anahorvath.com

Tag: stay healthy

  • The Stress of the COVID-19 Test

    Recently, my apartment complex had to be tested for COVID-19 as a result of wastewater testing and I have a little story to share regarding that. Good news is, I’m negative, first of all. Second, I hope you are all staying healthy and doing the best you can to stay sane and optimistic during these weird times in the world.

    Story time!! I received an email from my university’s housing services requiring mandatory COVID-19 testing. Understandable. I scheduled my test and was able to get in the next day. The test was self-administered meaning that I had the joy and pleasure of sticking a swab up my nose til I felt a little bit of pressure and then swirling it around a few times on both sides. Following that, I had to carefully break off the little tip with all my nose gunk on it and seal it in a little tube with some liquid and then place my tube in a biohazard bag that then went into a little cooler. Easy peasy. Yes it did hurt a little, but I’m thankful that my school offered a quick and free test for students. I hope following that experience, I never have to be tested again, but only time will tell.

    The test itself wasn’t difficult, as I mentioned, it was the thoughts that led up to my test and those that followed as I waited for my results back. The convenient thing about the testing ordered by my university, was the turn-around of results. I heard back that my test was negative a little after 24 hours. I absolutely DREADED waiting to get my results back though. Yes, I have been asymptomatic. Yes, I have been wearing my mask and following all CDC guidelines and procedures to the best of my ability. Yes, I have been doing whatever I can to maintain a happy and healthy physical and mental state. But still, the thought of, “What if I have this virus and have to quarantine in my apartment all by myself?” loomed over me from the moment I got the email requiring testing to the moment I got the email with my results back. I had all this anxiety and nervousness about what I would have to do if I did have COVID-19 and I absolutely hated how on-edge and stressed out I was.

    Like I said, I was pretty confident that I didn’t have the virus, but I thought a lot about, “Well, what if you’re just not showing symptoms? But you might be the kind of person to show symptoms, considering that you have asthma.” And then my head went in the direction of, “What if you really are forced to quarantine? Are we going to have enough food for two weeks?! What do I do if I can’t leave my apartment to get food but I’m all out?!” There was just a lot of unnecessary stress and panic. Maybe some of you can relate. The feeling of not knowing is a really scary and stressful feeling. In the end, I am grateful for my health and that negative result.

    I’m not quite sure what can be done to alleviate the stress associated with being tested for COVID-19, or if anyone else has felt like they were in a similar situation, but it would be interesting to know how you all are dealing with this. And if you have been tested, how has that been? I just hope you all are staying happy and healthy. Take care of yourselves this week!! See you next Sunday. 🙂

  • Quarantine is Real- Some Ideas for Free Time

    quarantine
    Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

    It’s Palm Sunday everyone! Not going to lie, I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to post this Sunday, but then I got it. We’re all at home and some of us have nothing to do, so what’s better than a list of recommended movies and TV shows and other things to do to clear up those quarantine blues and boredom that may be growing?

    MOVIES

    As far as movies go, here’s a couple of movies I recommend. If you’re not really into chick flicks and rom-coms/comedy and Disney movies, this may not be your list. And if that isn’t the case, maybe this is a list of movies that you consider? I was going for a feel-good, happy, something-to-make-you-laugh bunch of movies with this list, so if that’s something you’re looking for, here are my recommendations:

    • Clueless
    • Mean Girls
    • Miss Congeniality
    • Police Academy (1, 2, or 3)
    • Parental Guidance
    • Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter is Dead
    • Bad Hair Day
    • Adventures in Babysitting
    • Storks
    • Boss Baby
    • Wreck-It-Ralph
    • Ralph Breaks the Internet
    • Cinderella (live action and animated)
    • Frozen
    • Frozen II

    TV SHOWS

    As far as TV shows go, I was going for a similar, feel-good, pick-me-up vibe for the most part. I’m not really all that big of a TV person, considering that school is typically my entire life, but when I do have time for TV, there are a couple of things I watch. If you’re gonna watch a TV show, binge watching can be a lot of fun, but I’d try to limit it to an episode or two, for health’s sake.

    • 9-1-1
    • Game of Thrones– definitely NOT a happy show to watch though, heads up
    • Lego Masters
    • The Good Place
    • Schitt’s Creek
    • Saturday Night Live– I recommend watching older seasons. In my opinion, they were just more funny then.

    BOOKS

    I’ve been reading a lot more lately, and honestly, I recommend that you all do the same. I’ve always loved reading but school literally sucks up so much of my time and it’s sad how little I’ve read over the past year and a half. This quarantine has given a lot of people so much free time. You are free to do whatever you want with your free time, but I’ve really seen this as an opportunity to develop (or redevelop) some new and more healthy habits, involving less screen time. One of those habits, has been reading, and so I’ll share some of my favorite reads of all time and as of lately that may interest you:

    • The Selection series by Kiera Cass
    • The Siren by Kiera Cass
    • Heartless by Melissa Meyer
    • The Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard
    • The Jewel series by Amy Ewing
    • The Winner’s Kiss trilogy by Marie Rutkoski
    • The School for Good and Evil series by Soman Chanani
    • The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins- she’s making a prequel to the series!!
    • Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling – these are good movies to watch as well
    • Unstoppable by Maria Sharapova
    • Rafa by Rafael Nadal
    • With All Due Respect by Nikki R. Haley
    • Driven: A Daughter’s Odyssey by Julie Heldman

    And if you’re looking for something else to read, this blog is another option. 🙂 I’ve been posting for the past five years on this blog and I update it every Sunday, so if you’d like to receive email notifications when I post, you can subscribe at the link below! I promise you won’t receive any annoying emails, just notifications for when the next post goes up!

    Make of the most of this quarantine and good health and time with family. Most importantly, I hope you are all taking care of yourselves, friends, and family. Despite the fact that I just shared a bunch of books and TV shows and movies for you to enjoy during this quarantine, I encourage you to get outside if you can and get some fresh air and enjoy nature. We all need it. If you feel like you need someone to talk to or want to see your idea as a blog post, you can always reach me on my contact page and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. 🙂 Stay happy and stay healthy. I’ll see you all next week.

  • COVID-19 in Colorado: Our Current Situation

    COVID-19 in Colorado
    Credits to the artist. 🙂

    Maybe you’re all sick of hearing about it by now, but we’ve got a global pandemic on our hands. I think it’s important to stay informed and educated during a time like this and more than anything, I think it’s important to stay positive and driven. Here’s how my story on COVID-19 in Colorado.

    As I write this, Colorado is way over 200 cases of COVID-19 and the United States has declared a national emergency. New York, Washington, and New York have been the hardest hit as of right now and I send prayers to all of you reading from those states right now. This whole situation has been unreal.

    Colorado is currently in a place where a lot of businesses and services have shut down until late March or April, but I honestly have a feeling that a lot of things are going to be closed for longer. I come from a place of observation, not pessimism when I see this. Seeing how fast the virus has spread in the United States, I just have a feeling that we’re just seeing the beginning of things in the U.S. From what I know, most, if not all schools have switched to holding some form of online classes or provided families with homeschooling content and it’ll be interesting to see what comes from this as far as education opportunities go, once this clears up.

    There’s a lot of talk about a stay at home order or shelter in place order. I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that, but if it does, we need to do what we can to flatten that curve. As a biology major, I have been very interested in this entire situation. Of course I’m saddened by the effects this is having on so many people and honestly scared in some ways by the power something that’s not even as large as skin cell can have on the world. I’ve also been so interested in how this virus can survive on surfaces and how it affects our bodies. I’m also really proud to say that my university, Colorado State, has a research center that is currently conducting research to find a vaccine for this little monster that has sent our world into the state it’s currently in.

    COVID-19 in Colorado has turned grocery stores into an absolute nightmare now. My family has been trying to find rice and flour for the past week now, and we’ve had zero luck because of all of these people stockpiling their food and additional household supplies. I can understand that there’s a lot of uncertainty regarding our current situation but you do not need the large amounts of toilet paper stashed in your bathroom or all of the frozen foods you can fit in your cart. Trust me. There are some people who haven’t even had a CHANCE to grab any of that and the only food they have is what was in their fridge before this whole mess started, and these stockpilers have left those people with zero options. My mom and sister went to the grocery store this past week and there was this dad there with his son. They were throwing a birthday party and couldn’t find chicken ANYWHERE because so many other people had run in, taken as much as they could, and left. As mentioned before, I understand that this situation is scary to many and new to all of us, but we need to be rational with our decisions and consider others, especially when it comes to what’s available for purchase.

    And still on the topic of grocery stores, my mom and I got back from Costco earlier today and dealt with some extremely nasty people. COVID-19 in Colorado has turned some people into monsters, oh my goodness. I understand that this is a tough time and again, it’s scary and new, but no one deserves to be yelled at over barely bumping into someone with a cart. My mom barely caught the heel of this lady when we were getting into Costco and this lady turned around and screamed at my mom, yelling, “WOULD YOU STOP RUNNING INTO ME WITH YOUR CART?!” First of all, that lady rudely asked me before we even entered the store and asked why there was a line. Costco created a 30 person in, 30 person out policy to comply with CDC guidelines. She then proceeded to cut us in the line after we were asked to sanitize the cart and when my mom just barely ran into her, this lady blew up on us. I don’t know what her situation was or what she has been dealing with, but I believe that regardless of whether or not you’re having a good day, you should put your feelings and thoughts aside and be kind to others. No one deserves to be treated with that sort of unkindness EVER and especially in a time like this. Some people were even fighting over the food and stuff available in Costco, which I found ridiculous too. Good Lord, it’s a rotisserie chicken. The sign said that each shopping party could only grab one chicken, so accept it. Those are the rules. And the way that some people treated the employees was absolutely disgusting. The employees are more at risk than anyone because of the amount of people they interact with and you have the audacity to scream at them for there not being any cleaning supplies in stock? That’s just unacceptable.

    From this post, my goal is not to scare you or worry you. It is simply to educate you on what we’ve been dealing with in my state. I hope that you all are staying healthy and smart out there. Please take care of each other and listen to what your local and national governments are saying. Stay informed and most importantly, take care of yourselves and stay positive. And in addition to that, we need to be kind. My life quote is “Have courage and be kind.” In a time like this, that is SO SO SO important. We do not have time to be blaming some poor employee at Costco for not knowing where the Naked Juice is. We don’t have the resources to be hoarding toilet paper and napkins and other supplies. We SHOULD be treating each other with respect and lifting each other in this uncertain time so that we can get through this.

    So have courage and be kind. Stay healthy too. 🙂 See you next week.

  • College Life and COVID-19

    covid-19
    Picture courtesy of the Center for Disease Control

    So this past week has been one HECK of a week, let me say that. College life and COVID-19 are quite the combination. I’m now on spring break (thank goodness) but this past week at school, it was very interesting to see how coronavirus (COVID-19) developed and how it has affected everything.

    It has been incredible to watch the response to this novel virus strain from the local, state, national, and even international levels. A couple of weeks ago, we received emails here at CSU introducing this current nightmare of a coronavirus. We were told that my university was monitoring the situation and would be updated as new information came up. And that new information came QUICK.

    First the virus hit the U.S. and after that, boom. Schools in Washington were deciding to shift to online platforms, and before I knew it, CSU decided to do the same. On Wednesday this past week, our president and executive team made the decision to extend our spring break to March 24th, with classes starting up ONLINE beginning March 25th. We will be in online classes at least until April 10th and as the virus continues to do its thing, my school may or may not continue to use online platforms for learning. We shall see.

    On Wednesday, it was very interesting to see the reactions of my fellow students. Some were thrilled classes were moving online and ideas of slacking off and screwing around clearly filled their heads. Others, myself included were concerned. What’s going to happen to my labs? Are all exams online now? Are my exams still going to happen that were scheduled upon return from spring break prior to the COVID-19 pandemic? There are just so many questions we have. Some have answers, but some are still just up in the air.

    Now. I keep talking about Wednesday, and now I would like to have a little story time. Wednesday, I was supposed to have an in-person exam for my physiology class, which has become my favorite class this semester without a doubt. I was headed to my accounting class at noon when I received an email that my exam, which was supposed to be at 5 on Wednesday night, was moved to be online and I had five hours to schedule an online exam time. It was a mess and I have absolutely hated working with ProctorU to handle online exams. Read my posts about summer classes to learn more about those experiences. Haha.

    And as I now add to this post on Sunday, my university has decided to shut down for the rest of the semester, with all classes finishing online. This will be interesting. Oh boy, will this test the discipline and self-control and focus of students across the country.

    More than anything, I want everyone to stay healthy and smart out there. To those of you reading this, please please please take care of yourselves and your family. Please make smart decisions and educate yourself on the current situation. Now, more than ever we need to make educated and well-thought out decisions to keep each of us safe and healthy to the best of our abilities. CO-VID 19 is a fascinating, but clearly contagious and dangerous virus to many people so we need to work together and get through this. I really recommend checking out the CDC page on the virus. I’ll link it for your convenience: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html

    Have a good week and stay healthy out there. See you next Sunday!