Hello Everyone, Happy Monday.
I have no quote for this column, as per my usual, because this column is about my personal experience the last 7 days with the coronavirus, again. And my previous experience back in February 2020.
Well, maybe, here is a quote, “This viral disease infected upon the world by Communist China is not worth, not even close, to the incessant, arbitrary and capricious, not only to mention unconstitutional, shutdowns we have seen these past eight months.” Mackenzie Alan Bettle, November 16, 2020.
Ironically, I caught this viral disease at my place of work where I work part-time as a server and a bartender. Which, from what I learned today, has been shut down, again, due to COVID-19 by Dictator Newsom—even though from the plethora of statistics available, bars and restaurants have been the least of the sources contributing to new cases. Moreover, the same is applied to schools in our once-great state of Commiefornia. Yet, Dictator Newsom, especially after he got caught this weekend not abiding by his own rules, has felt it proper to bring down the heavy hand that is government upon us little people. That’ll show us. I am sure King George III learned the same lesson.
And on top of Dictator Newsom not following Dictator Newsom’s own rules, a Court in California decided that Dictator Newsom, shockingly, overstepped his executive authority in implementing a state-wide mail-in ballot executive order. But, do not worry, apparently, the election still stands.
Remember, rules for thee, not for me.
I have been a resident of California my entire life, minus two years when I was pursuing my undergraduate degree at Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business studying Business, Law, and Economics, summa cum laude, and voted there for Donald. J. Trump in 2016. My first election and vote, and one I will always be proud of.
When I came back to California after graduating, when I achieved a job at Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO), I had to go through a background check, and they required a CA state license. Thus, I spent nine hours at the wonderful DMV in San Clemente to procure this license on 3/16/2018. There, I re-registered to vote as a Republican in Commiefornia.
Since then, I have not changed my address nor my legal residency. To my shock on 11/3/2020, when I went to vote, not only was I not a voter at my address, I was not even registered to vote—anywhere. Thus, I had to do a provisional ballot, which all that is required by state law is a valid CA I.D. or License, which I have—and which our state allowed back in, I believe, 2014, illegal immigrants to be able to procure.
Nonetheless, I was given an affidavit from the poll watchers there which gave me a coupon for my voucher. It is now 13 days since the election, and guess whose vote still has not been counted? Even though the congressional race in my district has been called with 100% of votes reporting. Go ahead. Give it your own try. My voucher number is 30AB278748.
Voter fraud, election mishaps, whatever—it goes both ways. I don’t know, maybe you tell me if I am being a little too skeptical.
Talk about disenfranchisement. Cannot have those republicans being allowed to vote in Orange County, Commiefornia.
Remember, those in power who oppress us through their own “goodwill,” do so without end because they oppress us with the approval of their own conscience. That means, they firmly believe they are doing what, they think, is best for us, from their Ivory Towers. They know better than you on how to live your own life. Sounds eerily similar with what has been going on this year—from one side of the aisle. Sounds like a Communist.
I digress.
Back to my main point, as I am sure everyone knows—at my place of work, we are required, at all times, to wear a mask. Other than my place of work, I never leave my cave which is my room due to my other work, and, well, my last year of law school. Which, they say your first year is the hardest—let me tell you what is not true. Though, it is worth every penny and every second…and all the stress.
So much for those masks’ effectiveness.
I worked two weekends ago all weekend and then come Monday, I started to feel less as my normal self. Ask any of my best friends, business partners, or anyone who personally knows me, I tend to operate at a high level of around 150%. Sometimes people think I am a robot.
Sometimes I do not think they are wrong.
However, come last Monday, I had a hard time getting out of bed, a hard time focusing (which, I have very intense ADHD so any negligible loss in focus is noticeable by me), and a hard time being the normal, high-energy freak my family and friends have come to know and love.
By mid-week, whatever this was affecting me started to take a toll. I slept in a hell of a lot more than is typical of me when I am not feeling well. I usually spring out of bed; I love being awake. Which, this did not help for my abnormally high levels of anxiety. Moreover, my normal energy levels were almost nonexistent and coffee did nothing. I wanted to nap (which I never do), my sinuses were on fire, my throat sore and scratchy, my nose runny, though I didn’t have a fever which shocked me because I am a weird human being who runs abnormally high fevers of around 105 degrees (my personal record being 106) and my head had a nonstop headache which felt like pressure on the inner parts of my brain and slightly behind my nose.
I did not think this was the coronavirus. I had come to believe it was a mix of allergies and the common cold. I went and took a test on the recommendation of a wonderful woman in my life, and it turns out I was positive for the dreadful and detrimental COVID-19. Oh no.
The reason I did not think this was COVID-19 is because… I already had it back in February, before it became what it is today. And back then, when I had it, it was far worse than what I am experiencing today. Whether that is from the genetic mutations the disease has since, or the antibodies (which I took a test and came up negative on those too), or my immune system is stronger than the last—I do not have the answer.
What I do know is that I have experienced two types of this coronavirus, and the first one was worse—a hell of a lot worse.
The first virus I experienced was during my time in my second-year spring semester at my law school in Newark, New Jersey, one of the first hot spots. While physically attending Seton Hall University School of Law—when it was open. This all occurred before the world knew of this pandemic. Which this pandemic has robbed me and my fellow colleagues of being able to finish our third year together, and of the other 1L and 2L’s ability to fully engage in all our wonderful and amazing law school has to offer. I pray that some impossible fix occurs, which news of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines these past weeks gives me hope. Whether through the Force or some other road, between now and my graduation in May 2021, I am praying for something, so I can walk across that aisle for my mama and the family to see.
Though I may be known as *that* “conservative” on campus, and liked and possibly loved by a select few—the relationships I have fostered there with my classmates and certain professors is something I truly miss.
Law school over the internet is not the same—though no worries, such schools across the nation are not only charging the same, but upped tuition. Even though in the CARES act a higher majority of the money was allocated for the schools instead of students. Moreover, due to circumstances outside of the individual student, many of us were robbed last semester of the opportunity to gain our scholarships back—and not many in administration seem to care. Interesting. Moreover, online classes in many ways make the journey all the more difficult. I thoroughly miss being the lone conservative voice in discussions. However, whether financial or educational, it is something we will all overcome. That’s that for me voicing personal grievances.
As to my first bout with the coronavirus, I remember it all like it happened yesterday. It started on Wednesday where I had an eight hour gap between Securities Regulation, with one of my favorite professors, and Wills, Trusts, & Estates, with another professor I came to enjoy. Usually, in between these classes I went to the gym. That day, not feeling well, I mustered the energy and ability to go to the gym by telling myself to “not be soft.”
I did. After class, I went home and did not have an appetite and went to bed. I woke up 16 hours later having slept through my Evidence Course (with my all-time favorite professor) and was about to run late to my Fundamentals of Federal Income Taxation, with another professor I enjoyed how he taught. Yes, it was a lucky semester to accrue such a wonderful assortment of professors.
I got up, took out the fluffs to have them go to the bathroom, went up stairs to get more water (which, being physically fit as I am, this trek of the stairs almost put me down), and I came back to lay down in bed before getting ready to go to class. To my shock, I knocked out. Then, for my Persuasion and Advocacy Course that night, I hustled ready and put on my suit, because I had to go perform a five minute opening argument for my mid-term.
About maybe 20 seconds into this, my professor cut the camera and told me to “go home, get some rest, you look and sound like shit.” Which, I did not and you should not take the wrong way. Professor L is a great man.
So, I went home ready to get some rest. Again, I slept for another 16 hours and woke up midday Friday. I had a fever of about 102. Every time I breathed, it felt like my lungs and chest were on fire and that there were mini-daggers in my esophagus. My head was constantly pounding, and the pressure I experience today has nothing on the pressure I felt in my head and my sinuses then. My nose was stuffed, but there was not snot. A very odd thing, I thought, for a fever. I had assumed it may be a sinus infection and I took Zyrtec and Advil to no avail. I woke up every afternoon in what could only be characterized as a human-sized puddle of cold sweat. Energy was nonexistent. After I mustered the strength to wake up and take my fluffs out and get more water, I would come back to bed to watch Netflix and stay awake. Only to find myself, without choice, passing out until the nighttime. Only then to take the fluffs out again, get more water, and wash, rinse, repeat.
This process repeated itself until Monday, when I finally started to feel even 75% of myself and had to go to class. It was not until the next week, around Friday, where I started to feel 100% of myself.
I have had a few run-ins with sicknesses and diseases that have put me down. I contracted Barr-Epstein virus when I was 16. That one put me out for an entire month. I lost sixty-five (65) pounds in a matter of four weeks. My throat was swollen shut for almost two weeks. And this was when I had my record-breaking fever of 106. My mother is a trained I.C.U. nurse who worked in the trauma department of UCLA’s neruo-ICU.
Let me tell you, that was the only time I have seen her worried about whether I was going to make it. When I was a kid, I would have had to been bleeding from the eyes to miss school.
All of this being said about my two bouts with the coronavirus is this: none of this is worth shutting down the economy, states, cities, or the world over. And trust me, I have had some real sicknesses in my life—as I am sure we all have. This second bout seems more like a common cold with some minor sinus infection. And I am not the only one thinking that, Iron Man agrees with me.
And none of this is to say we should willy-nilly open up the economy and pretend the virus does not exist—that would be a lie. But we already shut down, a lot, throughout the year and the virus is still here. We should not listen to those who want to do what has already not worked.
I believe Albert Einstein called that insanity.
Maybe we should give more credence, control, and chances to The Great Barrington Declaration—and those genius scientists who have a different approach to handling, which as of late and from my own experience, seems to be nothing more than the common cold to the vast majority of people—and we should implement strategies, tactics, and plans of action which protect the most vulnerable among us, and have them receive the vaccine first.
Sure. It has sucked being stuck in my cave and not operating at my normal optimal level, but the cure cannot be worse than the problem. And the state of affairs our Union finds ourselves in and where it possibly is heading towards is a situation where the cure is worse than the problem.
