This photo was taken on Friday, and since then, everything has already changed.
At the start of the weekend, when isolation was just beginning, the sudden break in reality still felt a little bit like a snow day. Is it wrong to say there was some giddiness mixed in with the fear and the dread? My boyfriend and I sat one on each loveseat and drank and drank, until we realized we would need more beer if our stash was going to last longer than a week.
So I placed another order with my local bottle shop, Caps and Taps, just around the corner from my apartment. At the time, co-owners Phill and Steph Palgrave-Elliott, plus friend and shop regular Mark Milaszkiewicz, were running orders around North London. I snapped a photo of Mark in my building's courtyard, blossoming cherry trees just out of view, as he held my order of ciders and mixed-fermentation beers and Lagers, including Lost and Grounded’s All the Cool Cats.
Since then, the mood has dampened. Caps and Taps has closed for now. Mark has been laid off from his job. And I've spent the last week feverish and coughing on the couch, unable to smell or taste anything, though lucky not to be sicker than I am.
The world has darkened, even if every day of quarantine has been washed with brilliant sun. The fate of the industry is unknown, and there are few folks left who aren't worried about either their employment or their health, if not both. It's hard to be optimistic, and not to give into the gloom. But maybe everything hasn’t changed. Those beers are still waiting in the fridge. Friends are still a Zoom call away. The cherry trees are still blooming.
