In Times of the Coronavirus, Think Before You.......Do Anything.

Which do you want first...the good news or the bad news?  Unfortunately, that question hasn't been asked much in Italy during our first month of life with the coronavirus.  There's nothing but bad news here.  The new question for me is whether I want the bad news before going to bed or the bad news when I wake up. And I'm still undecided.

But there is one thing I'm sure of. Some things aren't so nice to wake up to.  I know these people meant no harm, but before these acts of kindness are repeated, I thought I'd spread the word that it's not the best way to start what is definitley already going to be a very difficult day.   

1.  Don't leave a photocopy on the breakfast table of the instructions on what to do if you have a cough and fever and have to self-isolate.  The cereal box is more entertaining.

2.  Don't send someone in the hotbed of the virus a good morning message like this:  "Hey!  Things are really bad over there....stay safe - good luck!"  I'm not kidding.  It actually said good luck.  Good luck in what sense?  Good luck that you don't die?

3.  Don't tell someone that the liter of milk they've been saving to make fake Starbucks hot chocolate had expired so you poured it down the drain.

4.  Don't leave a note that you were craving pizza at 3am and since Domino's was closed (don't worry, it doesn't exist in Italy) you ate the last frozen pizza (which is actually much better than Domino's).

Let's break that down.  Numbers 3 and 4 didn't really happen.  And if I compare them to numbers 1 and 2 (which are true), they wouldn't have been all that bad.  Number 1 wasn't so nice to wake up to, but better safe than sorry.  That leaves us with number 2. I'd like to say the message was from one of my students that still doesn't have a real grasp of the English language, but it wasn't. It came from a Venezuelen guy that lives in Australia that I met in Toyko.  Take out Venezuela and Tokyo and he lives in Australia where they speak English, albeit funny.

Maybe the fact that he's in a different time zone means he was drunk. Maybe it was a typo and he meant to write, "Are things really bad over there?" instead of "Things are really bad over there." Or maybe he's just a nice guy that was thinking about me so much he couldn't concentrate on what he was saying. I think that's it.  

As much as I try to avoid what's happening in my tiny country it's impossible when you've got friends all over the world.  And in the end that's what I'm thankful for and I just have to stay safe and hope for a little luck.


P.S.  I hope I haven't frightened you out of sending messages.  The comments on Blogger are a bit hit or miss, so feel free to write to tenleyves@yahoo.com.