Category: COVID-19, Politics, Social Justice Issues and More
In my series “Life During COVID-19” I discuss what’s happening in my life and how the pandemic affects me, the U.S., and the world. I also reflect on politics, social justice issues, and national or world news.
The sun is out, the sky is blue, and the flowers are blooming. With everything going on, I keep forgetting that Spring is coming. I woke up, turned the electric kettle on and took our Boston Terrier, Nora, out for her morning walk. I can’t help thinking that maybe this quarantine thing might be a good time to acknowledge all the natural beauty around us. I’m sounding cheesy and yes, I am still riding the wave of gratitude I’ve been feeling since after the Utah Earthquake on Wednesday. But still, it’s really beautiful out there.
Over the past few days, I have felt extremely lucky and dearly loved by friends who have sent me some $ for POETRY. Every little bit counts and I am realizing that as an artist I can give back to my friends and family, my community and the world, in a very special way. I can create and reflect on this unusual time probably in ways some people can’t. If they find solace or can connect with what I create whether that’s art, poetry, fiction, or music, it brings me happiness to hope that I may be helping someone on a personal level.
My Handwritten Poem “Dance with You” written/created for an Anonymous Supporter 3/22/2020
PLANS FOR TODAY
I am going to try to figure out what is going on with my unemployment. I am having difficulties figuring out when my first check will arrive or if it even will. The DWS website looks simple but I am finding it to be complicated and somewhat lackluster.
Apply to writing jobs, or jobs that require a Bachelors of English. I made a promise to my family I would stay inside until this all blows over, they are worried about my health and don’t want me working in-person jobs right now. I am respecting their wishes and applying solely to online-only jobs in case this COVID-19/Quarantine thing lasts longer than we think.
As of March 20th, 2020, I was officially LAID OFF from my full-time job at Squatters Pub Brewery. No income and no health/dental insurance.
So many of my co-workers are in the same situation. Our only source of income was our one restaurant job and now we are all scrambling to file for unemployment and look for new jobs. Yesterday I posted LAID OFF: SUPPORT MY RESTAURANT FAMILY, this post includes venmo links to my co-workers that wanted to be listed and need money asap to pay rent/bills and buy food/supplies.
Some of my friends and fellow employees
As for me, I will continue to offer POETRY FOR $ and when I get a job that is dependable, permanent and hopefully full-time with benefits (would be a plus). I will be donating any money for POETRY that I make DIRECTLY to my co-workers that need it the most.
After I’m done with the essentials on my to-do list today, I will be working on homework for my Poetry Workshop, making art, and writing.
If you want to stay up to date with my going-ons, I am posting regularly to my Instagram story.
On April 19th, I equally divided the Tip Your Server Donation fund plus a $100 contribution from a friend, a total of $600 among me and four other co-workers. I contacted all of the co-workers listed in this post below as well as fellow co-workers from Wasatch that I used to work with. Four co-workers came forward and said they were in need of some help $. On Sunday, I disbursed the funds equally among us, $120 each. I am glad that I could help my co-workers and I am so grateful to the Tip Your Server Donation and my friend that contributed $100, Thank you.
UPDATE:
On 4/7/2020 I was notified by Squatters that our company was picked out of the Tip Your Server Lotto. I was one of the five tipped employees randomly chosen to receive $500 from this donation.
I have decided that after I receive this money, I will be dividing it up equally among me and my co-workers that need it the most. I want to say thank you to the Tip Your Server Donation, the Downtown Alliance Salt Lake City, Thank you to Ty Burrell and the Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall. Thank you for your help, I deeply appreciate it, we deeply appreciate it!
The goal of this post is to provide VENMO links to my fellow employees of Squatters and Wasatch Pubs in Salt Lake City, Utah. We have been LAID OFF INDEFINITELY with no financial compensation during the COVID-19 Pandemic. For most of us, our only job(s) were as restaurant employees. Any amount you can spare to help us get through this hard time would be deeply appreciated as we file for unemployment and look for new jobs.
I am a full-time employee at Squatters Pub Brewery in Downtown Salt Lake. This job was the only source of income for me and countless fellow employees. After the restaurant ‘closure’ for dine-in service our corporate office communicated with us that we could come in and clean the restaurant for hourly pay. They were never clear as to how much that hourly was going to be and I have yet to hear what that hourly was for those that went in and worked when they could.
In the state of Utah, employers are not required to pay servers more than $2.15/hour. We do not get paid/sick leave and for many of us (before COVID-19) we couldn’t even request time off for vacations/emergencies.
On Friday, March 20th 2020, all employees (including management) for Squatters Pub Brewery and our sister company Wasatch Brew Pub wereLAID OFF INDEFINITELY, approximately 98% of all labor until the COVID-19 pandemic blows over and restaurants can open again. They decided to do this so we could file for unemployment. I was just notified by a fellow employee of Squatters (Server Chelsea: her info below) that her first unemployment check is not due to arrive for another 3 weeks.
HELP
We have rent/mortgages & bills to pay, we need groceries and supplies. More importantly, we need help and jobs asap.
Below are VENMO links to my fellow employees of Squatters and Wasatch. Any amount you can spare to help us get through this hard time would be deeply appreciated as we file for unemployment and look for new jobs.
LINKS, NAMES, and VENMO’s have been deleted as of 7/25/2020 for the safety of persons involved.
Other Resources to help Service Industry Employees in Utah right now:
All local SLC restaurants and bars must register their businesses with this donation then employees can be verified and money distributed after March 25th. So far this donation has raised approximately $141,000 for the estimated 15,000 restaurant employees in Salt Lake City.
Our company has registered with this donation.
If you want to help us and donate to other restaurant employees in SLC please donate to tipyourserver .
More resources to help Service Industry Employees in the U.S.
My name is Alina and I am a writer, artist, poet, and musician. I have been blogging and posting original content on alinahappyhansenwriter.com since March 2017. I am a graduate from The University of Utah with a Bachelor’s of Arts in English with a Minor in Writing and Rhetoric Studies. I have had half a dozen poems published in the last five years and have actively been reading my Poetry locally in Salt Lake City since my Utah Arts Festival Reading in June 2018.
I have been working in the Service Industry/Restaurants since 2016. From 2016 to 2018, I worked at Wasatch Brew Pub sister company to Squatters Pub Brewery. At Wasatch, I worked full-time as a Hostess, in charge of training new hires to host, restaurant policies and procedures, and most importantly providing the best customer service possible. In June 2018, I moved to Downtown Salt Lake City and started working as a full-time Hostess at Squatters Pub Brewery. I worked full-time at Squatters until March 20th, 2020 when I was LAID OFF INDEFINITELY with NO PAY due to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Pandemic. As an employee of Squatters, I excelled at my job as a Hostess and later trained and worked other job duties including Expediter and Busser.
I miss my job and my friends at work and I just want to help in any way I can during these uncertain times.
If you would like to support me, I am handwriting Poems for $. For more info on this please go to SUPPORT ALINA: POEMS FOR $. So far I have already completed FOUR POETRY ORDERS FOR $ as of 3/22. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support both financially and emotionally during this time.
When I get a job I will continue to write POEMS FOR $ and I will be sending all the money I earn directly to my fellow employees of Squatters and Wasatch who need it the most.
Thank you for your time, your consideration, and your love.
Best of luck to you all, stay safe and stay well out there!
Want to become one of my Patrons? Go to my page here and join a tier. All patrons regardless of Tier have access to all of my patron-only content right now! Tiers start at $3/month! I will also send you via snailmail a handwritten personalized Poem + Thank you card for becoming a patron.
Become a Subscriber! Get notified when new posts are published plus once a week I will send content just for you: poem, personal update, reading list, writing tips and more!
Today is a good day. The sun is out, the sky is clear (for the most part) and it’s beginning to feel a little bit like Spring.
I am feeling good and working as hard and as fast as possible. I am drafting up a post that will be published tomorrow to Help Support My Restaurant Family during this time. Yesterday, all of us (including management) were laid off indefinitely with no financial compensation to help us survive.
I feel fortunate and am deeply grateful because I have already had four anonymous supporters donate money to me for poems (POETRY FOR $). These people are lifesavers for me and my boyfriend right now. Since I was the main moneymaker in our household (bringing in 2/3rds of the income) we are budgeting and making plans for the next one to three months depending on how long it takes for me to find online work.
I want to help my friends, my co-workers, as much as I can and I am planning on continuing my POETRY FOR $ after I get a job. All the money I make from Poetry after I get a job I will send directly to my co-workers that need it the most. So I am going as fast as I can to apply and find work.
My family doesn’t want to work in-person during this time and I am respecting their wishes. Since I was working in a restaurant where we have tons of people from the airport coming through they are already very concerned about my health. I am young and I am healthy and am not at very high risk when it comes to COVID-19 but they want me to stay home and be cautious at this time.
Right now, I have two poems and thank you cards to write to my supporters. Afterward, I am looking for more jobs, especially possible online tutoring jobs for English/Literature Studies, Reading, and Poetry.
Become a Subscriber! Get notified when new posts are published. Every Monday I will send content just for you: poem, personal update, reading list, writing tips and more!
Today it is cloudy and rainy in Salt Lake City, kind of beautiful and kind of doomy. But there have been very few and very small aftershocks from the earthquake on Wednesday. As of this morning, I don’t think I’ve felt any aftershocks or noticed any so I am relieved.
I found out through the Department of Workforce Services that I am eligible for unemployment, it will not be a lot but it is something. It does not give me any information on my Unemployment page about when to expect my first check or anything related to that but I did apply for one Technical Writer position (remote of course) already this morning using the DWS Job Search.
Starting yesterday I am compiling a list of venmo links of my fellow employees at Squatters. On Sunday I will be posting a list of individual venmo links. My restaurant family is large and so many of us are full-time restaurant employees. For most of us our primary income source is working at Squatters. I believe that giving $ directly via venmo to those in need right now helps faster than unemployment/grants/aid funds. For a lot of us our rent is due April 1st with no exceptions to the current events.
(As for me, I luckily paid an extra month of rent only a week before all of this went down just because I could at the time. I am more worried about my friends.)
Setting up my mic/camera so I can start recording videos of myself reading/talking about poetry (I plan on posting those regularly)
Making Art/Making Music
and HAVING FUN!
This has been a crazy week and I feel like I’m still trying to catch up with everything. Keeping tabs on the spread of COVID-19, looking for jobs, and checking the Utah earthquake maps. It is a lot but I don’t feel doomed or sad during this time. I am focused on working hard and staying in touch with everyone in my life.
If you’re interested in helping me out, I am offering POETRY for $ at this time.
Thank you to everyone who is reading, following, taking time out of your day to read about mine. Stay safe and stay well out there and good luck!
For continuous updates on what I’m doing follow me on instagram.com/@ahappyhansen
Want to become one of my Patrons? Go to my page here and join a tier. All patrons regardless of Tier have access to all of my patron-only content right now! Tiers start at $3/month! I will also send you via snailmail a handwritten personalized Poem + Thank you card for becoming a patron.
Become a Subscriber! Get notified when new posts are published plus once a week I will send content just for you: poem, personal update, reading list, writing tips and more!
UPDATE: As of 4/17/2020, I have completed 15 POEMS for $! THANK YOU!
Original personalized handwritten poem “Summer Days” by Alina Happy Hansen for an Anonymous Supporter
AS OF MARCH 16th, 2020 DUE TO THE SPREAD OF COVID-19 AND THE CLOSURE OF ALL RESTAURANTS AND BARS IN SALT LAKE CITY UTAH FOR 30 DAYS, I HAVE NO INCOME SOURCE (I WORK FULL-TIME IN A LOCAL PUB BREWERY).
Original personalized handwritten poem “Dance With You” by Alina Happy Hansen for an Anonymous Supporter
UPDATE: On Friday, March 20th, I was officially LAID OFF INDEFINITELY from my job at Squatters Pub Brewery in Downtown Salt Lake City. They gave us no financial compensation and LAID OFF approximately 98% of staff including management.
Original personalized handwritten poem “Hey Man” by Alina Happy Hansen for an Anonymous Supporter
UPDATE: I received my first unemployment check on March 31st! This has helped so much. My unemployment check is not a lot a mere $270 (after taxes) but it helps pay the bills and buy food right now while I apply for online jobs.
I am currently looking for Remote work only in the following fields: copywriter, content writing, web content writer, freelance writer, technical writing, SEO marketing writer, journalist etc.
Until I get back on my feet, I am offering personalized handwritten poems to anyone who sends me any $ during this time. Any amount I would be deeply grateful for and would help me survive this next month.
When donating via Venmo, please put your email address and “poem/poetry” in the comment/’paid for’ section so I can contact you and send you your personalized poem. I send a scanned copy of your poem to you via email (pdf/jpeg), then (if you’re comfortable with it) I mail out your poem with a thank you card within 24-48 hours after I email your scanned copy.
If you are interested in helping out other service industry/restaurant employees during this time of hardship, I have posted Venmo links of all my fellow employees (who want to participate) that desperately need any $ help right now. My main concern is for my fellow employees: servers, bartenders, expos, bussers, etc who worked at Squatters Pub Brewery and Wasatch Brew Pub.
Any help $ I deeply appreciate, Thank you so much.
Become a Subscriber! Get notified when new posts are published plus once a week I will send content just for you: poem, personal update, reading list, writing tips and more!
