going on a lot of walks, and working online classes for free, just for fun. It was nice to have the time and energy to do that.”
“I started to sit on my front porch alot to listen to relax, podcasts or read books—and I met some of my neighbors.”
“It was a new bike at a used price basically—and the first month back at work it was really annoying to get there because I don’t have a car. And on the train it was reduced trips or if I took a Lyft there weren’t as many, on the train people weren’t wearing masks and I was scared—so that was as good a time as any to get a bike…I had never biked in the city before. I ended up really loving to ride it.
I open Starbucks, so when I leave my house at like 4 in the morning, there’s usually not cars and it is super peaceful, it feels fun and fast. Its kind of a mindfulness activity. I can’t be like how I was on the train, with my headphones and doing something on the phone the whole way to work, and on the bike I don’t have headphones or anything…makes it easier to get over some anxiety because you aren’t thinking about anything else but riding the bike. A good stress reliever.”
“As time has gone on people (patrons) have gotten more lazy or rude. The past few weeks have been difficult as a superviser because it is my job to tell people “hey you have to wear your mask”—”
Reminder: Tip your baristas and servers extra if you can, and be kind—follow shop and restuarant protocols and wear your masks :)
All photos were contributed by Bailey, as documentation of her last several months.
