Houston, Restaurants aren't the Problem

As a restaurant owner in Houston, I was never comfortable with the early opening the Governor implemented in late April. I knew then we would be the experiment of what not to do, so I hesitated opening up our dining. I was extremely grateful that we were considered "essential," but I didn't think it was a good idea to invite guests in just yet.When Texas went into Phase 3, allowing restaurants to be at 75% capacity, I felt maybe it was time to let people in and it was "ok". BUT, I was still hesitant because....

1. Our dining area is small.

2. Guests overstaying their visits.

3. Protecting the health of my employees.

4. You just can't trust mouth breathers.

When we did finally open dining, we limited capacity to 14 people inside at one time. People who came inside and ordered to-go, we politely asked them to wait in their cars or outside until they received a text that their food was ready. For the most part, everyone complied and had no issues with this request and a few even expressed their great appreciation for this act. I just didn't want people standing around inside waiting for their food, possibly getting infected or infecting others. Again, our space is small.

This system we created on a whim lasted for about a week. All of a sudden, people in my life started testing positive.

Houston cases were on the rise.Restaurants and bars slowly started shutting down because of Covid cases within their staff.

Masks oddly became controversial.

It only took those three things for me to close up the shop and keep everyone outside for orders. I did not want to risk ANYTHING. Even on social media we were being criticized for asking people to wear a mask upon entering... this was even BEFORE masks were mandated by the city!

My point to all this... restaurants were not the driving force for this unprecedented spike! Establishments that served alcohol are the problem. The biggest concern I had with people inside our restaurant was how long they intended on staying, but after a few days of being open, I realized people stay for at about 30-45 minutes, just enough time to eat. Most guests were respectful of the fact that we are in a pandemic and don't overstay - even when they had a party of 4 (our party limit).

Let's be real... when you're done eating, what is there really left to do at a restaurant? Bars want you to stay longer and drink, this is the entire foundation of their business model. The longer you stay, the more you drink. The bigger the group, the bigger the tab. I mean... *Arms up in a questioning emoji*

Walk into a restaurant and everyone from the person opening the door to the person cleaning off your table is wearing a mask.... are most bartenders? Bars are the breeding grounds of mouth breathers, yet bartenders are STILL not wearing masks. How many times has a drunk friend ever talked to you without spit flying out of their mouths?? How many times have YOU done that?? Covid is spread from people's MOUTHS!!

AND DON'T EVEN ARGUE ABOUT WALMARTS AND TARGETS ALLOWED TO BE OPEN AND YOU'RE NOT!!!

Unless your bar can provide formula for a baby, dog food, fresh fruits and vegetables and vitamins - then you need to stop with this argument. I get it, those places are packed too.... but they have employees constantly following mouth breathing guests with disinfectant. Some of these said establishments have even set up certain shopping times for senior citizens, they actually have people at the front monitoring capacity and employees wiping down shopping carts and handing off clean ones to customers. THIS IS NOT THE SAME as having a packed bar with unmasked guests pushing each other to get to the bar.

I mean come on.... drunk people drink and drive.... do you really expect them to wear a mask at a bar or practice social distancing??

I do have friends who own bars, so by all means this isn't to bash all bars. The ones that I go to for the most part are doing their best to keep the community safe, but there are outliers. There are those who are selfish and greedy and feel the need to defy authority by turning their club into a "bar and grill" just so they can remain open. I find this extremely disrespectful considering the process it took for us to even open up as a restaurant. These are the people who are ruining it for the rest of us.But what do I know? I'm just a minority woman living in America. 

Houston vs. Covid

It has been roughly 100 days since Houston first shut down because of Covid-19. It honestly feels like it's been over a year. It's really strange to live life right now literally day by day because every moment is "Breaking News". Ever since the City of Houston cancelled the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo for the first time ever, the news is non-stop on my TV. I go to sleep with the news and I wake up to it. If I don't have it on, I get anxious, but if I watch too much of it, I get anxious. It's a lose-lose situation for me, to be honest.Anyway, since the start of this, our new business has managed to survive and thrive. We're not exactly where we want to be, but we are definitely doing a lot better than other businesses around us near and far. We have been blessed to be able to fight through this and stay afloat.At the start of all this, Houston was able to manage the pandemic. EVERYONE I knew did their civic duty and stayed home. I mean, water and toilet paper might have been hard to find, but for the most part we all stayed at home and did our part to "flatten the curve" and "slow the spread." The make-shift ER that Houston built at NRG was even taken down because we didn't need it. Our strong hospital system didn't have the amount of cases that everyone was expecting to have - like the cases in New York City. NYC was bad, really bad. All prayers went out to them after seeing their doctors and nurses pleading for masks & ventilators daily. I cried at least once a day just watching the misery on TV and thanking God that I didn't know anyone personally suffering. It was rough to hear stories about bodies piling up in empty hospital rooms, hallways and even refrigerated trucks because there was no room for the dead bodies anywhere. No one was getting buried fast enough. A mass grave had to be dug up for the unfortunate. It is truly unbelievable that we actually lived through that.Now here we are. New York was very strict about their lockdown because they had no choice. They are just now starting to open up their city because their cases have gone down and stabilized. They are slowly starting to go back to normal, but at a cautious rate. No one wanted visitors from NY, but oh how the tables have turned. They are probably one of the safest Covid cities in America right now. Good job, Governor Cuomo!As of today, Houston is now quickly becoming the worse Covid city in America. We were one of the first few states to open and I called it. I knew we would be the guinea pig group of "this is what not to do." I have known 3 people in pretty much a week span test positive, and I was exposed to 2 out of those 3 people. The first time I tested negative, but now I've been home waiting to get my test results for the second time. I lost my sense of smell on Sunday, so of course I panicked. This is how easy this spreads, I don't even go out because my personal health can make or break my business.Everyone I know so far who has gotten Covid have not been hit seriously, which is GREAT, but the affects of it all is truly felt. See, here's the thing... what people don't realize is that just because you have a high percentage rate of surviving this nasty thing, the residual affects are detrimental. Everything is a domino effect. YOU might not see it personally, but your selfish behavior might cause the harm or even death of 50 people. Houston has the LARGEST medical system IN THE WORLD and all of the ICU's are either close to or at 100% capacity.... this all happened within a week, guys.I don't understand why wearing a mask is controversial.I don't understand why bar owners are allowing establishments to be at 110% capacity.I don't understand why people are still throwing parties.I don't understand why you're STILL positive, asymptomatic and going around like you're normal.This is what happens when your behavior is selfish and reckless during the time of a pandemic, ESPECIALLY when your city has the highest amount of cases. THERE IS NO CURE RIGHT NOW!!

• You've tested positive twice, but you've been asymptomatic. Yes, go ahead with life as if nothing happened because you feel great. Go ahead and shop... because you might kill that guy's mom in front of you at HEB.
• You tested negative, and pretty much everyone you know did too so it's ok to still throw that pool party. YOU might not end up in the ICU, but your friend's brother might be on a ventilator next week because "no one had Covid at the party."
• You live in America, land of the free... no one can tell you to wear a mask. It's ok though, don't wear one to the restaurant because no one can force you to do anything. Just don't be shocked that the owner became infected, had to close for a week and was never able to financially recover because they were sick, so now their restaurant is closed for good.
• Your club has been closed for a month, Governor Abbot gave you the green light to open. Awesome, fill it to capacity so you can infect as many people in Houston as possible. Those people can then can take their diseased ass home and give it to their grandparents so that grandma and grandpa can experience a painful death.

This shit is real, folks - who cares what Donald Trump says... people are literally dying and losing their businesses. What it comes down to is that we've lost respect for life. This is a fucking pandemic with absolutely no known cure. All the smartest doctors and scientists around the world, have been working on this for MONTHS 24/7 and they still have no answers... yet your selfish ass wants to go about life as if you can live tomorrow. Yes, you probably will, but will your mom?... your sister?... your cousin?... your best friend?... your friend's business?...Stay home guys - keep yourself and everyone else healthy... and for God's sake wear a fucking mask, your breath stinks anyways! 

Hello, 2020.

So this is our current state of affairs to this date:

• Over 2 million people world wide have been infected with COVID-19 and about a third of that is in America.
• From the over 700,000 cases in America, over 40k deaths.
• We are entering into our 5th week nation wide lock down and people are starting to protest.
• Dr. Fauci (Director of NIAID) and Dr. Birx leading the Corona Virus Task Force emphasize every day that lifting lock down efforts too early is bad news for America.
• There's not enough testing to even control the spread.
• American's are suffering: millions have lost their jobs, small businesses have closed and will not recover, healthcare workers are risking their lives everyday to save people, those on their death beds can't even be with their families, depression is on the rise.
• There is still no known cure or vaccination with all the smartest doctors and scientists working 24 hours on this - NO ONE STILL knows how to fix this.

If you need a sign from God to start praying, this is your sign.Despite all this chaos, there is a silver lining, at least for me. I've been able to rest for an entire week and have nothing to worry about. The store is a little slower now, so I'm able to work and focus on things I've been putting off. I can sleep more and best of all, I've been able to watch TV.My shows I've completed through this time:

• McMillions (HBO)
• Succession (HBO)
• Tiger King (Netflix)
• Love is Blind (Netflix)
• Ozark (Netflix)
• The Food that Built America (Hulu)

There is great entertaining TV right now. Suck it up, stay home, stay healthy and stop putting the rest of the world at risk. Listen to the experts & pray we all get through this soon.