I have not fixated on every written word shared or spoken on every news broadcast but I am aware of what is going on in the world. Life is crazy busy and I make it a point to listen to the news as I go through the motions of the day.
We still care for my 84-year-old father-in-law and he is still stubborn as a mule. My other uncles 78 and 71 and my aunt 80 all need a little extra from time to time and I am blessed and thankful we are all still able to interact and help each other as best we can. And I worry because of all of their ages...and the age of my husband...that this new "bug" can be quite hard for an elderly person to handle. Practicing good hygiene, eating right, exercise and rest are key to fighting off anything that invades us to cause us ill.
So what in the hell is there to fight the woes of social media?
Social Isolating is a new term being thrown around to enforce our boundaries of wellness in the real world. Social Media Isolating? Total Isolation is the only cure for that.
Monday.
The news is filled with more updates on the worsening of the crisis and the measures our state and federal government is implementing. We have had school closures, social gatherings of all kinds canceled, and plenty of local business and city municipal buildings on lockdown. In hearing the stats on how this virus is multiplying daily infecting people by the thousands in a week's time I knew our stores would be affected next. How could they not?
The grocery stores will remain open we are told, but shopping in them in an entirely new experience I could have lived a life without knowing.
Fighting. Over. Toilet Paper.
(eye roll)
Being raised poor and doing without taught me to always be sure to take care of your " four walls " before anything else. Four walls meaning those things that keep you living. Aside from the light, mortgage, heat, and food...we need to keep our other necessities addressed. I am not a hoarder of those things, but they are added to my shopping cart when the backup is pulled to be used next.
So I have toilet paper. Thankfully because there isn't a roll to be found anywhere here.
I watched people shopping for a time from the side of the aisle to stay out of the stampede when shopping for my father-in-law Thursday and it was eye-opening. Tall. Empty metal racks that once held the basics of paper necessities now barren of even of dust. Canned goods, milk and bread...gone. Hand soaps and cleaning products. Cleared out.
Those things that we take for granted on our weekly lists now unavailable to us. And customers on a quest to grab their needs at any cost.
Because we are scared.
Scared because we are unsure of what lies ahead. One day we are told it's in China. We hear it but maybe ignore it as China is not here. Then it's on cruise ships. Hmm, now we are paying attention. Day and Night news continuous coverage of those suffering on what should have been a happy cruise of a lifetime turned into a floating prison of sickness. Our hearts break in hearing it all.
The boats get help and passengers leave...now Italy and Iran are in trouble with sickness.
Uncontrolled and spreading like wildfire through the elder population and all we can do is wait. And Pray. Then there are sick people in the United States.
So yes, we are scared.
And the schools close. And we socially isolate ourselves to 6 feet apart from one another. And the businesses begin to shut down. And we worry how will those kids get a meal and how can we pay our bills.
And the Governor declares a state of emergency at the news conference you are watching at the time and you think...things just got more real.
Businesses that are considered non-essential are to close. Restaurants are to stop dine-in service and can remain open with only take out or delivery. ( which still makes me scratch my head because people will be making that food and someone has to deliver it from place to place so...where's the isolation??)
And when the word came down as the top story of closing businesses ... I, of course, thought ...and shared...the Malls will be next to close for a time. Why were they still open anyway? I guess Bath and Body Works gals will be done for a bit.
My sister works at a Boscovs store and she had texted me early in the morning that they were cutting the mall and store hours more now...in case I was going out. I was not.
I texted her when the Governor had just declared a state of an emergency and she called me to tell me the store was closing as we spoke. They had no customers for days so the CEO decided as much. She was going home and I was happy she would be safe.
Which is what happens when we get huge snowstorms.
When it is bad, he declares it an emergency and life...outside the four walls ceases for a time. This will not be a typical snowstorm scenario.
I shared my thoughts with another friend about the malls and stores in the malls and it happened.
It was decided that nationwide and Canada, all Bath and Body Works Stores would close for approx. two weeks. Victoria's Secret and Pink stores would also close for a time. The approx. re-opening should be March 30th but of course, it would be determined on a case by case basis depending on what happens with the virus and where it happens.
The workers would get paid for this time off...which I thought is wonderful. And Online shopping would remain available.
Because the stores were not yet closed for the day, I made a post and shared this closing of the store on social media.
And a firestorm of hate ensued.
Here's the thing. I was NOT thinking about workers reading this posting I made. I was making it for us consumers to know. So if you were in the process of deciding on going to the store for something, or needed to hit the store but put it off for the next day...the store would be closed for two weeks in case that mattered. Anyway, how would I know that those workers wouldn't know?
As fast as I made the post, I was hit with hate-filled comments. FROM WORKERS of this brand. I am accustomed to the always insulting IS THIS TRUE comment. There are always those who must think I am sitting here making stuff up to share to stir up the day.
Then I received the Manager comments...and the key holder comments, the SA comments and the DM comments all who complained with vile-filled anger that I released information too soon before they had time to "process" what was going on to inform their team. That they heard about it themselves at the same time and I had no right to say anything.
Friends...look out the window. People are dying and people are sick. Get your priorities in order before you lecture me.
The world is in chaos and y'all are mad at me because I shared something that {YOU HAD TO HAVE KNOWN WAS COMING } but was random that I was told casually as happening BEFORE you gathered yourselves together. Were you planning on telling the workers you had there exposed to germs all day at the end of the shift? Did you think they didn't know it would happen?
And for the workers... you are all pissed off at me Because Bath and Body Works closed down for two weeks to PROTECT YOU and their CUSTOMERS??? I didn't make a virus to get the stores to close and to get the world in a mess. You act as if I am unsympathetic to your time off money situation. Who said I was?
You didn't like hearing it from a social media site before your boss told you??...don't go on social media. You shouldn't be surprised to find out something socially first. You work for a company that makes you deny things are coming out daily or exist for goodness sake.
Then all of your buddies all pile on with the "liking" your hate comments...and spewing enough of their own that other commenters felt the need to say something. Then y'all started attacking them. Comments calling me names...telling me I should be ashamed of myself, calling me a smug bitch...and other things I deleted and chose not to repost. Classy.
I am sure they aren't part of the L BRANDS motto of social behavior. While you are off maybe you should READ your handbook.
To that, I will say this... Had anyone commented to me privately, I could have addressed the situation.
But that is not how Social Media works, is it? You sit at your keys and say what you wish to a total stranger publically to harass knowing you will never have to tell me such things to my face.
THIS HAPPENS all of the time!
When I shared the information, one other person on Instagram shared it a few minutes after me. NOT ONE PERSON said a word to her about sharing this closure information. But 450 comments at me...that's okay I suppose.
It is what it is. And I will continue to do what I love to do while sharing the fun part of being a fragrance fan. And goodness do I have some great info I cannot yet share. Soon.
My advice is if you hate me...as much as it appears you do... keep it to yourself. Right now, I am not thrilled with some of you either.
I am not interested in hearing it, nor are the loyal followers of this brand.
If you share it either under your real social id or the 50,000 fake ones you make to-do such things I will continue to block/ban you and then report it.
When you come to my other social sites to complain you were blocked and did NOTHING...know I keep screenshots of all of this crap to show just what you did say/do. I will block/ban you there too.
Nine years doing this and I still have to be a freaking hall monitor. Geesh! Grow up.
If you are a worker of this brand you have to know they follow me closely and they read more than likely everything. What I say and what you say.
When you are dumb enough to come and say what you do without thinking you're on your REAL id page don't be surprised if you hear more about it and not from me.
Last night I made a posting upset with chest pains after 1AM, that I don't want to hear another negative thing on my social pages. And some of you still had to come and do it again. You just cannot help yourselves.
I am guessing this is the new Normal. We can fight people in the store aisles over rolls of toilet paper and hand sanitizer while spewing hate to strangers on social media.
It sort of takes the Social part out of life...
God Help Us.