This morning, our power went out.
Now, I know there are more important things going on in the world right now. Stay with me.
So, when I realized I would not get my coffee fix this morning, I packed up my laptop and my notebook (paper girl 4-EVAH) and went down to my local bakery/coffeehouse. I was going to update the four book reviews I told myself I need to write before I start my next book. It is weird for me to be in a space where I am not actually reading, but hey, blogs matter!!
As I was getting ready to catch up on reviews, I was (procrastinating by) scrolling back in the blog and found the trio of posts I wrote during the beginning of the pandemic. What a fascinating record of feelings and situations and hopes and anxieties! Reflecting on these posts from two years ago made me think it might be time for an update, for future reference again.
Wait, hold on. TWO YEARS. Really? It seems like forever and yesterday. My husband predicted this time frame back in March 2020, that it would take two years to get through it. (I hate it when he is right!) While I know we aren't really finished with this pandemic with all the variants and people still getting sick and the effects of Long Covid hovering over people I know, we recently had the mask mandate lifted in the state where I live and that feels like such a huge goal/change. It was actually strange walking into the grocery store without a mask on.
But gone is the feeling that I was dirty/germy when I walked out of the grocery store, like I felt two years ago. I am pleased to report that at least in my case, my fears that friends and other people would act suspicious towards me and each other after Covid have not materialized. I have resumed hugging people! I started out holding my breath as I hugged so as not to breathe on people, but I don't even do that anymore. Restaurants and shops are fully reopened, and while many businesses became casualties of Covid, I am pleased to say our little business is now booming and we are actually expanding to another location this summer. We made it through!!
Travel has been the biggest piece missing from our lives in my family. We are a mixed nationality family and my in-laws live overseas. We travel A LOT. We haven't seen The Cousins in over three years. But this week, we booked a FLIGHT. So super excited to see everyone again this summer! My daughter is studying overseas this semester as planned and has travelled her little tuchus off. I am so excited to go somewhere and take pictures (that isn't college where I am leaving my baby, that is, said the empty nester!!!)
And, in lots of ways, the New Normal I was so afraid of has actually happened, and it is not terrible. We have become so used to Covid that I think we shrug it off now as a general population. Obviously, those who have lost loved ones or seen the devastation of this illness are not shrugging, but as a whole there are fewer news reports, no more charts and flattening the curve-speak and doom and gloom (well, except for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but that is a whole other topic/world issue!!). I guess what I am saying is our attention has been turned away from Covid and on to other things. We have adapted. We aren't ignoring Covid, but we have learned to live with it. I for one don't feel that people are ashamed at this point to admit they have Covid. That was a terrible side effect, that people felt guilty for getting sick!! "Pretty much we are all going to get it, let's just do the best we can" became the mantra.
It was so helpful to me that I made a list of the things I DID do during lockdown in those posts from two years ago. I was reflecting last week that I did not earn a degree, learn a language, practice my calligraphy or read all the books. But I did get a new job, I moved out of my house where we had lived for 18 years and all the purging and packing that entailed, I became an empty nester, my husband and I have had lots of date nights and a couple of trips to the beach - just the two of us!!! (Definitely got some reading done at the beach, and puzzles, and walks.....) Maybe these things would have happened anyway, so maybe there is not something that I accomplished as a direct result of Covid. But ya know what? Life went on. I had accomplishments, disappointments, sadness, joy, new friends, new neighbors, and navigation of a new grocery store (seriously, that is my major stress?). Life!
We have definitely all changed. I believe we have become a closer world. We were all in this together (even when we didn't agree on the how). We are all starting to come out of our shells and stretch in the sunshine. Will my introverted side miss those days of being forced to stay home with my nuclear family for that extra "found time?" Yes!!! Will the extroverted side of me ever re-learn how to properly get dressed?
Not looking good, haha.
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