Week 7 of My Shelter in Place Travels

San Francisco first asked residents to shelter in place starting on March 17. My daughters and I had already unofficially been doing so for five days prior to that request. When my husband joined us on March 17, I found it comforting to have our whole family together and as safe as possible at home. I even started doing a whole #shelterinplacetravels series where I use my imagination and photo editing apps to travel anywhere I want to without actually leaving my home.

This past week, however, we have tentatively been stepping outside of the home because we’re human, and moving our bodies in the sun makes us feel a lot more human than staying inside of our lower level flat that gets minimal natural light.

It used to be that stepping outside of our home for a quick walk was no big deal. We’d put on our shoes and go. Nowadays, we have to make sure that we each have a face mask to wear before heading out and that we aren’t hungry or thirsty or in danger of needing to use a restroom any time soon because grabbing a “quick” bite or drink will be a whole process and forget about trying to find a public restroom to use. Then there’s the whole stripping and cleaning process that happens once we get home.

I love going for walks, it’s my favorite form of exercise and I also fell in love with my husband over the course of many walks together. Walking has always felt wonderful to me until now. Now, with a pandemic that is not over, going for a walk feels more dangerous than I would like it to feel. Am I being paranoid? Maybe. But stepping outside our home during a pandemic feels hazardous to our health, which might be why …

On Day 43, of sheltering in place, I felt like I was just winging it.

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Day 47 of shelter in place in San Francisco: I haven’t been in the mood to use my imagination to travel lately. Why? Well, my husband is heading back to work on Monday and I’m not thrilled about it. On an economic level, I understand that we need to get more people working again, but on an emotional level, all I can think about is protecting these beautiful souls who happen to be my children. I keep my fears to myself for the most part because they don’t need to be burdened that way. Instead, I focus on teaching them to wear a mask when we go outside to protect others from our germs and I teach them to be grateful for everyone else who is wearing a mask to protect us from their germs. That’s how it works –– I look out for you and you look out for me. That’s how it’s always supposed to work, but we forget. For now, I will only travel as close to home as possible and when I do, I’ll wear a mask because I feel like it is the very least that I can do to help us all get through this pandemic with as few casualties as possible. When I get bored of staying at home or close to home, I will continue to use my imagination to travel the world. #shelterinplacetravels

A post shared by Claudya Martinez (@byclaudya) on May 3, 2020 at 12:01pm PDT

Shelter in Place Travels

San Francisco, CA

ALSO READ: Week 6 of My Shelter in Place Travels

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