Lynda Barry's Pandemic Diary Project

I am a recent convert to Lynda Barry and her awesomeness. During my time at home, I've been trying to do some of the exercises from her book, Making Comics, which I bought back in November 2019.

ANYWAY, the NY Times ran an article by Barry about how to remember this time, especially the period right when everything was changing, as there is "a particular clarity to the memory and feeling of the ordinary transforming into its opposite."

So, this morning I followed her exercise. I typed up some of my answers below. (I wrote them down in a notebook, originally. Also, I think we're supposed to do this exercise daily, like a true diary entry, but I will probably just do it once.)

"Scenes that come back to me when I think about started to change"

• Students in my class (about half?) wearing face masks. Some students wiping off their desks before sitting in them. 
• Joking with my coworker Scott on the way into the building about hoping the Coronavirus spread to USC so we wouldn't have to go to work. 
• Getting my nails done (on March 11, I think) in a salon (Nail'd It). No one was wearing face masks, but I remember thinking this might be my last chance to get my nails done for a while. 
• So much indecision re: flying up to visit college friends in the Bay Area (and celebrating Kaylan with a friends baby "sprinkle) the weekend of March 13-16. Decided not to go, ultimately. 
• Seeing First Cow (Kelly Reichardt film) at the Arclight Pasadena on Sunday, March 15. About three other couples there. Every other row was roped off. Theaters told to close the next day, I think.  Last movie seen in a theater before everything closed. 
• Monitoring cases n the Johns Hopkins map showing red dots wehre all the cases were. Kind of a big dot in Los Angeles. 
• Seeing that Pasadena had a confirmed case (in the LA Times) and wondering how concerned I should be.