I seriously thought about titling this life behind the chastity belt.

That just wouldn’t work because, well chastity belt implies no knocking of the proverbial boots and I know people are probably at least jiggling a boot here and there. I was trying to be creative and say things that are fun to do are closed. But I couldn’t think of anything so I went with the official phrase, Shenzhen slow down.

You might not know what I’m talking about. Because if you aren’t in China the world is buzzing about other things. For those in China? Pretty much talking about Covid.

Shenzhen is right next to Hong Kong. It was one of the draws when I first chose this school to work at over others in China. I haven’t been there since December of 2019 though because of the tight border rules. Recently they were talking about loosening those rules and allowing freer flow to Hong Kong. Then omicron hit, and well, it’s been infective. I mean that’s what it’s known for, so not much of a surprise.

We are one of the main supply venues for Hong Kong and that means we have started getting infections here as a result. We went through one semi lockdown. Areas near me were locked up tight but we could still go out and about. Not everybody could though so I shut up about it.

Then the lockdowns were lifted and we had a good week. Then omicron case numbers rose and we went into what the city was calling a slow down. Which I guess sounds more friendly then you are locked in your city for an indefinite period. The metro and bus lines were shutdown. Basically everything that was non-essential was closed down. All restaurants and bars had no dining available just delivery (if the employees weren’t locked in their apartment complex). And food stores were open because people gotta eat. Our complex was still open and we could come and go even though there was not much open.

Yesterday we got told the district we live in pretty much locked down. We have one card per household that’ll get one person out for up to an hour every 2 days. In case we need to go get something that can’t be delivered. Testing is now happening at our complex and we no longer get to walk down the hill. Our testing stickers also disappeared and now we have a stamp card. I miss the stickers.

I wanted to write about something else this week… I have some ideas but maybe that will happen next week.

Although I did have some good news this week. The magazine that accepted and published 2 of my poems came out this week. Check it out by clicking here:

https://issuu.com/suburbanwitchcraftmagazine/docs/swissue1