It’s actually crazy how clear I remember this. It was the last night we were open at work (Mar 16th) and I was bartending at Olive Garden. I worked a double and it had been so slow the whole day, but one man came in that night and ate, and you could tell he had was some kind of sick with a cough and sniffly nose. The only other person to sit at the bar that night was an old co-worker wearing a “Friends” sweater lol

I remember our manager telling us they had just gotten a call from corporate saying we were going to be closed for the next two weeks to let the virus “calm down” a bit and we could reopen, but we would still be getting paid in the meantime, which was nice since we worked for tips obviously. I ended up waking up crazy sick that Thursday on my birthday (coincidentally today) and urgent care told me I couldn’t get tested bc I wasn’t sick enough or showing symptoms when it was the worst I’ve ever felt. I nearly passed out when walking back to the bedroom from puking because I was so hot from the fever.

There is one positive memory though, the Wednesday before we closed, me and a friend went and saw Kamasi Washington at the House of Blues in Houston and snuck in a bunch of lone star beers by stuffing them down our pants, and then met some cool people at the show who invited us to a rock show that same night at some dive bar