COVID-19 and a World in Chaos: Three Months in San Francisco

I can see it now.

There I am, withered in old age and in some nursing home somewhere. A nursing aide will walk into my room to help me get ready for bed and we’ll get to chatting. They’ll find out that I was alive during the great pandemic of 2020. They’ll ask me all sorts of questions: What was it like? Did I know anyone who had COVID? What did I do for months on end while stuck inside during quarantine?

The best part will be when I share that I experienced all the initial COVID-19 madness in the amazing city of San Francisco.

What a story it’ll be.

When I got to San Francisco in mid-March, I had a week off before starting work to explore the city. In my first few days alone, I saw what a beautiful city it was, even breathtaking at times. It couldn’t be more true what they say about SF and the weather. Throughout the three months I was there, I spent most of my days under blue skies and basking in the mid-seventies weather and sunshine. Even the fog that would periodically roll through, nicknamed Carl by the locals, had its own sense of beauty to it.

Despite the beauty, throughout that first week were indicators that things were going to be changing drastically, and soon. Bars I went to were slow, the gym classes I attended mostly empty. And sure enough, the morning after a group of friends and I went out for karaoke on a Saturday night, we all received the notification that the next day, a Monday, SF would be on a total shelter-in-place order.

With SF having been the first American city to take such an action, I had no idea what to expect. What would sheltering-in-place even look like? 

Obviously I was super frustrated. Talk about a let-down, moving to a new city and expecting it to be an incredible experience only to be told that I’m instead required to spend all of my time indoors without being able to explore the things that had originally brought me to SF to begin with.

Three months later, little did I know that I’d actually make the most of the situation. And in all actuality, in some ways San Francisco has been my favorite travel assignment yet. 

For one, I had a lot of time to focus on myself. I couldn’t be more thankful for a gym I’d had a membership to in Portland still holding online Zoom workouts, allowing me the chance to work out at home in an attempt to keep myself sane. We had a beautiful back porch area that had plenty of room for me to get in all the HIIT workouts I pleased (thanks Charissa, Veronica, and Paulie). That being said, I didn’t have weights and refused to purchase the price-gouged ones that were flooding the market. Because of said stubbornness, most days of the week you could find me out on the back porch, laptop set up with a workout, and me using full laundry detergent and softener bottles as my weights.

During the age of COVID, I’d like to think that the neighbors who saw me with said bottles only mildly judged me.

The house that I stayed at throughout the three months was also beautiful. It was in the Lower Haight area of SF, so in normal times the perfect location for all things bars and restaurants. But for me during COVID times, it meant a lot of time spent in the public parks that were close and plenty of bike rides.

Alamo Square Park, the park that’s home to the Painted Ladies - the vibrantly colored houses you see in the opening montage of Full House - filled many an evening throughout my three months in the city. I’d often grab a bottle of wine, a blanket and book and would spend an hour or two at the park, the sun setting over the western half of SF, a cotton candy sky overhead.

And by sheer luck, one of my roommates had a bike that she wasn’t using at the time, which she offered for me to use throughout my time in SF. It was one of the few ways that I was able to get out and explore the city without feeling like I was exposing myself to others, especially since I was consistently working with COVID patients. There were a number of days where I took off north across the Golden Gate Bridge and even further north along the Highway One route for day-long bike rides. It was such an experience to be able to bike across the GGB, and a surreal one at that. Even more surreal were the bike rides up the coast. Without a doubt, the California coast is the most beautiful drive I’ve ever experienced in the States. Would highly recommend to anyone who doesn’t already have it on their own road trip bucket list.

Those bike rides weren’t just a way of getting me outside and active. They were my little slice of heaven, giving me stunning views and a chance to escape a city that despite its beauty, still sometimes left me feeling a little claustrophobic.

My roommates were equally as incredible. This was the first time I’ve lived with random roommates since my freshman year of college (eight years ago!), so I was nervous heading into it. But here we are, months later and I consider them great friends. We joked the night before I left about what a horrendously awful experience it could’ve been to have lived with roommates who, in the midst of a quarantine, you wouldn’t have been able to escape from in the event of not getting along or being annoyed with.

Ian and Susannah cooked me delicious dinners quite frequently and were more than understanding of my job as a nurse. A lot of people would’ve been nervous to live with an ICU nurse in the midst of a pandemic, but instead they made me feel welcome and were always quick to offer a glass of wine when they knew I’d had a rough day.

Speaking of nursing, I can count myself as quite lucky with my overall experience at the hospital I worked at. The hospital itself was unlike any other I’ve ever been before. It’s a tiny community hospital located in the city of Alameda, on a small island in the eastern bay. The ICU that I worked in has a total of eight beds, and the ED when I was floated there only twelve.

So needless to say, a huge difference from the enormous hospitals I’ve worked at in the past.

And, yes, I took care of my fair share of COVID patients. And while it wasn’t near the capacity or number that places like NYC, DC, New Orleans, or Seattle were slammed with, it was nonetheless daunting to go into work knowing that my patient load would include those diagnosed with a virus that was ravaging the world.

So could my experience in SF have been better? Maybe. Looking back, would I change any of it? Honestly, I don’t think so. While at times I definitely got lonely, I also found a lot of solitude in being alone, focusing on my physical and mental well-being, all while getting outside when I could to enjoy the truly spectacular San Francisco landscape and weather.

Unlike other people, I hope I never forget the past few months and the experiences I’ve had, because in all of the mundaneness of being in the midst of a quarantine, there was still somehow a peace that I likewise found in being alone in such a chaotic world. And while there isn’t much I want to take from COVID and apply to the rest of my life, that peace of mind I do.

In a tumultuous world where anger and fear are everywhere, it’s my little silver lining giving me hope for a brighter tomorrow.