Feb 19, 2020, updated periodically...Unfortunately there’s not just one link you can use to get an estimate of the real numbers of infected, or of the seriousness of this outbreak, and you will have to do some digging of your own. But here are a few points to consider and research for yourself:

The basics

• Name. The names 2019-nCoV, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, and novel coronavirus all basically refer to the same thing, either the new virus or the disease it causes. (The WHO calls the virus SARS-COV-2, and the illness COVID-19.)
• Family. It is a type of SARS but is much worse than SARs; experts have also called it "worse than Ebola" in terms of how fast it is spreading.
• Re-infection. Getting sick with it more than once is a possibility; "recovered" patients may even be contagious or test positive for the virus after so-called "recovery." Link
• Spreading without symptoms. People are able to be asymptomatic or presymptomatic, but still contagious, for weeks. Studies have shown that an infected person may be shedding virus for weeks after "recovery."
• Ineffective quarantines. Quarantines are being done for 14 days in many countries, even though it has been documented that 38 days would be more effective. The word quarantine comes from the Italian quarantina giorni, a space of 40 days. We need to get smarter about how long people are quarantined.
• When Did It Start? By Nov 2019, officials had briefed the US White House on a virus that was sweeping through Wuhan, China. Link
• Fast-spreading. Between 2/19/20 and 5/1/20, cases grew from 1000 to over 3 million. Many countries do not have the capability to adequately test people. For instance it could become very widespread in parts of Africa without ever making the news.
• Symptoms and Treatment. There is no cure; treatment focuses on the symptoms like the cough and fever. The symptom list is long and varies from patient to patient but the majority of them have cough and fever and the serious cases develop pneumonia, which is what kills them. Secondary infections are also common, and those patients get antibiotics, but, antibiotics don't do anything against a virus; they are used solely to treat additional complications. The symptom list seems to be ever-changing: a March 7 report showed that 22% of patients had diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and/or abdominal discomfort before respiratory symptoms (another report said it was about 50%). One first-person account said that a rash was her only symptom. CNN aired an interview with US nurses on the frontline who said that in some cases the only symptom prior to death was that the tissue around the eyes turned red (not the eyes, but the face area around the eyes).
• No vaccine. Labs around the world are racing to develop a vaccine but that is, at best, months away; some say a vaccine may be impossible due to how the virus tricks the body into making more virus. And keep in mind there was a SARS outbreak nearly 20 years ago and we still don't have a vaccine for that.
• Lives on surfaces. Many redditors have asked about whether it is safe to accept packages from China. Studies have shown that the virus can survive on surfaces for at least 9 days under certain conditions, and up to 27 days in other conditions.
• "Do I have it?" Many redditors have posted questions saying they feel ill and want to know if they have it. If you think you have it, call a doctor or hospital; reddit is not the place for a diagnosis. The hospital will want you to wear a mask when you come in, and will want you to call ahead so they can isolate you from other patients.
• "How do I avoid it?" Many redditors have asked what they can do to avoid catching or spreading the virus. Standard virus protocol applies: avoid close contact with people who are sick; stay home when you are sick; cover your coughs and sneezes with a tissue then throw the tissue in the trash; frequently wash your hands (especially after going to the bathroom, before eating, and after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing) using soap and water as hot as you can stand it for at least 30 seconds (the scrubbing under running water is important; a 5-second fingertip wash is inadequate); carry hand sanitizer gel with you for times when you can't wash your hands; avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth especially in public; disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces using a household cleaning spray; etc. The US has recommended against all travel to China [update: against all international travel]. Some redditors started avoiding air travel, public transportation, and large crowds and gatherings at the end of January 2020.
• Fatality rate. There are a dozen or more sources, reposted thousands of times, that will try to tell you the fatality rate (death rate) is only about 2%. Here's the Lancet estimating 20% in Wuhan and 15% outside of China through March 1, 2020. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30195-X/fulltext

Other reasons why we don't believe the official numbers

• Information Warfare. In the earliest days of the revelations about the virus, a deliberate disinformation campaign was started, to get people to believe two major falsehoods: 1) “It’s not as bad as the flu,” and 2) “Everything is under control and will be back to normal soon.” You will see this repeated thousands of times around reddit, other social media, and in mainstream media in the US and elsewhere. Even US doctors are repeating this propaganda, almost verbatim, to any news reporter who asks. Read more about China's 10 million influence agents at Link
• Naysayers. Historically unprecedented efforts have been made to downplay the virus - often by focusing on the supposedly low fatality rate, or the supposed recovery rate. It's far too early to know what "recovery" actually means. For instance, scientists from Nanjing Medical University and Suzhou Hospital have said males who "recover" may be infertile. There is also well-founded concern about permanent lung damage, and possible chronic joint/muscle pain which could be debilitating and lifelong.
• Pre-determined case rate. In early Feb 2020, someone demonstrated that the rise in cases was very predictable from day to day; the data curve was "beautiful" in that it was flawless and perfect, unlike the real world. He was able to predict, a day in advance, with astonishing accuracy, how many new cases would be announced by China the following day. The implication was that the data only moved like that because it was pre-determined before it happened; in other words the real numbers were released in a slow trickle in order to manage the public's reaction.
• Under-reporting. There are indications, including first-hand reports from doctors, that the "official" numbers of confirmed dead are grossly under-reported. Link
• Estimates. In Jan. 2020, some people were thinking the infected number was over 150,000 (back when China was saying it was under 10,000). It's hard to get a reliable number, but there are clues pointing to a worrisome amount of cases. Researcher models have shown estimates of a multiplier for a realistic number that range from x4 to x35. In other words if China is announcing 75,000 cases today, some people are concerned that the real number (including those who are undiagnosed) is 528,000 up to an almost inconceivable 4.6 million. [Update: Less than 2 months later, the "official" number worldwide exceeds 3 million; if x35 holds true...I don't like that answer...]
• Suspected vs. Confirmed. China also has a data set for "suspected cases," which may include people who have presented to the hospital (or to several hospitals, seeking care) with the symptoms but who were unable to get diagnosed because the hospitals were overwhelmed. Some observers consider "suspected" cases should be considered "confirmed" until there has been a negative diagnosis.
• Crematorium Info. Investigative journalism in China has led to recordings of phone conversations with crematorium workers, who are desperately asking for help because they are going 24/7 and are still backed up in Hubei from the amount of dead to incinerate (imagine California and half of Texas not being able to keep up with the bodies). The employee states the number of bodies has been 4 to 5 times the usual, starting ever since Dec. 29.
• Portable Crematoriums? Lu Media reported that 40 units officially described as "cabins for the disposal of garbage and animal carcasses" have aided Wuhan in the epidemic area; their capacity is 5 tons per day. Professor Ming Ju of National Taiwan University believes that these cabins are "mobile incinerators" used to process human corpses. (To expand on that: 5 tons is 10,000 pounds or 4,536 kilos. Using a rough average weight of 62 kg per adult, that's 73 adults per day, per machine, so 40 machines are capable of handling 2,920 adults per day. That's in addition to the numerous regular crematoriums which can process a dozen or more people simultaneously.) That is all speculation; it is also likely that a city on lockdown would have an enormous problem getting rid of household refuse and medical waste, in which case those mobile incinerators would come in handy for that, too.
• Cell phone Subscriber Decreases. Jennifer Zeng reported a combined net loss of 15 million subscribers to three of the large cell phone companies in China, in Jan and Feb 2020 alone. Link
• "Not as bad as the flu" nonsense. From Jan to March 2020, mainstream media (MSM) and social media were chock full of people conducting information warfare; their goal was to perpetuate the “official” myth that coronavirus is not as serious as the flu, and that everything will be back to normal soon. There are several other virus-related subs on reddit which are moderated by people who do not allow any dissenting views, and who only permit people to post things that have already been announced by a government. In March 2020, the US CDC Tweeted that the fatality rate of this virus is at least three times that of the flu.
• CNY. Chinese New Year is a major travel holiday when people go home to spend time with their families; it is often the only time of year when migrant workers get to see their loved ones. Millions and millions of Chinese people were on the move when this outbreak began.
• Ineffective City Quarantines. China announced each city lockdown up to a day or two in advance, which gave infected people plenty of time to try to flee. After Wuhan was locked down, it was announced that some 5 million people had left before it started. Many of the people trapped in Wuhan were just caught there during their New Year's travels.
• Constant number manipulation. China has changed how they count cases, and has advised that if a person has tested positive for the virus but is asymptomatic (has no symptoms) then they should not be added to the list of confirmed cases.
• Practically no testing in the US. In the US, the vast majority of citizens (99.99999+%) can't get tested. The CDC policy has changed several times but even now, unless you have symptoms severe enough to require hospitalization or have had close contact with a CDC-confirmed case, testing is not available for most Americans. [Update: As of 5/1/20, the US has tested approximately 2% of its population, and has over 1 million cases.]
• "Self-quarantines." The US relies on self-quarantines. On 2/19/20, WSJ reported "Public health officials in the U.S. are striving to keep tabs on thousands of Americans who have quarantined themselves at home after returning from mainland China..."
• States hiding data. Some states, notably Florida, were initially claiming that they couldn't legally disclose how many people have been tested. "According to the Tampa Bay Times, “state Surgeon General Scott Rivkees said the Florida Department of Health is not authorized to publish the number of people in the state being tested for the virus out of privacy concerns.” US health privacy laws contain an obvious and necessary exemption for cases that involve public health crises.
• Hacked Accounts Spread Reassuring Deception. Redditors are posting that they have been getting bizarre texts from close friends and family members in China saying "situation is under control" and "we're all fine" etc. Others posted screenshots of messages from several business contacts in China who all repeated an official message practically verbatim: "Impact limited to Wuhan...Everything is under control...will be back to normal soon...thank you for your concern."
• Body bags. Rumors are circulating that China has ordered 1 million body bags, and shifted factories to body bag production; someone also posted an online industrial buyer order in which someone was looking to purchase 45 million virus masks.
• Monitoring. China announced a few days ago that they are "monitoring" close to half a million people who have had "close contact" with infected people. Monitoring efforts involve self-reporting plus tracking of movements based on cell phone geolocation, A.I., facial recognition technology, and mandatory checkpoints.

What leaked videos and social media posts have shown us has happened in China

A 4-minute quick intro: /CoronavirusFOS/comments/fgk1b9/covid19_deus_ex_coronavirus_clip_compilation/

• Dropping Dead. There are a handful of videos that show people seeming to suddenly collapse, notably a police officer walking down the street, in social media posts circulating on Feb 19, 2020. Videos show people dead and dying in hospital waiting rooms. Other videos show dead bodies laying on the sidewalk; a young woman collapsed in a vegetable market, etc. These spread in China in Jan.; in Feb. we saw similar vids from Iran. On 2/20/20, Harry Chen PhD posted a man laying face-down in a Hong Kong mall, the implication being that he collapsed from the virus or virus-related complications.
• Unprecedented Censorship Efforts. Videos get deleted almost as fast as they get posted. One leaked video shows uniformed internet police pounding on someone's door, demanding that they delete their social media post, and also that they immediately must post a retraction to apologize for spreading "rumors" or otherwise they will face legal consequences for harming social order.
• Voices from Inside Hospitals. Voicemails and texts from Chinese nurses and medical workers urging their loved ones, "Do not go outside" and saying that they are totally overwhelmed with infected patients. Numerous nurses collapsing into hysterics, unable to cope with the requirement to work 22 hours a day, and the inability to leave the hospital; some have been threatened with having their medical license revoked if they walk away.
• Dirty masks. Used surgical masks being resold: an old man on the sidewalk selling used surgical masks of various colors from an open box. Another video recorded surreptitiously shows a team of people inside a shop with a big pile of used surgical masks, which are being sorted, flattened, and folded. The video ended with a view of a big stack of boxes; the implication was that used masks were being repackaged for sale as new. The brand name was not legible but it featured a woman's face on the cover, and Chinese writing on the box.
• Quarantine Evasions. City quarantines don't work. Videos show people climbing over head-height barricades and fences built across roads and bridges, family members handing their children across the fence, and arguments in the street when someone is discovered to have Hubei province license plates or to be speaking with a Wuhan accent.
• Doors welded shut. People are being welded into their apartments in Wuhan. Some apartment buildings have had their entrances sealed, once multiple people inside are believed to have the disease. Videos showed a middle-aged, non-athletic woman attempting to scale the outside of the building by going from balcony to balcony, and she fell to her death. A small town road labeled as the "Road to Lihua" which shows a street full of residential buildings, and every single building is barricaded from the outside, thus trapping the uninfected inside with the infected and the dead.
• Mobs. So-called "recovered" patients being attacked and beat up for returning to their village after being released from quarantine.
• Sprayers. Numerous videos show fleets of trucks rolling through streets in China, spraying what we suppose to be some sort of disinfectant, as though there was a need to clean the sidewalks or even the air itself. China has used water sprayers for at least five years to combat pollution, but speculation is that these trucks contain some sort of chemical rather than water.
• Birds. A highway shot shows hundreds of crows perched on a concrete barrier; the subtitles claim that thousands of crows have been attracted to Wuhan by the stench of death.
• Checkpoints. Villages and small towns enforcing quarantines with weapons, punches, slaps, etc. A car stops at a checkpoint, hesitates, then seems to intentionally plow into a medical tent.
• Arrests. Patrols of white hazmat suit workers looking for people who went outside without a mask; they get arrested and carried away.
• Packed hospitals. Hospital hallways jam-packed with people standing around waiting to get tested; shoulder-to-shoulder crowding conditions, which surely served to spread the virus faster.
• Pets Killed. Village patrols beating dogs to death with a stick supposedly in order to "prevent the spread of the virus," and household pets thrown down from tall apartment buildings for the same reason.
• Bodies. Multiple body bags in hospital ambulances, on the floors of hospitals, and in the hallway. (Similar videos surfaced from Iran and Brazil in March 2020.)
• Transportation issues. That there were enough dead at a given time that no one could respond promptly to carry away the bodies.
• Paid by the body. A citizen journalist secretly records an impromptu job interview at a local crematorium, where he is told he will not be paid unless he brings in bodies to cremate. They offer 500 RMB for one body, and 200 RMB for each additional body, up to 1100 RMB a load if he can bring in 4 bodies at a time.
• Failures at life-saving efforts. A man's voicemail (identified by name as a doctor, if the accompanying image is to be believed) stating that for patients who are intubated (receiving oxygen via a tube shoved down their throats), extubation (removing the tube) is rarely successful - the patients die when taken off oxygen.
• Panic buying. Fights over groceries, and rice flying off the cart before the grocery store can even put it on the shelves.
• Refugees. Social media video posted Feb 19, 2020 claims to show hundreds of people with suitcases and baggage fleeing over the Chinese border from Guangxi province into Vietnam. Like most other videos claiming to be about this situation, there are many responses claiming this one is fake.
• Fights. A child stabbing an elderly person and another child, during a fight over a small bottle of antiseptic.
• Intentional Spreading. There are videos showing various suspects who are going around intentionally spitting on things, in an apparent effort to spread the virus. Tissue boxes are provided on elevators so that a person can use the tissue to press the button, and keep their fingers clean. Videos show a family riding the elevator, and a male takes a tissue and spits on it repeatedly, then smears all of the buttons with his spit. Another video shows an older woman alone in a different elevator; she repeatedly hacks and spits intentionally all over the buttons and the inner doors of the elevator, and then after a younger woman gets on and presses an elevator button, the older woman cackles to herself. Another video shows a young woman going down the street spitting on the door handles of cars. Another video shows a young woman sneaking around an apartment complex at night, spitting on doorknobs. Many Western viewers are unable to make sense of these videos, or conceive of a thought process that would make a person want to do this.
• Attacks on medical workers. Patients in hospitals pulling down their virus masks and intentionally spitting into the faces of medical workers and receptionists - multiple incidents in multiple locations.
• Arson? I have yet to actually see one of the alleged "arson" videos because they get deleted (for "inappropriate content") shortly after they are shared, but there are rumors of one or more videos showing buildings being intentionally set on fire in China, with people still alive inside the buildings. People are working hard to call these fakes, saying it emerged in early January and there is no proof that it is linked to the virus; however, since the videos immediately get flagged and deleted, discussion and debunking it for yourself is nearly impossible. On that note, if you see a video and believe it will be deleted, there are ways you can archive it (to a different website) so that others can see it later.
• Failed donation efforts. Food trucks sent to Wuhan are not allowed past the city's barricades, and the food goes to waste.
• Resistance. In Xiaogan, Hubei, the villagers did not want to be sealed up inside their homes, and they fought back. The police fired shots.

What else is happening in China

• Pop-up Hospitals. In response to the outbreak, a pop-up hospital was built in China in about 10 days. It leaks.
• Non-Hospitals. China has also opened “quarantine shelters” which do not provide medical care; observers are calling these deathatoriums, where people are supposed to just go and wait to die. However, if someone lives with a big family and has nowhere else to go, this may be a humane way to help the person have shelter without risking infecting their loved ones. Once a person goes in, they are not allowed to leave.
• H2H and A2H. Human-to-animal-to-human transmission appears possible: It was reported by a UK tabloid on Feb 21, 2020 that hundreds of pets have dropped dead in China; although that source is questionable, the 2002 SARs outbreak led to research that household pets such as cats and ferrets could be infected by SARS-CoV which they caught from a human, and then could spread the disease to other humans (back in 2002).
• Historic Firsts. Wartime policies are in place. China has locked down three entire provinces (Hubei, Liaoning, Jiangxi), all four centrally-administered municipalities (Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing) and more than 80 other major cities. Some estimate that nearly 800 million Chinese (9.8% of the population of the entire planet) are under some type of quarantine, lockdown, and/or movement restrictions. A bit of logic often repeated on reddit is "You don't do that for the flu."
• Cages. People are being dragged kicking and screaming off the street into truck cages, because a spot-check of their forehead temperature revealed they had a fever.
• Press Censorship. Reporters are going silent and China revoked the press credentials of 3 WSJ reporters.
• Robots. In Wuhan robots (think "gonk droid" not "C3PO") and drones are being used to enforce the quarantine, ordering people not to leave their homes, even for food.
• Information Control. Chinese whistleblowers are reportedly disappearing or suddenly being diagnosed as infected, hours after posting revealing information.
• Claims of People Being Burned Alive. Taiwan News - and no other sources as far as I can find - is reporting alleged first-hand accounts of people who claim they saw people being burned alive in Wuhan, the alive bound up with corpses and dragged off together.
• Doctors Sickened. Chinese medical professionals (around 1800) are getting infected despite safety procedures, and some are dying from the infection (notably the director of a hospital in Wuhan). Usually doctors and nurses aren’t too worried about getting ill from their patients due to their safety measures, which indicates that covid-19 is much more infectious than the usual flu strains.
• Irony. A high-level government health official emphatically stressed to reporters that the virus is preventable and controllable, a few days before he himself was diagnosed with the virus.
• 24/7 Lockdowns. People in Wuhan no longer being let out of their homes once every 7 days, and are on 24/7 lockdown.
• Propaganda Videos. In the early days there were quite a few propaganda videos showing happy, smiling shoppers in grocery stores that were fully stocked. There were very light crowds - lighter than usual even - and no shortages of food in these videos, despite the leaked videos showing empty vegetable bins, huge meat bins with only one pack of meat left, and violent fights between shoppers trying to get their hands on a sack of rice.
• Positivity Efforts. There have also been propaganda vids showing infected patients dancing and doing exercise; this is all part of the order from on high to keep the message "positive" and ensure that nothing but pure "positivity" covers all virus news.
• "Moving Deeds" Efforts. Propaganda efforts have been directed toward promoting the effects of control measures and the “moving deeds” of volunteers, community workers, and the police. They have also posted some 400,000 comments online to counter negative public opinions.
• Barring Investigators. China wouldn't let any WHO Americans into the country until recently, but they are still being prevented from going to Hubei and Beijing.
• Movement Restrictions. Drones carry QR codes at the entrances to cities; drivers must use their cell phone to scan the QR code, and then the system will analyze the phone's recent movements, then decide whether to allow the person into the city.
• Medical situation propaganda. While leaked videos show overwhelmed, crying medical staff in packed hospitals, there are also some propaganda videos showing empty hospital corridors and calm, smiling, laughing, relaxed doctors; one claim being circulated is that some of those were filmed with actors hired to portray doctors.
• New medical crime laws. On Feb 8, 2020 China’s National Health Commission announced seven types of "medical-related" crimes, stating that prosecution will be swift and they will not rule out the death penalty for these crimes, which, in plain English, are basically: 1) Don't injure medical workers, 2) Let medical workers go wherever they say they need to go, 3) Don't pull down your mask and spit in the face of medical workers, 4) Cooperate with mandatory health checks and quarantines and don't disrupt anyone trying to burn bodies, 5) Don't stay in a hospital if you've been told to leave, and funerals are banned, 6) Don't carry weapons into a hospital, and 7) Anything else they decide is illegal is also illegal.
• Swift cremations. Funerals in Hubei are banned; the deceased are immediately cremated and the family is notified afterwards. If the deceased did not have a coronavirus diagnosis before death, the body will never be tested and the case will never be added to the official numbers.

The Unknowns

• Longterm Health Implications. The US government has just announced that "recovered" COVID-19 survivors are permanently disqualified from military service. This speaks volumes about what the government knows about what this virus is and what it does. Link
• Death Rate. The fatality rate is still an unknown; many people blindly repeat “2%” although we have not had enough cases outside of China, for long enough, to know the real number. Professor Neil Ferguson of the Imperial College of London has published a paper estimating Hubei province will see an 18% fatality rate. That’s one of five people out of 11 million; which means this professor is projecting roughly 2 million deaths in Hubei province alone. The same professor says that it is not absurd to anticipate we’ll have 400,000 infected in the UK. Early numbers from Italy are over 30% but of course it's still way early to know.
• False Negatives. We don't know how many people have it and were tested negative, because there have been experiments where current test kits have failed to detect the virus until the 5th or 6th time tested.
• Airborne? Reports from inside China have repeatedly referred to the virus as "airborne." This gets shouted down on social media as soon as it is repeated, with anonymous "experts" trying to convince you and everyone else reading that you simply don't know what "airborne" means, and trying to switch the focus to droplet contamination by sneezes and coughs. People in China, and certain parts of South Korea, Vietnam, and Italy have been warned specifically not to go outside.
• Source of virus. The "official" source, which somehow was known and announced since the very early days, was a so-called "wet market" or "seafood market." In reality these markets are infamous for butchering and selling the meat of snakes, bats, rats, cats, dogs, badgers, civets, raccoon dogs, and other exotic mammals for human consumption. CNN reports from years ago documented dogs and cats in cages, waiting for butchering. The propaganda description is that the markets just sell seafood and birds. Sanitary practices in such markets consist of rinsing off surfaces with plain water periodically, and using the same knife to cut multiple species of animals, and the same knife to cut meat and then intestines and then meat again. The possibilities for illness and infection from such meat sources is obvious, and the official story is that this virus somehow jumped from bats (or some say from pangolins) to humans.
• Virus Lab. The original source of the virus has been the subject of great debate. It has been reported as starting in Wuhan, which happens to have Asia's only Level 4 Biosafety Laboratory. Some Chinese researchers were indicted for taking virus samples from Canada to China, and, the head of a Canadian virus lab was also indicted for being on the payroll of China and accepting $50,000 a month payment from them. Draw your own conclusions.
• HIV Proteins. Some research indicates that the virus shares four proteins with HIV, and bears certain genetic markers only found on genetically modified organisms. Those scientists were quickly silenced with criticism; most seem to believe the criticism. Regardless, numerous articles have claimed it somehow acts like HIV.

What's happening outside of China

• Lockdowns. The entire countries of Italy, Spain, and India's entire 1.3 billion people are locked down. The US and UK are on some sort of half-ass "voluntary" thing, told to "stay home if you can" while many people ignore it.
• Cruise Ship. The Diamond Princess cruise ship (quarantined near Japan) which some observers on reddit said would be a good test case for a real world model outside of China, has shown an alarming increase in the numbers of infected.
• Suppression of Info. Google is believed to be suppressing virus news. Try the search engine that doesn't track you, https://duckduckgo.com
• Macau. Macau closed its casinos. This would be like Las Vegas deciding to hang up a "Sorry, we're closed" sign for a few weeks.
• Ukraine. Ukraine - civil unrest, riots, road blockades to protest quarantining and transportation of patients into the area.
• South Korea. South Korea reported a surge of new cases on Feb 19, 2020, linked to an infected person attending a church service; 31 new cases were diagnosed. The growth in South Korea, in a matter of days, has been mind-blowing (In 13 days, the case count in South Korea has grown from 82 to over 5,300 cases). South Korea may have been a good predictor for what growth in the US will look like, except so far, South Korea is testing 2,000 out of every million of its citizens, while the US is only testing 1 out of a million.
• Self-isolation. South Korea, Vietnam, and Iran are asking millions of people to stay at home, to contain the spread. In one city in South Korea the mayor has asked people to wear their viral masks even indoors at home.
• Iran. While Iran is officially reporting 3 deaths as of Feb 21, 2020, a social media post says it's 20; that the virus can live on surfaces for 2 weeks, can transfer from animals, can reinfect after initial infection, and testing is 30%-50% accurate, with many false negatives and asymptomatic transmission, plus mutations of the virus. Other "leak" sources say there are 300 positive diagnoses in Iran. Just like we saw happen in China, a government official who urged the public not to overact about coronavirus has now tested positive for the illness himself. Within a couple of weeks of Iran's first case, multiple senior politicians had died (Mar 3, 2020). On Mar 12, satellite imagery revealed mass burial pits in Iran.
• Dirty masks. Leaked video shows several women in head coverings who are sitting on the floor sorting through what appears to be thousands of used surgical masks - the implication being that these will be resold; the narration does not sound Chinese; the videographer holds up an example mask very close to the phone, to show that it is definitely used and soiled.
• Travel to/from China. The US had up to 200,000 citizens in China at the time of the outbreak. As of mid-March, the US unbelievably still has daily flights from China. Canada still has unrestricted air transportation with China. Meanwhile, other countries have closed their borders to Chinese citizens and to anyone who has been to China recently.
• Evacuations. The US has arranged multiple evacuation flights to bring Americans home from China. Some on reddit are concerned that this will only spread the infection faster, and would have preferred that anyone in China be left there. The US has spread these evacuees around at least three states, and enforces a “voluntary” quarantine of 14 days.
• Quarantine Stations. For years the US CDC (Centers for Disease Control) has had 19 quarantine stations on military bases ready for just such an outbreak. American evacuees are currently being held at some of those.
• Emergency Declarations. The US city of San Diego, California declared a "public health emergency" on Feb 14, 2020. As of March 7 these states have also declared a state of emergency: NY, FL, KY, PN, MD, UT, IN, CA, & WA. On Mar 14, Pres. Trump declared a national emergency and public schools in 12 states announced closures ranging from a few days up to 30 days.
• Weak control measures in the US. In the US, hundreds of people are being "monitored" (sent home and told to call if they get a fever or cough) but are not being tested. These people may be contagious. Link
• National Guard Mobilization in Tallahassee, Florida, US? A social media post claims to show a small fleet of what appears to be military vehicles, police officers, and ordinary trucks hauling large white trailers; the captions claim the vehicles are Chemical, Biological, and Radiological response units. Two large earth-moving/digging vehicles are in the fleet.
• Spitting. US social media indicates Seattle patients are spitting on the clinic walls and floor.
• People dropping dead. Social media posts from Iran (Feb 25, 2020) are showing us the same things we saw on social media in Hong Kong and on the leaked videos from China: various, random people just suddenly collapsed / dropped dead in the street. One theory being circulated is that the virus may cause heart failure, particularly during the patient's re-infection (or second time with the virus).

Supply Chain and Economic Impacts

• Mask shortages. Chinese buyers are scouring the world to locate companies that can sell them viral masks in bulk. Many redditors have posted that they ordered masks online, but then got notified that their order was canceled or on back-order. In the US, as of mid-February most cities still have masks on the shelves at local stores; though many stores have imposed quantity restrictions such as 10 per customer. In states where the CDC has announced confirmed cases, people are having trouble finding masks anywhere.
• Panic buying. Singapore has imposed limits on how much groceries and supplies a person can buy. Hong Kong has had panic-buying of household goods and groceries, with many rumors that ordinary things (such as toilet paper, which Hong Kong gets from mainland China) could go out of stock and stay out of stock for an unknown period of time. In the US we get our toilet paper from US companies; there is no reason to hoard toilet paper in the US! As of Feb 29 and Mar 1, panic buying appears to be happening in Hawaii, Oregon, California, and multiple locations in the US. As of Mar 13, panic buying has spread to many areas of the US. At this point if you failed to prepare, you should consider looking carefully at your own pantry and fridge, rather than going out and risking being in a panic buying crowd.
• Global Crash. Economic damage in China and around the world is difficult to contemplate. Billions have already been lost. China produces about 17% of global GDP.
• Cars and car parts. Some car makers have shut down plants temporarily and some may have to find alternative sources for components (such as plastics and wires etc.) before they can resume operations, unless this virus magically disappears by the end of February.
• International Shipping. Some cargo ships are leaving Asia at 5% capacity (95% empty) and will not be able to continue to operate like that.
• "Made in China." Experts are projecting shortages and disruptions in the global supply chain in general, affecting countless products either "made in China" or made with ingredients or parts sourced in China, including but certainly not limited to computers, electronics, auto parts, chemicals, medical equipment, machinery, telecom hardware, apparel and footwear, home goods, batteries, smartphones, and notably, pharmaceuticals (over-the-counter and prescription drugs), just to name a few examples. Even if a product is advertised as being made in your country, there's a good chance it contains Chinese components or ingredients or is at the very least being sold in a plastic container that was made in China. Industries are looking at options for finding other countries to become suppliers, so we can diversify the supply chain and avoid keeping all our eggs in one basket, though such measures could prove to be too little, much too late at this point.

There’s much more that can be posted here, but that's enough topics to get you started on your own research. I really doubt this is going to be disappearing in a month or two. If any readers have a source or video link etc., or additional points they you'd like me to add, just reply to this message, or send me a private message if you prefer. Thanks for reading!

General things anywhere (tourist friendly):

• Flanigan’s
• Horseback riding
• Parasailing
• Scuba Diving
• Snorkeling
• Banana boating
• Kayaking
• Take a cruise
• Take a ferry to the Bahamas
• Rent a sailboat
• So a sunset cruise
• Sea turtle Release
• Go to a park and throw a boomerang or something
• Go to an archery range and fire off some arrows
• Go to the everglades
• Go ice skating
• Skydive Miami
• Go Golfing
• Go Fishing
• Go kite surfing
• Go to a carnival
• Go camping
• Go to Flanigan’s
• I don’t know bro, just go do something you like

MIAMI:

South Beach/Miami Beaches/Key Biscayne:

-SoBe (not touristy):

• Food/Bars:
  • Lost weekend
    • good pool tables
  • Ramen.Baby.Burger.
    • -Best ramen (outside my homemade) in Miami
    • -Cool atmosphere (if you like japan and anime)
    • -Rooftop Bar on the roof
  • Playwright Irish Pub
  • Sylvano's
    • Legit italian ITALIAN restaurant
    • Cannot stress enough that this is not Olive garden and is in fact authentic Italian
  • Joes' Stone Crab
    • Historic Seafood restaurant
    • Very famous
  • Pubbelly
    • Good gastropub
  • Giotto Maestro Della Pizza
    • Great authentic neapolitan style pizza
  • Cleo
    • Fancy Mediterranean place
  • Byblos
    • Expensive Greek food
    • Very good though
  • Time Out Market
    • -Good new food hall
  • Lincoln eatery
    • -Similar food hall, but small
    • -Kosher options
  • News Cafe
    • A favorite spot of Gianni Versace
    • Good breakfast and drinks
  • Under the mango tree
    • -Hippie Acai bowl place
  • Paul’s Bakery
  • Chotto Matte
    • -Peruvian/Japanese fusion
    • -Cool atmosphere
  • La Sandwicherie
    • -Classic

​

• Things to Do:
  • Ocean Drive
  • Lincoln Road Mall
  • South Pointe Park Pier
  • New World Symphony
  • Jewish Museum/Holocause Memorial
  • Espanola Way
  • Nikki Beach
  • Monthly Nerd Night events
  • Culture Crawl
  • Sunday Farmers market
  • Colony Theater
    • -Historical theater
    • -See a show there

​

-North Beach:

• Food/Bars:
  • Flanigan’s
  • Blue Beer Garden
  • Broken Shaker
    • Real chill outdoor bar
    • Miami vibe
  • Shucker’s
    • -Waterfront bar and grill
    • Marky’s Gourmet Supermarket
  • Josh’s Deli
    • -Good Ass Sandwiches
  • Tap 79
    • -small gastropub
    • -Has a piano
  • Tacaria
    • -Cool street taco place
  • Makoto
    • Upscale (expensive) Japanese restaurant in the Bal Harbour Shops
  • Taquiza Tacos
    • Also in SoBe
  • 27 Restaurant
    • Good waterfront food
    • Good portions

​

• Things to do:
  • North Beach Band Shell (ampitheater)
  • Haulover Park
    • -Great Surfing
    • -Skatepark
    • -PumpTrack
    • -Fishing
    • -Dog beach
    • -Nude Beach (if you want)
    • -Food truck event every Tuesday
    • -Sandbar parties
    • North Shore Open Space Park
    • -Skatepark
    • -Active on weekends with barbecues
    • -Dog Park
  • Full Moon Drum Circle Party
    • -Giant hippie drum circle/Music/Dance Fest
    • -Every full moon at 79th street/North Shore Open Space Park
    • -A lot of fun
  • O-Cinema
    • -Indie Movie theater
  • Bal Harbour Shops
    • Luxury Mall
    • Good place to walk around if you want to feel poor
    • People dressed like Cruella Deville

-Biscayne/Virginia Key:

• Things to do:
  • Bill Baggs State Park
  • Miami Seaquarium
  • Stiltsville
  • Jungle Island
  • -Parrot jungle
    • -Indoor “skydiving”

​

-Wynwood/Midtown/Downtown:

Food/Bars:

• Chill Bars:
  • Lagniappe
    • -wine and food bar. Very chill. Good music. Lots of jazz.
  • Le Chat Noir
    • -Good Jazz
  • Churchill’s
    • -Total dive bar
    • -Jazz jams on Monday night
    • -Other music and performances
  • The Corner
    • -Great small bar and gastropub
    • -Real quaint and cool
    • -Jazz on Tuesdays
  • American Social
  • Sugarcane
    • -good mojitos
  • Syndicate Kava Bar
    • -apparently had Dungeons & Dragons
  • Go check out some breweries

​

• Dancing/Music:
  • La Victoria (Latin)
  • Ball & Chain (Latin)
  • Coyo taco - (Mostly great food, but has a speakeasy in the back)
  • 1-800-Luck (food hall/badancing)
  • El Patio
  • Wood Tavern
  • Gramps
  • Racket
  • Shots
  • Electric Pickle
  • Blackbird Ordinary
  • Someone better versed in this world probably knows more places

​

• Mostly Just Food and Drink:
  • St. Roch Market - food hall
  • The Wharf - food hall
  • The Citadel - food hall
  • La Centrale - food hall
    • Italian food hall in Brickell City Center
  • The Butcher Shop
  • KUSH (burgers and beer)
  • Zak the Baker
  • Mandolin Aegean Bistro
    • -Greek food
    • -Great atmosphere
    • -outdoor seating
  • Soya & Pomodoro (cool decor)
  • Area 31
    • Rooftoop restaurant with panoramic view of downtown
    • Expensive
  • Fooq's
    • Persian/Mediterranean
    • Good lamb
  • Flagler street food court
    • -Old food court stuck in the 80’s
    • -a weird and poignant place
    • -Interesting though if you like old Miami
  • Azucar (ice cream)
  • Cafe Versailles
  • Chotu/Maska
    • Maska is fancy Indian food from first Indian with Michelin Star
    • Chotu is from same owner, but is Indian street food

​

• Things to Do:
  • Lot 11 skatepark
    • -First legit skatepark in Miami
    • -Opens September 2019
  • Frost Science Museum
    • -Planetarium
  • Arsht Center for performing Arts
  • Perez art Museum
  • Olympia Theater
  • Miami Marlins Game
  • Villain Theater Comedy Show (if you like improv comedy……...)
  • Monthly Nerd Nite Events
  • History Miami
  • Bookleggers Library
  • Bayside
    • -Restaurants and shops and stuff
  • Design District
    • -Food
    • -Shopping
    • -La Victoria (Latin Dance Spot)
  • Wynwood walls

North Miami:

• Food/Bars:
  • Flanigan’s
  • Captain Jim's Seafood
    • Very fresh seafood
  • Pita plus
    • -best falafel
  • Bo Leggz BBQ
    • -One of the best BBQ places
  • Cafe Creme
    • -French Cafe with good quiche
  • Doral CityPlace
    • -promenade for restaurants and bars in Doral
    • -Miami improv Comedy Club
  • Gulfstream
    • -Casino
    • -Restaurants
    • -Horse Track
  • Steve’s Pizza
    • -Famous pizza joint
    • -They make their sauce with apple sauce in it (don’t ask why)

​

• Things to Do:
  • Ancient Spanish Monastery
    • -Historical monastery moved from Spain to here. Cool place.
  • Top Golf
  • Museum of Contemporary Art
  • LOFTVR
    • VR arcade
    • Pretty awesome

​

• Nature:
  • Oleta State Park
    • -Kayaking
    • -Mangroves
    • -Other nature stuff
  • Greynolds Park
  • Amelia Earhart Park
    • -Cable water skiing/wakeboarding
    • -Mountain Bike trails?
    • -Some other stuff

Gables area/Key Biscayne (I’m not too familiar):

• Food:
  • Daily Bread Mediterranean market
  • Cassola's
    • Giant pizza slices
  • Swenson's Ice Cream
    • Old fashion ice cream place
  • Bomabay Darbar
    • Good Indian food

​

• Things to do:
  • Miracle Mile
    • -food
    • -shopping
  • Venetian pool
  • Fairchild Botanical gardnes
  • Vizcaya Museum/Botanical Gardens
  • UM game
  • Deering Estates
    • -Historical House
    • -Environmental Preserve

South Miami/Homestead:

• Food/Drink:
  • Schnebly Winery
  • Coopertown restaurant
    • -Froglegs/Alligator
  • Robert is here
    • -Best fruit stand in South Florida
  • Knaussberry farms

​

• Things to Do:
  • Zoo Miami
  • Schnebly Winery
  • Fruit and Spice Park
    • -awesome place for exotic fruits
  • Coopertown Restaurant
    • -Airboating
  • Robert is here
    • -Best fruit stand in South Florida
  • Monkey Jungle
  • Arcade Odyssey
  • Coral Castle
  • Homestead Miami Speedway

​
​

BROWARD:

• Food/Bars:
  • Stache Bar
    • -Hipster Bar
  • 26 degrees brewery
  • Funky Buddha Brewery
  • Tenth Level Tavern
    • -Videogame bar
    • -Retro games
  • Glitch bar
    • -also a videogame bar
  • Le Tub
    • -Burgers

​

• Pop's Fish Market
  • Fresh fish market in Deerfield
• Cap's Place
  • Very unique restaurant on it's own island
  • Free ferry to the restaurant
  • Historic - Since 1920's
• The Rustic Inn Crabhouse
  • Best crab in Broward
• Bimini Boatyard
  • I actually don't like this place but it's the only place to get Bimini bread, now that Ernie's has closed down
  • Bimini bread is amazing
• The Floridian
  • -historic breakfast place in Las Olas
• La Bonne Crepe
• Cypress Nook
  • -Amazing German Breakfast place
• Bagel Snack
  • Best bagels in South Florida (Jewish grandmother approved)
• Jaxson’s Ice Cream Parlour
• Mai-Kai Polynesian restaurant
• Charm City Hamburgers
• Jack’s hamburgers
• Catfish Dewey’s
  • -Weird southern food, so if you want crawfish and frog legs…
• New River Groves
  • -Fruit Market
  • -Great Key Lime Pie
• J & J Farms
  • -Good seasonal fruit stand in Deerfield
  • -Hidden fruit and Spice Park Behind it, growing many exotic fruits
  • -small

​

• Nature:
  • Deerfield Island Park
  • Quiet Waters Park
    • -Lakes and fields
    • -Ski Rixen (cable water skiing/wakeboarding)
  • Tradewinds park
    • -Horses
    • -Christmas Light show
    • -Butterfly world
    • -Great for picnics and the like
  • Billy Swamp Safari
  • Everglades Holiday Park
    • -Airboating
    • -Gator Wrestling
  • Markham Park
    • -Great foraging trails
    • -Saturday night has Astronomy Society/ set up telescopes for visitors
  • Fern Forest Nature Center
  • Anne Kolb Nature Center
  • South Florida Wildlife Center
  • Hugh Taylor Birch State Park Park
  • Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park
  • Shark Valley
  • Fakahatchee Strand (West Florida)
    • -Best place to see wild Panthers
  • Big Cypress National Preserve

​
​

• Things to Do:
  • Las Olas
    • -Restaurants
    • -Night Life
  • Jazz brunch
    • -First Sunday of every month on Las Olas
  • Museum of Art
  • Museum of Discovery and Science
  • Ft. Lauderdale Boardwalk/Promenade/beachwalk/whatever it’s called
    • -Nightlife/Bars/Restaurants/Beach
  • Bonnet House
    • -Historical House and Garden
    • -Has a few wild monkeys
  • Broward College Buehler Planetarium
  • Butterfly world
  • Swap Shop
    • -A bunch of cheap garbage
    • -Go early on the weekends and it’s like a giant garage sale
    • -Good fruit market
    • -Drive in movie theater
    • -Terrifying children’s theme park that will kill your children
    • -They used to have a fucking circus in here…
  • iFly - Indoor skydiving
  • Festival Flea market
    • -Buy a bunch of cheap garbage from old Jews and eat a pickle
  • Tates Comic Book Shop
  • Panther’s game
  • Dania Jai-Alai/Casino
  • Hollywood Beach
    • -Great Boardwalk
    • -Lots of restaurants
    • -Very fun day
  • Hard Rock
    • -Casino
    • -Nightlife
    • -Restaurants
    • -Lots of other shit
  • Gateway theater
    • -Historical movie theater in Ft. Lauderdale
    • -Often have people doing Rocky Horror Picture Show
  • Wilton Manors
    • -gay city
    • -gay pride festival
    • -great restaurants
  • Pompano Harness track
  • The Isle Casino
  • Xtreme Action park
    • -Go karting and an arcade. Good for kids.
  • IGFA Hall of Fame - International Game Fishing Association
  • Bass Pro Shops/Outdoor World
  • Sawgrass Mall
  • Flight Simulator
  • Water Taxi tour of Ft. Lauderdale
  • Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Seminole Museum

​

• Deerfield Renaissance Festival
  • -Seasonal around February/March
  • -One of the US largest and most well known Renaissance festivals

PALM BEACH/BOCA:

• Food/Bars:
  • Funky Buddha - teahouse and brewery (lots of jam sessions and live performances)
  • -Blue Anchor Pub
    • -Old historical English pub moved piece by piece from England to Florida

​

• Nature:
  • Gumbo Limbo Nature Center
    • -Sea turtle rehab and releases
  • Morikami Japanese Gardens and Museum
    • -restaurant too
    • -Great events calendar
  • South Inlet/Red Reef Park
  • Green Cay Wetlands Nature Center
  • Blowing Rocks Nature preserve
    • -Coastal Nature Preserve

​

• Things to Do:
  • Rapids Waterpark
  • Mizner Park
    • -Restaurants, shitty art museum, ampitheater with some good acts
  • Funky Biscuit
    • -live music venue
  • Sugarsand Park
    • -Greatest playground in South Florida
    • -Great for kids
    • -Small Science Museum
  • Lion Country Safari
  • Boomers arcade
  • Palm Beach Zoo
    • -Very good zoo
  • Atlantic Avenue - Delray
    • -Great Nightlife
    • -Bars
    • -Restaurants
    • -Silverball Pinball Museum
    • -Blue Anchor Pub
    • -Old English pub moved piece by piece from England to here
  • Pumphouse/Reef road
    • -Used to be best surfing in all of south florida

THE KEYS:

• Key Largo:
  • Fish house restaurant
    • -key lime pie
  • John Pennekamp State Park
    • -Best Snorkeling/Diving
    • -Glass bottom boats
    • - Bioluminescent Plankton
  • Jules Undersea Lodge
  • Dolphin Cove

​

• Key West:
  • Key Lime Pies
    • -Best key lime pie is Key West Key Lime Pie Company
    • -Blue heaven
    • -Kermit’s
    • -Blonde Giraffe
  • Sunset on Mallory Square
  • Ghost tour
  • Mel Fisher Museum
  • Aquarium
  • Fort Zachary
  • Hemingway House

ORLANDO/CENTRAL FLORIDA:

• Food:
  • Pom Pom’s
    • -Best sandwiches in Orlando (Mama Ling Ling’s Thanksgiving day Sandwich)
  • Lazy Moon
    • GIANT Pizza slices
  • Junior Colombian Burger
    • Great cheap burgers
    • The sauces make it awesome
  • Gringo Loco
    • Best taco joint around orlando
  • 4 Rivers Barbecue
    • -Great BBQ
  • Old Spanish Sugar Mill
    • -Great Pancake house

​

• Nature:
  • Harry P. Leu Botanical gardens
  • Blanchard Park
  • Wekiwa Springs
  • Blue Springs
  • UCF observatory
  • Center for Great Apes: Great Ape Sanctuary
    • -Volunteer only
  • Bok Tower Gardens
    • -Beauitful historical Gardens with large tower in Lake Wales
    • -has Carilon (piano type instrument that uses massive bells instead of strings)
  • Little Big Econ State Park
    • -One of my favorite parks there
    • -Great Sunsets
    • -Rivers running through it

​

• Things to do:
  • Universal
  • Disney
  • Legoland
  • Wonderworks
  • International Drive
  • SAK Comedy Lab
  • Magic Game
  • Solar Bears Game
  • Winter Park
    • -Park Avenue
    • -Central Park
  • Orlando Main Library
  • UCF sports games
  • Top Golf
  • Solomon Castle
    • -Weird place
    • -Just...it’s there. It’s just not that interesting…
  • Melbourne Zoo
  • Kennedy Space Center
    • -Go watch a rocket launch
  • New Smyrna Beach
    • -Shark bite Capital of the World
    • - Best surfing in Florida
  • Lakeridge winery

NORTH FLORIDA:

• Ichetucknee springs
  • -Blue hole dive
• Ginnie Springs
  • -tubing and getting drunk
• Camping in Ocala
• UF game
• Florida Caverns
  • -Cave system in North Florida
• I don’t know anything about Tallahassee, sorry
  • -FSU game

TAMPA/ELSEWHERE:

• Tampa:
  • Eat an inferior cuban sandwich
  • Ybor City
  • Yankees Spring training
  • Rays Game
  • Lightning Game
  • Busch Gardens

​

• Elsewhere:
  • Tarpon Springs (Town) - big Greek Community and lots of Sponges
  • Three Sisters Springs
    • -Great Kayaking
  • Clearwater
  • St. Augustine
    • -St. George Street
    • -That fucking fort that everyone goes to in middle school
  • Naples
  • Cocoa beach
  • Daytona

SCUBA DIVING SPOTS :

• South Florida
  • Neptune Memorial Reef
  • Emerald Reef
  • Blue Heron Bridge
  • Pompano Drop-off
  • Vista Park Reef
  • John Pennekamp State Park
  • Biscayne Maritime Heritage trail
  • Half Moon Preserve
  • Molasses Reef
  • Tenneco Towers
  • The Jax (erojack)
  • The Spiegel Grove wreck
  • The Vandenberg wreck
  • SS Copenhagen Wrecl
  • Rapa Nui wreck
  • Ancient Mariner wreck
  • Captain Dan wreck
  • Jay Scutti, Mercy Jesus, Tracy wrecks (all doable in one dive)

​

• North:
  • Devil’s Den
  • Blue Grotto
  • The Oriscany wreck

I’ve made a terrible mistake. I’m normally one of those ‘oh let’s play it safe at all times’ kind of women, but not this time. I think I messed up big time.
I used to be your average ‘Plain Jane.’ I worked at an average desk job, making an average income, in an average town. I was very much a loner with no friends of family to speak of, so I was very surprised a few weeks ago when the ladies at work asked me if I wanted to go on a week-long trip to Las Vegas with them. We had always been cordial and polite, but I wasn’t ever invited to the weekly book club meetings, or the occasional Friday lunch at Red Lobster. I always blamed the age gap; I was early 30’s while they were well into their 50’s. Deep down I knew that it was because of my standoffish demeanor, and possibly my lack of personality.
Normally I would have politely declined, throwing out some random excuse like, “I don’t have any vacation time left,” or “I don’t have anyone to cat-sit for me on such short notice.” My acceptance of their invitation was out of my mouth before I’d even realized I’d said yes. There was an immediate chaos as a whirlwind of women practically carried me back to my desk, my ears full of excited chatter about how much fun this was going to be.
1 hour and a maxed out credit card later, I was booked for 8 days and 7 nights of fun in the sun in the City of Lights. I was a little anxious about rooming with Claire, a woman I barely knew, but I figured a little anxiety was worth getting out of my comfort zone for a week. This would be good for me. I needed this, I reminded myself.
The few weeks leading up to the trip flew by. Before I knew it, I was standing in the lobby of Treasure Island collecting my room key. The ladies from the office were very kind, and included me in every stop on their daily itinerary. Go to this casino this day, see that show that day, eat at this buffet, back to the casino where everyone won a few dollars, etc. Claire and I bonded over night time facial creams and Forensic Files the second night of our stay as we crawled into our beds at 3:30am. The trip was turning out to be a success in my eyes. It was a little overwhelming at times, but I was finally making friends. A grown adult should have friends that don’t walk on four legs and have a tail.
The third day of our trip was the day that changed everything. I wasn’t feeling very well from the heat and lack of sleep, so I decided to stay at the hotel for the day and take advantage of the pool. I laid there on a lounge chair underneath a thick layer of sunscreen when I heard “Oh, shit!” followed by ice cold liquid splashing across my legs. I jumped up quickly, only to have my eyes land on a perfectly average looking man.
“I’m so sorry,” he said hurriedly as he dabbed my legs with his towel. “I was looking off to the side, and tripped on your chair, and well the rest you already know.”
“It’s fine, it’s okay,” I said, using my own towel to soak up the rest of his drink that sprinkled itself across my thighs. I could feel my cheeks burning red with embarrassment, “I should have pulled my chair back further. I was in your way.”
He settled down into the chair next to mine, extending his right hand out, “I’m Paul.”
We spent every waking minute together for the next 3 days and 3 nights. He was everything that I didn’t know I’d wanted in a man. Funny, but not hilarious. Charming, but not cocky. Attractive, but not Tom Cruise handsome. We gambled, ate amazing cuisine, and made love. He laughed when I showed him my terrible Rocky Balboa impersonation, and I stayed up an extra ten minutes each night to watch him sleep. There’s something to be said about watching someone sleep. That’s when they’re at their most vulnerable state, so innocent and peaceful.
Our last day together was upon us before we knew it. He seemed as bummed out as I felt about having to say goodbye.
“Fly out to Florida to see me, Linds,” he suggested as I slowly packed my suitcase.
“I would love to, I really would. I just, I have to work, Paul.”
“Next week. I’ll book you a ticket right now,” he said while pulling my laptop into his lap. His fingers immediately blazed across my keyboard. This was something I’d come to realize in the last few days about him. He didn’t take no for an answer. ‘No’ didn’t seem to even exist in his vocabulary.
“I don’t even know how many vacation days I have left.”
“Doesn’t matter. I’m booking you a one-way open ended ticket. You can figure out your days off before you come down, and we will book your return flight later.”
I zipped my suitcase shut, and sat down next to him with a sigh.
“Well, I have always wanted to go to florida,” I said, cozying up to his side just in time to see him finish up the purchase of my ticket.
Paul slid the laptop off to his side and slung his arm around me.
“At approximately 11am on Thursday that wish will be granted,” he whispered in my ear, punctuating his last word with a kiss to my temple.
“Four days,” I said, snaking my arms around his neck.
Those four days proceeded to coast by at a glacial pace. Work wasn’t so bad now that I had a few acquaintances in the office to help make the time go by faster. On Monday the ladies (especially Claire) were full of questions about Paul and our budding relationship, wanting to know every gory little detail. With all of their questioning, however, I realized how little I had answers for. “Where does he work?” “What does he do?” “Does he have family, and what are they like?” “Has he ever been married?” I soon grew overwhelmed with all of the answers I was lacking.
At lunchtime I pulled out my phone with every intention of shooting all of these questions to Paul, only to see that he’d already text me 13 times.
8:01am: Hey beautiful
8:22am: Good morning, gorgeous
8:43am: How’s your morning going
8:57am: I miss you so much, Linds. Hope your day is going good
9:05am: I can’t stop thinking about you
9:07am: 3 more days
9:19am: 3 more wake ups and we can be together again
9:26am: Linds, you there?
9:33am: Linds?
9:41am: I am going to take you to my favorite beach when you get here. You’ll love it. So peaceful.
9:49am: I really wish you’d answer my texts
10:03am: I’m gonna head to lunch. I’ll text you later
10:58am: Back from lunch. Where are you?
I was instantly floored at the amount of attention I was receiving from him. I wasn’t one to really even have an actual boyfriend, let alone be chased by a man. It felt so good to feel wanted. I was always the one who was friend-zoned, or was given the line “You’re like my sister.” It was such a nice and welcome change to be pursued.
Forgetting the reason I pulled out my phone in the first place, I immediately texted back:
11:05am: Hey handsome, sorry my phone was in my purse. No phones allowed on the floor. I miss you, too!
We proceeded to text throughout my entire lunch, making plans for my trip later in the week. After that morning I started keeping my phone hidden under a pile of paperwork. I didn’t want to appear disinterested, so I made sure to make myself as available as possible at all times.
I found out a few things about Paul through the conversations that took place over the next few days. He did have a few distant relatives, but they were scattered across the country and they didn’t keep in touch. His parents passed away years ago in a horrific car accident, and he’s an only child. When I attempted to push for more details about his life, he had the tendency to offer a short answer, or completely clam up and change the subject. Even when I asked what he did for a living, all he would say was that he worked as a foreman for a construction company.
Finally the day arrived for my trip to Florida, and my stomach was a ball of nerves. I must have unpacked and repacked my suitcase 4 times. The last text message I received from Paul was just before I stepped into the terminal to board my flight.
“See you soon,” was all it read.
“Can’t wait!” I quickly replied.
When I arrived in Tampa, my welcome party was underwhelming. I wasn’t expecting flowers, a red carpet, and a flash mob, however, I did expect Paul to be there to pick me up. I left 3 voicemails before resorting to text messages. Finally, after 6 texts, each one getting a little more frantic, he replied simply with his address. I was a little pissed, but more so confused. He’d seemed so excited about my coming out that it felt a little strange that he wasn’t waiting for me to take me to his house. I ended up taking a cab. I had a 45 minute drive to calm myself down, and justify Paul’s absence. He probably had to work, I thought. Maybe he was running last minute errands to free up his time while I was there.
When we pulled up to his address I was slightly taken back at his house. I’m not completely sure what I was expecting, but the simplicity of his house caught me off guard. It was a nice yellow ranch with a brown privacy fence that stretched off a few feet to the sides, then disappeared off to the backyard. There was a basic walkway from the driveway to his front door, and a single palm tree off to the side. No frills, nothing to spruce it up a bit. If it weren’t for the car in the driveway, I’d have assumed the house was vacant.
I made my way to the front door, after retrieving my bags and paying the cab driver a hefty sum. I knocked on the door, eagerly waiting an answer. A few seconds later I knocked again. I leaned off to the side to see if I could peer into the front window, but thick curtains blocked any view to the interior of the house. Just as I was about to knock a third time, the door opened and there stood Paul. I immediately threw myself on to him, wrapping my arms around his neck, and kissing his face. “I missed you so much I’m so happy to see you It feels like it’s been forever,” poured out of my mouth.
It took me a few moments to realize that he wasn’t returning my hug. Instead, I could feel a gentle pat-pat-pat on my back.
“Hey, are you ok?” I asked, pulling back a little to look at his face.
“Yeah. Come inside,” he nodded, breaking my embrace and grabbing the bags. I followed him inside and quickly noticed how dark it was. There weren’t any lamps on, and the only light coming in was the moon light that squeaked through the cracks between the curtains. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust, but from what I could see the interior was as simple as the exterior. Minimal furniture, and literally no décor. Not even a potted plant. I stayed a few steps back as we made our way into the master bedroom.
“You’ll sleep here with me,” he said gruffly, setting my bags to the side.
“Of course I will, silly,” I giggled as I wrapped my arms around his waist. As quickly as my hands met, his were there pushing my arms away. “What’s the matter?”
I stood there, dumbfounded, as he shook his head, and crossed the room to lay in bed.
“Um. Aren’t you happy to see me?” I had to practically force the words out of my mouth.
“Just get changed and come to bed, Lindsey.”
I stared at him intently. On the outside I probably looked calm, but inside my brain was swimming with insecurities and doubt. Slowly, I pulled my pajamas from my bag, made sure to change with my back facing him, and slipped into bed.
A few days went by, and his standoffish behavior continued. The first few days I chalked it up to the newness of being reunited, and the stress having to get acquainted to our being together outside of vacation. Paul had gone from being funny and sweet, to quiet and withdrawn; his joking turned to silence and cold glares. I tried to talk to him about the sudden behavior change, but was met with the bedroom door being slowly closed in my face.
There have been other subtle changes as well. Every night since I have arrived here he always receives a call from a man at 11pm. It’s the same routine every night: his phone rings once, he answers after the full ring, he talks in a hushed tone very quickly for about 1 minute, and then hangs up. I could hear the urgency in the man’s voice on the other end, but it was too muffled for me to make out any of the words. Of course, I had asked Paul about these nightly calls, but I didn’t get an answer. I tried to peek into his phone a few times, but I didn’t know his passcode.
Paul also stopped sleeping very much. He didn’t appear to work very often, as he was only gone for a few hours during the day. I wasn’t sure if he was sleeping at work, but he was definitely not sleeping in bed at home. He would just lay there.
A few nights ago I woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, and found I was alone in bed. I called out to him, but he didn’t answer. I made my way through the house, checking every room, only to find it empty. I even checked outside to make sure his car was still in the driveway. On my way back to bed from the restroom I noticed a glow coming from underneath the bedroom closet door. I opened the door to find Paul sitting cross-legged in the center of the closet, facing the back wall. His hands were placed on his knees, and his back was as straight as a board.
His head, though. His head was tipped back as far as it could go, eyes staring widely at the ceiling. His mouth hung slightly open, unable to completely shut from the overextension of his neck.
“Paul?” I gasped.
He didn’t answer, didn’t even move a muscle. I inched forward and spoke a little louder.
“Paul, honey, are you ok? What are you doing in the closet?”
Still no response. A bundle of uneasiness settled just below my bellybutton. I slowly eased my hand towards him.
“Honey, you-“ I started to say, fingers just an inch from his shoulde,r but was interrupted.
“I can’t see it,” he said. His voice was so low, an entire octave lower than usual. I don’t know how he was able to even talk with his neck stretched so far back.
Sleep talking?, I thought.
“But they are open,” he replied in his dream state.
I wasn’t normally one to eavesdrop, so the feeling of guilt that settled across my shoulders was expected.
I, again, reached out to touch him, to wake him. “Paul, honey, you need to come to bed,” I said gently.
He flinched when my fingers brushed his skin, as if I’d burned him.
“Lindsey, go to bed,” his voice, now a bit louder.
“But Paul,” I started.
“GO.”
I jumped so severely from the force in his voice that it knocked me off balance, sending me backwards into the closet door. I fumbled clumsily with the door knob, my eyes glued to his unmoving stature, to the very second before the door was shut. I returned to our bed, careful to stay on my side. I tried to stay awake, waiting for him to come back to bed, but after an hour I’d fallen asleep.
The next day I was determined to talk to Paul about what had happened the night before, but was again met with silence and a closed door. That night I took extra time getting ready for bed, intending to seduce him into being the man that I thought I’d fallen in love with. I sauntered my way out of the bathroom to the best of my ability, and found him lying in bed.
The moonlight snaked its way into the room through the slight part of the curtains casting a sweet glow as I tiptoed across the floor. The closer I got to the bed, the better I was able to see him. He was lying on his back, arms crossed across his chest, staring at the ceiling. I slowly eased my way under the covers and scooted up next to him. My fingers caressed his side as I showered the side of his face with kisses.
His body remained unaffected, his face a blank slate. I leaned my body over his slightly, closed my eyes, and pressed my lips to his. His once warm and soft kiss had been replaced with tight lips. I lifted my lids to see that he was still staring at the ceiling.
“Paul,” I whispered.
Nothing.
I repeated his name, more forcefully this time, staring into his eyes. He didn’t even blink. It was like he was looking right through me, as if I wasn’t even there. His once loving brown eyes were now cold and completely empty of any emotion. If his body wasn’t warm to the touch I would have questioned if he were even alive.
Frustrated, I rolled away from him, back to my side of the bed.
Tears stung my eyes as I whispered, “You can’t ignore me forever. I don’t know what’s going on with you, but if you don’t stop this I’ll just go home.”
“You’re staying,” he said as he rose out of bed, crossed the room, and shut himself in the closet.
“What?” I called to him, knowing I wasn’t going to get a response. I, again, slept alone.
The following morning Paul left a little earlier than usual for work. The second I heard the deadbolt slide into the lock I bee-lined it for the closet, determined to figure out what was going on in there. As I crossed through the threshold of the bedroom, I glanced back at the front door to make sure all was clear. Once I felt that I was safe, I tiptoed my way towards the closet door. The air of the room seemed to grow thicker with every step I took. A brick of dread settled itself into my lower abdomen causing my legs and arms to feel feather light.
I reached out and grasped the doorknob, pulling the door open a few inches. The light was still on as I peeked inside. It was void of any clothing. In all of the excitement from last night, I failed to notice that the closet was completely empty. I slid the door open a few more inches and eased my way inside. To the left were bare shelves from floor to ceiling, and to the right was a single horizontal rod. I placed my hands on the walls and felt around, pushing every few seconds to see if there was any give, but found nothing.
I knelt down to the floor and slid my hands along the carpet on the floor, working my way along the edges. As my hands passed the bottom shelf in the back corner, the front piece of wood moved the tiniest bit. Excitement immediately overpowered any dread that I had felt as I worked out that small flap of wood, exposing a hidden cubby. It was only about 3 inches high and 6 inches wide.
I lay my head on the floor to peer in. Tucked a few inches back I could vaguely see the spine of a book. I reached in and pulled it out to examine it. It was soft, brown, and leather bound. I held it gently as I passed it from one hand to the other, searching.
The front, back, and spine were blank. Cautiously, I opened the cover. There, on the inside of the front cover where one would usually write a sweet dedication, was a simple marking. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before, a hook like symbol with a few dots.
There was a single ribbon slipped in the middle of the book, so I opened to that page only to find it completely blank. I flipped through the pages before that one, and all of them were blank as well. Every page in the book was unmarked. I pulled all the pages over and studied the marking again. My fingers grazed down the inner cover. My index finger seemed to take on a mind of its own, lightly caressing the symbol. I repeatedly traced the curve of the hook with my fingertip, tapping each dot. With each trace, the air in the closet grew heavier. There was pressure growing behind my eyes and in my ears causing each beat of my heart to sound like the beat of a drum inside of my skull. My throat muscles began to tighten, and I arched my neck back slightly in an attempt to alleviate it. The book tumbled from my hands onto the floor, and almost immediately the pressure in my head began to slightly cease.
My hands fumbled along the carpet, pushing the book back to its place in the cubby. I, as carefully as possible, put the wooden plank back in its place, and crawled out of the closet kicking the door shut behind me.
I lay on the floor for what felt like hours, until my body felt normal again.
Later that afternoon I found myself still alone, which was unusual. Paul rarely left the house for more than just a few hours, and he had been gone most of the day. No matter what I did to keep my mind busy, it kept trailing back to that empty journal in the closet. It trailed back to that strange symbol that marked the front of the book. Back to the possessing affect it seemed to have on me physically. I felt the overwhelming urge to crawl back in there and run my finger over the slight curvature of the hook; to place my fingers lightly over the dots.
I fought that urge, instead busying my brain with mindless daytime t.v. shows and dusting the long planks of the fireplace mantle that remained undecorated and untouched. I had attempted to text Claire, my friend from work, but I kept receiving an error message. I tried to call her, but was given the ‘We’re sorry, all lines are currently busy’ response. My phone was rendered useless, and tucked back into my purse.
Numerous times throughout the day I would find myself back in the master bedroom next to the closet door, unsure of how I ended up there in the first place.
Paul finally came home later that evening, his hands full with Chinese takeout and a dozen roses.
“Linds, I’m home! I brought dinner.”
I stood frozen in my spot in the kitchen, confusion anchoring my feet to the floor.
“Hey,” he said as he leaned around me to place dinner on the counter, “I brought you these.” The roses were placed in my hands, a kiss placed on my temple.
“Paul, I-“ I started, unable to form a full sentence.
“Orange chicken with a side of rice, and 4 eggrolls with a side of sweet and sour sauce. Your favorite,” he said as he pulled out plates and the appropriate silverware.
I set the roses on the counter next to me, and stared briefly at Paul. He was back. Not just back from work, but actually back. He must have felt me staring, because he looked over at me and gave me that warm smile that made my knees go weak. Relief flushed through my body, and I threw myself at him wrapping my arms around his neck. Unlike a few days ago when I’d arrived on his doorstep, he wrapped an arm around my waist, and his other hand lazily rubbed up and down my spine.
“I missed you. I missed you so much,” I whispered, afraid that if I’d used my voice that it would crack and give away the immense amount of emotion I was feeling at that moment.
He chuckled. “You just saw me this morning.”
“No, not –“ I started, but he cut me off with a chaste kiss to the mouth.
“Come on, Linds, let’s eat. I’m starving.”
That night was the best night we’d had since Vegas. We ate dinner hurriedly, as Paul was eager to get to the bedroom. I was just as eager, as I was really in need of the attention and connection that making love would provide me with. The last few days were so full of confusion, that I was desperate to feel any kind of reassurance of love. I’d needed the soft touches, the whispers of sweet nothings, the skin on skin contact. I fell asleep quickly afterwards, our limbs tangled together, and his fingers grazing my lower abdomen.
I woke a few hours later to use the bathroom, quietly chastising myself for not going before falling asleep. I rolled to my side, intending to steal a kiss before getting out of bed, and found that I was alone. My eyes instantly shifted to the closet door, the same glow creeping out from beneath it.
I quickly made my way to do my business in the restroom, staying as quiet as possible so not to disturb Paul. As I tip-toed past the door heading back to bed, the muffled sound of his voice speaking my name stopped me in my tracks. I pressed my ear to the door and listened intently. A few quiet moments passed, so I gripped the door knob and pulled it open.
The air was noticeably heavier in the small space, and seemed to roll out of the doorway in waves. He sat there in the closet the same way as before. Legs crossed Indian-style, hands on his knees, and his head tilted back, his neck nearly to its breaking point with his mouth slightly agape. His lips began to twitch. I lowered myself to the floor, leaning my back against the door frame.
“I am. I understand,” he said, his monotone voice breaking the silence.
“Yes, Lindsey’s ready. It’s working.” My heart started to race at the mention of my name. Ready? I thought. Ready for what? What’s working? An internal battle was going on inside of my head. I wanted to ask questions, to guide his sleep talking, but I didn’t want to wake him. A moment later the one-sided conversation continued.
“It’s too soon. I have no way of knowing.” His voice was so void of any emotion that it sent chills from the base of my skull down to my tail bone.
“Too soon for what?” I whispered. “Too soon for what, Paul?” I leaned in closer as the words escaped my mouth, and saw the journal I’d found earlier sat open in his lap. A very familiar pressure started to build in my head.
My heart pounded in my chest as each second passed, waiting for his response. My breaths were rapid and shallow; my brain screamed for more oxygen.
“Lindsey will be with child . It is the order. It will be done.”
My heart felt like it dropped to the lowest pit of my stomach. I clumsily stumbled backwards, shutting the door once my body was clear. I sat there dumbfounded for what felt like ages, before finally springing into action. I knew that he would be in that closet for the rest of the night, and only had a few hours left to gather my things and leave.
I ransacked the master bedroom for any items of mine that I could find, and stuffed them into my bag. When collecting my toiletries from the top of the dresser my hip caught the edge, sending it all tumbling to the floor. I froze, waiting for any type of reaction from Paul. The house remained quiet, the closet door remained shut. I gathered the last of my things, threw on some clothing, and walked out the front door.
I ran for the first mile or so in the night, but exhaustion quickly set in and I had to resort to speed walking. I tried my best to stay in the shadows, walking through people’s front yards, staying off of the sidewalk whenever possible. Every time a set of car lights came up from behind me, I quickly ducked behind a bush or the side of a house, convinced that he had found me. And every time the car just continued past me down the road, relief would flood through my entire being.
Finally, about an hour later, I made it to a brightly lit gas station. It was completely dead, with the exception of a young man behind the counter. The cashier was eerily pleasant, and called a cab for me. He acted as if it was the most common thing in the world for a young woman to walk into his place of business with a giant duffel bag at 3am, frantically asking for a cab.
Upon arriving to the airport, I paid cash for my ticket for a plane that left for home in just a few short hours. I spent those hours huddled in the ladies room back stall, listening to the second hand on the clock on the wall tick-tick-tick the countdown to my being on that plane and home free.
That was over 8 months ago. I arrived home to find that I had been relieved of my job, and quickly relocated to a small town outside of Cleveland. The last months of my life have been full of cash jobs, month-to-month apartment rentals, and different small towns throughout the surrounding states of Ohio.
My life is now full of uncertainty and the sharp pang of dread. The feeling that I’m being watched is always there in the back of my mind, filling my nights with horrendous nightmares, and silently urging me to pack my few belongings and get back on the road to a new destination during the day. I sit here tucked away in my small apartment, gently rubbing my swollen belly, attempting to calm the baby boy that is kicking at my ribs.
I fear for myself, but mostly I fear for his little life that has yet to begin. I realize that I am hormonal, and pregnant women have the tendency to have very vivid dreams and nightmares. These nightmares, though, are full of hook-and-dot symbols and men whose eyes glow gold. I can’t help but feel that they are a warning of what is yet to come.

Oklahoma City's event list.

Ongoing

• Fully Committed (Lyric at the Plaza) Thru Sun, Oct 2nd Start Time: 12:00pm Watch one man struggle to keep all the plates of his work and life spinning in this hilarious one-man comedy! Funny man Martin Burke plays Sam, an out of work actor managing the reservation line at New York’s hottest restaurant, and the 39 other characters in this tour de force one man show.
• 🎡 Edmond Historic Tours (N Blvd & W Danforth Rd - Edmond) Thru Sat, Dec 31st Learn about the history of Edmond with a spooky tour of the Gracelawn Cemetery where many founding fathers of the city…
• Power & Prestige: Headdresses of the American Plains (National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum) Thru Sun, May 14th Learn more about war bonnets and feather headdresses, iconic images of the American West, at the National Cowboy &…
• 🎭 The Rocky Horror Picture Show (The Boom) Thru Mon, Oct 31st The Boom, a combination club and live entertainment venue in Oklahoma City, puts on a production of the Rocky Horror…
• 🎭 Romeo and Juliet (Myriad Gardens Water Stage) Thru Sat, Oct 1st Sit back and watch as the Water Stage transforms into the city of Verona when Oklahoma Shakespeare brings this timeless…
• Victorian Walk (Historic Guthrie - Guthrie) Thru Sat, Dec 31st Go back in time with a close-up view of Guthrie's historic architecture on the Victorian Homes Tour. The…

Wednesday, Sep 21st

• $ 2016 OK Building Summit & Expo (Cox Convention Center) OSHBA's premiere training event will be September 21st and 22nd at the Cox Convention Center in OKC. The OK Building Summit & Expo will address the needs and concerns of our members and the residential construction industry.
• ♪ Adventure Road Entertainment Stage feat. Elvis Extravaganza (Oklahoma State Fair Park) Day 2 of 2 Start Time: 7:30pm Regional Elvis Impersonator Contest complete with live show band, horns and singers. Contestants compete for cash and prizes and a spot in the National Finals, which will be held in Tampa, Florida, at the Florida State Fair, February 2016. The Oklahoma State Fair is excited to officially announce the 2016 talent line-up for our Adventure Road…
• An exhibition featuring the silicone artworks ofadjunct professor Lopeeta Tawde (University of Central Oklahoma - Edmond) Day 2 of 2 An exhibition featuring the silicone artworks of University of Central Oklahoma adjunct professor Lopeeta Tawde, through Sept. 22, Melton Gallery, 100 N University Drive, 974-5299. (Edmond)
• 🍴 Anthem Drown Night! (HiLo Club) Our local friends at Anthem Brewing Co. have some great beers! Every Wednesday night from 9pm to close enjoy $8 Drown Night! Their Power Pils will be flowing!
• Bi-Weekly Meetup (51st st. Speakeasy) Start Time: 5:00pm
• Bringing Books to Life (Myriad Botanical Gardens) Start Time: 10:00am
• Norman Central - After School Special (Norman Public Library - Norman) Start Time: 3:30pm After School Special combines books, a film, and an awesome craft for an afternoon of fun. This weekly program is for children in Kindergarten, First, and Second grades. For more information, contact the Children's department at 405-701-2630.
• Norman Central - Baby Story Time (Norman Public Library - Norman) Start Time: 10:00am Calling all babies, toddlers and the ones who love them! It's time for Baby Story Time! Each week, we'll explore the world through books, songs, fingerplays and rhymes designed for the smallest library fans! This story time is great for ages birth to 24 months. For more information, please call the Children's department at 405-701-2630.
• Norman Central -Introduction to Genealogy: Start Right! (Norman Public Library - Norman) Start Time: 2:00pm Start right in your genealogy research. Learn how accurately identifying your ancestors and establishing family connections can provide a solid foundation for building your family tree. Presented by Kathryn Ramsay, Pioneer Library System Local History and Genealogy Librarian
• The Colors of the Spirit, exhibit by Alcohol Ink Artist Kim Harrison (Contemporary Art Gallery)
• Del City Kiwanis Club (Rose State College - Midwest City)
• 🎨 Exhibtion: Lowell Ellsworth Smith: My Theology of Painting (Western Heritage Museum) 1 day left Start Time: 10:00am **Lowell Ellsworth Smith: My Theology of Painting **
  Ohio watercolorist and Prix de West winner, Lowell Ellsworth Smith (1924-2011), once referenced his *theology of painting *during an interview. Short but meaningful, the phrase summarized his relationship with art. It was more than a hobby or pastime. More than a career. It was the lens…
  
• 🏃 Family Yoga Night (Noble Public Library - Noble) Start Time: 6:30pm Cooperative event with Shannon Scott. Please join the Noble Public Library and Shannon Scott for Family Yoga Night, every Wednesday. For more information please contact Shannon Scott -- [email protected] (405) 517-9605
  
• Ferry Fun Cruises (Oklahoma River Cruises) Day 1 of 2 Start Time: 11:30am With four river landings, it's easy travel the Oklahoma River. Learn more about each of the landings and where they're located.
  The ferry transit schedule varies throughout the season.
  *** Purchase your tickets onboard**
  **Trip times in black are 1 hr 40 min round trip*
  *** Theme Cruises are on all evening service departures the last…
  
• 🎨 A Hiding Place (Artspace At Untitled) 1 day left Start Time: 10:00am Poetry Reading Begins at 6:30pm
  This exhibit is a dialog beginning with a poet’s voice and then calling forth an artist’s remix, and response. You are invited to this collaborative exhibition in hopes you, too, will discover something hidden, and now made communal in the open light. A Hiding Place can be a rest stop or a generator shop, a…
  
• Hospice Volunteer Opportunities (New Century Hospice, Inc.) 1 day left Start Time: 9:00am The services you will give as a Hospice volunteer will profoundly improve the quality of our patient's lives. Friendly visits enable families to keep their loved ones at home, around the people they love, and the things they love. Assisting with errands helps a tired family cope with their many challenges and allows them time with their loved…
  
• Jonathan Byrd (The Blue Door)
  
• Margot Holaday and Dodge Hill (The Studio Gallery) Margot Holaday and Dodge Hill
  The Studio Gallery, 2646 W, Britton Rd., is pleased to have Margot Holaday and Dodge Hill as featured artists for the month of August.
  Holaday is an experienced artist who recieved her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University Of Oklahoma. She has participated in local art shows, in Texas
  and has had…
  
• National Cavalry Competition (Historic Fort Reno - El Reno) Thru Sun, Sep 25th The National Cavalry Competition at Historic Fort Reno is a wonderful opportunity for re-enactors, active and reserve…
  
• Oil Paintingws by Russell Hughes (50 Penn Art Gallery) Day 2 of 2 Carolyn, please run the following under the Exhibits listing in the
  September 4th edition of the Oklahoman:
  *Oil Paintings by Russell Hughes, *through October 29th.
  50 Penn Art Gallery, 1900 NW Expressway. There will be an
  opening reception at 6 p.m. Friday (Sept. 9th) 848-5567
  
• Oklahoma Kids Count Conference (University of Central Oklahoma - Edmond) Day 2 of 2 Start Time: 8:00am A two-day event to inform and educate advocates across the state about key issues and policies impacting children and families. For more information, visit oica.org
  
• Oklahoma State Fair (Oklahoma State Fairgrounds Jim Norick Arena) Thru Sun, Sep 25th
  
• 🍴 Oklahoma State Fair (Oklahoma State Fair Park) Thru Sun, Sep 25th Make your way to the Oklahoma State Fair and celebrate the end of summer with endless carnival rides, delicious fair…
  
• ♪ THE REAL COST (89th Street Collective) Start Time: 7:00pm THE REAL COST IS THE BEST GODDAMN BAND https://therealcost.bandcamp.com/album/the-real-cost LIFE AS FRIGGN ONE lifeasone.bandcamp.com No X Thanks SHOULD HAVE NEW MUSIC BY THIS Noxthanks.bandcamp.com Maybe ur band?
  
• 🏃 Tai Chi Moving For Better Balance (Purcell Public Library - Purcell) Start Time: 1:00pm The movements of Tai Chi help all ages reduce stress, increase balance and flexibility. Participants learn relaxation to improve their overall mind, body and spirit through a series of slow continuous movements. This program is designed for people at all levels of mobility and can be performed standing or sitting. Please wear comfortable…
  
• 🎓 Teen STEAM (Purcell Public Library - Purcell) Start Time: 3:00pm Teens 6th thru 12th grade will explore various Technology and Lego Robotics Kits along with Art.
  
• 🎓 "Understanding and Responding to Dementia-Related Behavior": Coping with Alzheimer’s - A Three-Part Lecture Series for Caregiver (Concordia Life Care Community) Start Time: 6:30pm Behavior is a powerful form of communication and is one of the primary ways for people with dementia to communicate their needs and feelings as the ability to use language is lost. However, some behaviors can present real challenges for caregivers to manage. "Understanding and Responding to Dementia" will help you learn how to decode behavioral…
  
• 🎨 Volunteer for Cloud City by Tomás Saraceno Day 2 of 2 Tomás Saraceno’s Cloud City is coming to Oklahoma City! Get to know the large-scale installation inside and out as a volunteer for this “utopian city in the sky” during its five-week run at Campbell Art Park, adjacent to our planned art campus at NW 11th and Broadway. To show our appreciation, volunteers who work three shifts will…
  
• 🎨 Western Movie Matinee: Apache (Western Heritage Museum) Start Time: 1:00pm Join us for these terrific “staff picks.” Popcorn provided. The Museum is admission free to all on Wide Open Wednesdays, courtesy of the Oklahoma Ford Dealers.
  September 21 – Apache Hardly the first non-native to play one on film, Burt Lancaster stars as a restless Apache warrior who resists life on the reservation in Robert Aldrich’s…
  
• 😂 Zoltan Kaszas (Loony Bin Comedy Club) Thru Sat, Sep 24th
  

Thursday, Sep 22nd

• 🎓 2016 University of Oklahoma WaTER Symposium (Molly Shi Boren Ballroom - Norman) Start Time: 6:30pm The WaTER Center will host the 2016 OU WaTER Symposium on Thursday, September 22, to help address the world water challenge. Leading experts from around the world will discuss sustainability and sanitation. The public is invited to attend and learn more about the latest research, experiences and challenges in bringing water and sanitation to…
• 🎓 Adventure Road Entertainment Stage feat. Granger Smith (Oklahoma State Fair Park) Start Time: 7:30pm Over the course of nine albums, at a time when the music industry is undergoing a top-to-bottom transformation, Granger Smith has been building a career that is truly groundbreaking. With sold-out national tours, a social media following of more than four million, and YouTube views exceeding 35 million, he has amassed an audience that is purely…
• ♪ The Avett Brothers (Chesapeake Energy Arena) Visit the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City for a special performance by The Avett Brothers. This one night event…
• Brown Bag Lunch Series (Western Heritage Museum) Start Time: 12:00pm Take part in casual conversations about the Museum’s current exhibition. Bring a lunch or purchase one in The Museum Grill. Reservations are not required. Free admission to the Theater and Museum Grill.
  September 22 Cultural Appropriation and Headdresses. Matt Reed, 2nd Chief of the Chaui Band of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma and Curator of…
  
• ♪ Cavalera - Return to Roots - OKC (Diamond Ballroom) Start Time: 6:30pm SEPT 22 at the Diamond Ballroom Max & Iggor Cavalera Return to Roots Performing the "Roots" Album in its entirety with Special Guest Combichrist, Allegaeon, A Dying Art Okc, Komatryp & Arise & Devour TICKETS ON SALE NOW: http://bit.ly/CavaleraRootsOKC
  
• 🎓 Norman Central - Computer Skills for Job Seekers, Day 3 (Norman Public Library - Norman) Start Time: 1:00pm It seems like every job these days wants you to have computer skills and to apply online. But don't fret! The Norman Library is here to help you get up-to-speed - and ready-to-work. In this third day, students will learn about resume writing. Students will employ Microsoft Word and learn how to navigate simple templates for resume creation, as…
  
• 🎓 Norman Central - STEAM Tweens (Norman Public Library - Norman) Start Time: 4:00pm STEAM Tweens connects kids with Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Design, and Mathematics in the library! Each week, join us as we explore and create different things of the STEAM variety! This program is for ages 8-12 or children in third, fourth, fifth, or sixth grades. For more information, please call the Children's desk at 405-701-2630.
  
• 🎨 Cloud City by Tomás Saraceno Start Time: 5:00pm Cloud City , Tomás Saraceno’s 28-foot-tall steel and acrylic sculpture, will refract and rearrange the Oklahoma City skyline beginning Sept. 8. The structure, previously installed atop New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and at the Green Box Arts Festival in Green Mountain Falls, Colo., can be explored from the inside and out. Visit NW…
  
• 🎓 English as a Second Language Class (Purcell Public Library - Purcell) Start Time: 11:00am English as a Second Language class. All materials are provided.
  
• 🎨 Exhibtion: Lowell Ellsworth Smith: My Theology of Painting (Western Heritage Museum) Last Day Start Time: 10:00am **Lowell Ellsworth Smith: My Theology of Painting **
  Ohio watercolorist and Prix de West winner, Lowell Ellsworth Smith (1924-2011), once referenced his *theology of painting *during an interview. Short but meaningful, the phrase summarized his relationship with art. It was more than a hobby or pastime. More than a career. It was the lens…
  
• Ferry Fun Cruises (Oklahoma River Cruises) Day 2 of 2 Start Time: 11:30am With four river landings, it's easy travel the Oklahoma River. Learn more about each of the landings and where they're located.
  The ferry transit schedule varies throughout the season.
  *** Purchase your tickets onboard**
  **Trip times in black are 1 hr 40 min round trip*
  *** Theme Cruises are on all evening service departures the last…
  
• Found Poetry Playshop (IAO Gallery) Start Time: 7:00pm Hey poets! Have you ever been to a workshop? HAve you ever toiled away for endless hours to write that perfect next word? Well, we won't be doing that here! Join IAO for a Found Poetry Playshop Thursday, September 22 at 7:00 pm!!! You'll create a poem from a short piece of prose using some rather loose rules! Then, if you're brave enough, you…
  
• Friends of thePreview Sale (Moore Public Library - Moore) Start Time: 6:30pm
  
• 🎨 A Hiding Place (Artspace At Untitled) Last Day Start Time: 10:00am Poetry Reading Begins at 6:30pm
  This exhibit is a dialog beginning with a poet’s voice and then calling forth an artist’s remix, and response. You are invited to this collaborative exhibition in hopes you, too, will discover something hidden, and now made communal in the open light. A Hiding Place can be a rest stop or a generator shop, a…
  
• Hospice Volunteer Opportunities (New Century Hospice, Inc.) Last Day Start Time: 9:00am The services you will give as a Hospice volunteer will profoundly improve the quality of our patient's lives. Friendly visits enable families to keep their loved ones at home, around the people they love, and the things they love. Assisting with errands helps a tired family cope with their many challenges and allows them time with their loved…
  
• Max & Igor Cavalera et al. (Diamond Ballroom) CAVALERA
  Thu - Sep 22
  

   Diamond Ballroom 

  8001 S. Eastern Ave.
  Oklahoma City, OK
  MAX & IGOR CAVALERA RETURN TO ROOTS
  PERFORMING 'ROOTS' IN ITS ENTIRETY
  with Special Guests:
  COMBICHRIST
  ALLEGAEON
  A DYING ART
  KOMATRYP
  ARISE & DEVOUR
  Tickets On Sale Now
  Buy For Less locations in OKC
  Brady Box Office or…
  
• National Cavalry Competition (Historic Fort Reno - El Reno) Thru Sun, Sep 25th The National Cavalry Competition at Historic Fort Reno is a wonderful opportunity for re-enactors, active and reserve…
  
• Oklahoma State Fair (Oklahoma State Fairgrounds Jim Norick Arena) Thru Sun, Sep 25th
  
• 🍴 Oklahoma State Fair (Oklahoma State Fair Park) Thru Sun, Sep 25th Make your way to the Oklahoma State Fair and celebrate the end of summer with endless carnival rides, delicious fair…
  
• Pollinator Habitat Workshop (Norman Public Library - Norman) Start Time: 6:00pm Several Oklahoma counties, including Cleveland and McClain will receive $26,400 each to create and improve monarch butterfly and other pollinator habitats in its communities. Learn how you can get involved at a Pollinator Workshop on Sept. 22 from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Norman Public Library, 225 North Webster Avenue, Norman.
  Workshop attendees…
  
• 🎓 Scaling Up Business Growth Workshop (Bank of Oklahoma Plaza) Start Time: 8:00am Gazelles International's all day workshop designed for CEO's and executive teams of mid-market companies ($5M-$200M) is coming to Oklahoma City!
  The world-renowned Scaling Up Business Growth Workshop empowers you to accelerate profitable growth using a time-tested and results-driven methodology. Through this exclusive learning experience,…
  
• ⚾ SNU: Soccer (M) vs Ouachita (Bethany Library - Bethany) Start Time: 7:00pm Soccer (W) vs Ouachita\nStreaming Video: https://www.youtube.com/useSNUCrimsonStorm\n http://snuathletics.com/calendar.aspx?id=2857
  
• Sunset River Cruises (Oklahoma River Cruises) Start Time: 7:30pm Departs Exchange Landing | Last 3 Fridays (June – September) | $35/person
  Relax and recharge on the deck in the fresh Oklahoma breeze or inside the climate-controlled cabin while on an hour and a half sunset cruise enjoying music, appetizers and soda. Cruise times vary by season. A cash bar is available on board.
  Space is limited and…
  
• 🎓 Teen - Vinyl Cutting (Blanchard Library - Blanchard) Start Time: 3:30pm Learn to design with the Silhouette Vinyl Cutter. You can have fun making your name and other designs in sticky-backed vinyl. You are welcome to complete one of the projects that will be on hand or bring something of your own that you want to decorate with vinyl designs.
  
• 😂 Zoltan Kaszas (Loony Bin Comedy Club) Thru Sat, Sep 24th
  
• 🎓 Zumba in the Gardens presented by Oklahoma City Community Foundation (Myriad Botanical Gardens) Start Time: 5:45pm Terrace Room $5 members, $10 nonmembers No pre-registration required Thursdays through September 20 Presented by Oklahoma City Community Foundation
  Zumba is a Latin-inspired cardio-dance workout that uses music and choreographed steps to form a fitness party atmosphere. While many of the types of dance and music featured in the program are…
  

Friday, Sep 23rd

• 🎨 ARTonTAP (Oklahoma City Museum of Art) Once a year, Art on Tap brings community members together over beer, food and art. At this annual event, dress up…
• 🍴 Tuttle BBQ Cook-Off (Tuttle American Legion - Tuttle) Bring the family and a big appetite to Tuttle this September for the annual Tuttle BBQ Cook-Off. This event, held in the…
• Day Out with Thomas (Oklahoma Railway Museum) Thru Sun, Sep 25th Climb aboard for fun as Thomas the Tank Engine chugs into the Oklahoma Railway Museum in Oklahoma City. Thomas fans are…
• John Pizzarelli (University of Central Oklahoma - Edmond)
• ♪ Montgomery Gentry in Concert (Oklahoma State Fair Park) Head to the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds for a night of hard-driving and Kentucky fried country music when Montgomery…
• National Cavalry Competition (Historic Fort Reno - El Reno) Thru Sun, Sep 25th The National Cavalry Competition at Historic Fort Reno is a wonderful opportunity for re-enactors, active and reserve…
• Oklahoma State Fair (Oklahoma State Fairgrounds Jim Norick Arena) Thru Sun, Sep 25th
• 🍴 Oklahoma State Fair (Oklahoma State Fair Park) Thru Sun, Sep 25th Make your way to the Oklahoma State Fair and celebrate the end of summer with endless carnival rides, delicious fair…
• 🎡 Pops Arcadia Corn Maze (Arcadia) Thru Sat, Oct 29th Celebrate the fall season with a trip to the Pops Arcadia Corn Maze. Navigate your way through the maze, which has a…
• Skindred et al. (89th Street Collective)
• Titus Andronicus (Opolis - Norman)
• 😂 Zoltan Kaszas (Loony Bin Comedy Club) 1 day left

Saturday, Sep 24th

• ♪ Blues in the Deuce (Artspace At Untitled) Spend the evening relaxing as waves of Memphis blues hit your ears from the Artspace at Untitled stage. Grab a…
• Car Show (Firelake Casino - Shawnee) Admire the timeless designs of classic cars at the FireLake Casino Car Show in Shawnee. The FireLake Casino Car Show…
• ♪ Coheed And Cambria et al. (Diamond Ballroom) Coheed and Cambria will embark on a fall North America tour, stopping at Diamond Ballroom along the way. Crowd the…
• Day Out with Thomas (Oklahoma Railway Museum) 1 day left Climb aboard for fun as Thomas the Tank Engine chugs into the Oklahoma Railway Museum in Oklahoma City. Thomas fans are…
• ⚾ End of Season Mash Up (Firelake Arena - Shawnee) Catch the buzz as the Oklahoma City Roller Derby put on an electrifying dance of athleticism and grace as jammers and…
• 🎡 Coyle Fall Festival (City Ballpark - Coyle) Bring the family out to the Coyle Fall Festival for a fun-filled day. With old fashioned family games and plenty of…
• Fall Gourd Dance (First American United Methodist - Norman) Participate in the annual Fall Gourd Dance in Norman for a taste of American Indian culture. Besides hearing American…
• ♪ Festival (Plaza District) The Plaza District Festival is quickly growing into one of Oklahoma City's most endearing annual art events, drawing…
• 🍴 Grape Stomp Festival (Slaughterville) The Canadian River Wine Festival invites all ages out to Slaughterville for a fun day at the winery. Enter the Lucille…
• Heritage Hills Historic Home Tour (Overholser Mansion) Day 1 of 2 The Heritage Hills Historic Home Tour has been a staple Oklahoma City fall activity for 50 years and provides a unique…
• 🎡 Lebanese Heritage & Food Festival (Our Lady of Lebanon - Norman) Come celebrate the riches of Lebanese food, history and culture at the annual Lebanese Heritage & Food Festival.…
• National Cavalry Competition (Historic Fort Reno - El Reno) 1 day left The National Cavalry Competition at Historic Fort Reno is a wonderful opportunity for re-enactors, active and reserve…
• ⚾ OKC Energy FC vs Saint Louis FC (Taft Stadium) Start Time: 6:00pm
• Oklahoma State Fair (Oklahoma State Fairgrounds Jim Norick Arena) 1 day left
• 🍴 Oklahoma State Fair (Oklahoma State Fair Park) 1 day left Make your way to the Oklahoma State Fair and celebrate the end of summer with endless carnival rides, delicious fair…
• $ Oklahoma Wildlife Expo (Lazy E Arena - Guthrie) Day 1 of 2 In September, Guthrie's Lazy E Arena will be transformed into Oklahoma's largest indoor and outdoor recreation…
• 🎡 Pops Arcadia Corn Maze (Arcadia) Thru Sat, Oct 29th Celebrate the fall season with a trip to the Pops Arcadia Corn Maze. Navigate your way through the maze, which has a…
• 🏃 Redman Triathlon (2016 ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships) (Stars & Stripes Park) OKLAHOMA is a word that was coined by the native American missionary Allen Wright. He combined two Choctaw words, "ukla" meaning man and "humá" meaning red to form the word that first appears in an 1866 Choctaw treaty. Oklahoma means REDMAN & REDMAN means a flat, very fast course & ease of access, all combined with service & support that will…
• 🏃 Robert E. Brady Memorial 5K (Farmers Insurance HelpPoint parking lot) The out and back course will be closed to traffic and is considered to be flat and fast. Fast and accurate times will be provided by DG Productions. Proceeds will go to benefit the United Way.
• 🍴 Sam's Club National BBQ Tour (Midwest City) The Sam's Club National BBQ Tour in Midwest City is spicing up the world of competitive barbecue. The barbecue…
• Touch a Truck (Cleveland County Fairgrounds - Norman) Norman's Pioneer Library System invites families to bring their children to the Cleveland County Fairgrounds to see…
• University of Oklahoma Ghost Tour (University of Oklahoma - Norman) Discover the mysterious side of an Oklahoma landmark with a University of Oklahoma Ghost Tour. Visitors who join this…
• 🏃 Walk to End Alzheimer's (Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark) 7:30 a.m. Registration 9 a.m. Ceremony & Walk
• Watermelon Slim (The Blue Door)
• 😂 Zoltan Kaszas (Loony Bin Comedy Club) Last Day

Sunday, Sep 25th

• Big Thief (Opolis - Norman)
• Buckcherry et al. (Kickapoo Casino - Harrah)
• Day Out with Thomas (Oklahoma Railway Museum) Last Day Climb aboard for fun as Thomas the Tank Engine chugs into the Oklahoma Railway Museum in Oklahoma City. Thomas fans are…
• Don't Quit Your Day Job: an OKC StorySLAM (Saints) Start Time: 7:00pm
• ♪ Groovefest (Andrews Park - Norman) Founded in 1986 by the OU Chapter for Amnesty International, Groovefest in Norman is the longest-lasting human rights…
• 🏃 HDSA Hope Walk & 5K (Stars & Stripes Park) Huntington's Disease Society of America
• Heritage Hills Historic Home Tour (Overholser Mansion) Day 2 of 2 The Heritage Hills Historic Home Tour has been a staple Oklahoma City fall activity for 50 years and provides a unique…
• National Cavalry Competition (Historic Fort Reno - El Reno) Last Day The National Cavalry Competition at Historic Fort Reno is a wonderful opportunity for re-enactors, active and reserve…
• ⚾ Oklahoma Derby Day (Remington Park) Celebrate the Oklahoma Derby in style at Remington Park Racetrack & Casino in Oklahoma City. In addition to the 10…
• Oklahoma State Fair (Oklahoma State Fairgrounds Jim Norick Arena) Last Day
• 🍴 Oklahoma State Fair (Oklahoma State Fair Park) Last Day Make your way to the Oklahoma State Fair and celebrate the end of summer with endless carnival rides, delicious fair…
• $ Oklahoma Wildlife Expo (Lazy E Arena - Guthrie) Day 2 of 2 In September, Guthrie's Lazy E Arena will be transformed into Oklahoma's largest indoor and outdoor recreation…
• 🎡 Pops Arcadia Corn Maze (Arcadia) Thru Sat, Oct 29th Celebrate the fall season with a trip to the Pops Arcadia Corn Maze. Navigate your way through the maze, which has a…

Monday, Sep 26th

• Drown Night at Saints (Plaza District) Start Time: 8:00pm All you can drink Anthem beer for $8 starting at 8pm.
• #FreeCoffeeMondays (District House) Start Time: 7:00am 7:00am - 10:30am. A free small cup of coffee for anyone who comes in.
• Milk Moms (Thrive Mama Collective) Start Time: 6:00pm
• $ OKC Painting Palooza (Reed Conference Center - Midwest City) Thru Sat, Oct 1st Celebrate all forms of creative arts with OKC Painting Palooza. During this week-long event, learn art techniques from…
• Pint Night (Plaza District) Start Time: 5:00pm Come try a new brew and keep the glass while you're at it!
• 🎡 Pops Arcadia Corn Maze (Arcadia) Thru Sat, Oct 29th Celebrate the fall season with a trip to the Pops Arcadia Corn Maze. Navigate your way through the maze, which has a…
• Public Access: Open Mic Mondays (District House) Start Time: 8:00pm Got talents? Come rock the mic.
  Hosted by Matt Raney
  
• Shel (University of Central Oklahoma - Edmond)
  

Tuesday, Sep 27th

• Hellyeah (Diamond Ballroom)
• Islander et al. (Thunder Alley Grill & Sports Bar)
• $ OKC Painting Palooza (Reed Conference Center - Midwest City) Thru Sat, Oct 1st Celebrate all forms of creative arts with OKC Painting Palooza. During this week-long event, learn art techniques from…
• 🎡 Pops Arcadia Corn Maze (Arcadia) Thru Sat, Oct 29th Celebrate the fall season with a trip to the Pops Arcadia Corn Maze. Navigate your way through the maze, which has a…

Hey guys im going to be staying in your lovely(i hope) town for 2 weeks, from the 27th. I will be staying with a local and going to a bunch of the fairs and events and doing the usual touristy stuff (orlando tampa etc)
Is there anything unique to sarasota that i can do? (fyi been to florida 7 times, tampa/orlando, been fishing in the gulf, done the casino cruise etc)
Also whats the best way to not stand out as a tourist :P