Day: August 10, 2022

So, it was official, I had Covid. All of the delicious food and treats we were receiving now tasted like cardboard. I couldn’t smell it, taste it, nothing. Nada! I was finally able to order ice cream from commissary and I thought, why bother! I CAN’T TASTE IT. Thanksgiving came and went. It didn’t even matter because I couldn’t taste any of it. It looked good, but that’s all I can say about the meal. The unlimited phone calls, and fun ended. They did one day come in and played Bingo with us in our cubicles. They called the numbers from the desk, and they’d bring our prizes if we won. We were still able to crochet and do things in our personal area. I was able to do a little at a time then ended up wanting to just sleep. I am extremely thankful that the only symptoms I had was loss of taste/smell and feeling tired/run down. Especially since I am a high-risk candidate. They kept us quarantined, inside quarantine about 10 days or so. We thought, wow this is finally coming to an end. Our 14-day quarantine started over though, so we knew we’d not be going with the other ladies any time soon. The next thing the four of us knew, the captain and some officers came and told us to pack our stuff they were moving us to isolate us from the others in quarantine. We were pissed! Sorry, that’s the only way to describe it. There was no reason at that point to do so. We felt it was a sad attempt to cover up the fact that it should’ve been done from the beginning when we tested positive. We were moved to a makeshift dorm that was a classroom. They put old cots in there that they brought from SCI Graterford that was shut down a while ago but still standing across the street. They gave us each a locker and that was it. We received no explanation why this was happening now, and what the timeframe was that we’d have to stay there. We also wanted to know when we could use the phones and showers. Ironically, we would still need to go back to the dorm to do these things. So, it made NO sense. We started asking about water to drink hot and cold. We had access to none of this now. It’s like they didn’t even think of those things. They just needed to move us and move us fast. The officers and staff that were once nice and playing games with us were acting like we just ruined everything. It’s not my fault we caught covid. The question was, where did we get it from? It didn’t take long to find out from family that SCI Cambridge had an outbreak shortly after we left. Tons of inmates and staff tested positive. It was all over the news. We either caught it before we left, at the pit stop we made or from a staff member at the new facility. We found out that the first officer we had, tested positive and that’ why we never saw her again after the first day or so. Our suspicion is that we caught it from her because of the time that had elapsed from when we left Cambridge to when we actually got sick. We tried to make our own fun while in that room. They did bring us a tv with dvr to watch movies. We had our own tv’s but there was no cable. I was thankful I had purchased an antenna as a backup, that little thing came in handy a few times. A few staff members did offer to take food we made and cook it in the microwave. It was only four of us in this room, so it was kind of nice after a while. We decided that we were the ones having more fun there lol. They brought in these big containers full of hot/cold water. They wheeled them in on these dollies. Well, they let them there. BIG mistake. Next thing you know we’re taking turns pushing eat other around in these carts. The officers are actually cracking up watching us. We had enough oranges to open a fruit stand. I showed my fellow Covid dwellers a game we played years ago at a family reunion. You put one orange in a sock, tie it around your waste. You take another orange and then swing the sock with the orange between your legs. You try to hit the orange on the floor across a finish line. First one to the finish line wins. The one officer had to go get another one to come and watch. We were all laughing so hard we couldn’t feel out faces lol. This circles back to “laugh or you’ll cry”. Each day, I choose joy over being miserable. Bitterness is a fickle bitch. That’s a poison, I’m not going to get up and drink everyday hoping someone else dies because of a bad situation. We were in this room a few days, and then in walks a 5th victim. Here we go again, 14 days starting all over again….