Today's Wednesday...? Really? What does time even mean anymore?
March 2, 2022 5:13 PM Subscribe
Thank you for asking that question for the thousand-and-oneth time. Today is Wednesday, March 731st, 2020 (Covid Standard Time).
How Graduate Students Pushed Through in a Pandemic.
posted by clavdivs at 5:32 PM on March 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 5:32 PM on March 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
In early 2020, my friend and I talked about going to see Lady Gaga in Toronto, which was going to happen that August. I said I'd buy the tickets and we'd figure out travel plans later.
I bought the tickets on Thursday, March 12, 2020. I knew that Covid was a thing and we were probably going to go into lockdown but I was vaguely optimistic.
Friday, March 13, 2020, was the last time I was in an office. The show has been rescheduled twice now & I imagine it may just be canceled at this point.
People talk about wanting things to go back to normal but talking to a lot of people, this is just normal now. We used to eat out a lot and now we don't. We used to go to shows and now we don't (although we've been to a few). It's never going to be the old normal.
I'm kind of OK with that. I'd rather just accept that this is life now & if things get better, that's cool. I just don't think things are going to go back to how they were, ever.
posted by edencosmic at 6:12 PM on March 2, 2022 [27 favorites]
I bought the tickets on Thursday, March 12, 2020. I knew that Covid was a thing and we were probably going to go into lockdown but I was vaguely optimistic.
Friday, March 13, 2020, was the last time I was in an office. The show has been rescheduled twice now & I imagine it may just be canceled at this point.
People talk about wanting things to go back to normal but talking to a lot of people, this is just normal now. We used to eat out a lot and now we don't. We used to go to shows and now we don't (although we've been to a few). It's never going to be the old normal.
I'm kind of OK with that. I'd rather just accept that this is life now & if things get better, that's cool. I just don't think things are going to go back to how they were, ever.
posted by edencosmic at 6:12 PM on March 2, 2022 [27 favorites]
I got through the darkest parts of 2020 by having faith in 2021.
And even though it's been almost a year since I got my first jab, it feels like 2021 never came.
And despite all this, people are saying we need to live and work like it's 2019.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:37 PM on March 2, 2022 [15 favorites]
And even though it's been almost a year since I got my first jab, it feels like 2021 never came.
And despite all this, people are saying we need to live and work like it's 2019.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:37 PM on March 2, 2022 [15 favorites]
At the start of the pandemic one of my neighbors started posting pics on Facebook of what socks she was wearing to work at home that day.
I just checked. Her "What Socks Will I Wear to Work Today?" album has 483 pictures in it as of today.
Those socks have been one of my few joys in the last couple of years.
posted by selfmedicating at 6:38 PM on March 2, 2022 [37 favorites]
I just checked. Her "What Socks Will I Wear to Work Today?" album has 483 pictures in it as of today.
Those socks have been one of my few joys in the last couple of years.
posted by selfmedicating at 6:38 PM on March 2, 2022 [37 favorites]
I actually had it marked in my calendar that this Friday is the 1-year anniversary of We Hate You Now.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:54 PM on March 2, 2022 [16 favorites]
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:54 PM on March 2, 2022 [16 favorites]
I thought the government had declared VC (Victory over COVID) day?
posted by pashdown at 7:15 PM on March 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by pashdown at 7:15 PM on March 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
During our first lockdown I made a GeekTool thing to display the name of the day in very large letters on the TV.
I thought I was being funny, but it's disturbing how many times I've found it useful (especially during lockdown 2).
posted by pompomtom at 7:35 PM on March 2, 2022 [10 favorites]
I thought I was being funny, but it's disturbing how many times I've found it useful (especially during lockdown 2).
posted by pompomtom at 7:35 PM on March 2, 2022 [10 favorites]
Every single news article I read, I have to check the date and categorize it as "before" or "during". It's worse than when tfg was in office.
posted by meowzilla at 7:40 PM on March 2, 2022 [11 favorites]
posted by meowzilla at 7:40 PM on March 2, 2022 [11 favorites]
They can have 2019 behavior when they have 2019 covid rates
posted by Lycaste at 7:46 PM on March 2, 2022 [30 favorites]
posted by Lycaste at 7:46 PM on March 2, 2022 [30 favorites]
I just think of it as 2016 Part VII.
posted by AlSweigart at 9:22 PM on March 2, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by AlSweigart at 9:22 PM on March 2, 2022 [10 favorites]
My birthday being in March means it's always my birthday month, but never my birthday. Just like in Narnia.
posted by bleep at 9:29 PM on March 2, 2022 [29 favorites]
posted by bleep at 9:29 PM on March 2, 2022 [29 favorites]
I constantly find myself referring to things that happened "last year", and then realizing that I actually mean pre-COVID. I've just collapsed two years into one, and presumably that will just keep happening.
posted by skycrashesdown at 9:31 PM on March 2, 2022 [52 favorites]
posted by skycrashesdown at 9:31 PM on March 2, 2022 [52 favorites]
I wasn't sure what the post was about, and when I clicked the link, somehow I hadn't realized what I'd be seeing, and goddamn, but stomach just sank. A completely physical reaction, a sort of feeling of absolute dread. Leaden paralysis, just wanting to sink into the floor.
Today is the last day of the school year here. I'm watching over a class of students I've been teaching since 2019, and it'll be my last class with them (I teach 7th-10th grade), and... damn. I'm stunned by their resilience, and proud of how they've reacted to this massive interruption in how their lives were supposed to go. They've gone through the last forever without any of the traditional mileposts of student life here. Cancelled sports days, no school festivals, curtailed or cancelled school trips. I've worked with 12th graders on college essays while we weren't sure if the school they were applying for would have classes at all, let alone online vs on campus, and those kids (class of 2021) ended up graduating without anyone in attendance, just the students in the gym, spread out, and parents watching on Zoom.
I feel for these kids, having had so much of their childhoods upended by all of this, but I know I need to save some of that for myself, and for all of us. We've all lost so damn much to covid, and it feels like we're just going to keep losing more. I can't begin to understand how much this has changed me, how long it will take to recover from this, or if I will ever be close to the person I was before this. I know, at least, that I'm no longer a person who makes long term plans because every time I have, there's been another wave, another state of emergency.
In March of 2020, I was hopeful that it would all be over by my birthday in June, so I could have a barbecue to celebrate my 45th birthday, and I was still hopeful that we could go to the States to be out of Japan during the Olympics. By May, I was hopeful that we'd still be able to go to the beach in August. By July, I was hoping we'd have Halloween, at least. After Halloween, I thought I was done with looking ahead, but in August of 2021, with the Olympics in full, awful, stilted swing, I got (because Japan dragged its feet) my second shot, and I thought, huh, maybe we could take a trip to Hawaii in December, maybe I could go home to visit family in March of 2022.
It is March of 2022. The government has cut the quarantine to 3 days, and I'll get my booster next week. I haven't seen my family since August of 2019, when I attended my aunt's funeral. My cousin has had a baby. My mother is old, and not that healthy. I want to hope that I can visit this summer, but I don't honestly know how to hope for that anymore.
I know that I am not alone, and that everyone else has been dealing with the same, or worse. All I know at this point is that all of us, every one of us, is carrying all of this with us, and too many are leaving it all unsaid, just carrying that weight around, trying to ignore it, trying to just keep enduring it. I am terrified at the thought of the toll this is all taking on us.
posted by Ghidorah at 9:40 PM on March 2, 2022 [23 favorites]
Today is the last day of the school year here. I'm watching over a class of students I've been teaching since 2019, and it'll be my last class with them (I teach 7th-10th grade), and... damn. I'm stunned by their resilience, and proud of how they've reacted to this massive interruption in how their lives were supposed to go. They've gone through the last forever without any of the traditional mileposts of student life here. Cancelled sports days, no school festivals, curtailed or cancelled school trips. I've worked with 12th graders on college essays while we weren't sure if the school they were applying for would have classes at all, let alone online vs on campus, and those kids (class of 2021) ended up graduating without anyone in attendance, just the students in the gym, spread out, and parents watching on Zoom.
I feel for these kids, having had so much of their childhoods upended by all of this, but I know I need to save some of that for myself, and for all of us. We've all lost so damn much to covid, and it feels like we're just going to keep losing more. I can't begin to understand how much this has changed me, how long it will take to recover from this, or if I will ever be close to the person I was before this. I know, at least, that I'm no longer a person who makes long term plans because every time I have, there's been another wave, another state of emergency.
In March of 2020, I was hopeful that it would all be over by my birthday in June, so I could have a barbecue to celebrate my 45th birthday, and I was still hopeful that we could go to the States to be out of Japan during the Olympics. By May, I was hopeful that we'd still be able to go to the beach in August. By July, I was hoping we'd have Halloween, at least. After Halloween, I thought I was done with looking ahead, but in August of 2021, with the Olympics in full, awful, stilted swing, I got (because Japan dragged its feet) my second shot, and I thought, huh, maybe we could take a trip to Hawaii in December, maybe I could go home to visit family in March of 2022.
It is March of 2022. The government has cut the quarantine to 3 days, and I'll get my booster next week. I haven't seen my family since August of 2019, when I attended my aunt's funeral. My cousin has had a baby. My mother is old, and not that healthy. I want to hope that I can visit this summer, but I don't honestly know how to hope for that anymore.
I know that I am not alone, and that everyone else has been dealing with the same, or worse. All I know at this point is that all of us, every one of us, is carrying all of this with us, and too many are leaving it all unsaid, just carrying that weight around, trying to ignore it, trying to just keep enduring it. I am terrified at the thought of the toll this is all taking on us.
posted by Ghidorah at 9:40 PM on March 2, 2022 [23 favorites]
Well, for those more advanced, today is actually Thursday, March 732nd, 2020.
Like so many, the past two years just seem like a blur and it's hard to remember (with notably few exceptions) what happened during that time, even though our household and our region generally have suffered far, far less than most.
This time two years ago, we were looking forward to a period of celebration and togetherness with family and friends - a trip back home to New Zealand for a family wedding, followed by attending one of our favourite car/rock n roll events a week later, then back to Australia to make last-minute preparations for our own wedding the following week, followed by a Pacific Island cruise for our honeymoon. A month of happiness and celebration following on the heels of having bought our dream home together.
Then, in what seemed like a moment, it all came crashing down. The family wedding was cancelled on the eve of our departure (and the car event shortly after) and our flights were also cancelled. Then was made redundant from my job. Then we had to cancel our own wedding and, obviously, our honeymoon cruise. I know this is all small potatoes compared to the consequences millions have faced, but it has been such a bizarre time for me, having so much I held dear ripped away from me.
In the end, we decided to say 'fuck it and fuck you and fuck the horse you rode in on too' to COVID, made a snap decision that Cairns was where we were going to be the next day (we had both taken a month off work), booked an apartment for one night and a rental car for a month and flew North. We spent the next two weeks traveling randomly around Far North Queensland and had an absolutely lovely time, only being driven home by rapidly disappearing flight home options and the lack of readily available food in many places. As lovely as it was, it didn't and never will make up for having to cancel our wedding (for which we lost considerable $ because no refund).
We ended up getting married one year, one month and four days after our original wedding date, which was lovely, but tinged with regret that we had to wait so long.
We have lost so much of our lives over this period that I feel like the past two years mostly didn't happen. I really identify with the idea of COVID Standard Time.
posted by dg at 10:57 PM on March 2, 2022 [6 favorites]
Like so many, the past two years just seem like a blur and it's hard to remember (with notably few exceptions) what happened during that time, even though our household and our region generally have suffered far, far less than most.
This time two years ago, we were looking forward to a period of celebration and togetherness with family and friends - a trip back home to New Zealand for a family wedding, followed by attending one of our favourite car/rock n roll events a week later, then back to Australia to make last-minute preparations for our own wedding the following week, followed by a Pacific Island cruise for our honeymoon. A month of happiness and celebration following on the heels of having bought our dream home together.
Then, in what seemed like a moment, it all came crashing down. The family wedding was cancelled on the eve of our departure (and the car event shortly after) and our flights were also cancelled. Then was made redundant from my job. Then we had to cancel our own wedding and, obviously, our honeymoon cruise. I know this is all small potatoes compared to the consequences millions have faced, but it has been such a bizarre time for me, having so much I held dear ripped away from me.
In the end, we decided to say 'fuck it and fuck you and fuck the horse you rode in on too' to COVID, made a snap decision that Cairns was where we were going to be the next day (we had both taken a month off work), booked an apartment for one night and a rental car for a month and flew North. We spent the next two weeks traveling randomly around Far North Queensland and had an absolutely lovely time, only being driven home by rapidly disappearing flight home options and the lack of readily available food in many places. As lovely as it was, it didn't and never will make up for having to cancel our wedding (for which we lost considerable $ because no refund).
We ended up getting married one year, one month and four days after our original wedding date, which was lovely, but tinged with regret that we had to wait so long.
We have lost so much of our lives over this period that I feel like the past two years mostly didn't happen. I really identify with the idea of COVID Standard Time.
posted by dg at 10:57 PM on March 2, 2022 [6 favorites]
I nth this whole thread already.
I'm flabbergasted at anyone who has been planning a trip, for months, at any time during pandemic. I know all these people who are running off to Disneyland and Hawaii and I'm just all good god, I do NOT want to commit to something months in advance and spend a lot of money and then (a) get sick there and blow my life savings on a hotel room for isolation for weeks, (b) another variant comes up and suddenly you can't do anything any more. Also, (c) covidcation and pre-trip testing and flying and all that shit sounds NOT FUN. I caved and said I'd go on a trip and then canceled going because who the fuck knows what variant we'll have by the time it happens? I cannot commit to anything long-term any more. An outdoor festival I loved is coming back in July, it's several hours away so I'd have to sleep somewhere, and if I go I'd have to pay for a hotel room months in advance (or make arrangements with local friends, but they are trying to sell their house so who knows there) and I'm all, I CAN'T COMMIT LIFE MAY STRIKE YOU DOWN WHAT IS THE POINT.
Trips and travel just no longer sound fun any more. I may never want to go on another trip again. That just escalates the number of things to worry about.
I seriously wonder if anything involving long term planning is just going to go out the window in the future. Why spend all the money and time setting up a trip or a concert tour or whatever if/when it's likely to be struck down? I'm going to go to a yarn conference in my area Friday and I only paid circa Monday, just in case I catch it and there's no covid refunds. I'm refusing to commit to teaching six months in advance because who knows?
The only thing I'm committing to is plays (which take around 2-3-ish months of time) and half the shows I've done have had some drastic Covid change happen during them. The first one had Delta erupt, forcing everyone to go back to masking, and then someone got it, but the rest of us didn't and we just rearranged when we had dropped out members . The show I did tech on was fine (albeit kind of mixed in with the first show since they had overlapping cast members), no idea what happened on the show I didn't do. The one I did in January stayed consistently masked but we had to cancel shows due to Covid. Now in this show it's "no mask mandate! You can free your face!" and that's just changed in the last few weeks and I'm all "if I'd known this was happening in January when I auditioned, I might not have wanted to do it." Fuck if I know on the shows I want to audition for in the next week either. I'm assuming free face free-for-all, unfortunately.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:05 PM on March 2, 2022 [8 favorites]
I'm flabbergasted at anyone who has been planning a trip, for months, at any time during pandemic. I know all these people who are running off to Disneyland and Hawaii and I'm just all good god, I do NOT want to commit to something months in advance and spend a lot of money and then (a) get sick there and blow my life savings on a hotel room for isolation for weeks, (b) another variant comes up and suddenly you can't do anything any more. Also, (c) covidcation and pre-trip testing and flying and all that shit sounds NOT FUN. I caved and said I'd go on a trip and then canceled going because who the fuck knows what variant we'll have by the time it happens? I cannot commit to anything long-term any more. An outdoor festival I loved is coming back in July, it's several hours away so I'd have to sleep somewhere, and if I go I'd have to pay for a hotel room months in advance (or make arrangements with local friends, but they are trying to sell their house so who knows there) and I'm all, I CAN'T COMMIT LIFE MAY STRIKE YOU DOWN WHAT IS THE POINT.
Trips and travel just no longer sound fun any more. I may never want to go on another trip again. That just escalates the number of things to worry about.
I seriously wonder if anything involving long term planning is just going to go out the window in the future. Why spend all the money and time setting up a trip or a concert tour or whatever if/when it's likely to be struck down? I'm going to go to a yarn conference in my area Friday and I only paid circa Monday, just in case I catch it and there's no covid refunds. I'm refusing to commit to teaching six months in advance because who knows?
The only thing I'm committing to is plays (which take around 2-3-ish months of time) and half the shows I've done have had some drastic Covid change happen during them. The first one had Delta erupt, forcing everyone to go back to masking, and then someone got it, but the rest of us didn't and we just rearranged when we had dropped out members . The show I did tech on was fine (albeit kind of mixed in with the first show since they had overlapping cast members), no idea what happened on the show I didn't do. The one I did in January stayed consistently masked but we had to cancel shows due to Covid. Now in this show it's "no mask mandate! You can free your face!" and that's just changed in the last few weeks and I'm all "if I'd known this was happening in January when I auditioned, I might not have wanted to do it." Fuck if I know on the shows I want to audition for in the next week either. I'm assuming free face free-for-all, unfortunately.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:05 PM on March 2, 2022 [8 favorites]
Being neither a glass half full or a glass half empty person I look upon this as a simple temporal phase shift. As such I am not saddened or dismayed by the events which are unfolding and things unraveling around me.Just pass me the open bottle and a straw please.
posted by IndelibleUnderpants at 11:37 PM on March 2, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by IndelibleUnderpants at 11:37 PM on March 2, 2022 [4 favorites]
Tomorrow is my 2nd anniversary with my SO. It also marks 2 years since I last set foot in my office. For me, it’ll always be a bittersweet day.
posted by chaiyai at 1:50 AM on March 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by chaiyai at 1:50 AM on March 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
I dunno. Spring 2020 was fucking terrifying. This is not that. It feels like we have achieved an uneasy truce, but I am worried that the rush to rip off masks is going to tip us right back into chaos.
posted by basalganglia at 3:01 AM on March 3, 2022 [12 favorites]
posted by basalganglia at 3:01 AM on March 3, 2022 [12 favorites]
As a childfree lifelong Front Lines Worker, these threads are always a little bizarre to me... I'm just getting to a position where I can afford vacations, both in available time off and funds. I vaguely remember when work had both unlimited unpaid time off and mandatory overtime simultaneously, and that my workload shot up. Even during the depths of the pandemic, our activities were only slightly curtailed because most of what I had the time and energy for was trips to the park, occasionally eating out, and sporadically visiting friends.
posted by Jacen at 3:41 AM on March 3, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by Jacen at 3:41 AM on March 3, 2022 [6 favorites]
Spring 2020 was fucking terrifying. This is not that.
Feels like the opposite to me, to be honest.
Spring 2020, the probability was still exceedingly low that a random person had COVID. Masking hadn't yet become a political thing, and people weren't yet "tired of wearing masks." There was still optimism that we could get this under control, and failing that, a vaccine could be developed.
Now, we're multiple variants in, and the pandemic has just laid bare the cruelty and callousness of my average countryperson.
COVID is only slightly less scary, since I'm vaxxed, but another variant could come sweeping through, but society is much MORE scary.
posted by explosion at 4:46 AM on March 3, 2022 [23 favorites]
Feels like the opposite to me, to be honest.
Spring 2020, the probability was still exceedingly low that a random person had COVID. Masking hadn't yet become a political thing, and people weren't yet "tired of wearing masks." There was still optimism that we could get this under control, and failing that, a vaccine could be developed.
Now, we're multiple variants in, and the pandemic has just laid bare the cruelty and callousness of my average countryperson.
COVID is only slightly less scary, since I'm vaxxed, but another variant could come sweeping through, but society is much MORE scary.
posted by explosion at 4:46 AM on March 3, 2022 [23 favorites]
"Unresolved" is the word I've been saying to myself of late. 2020 was fucking terrifying, but we had the promise of vaccines in the not-to-distant future and the hope that next year would be better. When events in 2020 were cancelled, the announcements always concluded with an optimistic "see you next year" and it stung to see those same events get postponed again in 2021, even after the wide rollout of vaccines.
And 2021 started with so much optimism. I'll never forget watching the first pallets of Pfizer be loaded into a truck on live television and I'll always remember going into Boston in late March to get my first jab from someone in the fucking navy.
But then 2021 ended with us all having to get boosters because it turns out a huge percentage of people are absolute assholes who can't even be bothered to wear a goddamned mask or get a goddamned vaccination. And instead of addressing the situation or even acknowledging that almost a million people have died or doing something to fix our shredded social safety net and public health infrastructure, we're being told to get back to work.
And despite everything that happened in 2020 (remember when states were told they were "on their own" to procure PPE and ventilators and the state of Massachusetts had to move truckloads of masks in secret lest they be seized by the FBI and given to Florida?) there's been zero accountability so far.
So yeah. "Unresolved".
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:24 AM on March 3, 2022 [25 favorites]
And 2021 started with so much optimism. I'll never forget watching the first pallets of Pfizer be loaded into a truck on live television and I'll always remember going into Boston in late March to get my first jab from someone in the fucking navy.
But then 2021 ended with us all having to get boosters because it turns out a huge percentage of people are absolute assholes who can't even be bothered to wear a goddamned mask or get a goddamned vaccination. And instead of addressing the situation or even acknowledging that almost a million people have died or doing something to fix our shredded social safety net and public health infrastructure, we're being told to get back to work.
And despite everything that happened in 2020 (remember when states were told they were "on their own" to procure PPE and ventilators and the state of Massachusetts had to move truckloads of masks in secret lest they be seized by the FBI and given to Florida?) there's been zero accountability so far.
So yeah. "Unresolved".
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:24 AM on March 3, 2022 [25 favorites]
My perspective on this mess is very different. I'm retired and reclusive by nature. I live on a 26 acre spread of forest with 2 houses and multiple barns, plus 2 ponds. And a small flock of ducks. 30 minutes from the nearest freeway. Yet, 2 hours from Manhattan.
Jan 1, 2020, my live-in caregiver moved in. It suited his rental situation. So my isolation at least includes 2 people, my partner, and my caregiver. I'm kind of disabled due to a bicycle injury and arthritis. At my worst, I can't even dress myself. My caregiver is also disabled. He's an industrial pipe-fitter by trade and background. Oh, boy. Yes, there are some clashes.
But...Elton John. Oh dear. We had tickets. His postponed concert happened just a week or so ago. We sold our tickets, being unwilling to go. I'm high-risk, I have heart disease and lung problems.
But...reclusive by nature. Oh, dear. For me, that honestly means, much harder for me to return to "normal". Yes, there are things I miss. Concerts being #1. I've been fortunate to see some of my all-time favorites, just before the pandemic. And yea, as much as I hate the trip, I miss being able to run into NYC for Broadway shows.
But for me, personally, this is pandemic stuff. Big deal. Far more devastating for me has been the way of American politics.
posted by Goofyy at 6:34 AM on March 3, 2022 [7 favorites]
Jan 1, 2020, my live-in caregiver moved in. It suited his rental situation. So my isolation at least includes 2 people, my partner, and my caregiver. I'm kind of disabled due to a bicycle injury and arthritis. At my worst, I can't even dress myself. My caregiver is also disabled. He's an industrial pipe-fitter by trade and background. Oh, boy. Yes, there are some clashes.
But...Elton John. Oh dear. We had tickets. His postponed concert happened just a week or so ago. We sold our tickets, being unwilling to go. I'm high-risk, I have heart disease and lung problems.
But...reclusive by nature. Oh, dear. For me, that honestly means, much harder for me to return to "normal". Yes, there are things I miss. Concerts being #1. I've been fortunate to see some of my all-time favorites, just before the pandemic. And yea, as much as I hate the trip, I miss being able to run into NYC for Broadway shows.
But for me, personally, this is pandemic stuff. Big deal. Far more devastating for me has been the way of American politics.
posted by Goofyy at 6:34 AM on March 3, 2022 [7 favorites]
My mother’s 90th birthday is coming up. My siblings are fixed on an event, which my mom is on board with. I managed to get it pushed back to July so we can have it outdoors and limit things to about 20 people. I keep saying “we could wipe out the eldest generation of our family in one go!” But that holds no water. Maybe things will be safer in July. *shrug*
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:49 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:49 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
In April and May of 2020, I watched key dates in a years-long-planned vacation just drift by, and it killed me.
To deal with that disappointment, I booked a new vacation, for a year and a half out. We'll be done with all this by then, right? It's so important to have a date on the calendar to look forward to.
And today is the day I was supposed to fly out on that other vacation. And it barely even registers. I've made plans for concerts and camping, and I don't let myself have faith in any of it happening.
I don't know what that signifies. Exhaustion, and something else.
posted by Capt. Renault at 6:58 AM on March 3, 2022 [7 favorites]
To deal with that disappointment, I booked a new vacation, for a year and a half out. We'll be done with all this by then, right? It's so important to have a date on the calendar to look forward to.
And today is the day I was supposed to fly out on that other vacation. And it barely even registers. I've made plans for concerts and camping, and I don't let myself have faith in any of it happening.
I don't know what that signifies. Exhaustion, and something else.
posted by Capt. Renault at 6:58 AM on March 3, 2022 [7 favorites]
I put a Christmasy wreath on my front door in December 2019. It was still up in March 2020 when everything happened. I have not taken it down. I'm looking at it now and trying to decide if I'm ready to admit it's spring.
Also, on Monday, March 9, 2020 I ordered some button-down shirts for wearing to the office. They arrived on Thursday, March 12. I hope they still fit, because we're going to start going back to the office a few days a week soon. I should probably try them on again.
March 12 was the day *after* the last day I was in the office. Back then we usually worked from home on Thursdays, and late Thursday night my wife and I decided to drive our then almost-two-year-old to my wife's parents' house to wait out the day care closure, whcih we foolishly figured would be two weeks. About five weeks later they called and told us to come get our damn kid.
We drove a thousand miles basically nonstop starting at 9 PM that Thursday, and for a while the last restaurant meal I'd had was at the Waffle House outside the Little Rock airport. My wife worked an overnight shift that Friday night as a hospital chaplain. Not longer after they shifted to "telechaplaincy", which is bullshit, and not longer after *that* she lost her job.
Then we had another baby, on the day that the first vaccines got given in the US and the electoral college confirmed Biden and things were looking up. I don't know now. But I at least kind of know when it is because that kid can walk now? I just hope she masks aren't a thing by the time she turns two and they say she should start wearing a mask.
posted by madcaptenor at 7:02 AM on March 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
Also, on Monday, March 9, 2020 I ordered some button-down shirts for wearing to the office. They arrived on Thursday, March 12. I hope they still fit, because we're going to start going back to the office a few days a week soon. I should probably try them on again.
March 12 was the day *after* the last day I was in the office. Back then we usually worked from home on Thursdays, and late Thursday night my wife and I decided to drive our then almost-two-year-old to my wife's parents' house to wait out the day care closure, whcih we foolishly figured would be two weeks. About five weeks later they called and told us to come get our damn kid.
We drove a thousand miles basically nonstop starting at 9 PM that Thursday, and for a while the last restaurant meal I'd had was at the Waffle House outside the Little Rock airport. My wife worked an overnight shift that Friday night as a hospital chaplain. Not longer after they shifted to "telechaplaincy", which is bullshit, and not longer after *that* she lost her job.
Then we had another baby, on the day that the first vaccines got given in the US and the electoral college confirmed Biden and things were looking up. I don't know now. But I at least kind of know when it is because that kid can walk now? I just hope she masks aren't a thing by the time she turns two and they say she should start wearing a mask.
posted by madcaptenor at 7:02 AM on March 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
This is all so interesting, especially comments form workers in healthcare. We've know for a long time that a pandemic was coming. we might not have anticipated this pandemic, but, nevertheless...it's been a minor scientific miracle to have developed a vaccine so fast. We live in an amazing time, if only for that reason. That gives me hope.
The rest of it, while frustrating and, in hindsight kinda predictable, has just, maybe, woken us all up to the stark reality that there is a large segment of western society who are just contrarian a-holes whose "patriotism", "loyalty" and even "humanity" are a sham and a thin veil over their selfishness.
I'm going into the future armed with this knowledge.
My advice is to still wear a mask, support Ukraine however you can, vote and keep on keepin' on. Tomorrow's another day.
posted by OHenryPacey at 7:08 AM on March 3, 2022 [9 favorites]
The rest of it, while frustrating and, in hindsight kinda predictable, has just, maybe, woken us all up to the stark reality that there is a large segment of western society who are just contrarian a-holes whose "patriotism", "loyalty" and even "humanity" are a sham and a thin veil over their selfishness.
I'm going into the future armed with this knowledge.
My advice is to still wear a mask, support Ukraine however you can, vote and keep on keepin' on. Tomorrow's another day.
posted by OHenryPacey at 7:08 AM on March 3, 2022 [9 favorites]
I'm flabbergasted at anyone who has been planning a trip, for months, at any time during pandemic.
Look I'd hate to flabbergast anyone ever, but I've been planning trips since all my previously-planned trips went to shit. FFS at one point Geelong was an option. It's probably an emergency if one wants to go to Geelong.
I need to plan trips.
posted by pompomtom at 7:10 AM on March 3, 2022 [7 favorites]
Look I'd hate to flabbergast anyone ever, but I've been planning trips since all my previously-planned trips went to shit. FFS at one point Geelong was an option. It's probably an emergency if one wants to go to Geelong.
I need to plan trips.
posted by pompomtom at 7:10 AM on March 3, 2022 [7 favorites]
I put a Christmasy wreath on my front door in December 2019. It was still up in March 2020 when everything happened.
Now you know what happens when you don't take decorations down by January 6th.
posted by biffa at 7:23 AM on March 3, 2022 [11 favorites]
Now you know what happens when you don't take decorations down by January 6th.
posted by biffa at 7:23 AM on March 3, 2022 [11 favorites]
(previous-planned trip was roughly fly to Athens and then train Westish plus stuff. I'm pretty sure only rich people, friends of Murdoch, or Hillsong kiddy-fiddlers have been allowed to enter or leave Australia since then, and I sit in none of those categories.)
posted by pompomtom at 7:24 AM on March 3, 2022
posted by pompomtom at 7:24 AM on March 3, 2022
Please excuse this exercise in indulgence. It started small but ended up becoming a bit of a record of Two Very Strange Years.
On this day in 2020, I was wrapping up divorce paperwork in San Francisco, according to my calendar notes. I'm an epidemiologist, and the virus was on my radar, but I hadn't yet started wearing a mask around town for fear of freaking out my neighbors.
I was less than a month away from presenting some of my research at an infectious diseases meeting in northern Italy and the situation there had degraded quickly. I was aware that the event would be postponed, but the call hadn't been made yet. I was talking about all of this anxiously with a nice guy I'd met and become friends with the previous winter, when I was in the UK on business. We were going to meet up again before this meeting and he was going to join me there so we could spend a week together. I'd been thinking about moving to the UK--in part because it seemed feasible through my work, but mostly because the divorce had wrecked me and I was craving making a big change that I chose, instead of a change that had been visited on me. It had been nice to meet this guy. He was the first person who shook me out of the daze of a marriage coming apart. It had been a long, dark year, year and a half. He'd had a rough one, too.
That meeting postponement came on Friday, March 6. Italy locked down Monday, March 9. We in San Francisco locked down a week later, at midnight on Monday March 16. The news came (from the Mayor's office?) fairly early in the day, so like many of my neighbors I cautiously walked to the less-busy neighborhood market to get some beans and rice. If I remember correctly, I was 22nd in line. I asked the woman n line behind me if she'd back up a little bit, and she tried to make a stink about it. She raised her voice and said if it was so unsafe why was I here in the first place? The shop owner--a friend--raised his voice and, pointing at the woman, said, "You, out." Everyone in the place went completely silent. That was a real moment of realization for me. Oh shit, I thought, this is getting real and personal and people are freaked. The next Monday, March 23, the UK locked down.
Then, a whirlwind year.
My profession made me come close to loving so many strangers just as it made me come close to hating so many strangers. I helped my stepdaughter get on her feet when her biological dad vanished. I went camping every chance I could between May and December, saying farewell to the part of the world that had been my home for so long by hiking trails that I had to myself, sleeping in tents with no people around, staying ahead of the wildfires to see treasured places before they burned, reliving memories of playing with my dearly departed dog on beaches and in streams and climbing the tree that I'd last climbed on her first camping trip with me a decade before. My friend and I talked across the ocean every day. Every day that entire year. On September 9, the sun was blotted out by wildfire smoke, turning the sky a deep, dark orange, and I decided I'd had enough. I told my boss that I would move to the UK as soon as I was able as long as they were willing to sponsor my visa, and they said OK. Birthday alone, Thanksgiving alone, Christmas alone, New Year alone... but still talking, talking, talking to everyone. Everyone in my life, on the phone, on my screen, almsot every day. I got my first dose of vaccine on January 20, the day of Biden's inauguration. I cycled over to the University at 10 pm after riding around different neighborhoods all day, listening to the collective yelps of relief from what seemed like everyone in the city, waited in the line that health care workers were waiting in for the day's leftover doses, and sat outside looking over the treetops in Golden Gate Park to the illuminated Golden Gate Bridge and marvelling at the technological wonder that was having jsut received a vaccine that hadn't existed a year prior. Got my second dose a month later and packed up my house, getting it ready to put on the market.
March 4, 2021--the day the We Hate You Now article linked above was published--I stepped off the weirdest flight of my life (7 passengers, all some combination of medical or scientific or other serious excuses) and hugged the third hug of the year (after my stepdaughter and my best friend, who helped me get to the airport).
Then, a whirlwind year.
What a ride it has been.
Tomorrow is my 2nd anniversary with my SO. It also marks 2 years since I last set foot in my office. For me, it’ll always be a bittersweet day.
posted by chaiyai at 1:50 AM on March 3 [+] [!]
I see you over there, chaiyai.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 7:29 AM on March 3, 2022 [14 favorites]
On this day in 2020, I was wrapping up divorce paperwork in San Francisco, according to my calendar notes. I'm an epidemiologist, and the virus was on my radar, but I hadn't yet started wearing a mask around town for fear of freaking out my neighbors.
I was less than a month away from presenting some of my research at an infectious diseases meeting in northern Italy and the situation there had degraded quickly. I was aware that the event would be postponed, but the call hadn't been made yet. I was talking about all of this anxiously with a nice guy I'd met and become friends with the previous winter, when I was in the UK on business. We were going to meet up again before this meeting and he was going to join me there so we could spend a week together. I'd been thinking about moving to the UK--in part because it seemed feasible through my work, but mostly because the divorce had wrecked me and I was craving making a big change that I chose, instead of a change that had been visited on me. It had been nice to meet this guy. He was the first person who shook me out of the daze of a marriage coming apart. It had been a long, dark year, year and a half. He'd had a rough one, too.
That meeting postponement came on Friday, March 6. Italy locked down Monday, March 9. We in San Francisco locked down a week later, at midnight on Monday March 16. The news came (from the Mayor's office?) fairly early in the day, so like many of my neighbors I cautiously walked to the less-busy neighborhood market to get some beans and rice. If I remember correctly, I was 22nd in line. I asked the woman n line behind me if she'd back up a little bit, and she tried to make a stink about it. She raised her voice and said if it was so unsafe why was I here in the first place? The shop owner--a friend--raised his voice and, pointing at the woman, said, "You, out." Everyone in the place went completely silent. That was a real moment of realization for me. Oh shit, I thought, this is getting real and personal and people are freaked. The next Monday, March 23, the UK locked down.
Then, a whirlwind year.
My profession made me come close to loving so many strangers just as it made me come close to hating so many strangers. I helped my stepdaughter get on her feet when her biological dad vanished. I went camping every chance I could between May and December, saying farewell to the part of the world that had been my home for so long by hiking trails that I had to myself, sleeping in tents with no people around, staying ahead of the wildfires to see treasured places before they burned, reliving memories of playing with my dearly departed dog on beaches and in streams and climbing the tree that I'd last climbed on her first camping trip with me a decade before. My friend and I talked across the ocean every day. Every day that entire year. On September 9, the sun was blotted out by wildfire smoke, turning the sky a deep, dark orange, and I decided I'd had enough. I told my boss that I would move to the UK as soon as I was able as long as they were willing to sponsor my visa, and they said OK. Birthday alone, Thanksgiving alone, Christmas alone, New Year alone... but still talking, talking, talking to everyone. Everyone in my life, on the phone, on my screen, almsot every day. I got my first dose of vaccine on January 20, the day of Biden's inauguration. I cycled over to the University at 10 pm after riding around different neighborhoods all day, listening to the collective yelps of relief from what seemed like everyone in the city, waited in the line that health care workers were waiting in for the day's leftover doses, and sat outside looking over the treetops in Golden Gate Park to the illuminated Golden Gate Bridge and marvelling at the technological wonder that was having jsut received a vaccine that hadn't existed a year prior. Got my second dose a month later and packed up my house, getting it ready to put on the market.
March 4, 2021--the day the We Hate You Now article linked above was published--I stepped off the weirdest flight of my life (7 passengers, all some combination of medical or scientific or other serious excuses) and hugged the third hug of the year (after my stepdaughter and my best friend, who helped me get to the airport).
Then, a whirlwind year.
What a ride it has been.
Tomorrow is my 2nd anniversary with my SO. It also marks 2 years since I last set foot in my office. For me, it’ll always be a bittersweet day.
posted by chaiyai at 1:50 AM on March 3 [+] [!]
I see you over there, chaiyai.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 7:29 AM on March 3, 2022 [14 favorites]
I kept some tickets for a show spouse and I meant to see in like April 2020 (that was postponed to October then cancelled) on the fridge as a joke. I thought they were hilarious for a really long time. Remember when we were so naive and simple, thinking we would see a show? Rubes!
I can't even remember which day I threw them away but it was a few months ago. Finally stopped being funny. Remember when thought we would see a show? Makes me wanna cry.
posted by wellifyouinsist at 7:39 AM on March 3, 2022 [7 favorites]
I can't even remember which day I threw them away but it was a few months ago. Finally stopped being funny. Remember when thought we would see a show? Makes me wanna cry.
posted by wellifyouinsist at 7:39 AM on March 3, 2022 [7 favorites]
I'm starting to feel weird about my insistence on still masking inside. Most people in my town in NJ aren't doing that anymore (besides the employees, I was the only person in a mask at Dunkin' this morning). We finally saw Spider-Man, but we went during a work day matinee, there were only about 20 people in the theater, well away from us, and we were masked. I felt okay about it, but I feel like I'm bringing my family down because I don't want to go to places where I can't mask, like restaurants. But this morning I looked at the CDC website and my county is red red red. There's nowhere in NJ where community transmission isn't high or substantial.
I'm feeling tired and occasionally weepy and I wish this would go away already. I'm feeling really defeated on the one hand, and on the other I'm wondering if I'm making a mistake by not just doing what everyone around me seems to be doing and going back to normal.
posted by ceejaytee at 7:48 AM on March 3, 2022 [8 favorites]
I'm feeling tired and occasionally weepy and I wish this would go away already. I'm feeling really defeated on the one hand, and on the other I'm wondering if I'm making a mistake by not just doing what everyone around me seems to be doing and going back to normal.
posted by ceejaytee at 7:48 AM on March 3, 2022 [8 favorites]
I had a baby in 2020 and she somehow keeps growing bigger and learning new things so time must be passing, somehow.
posted by quaking fajita at 7:49 AM on March 3, 2022 [23 favorites]
posted by quaking fajita at 7:49 AM on March 3, 2022 [23 favorites]
I've been dealing with questions similar to what GenjianProust posted upthread.. I have a quite a few 80+ yrs friends in my circle, one friend is the former mayor and I really miss our community Trivia Night visits. Over 2 years of missing events and important occasions, but I saw individual friends making choices in the past year where this pandemic stuff is just another risk to be factored into life, kind of like walking outdoors in N. Alberta during this season and knowing if you take a spill, that might be your hip, and that might be your life shortly after.
It has been a weird time, I think the blurriness of it is one thing but the way we all share this experience, and watching how a percentage of us seem to process the risk in a similar way while others.. my birthday twin dropped by with a loaf of sourdough she'd baked, still not stepping inside for a 5 min visit and it was a brief exchange at the door.
posted by elkevelvet at 7:53 AM on March 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
It has been a weird time, I think the blurriness of it is one thing but the way we all share this experience, and watching how a percentage of us seem to process the risk in a similar way while others.. my birthday twin dropped by with a loaf of sourdough she'd baked, still not stepping inside for a 5 min visit and it was a brief exchange at the door.
posted by elkevelvet at 7:53 AM on March 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
Spring 2020 was literal horror, with sirens day and night nonstop, toilet paper brawls in the Food Bazaar parking lot, and trucks full of dead bodies.
March 2020 lasted about 10 months for me, and since then it’s been normal time except with masks and weekend zooms. Back to counting down the minutes until Friday afternoon and waiting in line at the coffee machine and hiding in the stairwell so I can eat a quiet lunch and scroll Metafilter.
posted by betweenthebars at 8:09 AM on March 3, 2022
March 2020 lasted about 10 months for me, and since then it’s been normal time except with masks and weekend zooms. Back to counting down the minutes until Friday afternoon and waiting in line at the coffee machine and hiding in the stairwell so I can eat a quiet lunch and scroll Metafilter.
posted by betweenthebars at 8:09 AM on March 3, 2022
I have trouble relating to this kind of thing, and sometimes it makes me feel angry and bitter. Since March 2020, I have become a parent and kept a kid alive for nearly 2 years. I have gone to work every single day, and sacrificed significantly to do so. The last 2 years haven't just collapsed into nothingness. They have been my child's whole life. They have been a source of grief, and anguish, and joy, and fear for me.
posted by i_am_a_fiesta at 8:17 AM on March 3, 2022 [13 favorites]
posted by i_am_a_fiesta at 8:17 AM on March 3, 2022 [13 favorites]
I work for the federal government in Canada, and we're coming up on two years since the majority of us were sent home. I had some past experience with working from home, so I was certain I would be fine, but without the opportunity to leave the house and do things with friends, I was not, in fact, fine.
It was all well and good that single people were allowed to bubble with another family, but you had to have another family that was willing to have you in their bubble, and I had only been living here for a couple of years at that point. I didn't know anyone that well. My social circle was occasional outdoor walks with my manager from work.
After a few months, I semi-moved across the country to live with my mom so at least I had someone to talk to. Things happened with that, and eventually she semi-moved across the country to live with me instead.
Now, as we approach two years of this, she's preparing to go back home to Vancouver and I'm preparing to try again to be fine.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:20 AM on March 3, 2022 [7 favorites]
It was all well and good that single people were allowed to bubble with another family, but you had to have another family that was willing to have you in their bubble, and I had only been living here for a couple of years at that point. I didn't know anyone that well. My social circle was occasional outdoor walks with my manager from work.
After a few months, I semi-moved across the country to live with my mom so at least I had someone to talk to. Things happened with that, and eventually she semi-moved across the country to live with me instead.
Now, as we approach two years of this, she's preparing to go back home to Vancouver and I'm preparing to try again to be fine.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:20 AM on March 3, 2022 [7 favorites]
And the mask mandate ends at my work in 2 weeks. That was the last holdout. *sigh* I'm just not ready to go "Free face! Everything's okay like it's 2019 or early June 2021! I'm totally cool with catching covid now!"
I note that my play got filmed for like a minute by Fox News last night and apparently the caption was that we're going back to no masks on stage. Sigh.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:23 AM on March 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
I note that my play got filmed for like a minute by Fox News last night and apparently the caption was that we're going back to no masks on stage. Sigh.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:23 AM on March 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
I think about We Hate You Now often.
I keep promising myself as I put on my N95 every day to walk into the office past all my barefaced coworkers to get to my own office where I’ll shut the door for the next nine hours and do the job I already proved I could do from home that when this is over I’ll remember who helped me keep my family safe and who didn’t, but it’s never over. And realistically I can’t interview somewhere else in the future and ask them how they handed COVID back in 2021.
So I now simply assume I’m in hell surrounded by devils. I don’t worry about any of the human shaped creatures outside my home.
posted by The Monster at the End of this Thread at 8:29 AM on March 3, 2022 [17 favorites]
I keep promising myself as I put on my N95 every day to walk into the office past all my barefaced coworkers to get to my own office where I’ll shut the door for the next nine hours and do the job I already proved I could do from home that when this is over I’ll remember who helped me keep my family safe and who didn’t, but it’s never over. And realistically I can’t interview somewhere else in the future and ask them how they handed COVID back in 2021.
So I now simply assume I’m in hell surrounded by devils. I don’t worry about any of the human shaped creatures outside my home.
posted by The Monster at the End of this Thread at 8:29 AM on March 3, 2022 [17 favorites]
My Fiddler on the Roof tickets are dated April 7, 2020. We'll be going to the show on April 5, 2022. A couple of Broadway in Richmond shows I paid for in late 2019 are finally happening (probably) this Spring/Summer. So the "free" in the sense I paid for them so long ago I don't even remember shows are a nice bonus for the summer.
I bought tickets to several concerts months in advance last fall, and went to none of them. All but one canceled so I got most of my money back. And I've got campsites reserved starting in May pretty much every other weekend through September. But they can all be canceled on 48 hours notice with minimal penalty, so there isn't a big risk there. And even if COVID blows up again, camping is about the safest thing you can do.
My county is yellow under the new CDC guidelines, which means we don't "need" to wear masks indoors. We were in two grocery stores last night and I didn't notice any change in the masked customer percentage, it's still around 2/3 to 3/4 wearing masks in indoors. We will continue to do so until we move to green with CDC.
posted by COD at 8:34 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
I bought tickets to several concerts months in advance last fall, and went to none of them. All but one canceled so I got most of my money back. And I've got campsites reserved starting in May pretty much every other weekend through September. But they can all be canceled on 48 hours notice with minimal penalty, so there isn't a big risk there. And even if COVID blows up again, camping is about the safest thing you can do.
My county is yellow under the new CDC guidelines, which means we don't "need" to wear masks indoors. We were in two grocery stores last night and I didn't notice any change in the masked customer percentage, it's still around 2/3 to 3/4 wearing masks in indoors. We will continue to do so until we move to green with CDC.
posted by COD at 8:34 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
Near the end of February 2020 I started writing "Plague Diary, Day X" at the start of each daily diary entry. Last night I noticed it was Day 766. Somehow I added an extra month in there...
posted by chavenet at 8:36 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by chavenet at 8:36 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
Last year next week was Purim. Things were already building, especially within the NY Orthodox Jewish community, but it didn't feel real yet. My husband usually reads the Megilla for our synagogue - the plan was that he would read for the main sanctuary, while someone else read downstairs for all the younger kids. He usually takes his time, changes hats, makes it fun. About an hour before services started, they told him that instead he would be reading for everyone in the sanctuary together, as a precaution. He sped through it, so the whole thing took around 20 minutes - which is insanely fast (people complained). The next day we had our holiday meal with about 20 family members, as planned. The next day, my son's school closed.
We had suspected Covid was already in our community - the week before (yep, March 3rd), the first schools in the NY area to close were two Orthodox Jewish ones. Some students had been at synagogue with the patient from New Rochelle the week before - and then it turned out they had been with a student at my son's school. Boom. The night of the Megilla reading, all of the private Jewish schools in the NYC/NJ area, whether affected or not, made a joint decision to go into shutdown. That was what precipitated the synagogue's change of plans - we just didn't know it. If we had, would we have cancelled the family meal? I don't even know. Probably?
Now Purim is coming in a couple of weeks. My son is looking at high schools for next year, and one of the two he's deciding between is the one that shut first. And my husband was asked to read the Megilla for the synagogue again (for first time they're doing it in person since 2020). And - our family is planning on all getting together for the meal again. NYC is lifting the mask mandate, and almost all of us, double and triple-boostered every one, got Omicron over winter break. So for the first time it feels pretty low-risk, all things considered. But also very, very weird. It's like no time has passed. It's like a century has passed. I don't even know what to think. If we cook all the same things and call it a do-over, could we re-set the clock?
I don't think I'll be clicking that link again.
posted by Mchelly at 8:41 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
We had suspected Covid was already in our community - the week before (yep, March 3rd), the first schools in the NY area to close were two Orthodox Jewish ones. Some students had been at synagogue with the patient from New Rochelle the week before - and then it turned out they had been with a student at my son's school. Boom. The night of the Megilla reading, all of the private Jewish schools in the NYC/NJ area, whether affected or not, made a joint decision to go into shutdown. That was what precipitated the synagogue's change of plans - we just didn't know it. If we had, would we have cancelled the family meal? I don't even know. Probably?
Now Purim is coming in a couple of weeks. My son is looking at high schools for next year, and one of the two he's deciding between is the one that shut first. And my husband was asked to read the Megilla for the synagogue again (for first time they're doing it in person since 2020). And - our family is planning on all getting together for the meal again. NYC is lifting the mask mandate, and almost all of us, double and triple-boostered every one, got Omicron over winter break. So for the first time it feels pretty low-risk, all things considered. But also very, very weird. It's like no time has passed. It's like a century has passed. I don't even know what to think. If we cook all the same things and call it a do-over, could we re-set the clock?
I don't think I'll be clicking that link again.
posted by Mchelly at 8:41 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
My birthday being in March means it's always my birthday month, but never my birthday. Just like in Narnia.
Today is my actual birthday. It'll go back to being never my birthday tomorrow.
We're going out for dinner tonight to celebrate, even though our government removed capacity limits and vaccine requirements on Tuesday. It feels unsafe, but my mom is leaving tomorrow and it's our last chance for awhile.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:52 AM on March 3, 2022 [5 favorites]
Today is my actual birthday. It'll go back to being never my birthday tomorrow.
We're going out for dinner tonight to celebrate, even though our government removed capacity limits and vaccine requirements on Tuesday. It feels unsafe, but my mom is leaving tomorrow and it's our last chance for awhile.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:52 AM on March 3, 2022 [5 favorites]
(Ha - I meant two years ago next week. Even in a thread about time having no meaning, I couldn't parse that 2020 was two years ago)
posted by Mchelly at 8:55 AM on March 3, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by Mchelly at 8:55 AM on March 3, 2022 [4 favorites]
for years we get burritos every thursday night, which we always look forward to. when we got into 2020, being home a lot etc., the days so long but the weeks (and months) flying by, we started noticing the weeks going by like "wait, what? its burrito night already????" to "hey honey, guess what? its burrito night!!" of course it happens to be thursday. looking forward to my log of carby goodness later :)
my birthday is in March also, March 17, mere days after the shutdown first happened, so I'm one of the first "Corona babies" I suppose...happy birthday to my fellow March babies!! I hope you are able to make something good of it. have a burrito!
posted by supermedusa at 9:10 AM on March 3, 2022 [3 favorites]
my birthday is in March also, March 17, mere days after the shutdown first happened, so I'm one of the first "Corona babies" I suppose...happy birthday to my fellow March babies!! I hope you are able to make something good of it. have a burrito!
posted by supermedusa at 9:10 AM on March 3, 2022 [3 favorites]
I could type pages about the many ways that the last two years has been grueling but instead I'll just hit the high points.
- Luckily, no family or close friend has had severe Covid.
- I'm a doctor leading a team that does in-home care for disabled patients, affiliated with a rural hospital. Also am on the hospital's disaster management committee and ethics team. Lots of concerns about keeping patients and staff safe, getting PPE, and contingency planning. I've had three patients die of Covid, all of whom I had known intimately for years.
- I'm at higher risk for severe Covid. My wife works in long term care. In early 2020 there was a lot of respiratory illness at her workplace. So on 3/1/20 I decamped to the guest room where I lived in isolation. (Because we heard that cats can carry Covid, my wife kept one cat and I kept two. Our dog bounced back and forth between us.) I essentially didn't use the rest of the house at all for about 8 months. In November 2020 I started using the whole house but was in bachelor mode from March 2020 through Sept 2021.
- In October 2020 my wife's mother's Alzheimer's disease reached a tipping point where she was no long safe alone in her home at night, so my wife moved across town to be with her. She stayed there until my mother-in-law finally moved into assisted living in September 2021.
- On the brighter side, somehow I managed in May 2021 to join some old friends for an 8 day guided float trip in the Grand Canyon.
- In September 2021 our daughter and her husband moved back here from out of state so she could go to graduate school. They sold their house but can't afford to get into one here so they and their two dogs and two cats are with us. They live like pigs.
- I was hospitalized in January 2022 and again in February (noncovid but major problems). One problem got fixed but one persists and I'm very fatigued, only able to work half days.
- In my part of town masking is essentially 100%. There's two supermarkets, a Petsmart, and a good hardware store. In the rest of the city masking is about 80%. Our statewide mask mandate ends next week. It's very likely I'll punch someone.
- GOP delenda est.
posted by neuron at 9:34 AM on March 3, 2022 [5 favorites]
- Luckily, no family or close friend has had severe Covid.
- I'm a doctor leading a team that does in-home care for disabled patients, affiliated with a rural hospital. Also am on the hospital's disaster management committee and ethics team. Lots of concerns about keeping patients and staff safe, getting PPE, and contingency planning. I've had three patients die of Covid, all of whom I had known intimately for years.
- I'm at higher risk for severe Covid. My wife works in long term care. In early 2020 there was a lot of respiratory illness at her workplace. So on 3/1/20 I decamped to the guest room where I lived in isolation. (Because we heard that cats can carry Covid, my wife kept one cat and I kept two. Our dog bounced back and forth between us.) I essentially didn't use the rest of the house at all for about 8 months. In November 2020 I started using the whole house but was in bachelor mode from March 2020 through Sept 2021.
- In October 2020 my wife's mother's Alzheimer's disease reached a tipping point where she was no long safe alone in her home at night, so my wife moved across town to be with her. She stayed there until my mother-in-law finally moved into assisted living in September 2021.
- On the brighter side, somehow I managed in May 2021 to join some old friends for an 8 day guided float trip in the Grand Canyon.
- In September 2021 our daughter and her husband moved back here from out of state so she could go to graduate school. They sold their house but can't afford to get into one here so they and their two dogs and two cats are with us. They live like pigs.
- I was hospitalized in January 2022 and again in February (noncovid but major problems). One problem got fixed but one persists and I'm very fatigued, only able to work half days.
- In my part of town masking is essentially 100%. There's two supermarkets, a Petsmart, and a good hardware store. In the rest of the city masking is about 80%. Our statewide mask mandate ends next week. It's very likely I'll punch someone.
- GOP delenda est.
posted by neuron at 9:34 AM on March 3, 2022 [5 favorites]
It's been a strange two years, I think, even by pandemic standards.
I started a new job at a well-known NYC museum two weeks before the pandemic shut the city down. I'd also booked a trip to Finland to attend the Air Guitar World Championships, which I had to cancel. Six weeks after everything shut down, I started feminizing hormone therapy, officially kicking off my medical transition. I came out to my parents, my job, and the remainder of my friends who didn't already know, all while living in a one-bedroom apartment and working from home while my partner took a few months of paid vacation thanks to their union gig. A dear friend of mine left Brooklyn to move back to Finland, as the pandemic destroyed her job in travel. Sadly, after the summer of 2020, my partner had to go back to work, which will come into play later. The only person I saw on the regular was my partner's mother who lived in the same building.
In September of 2020, I was able to take a trip out of the city, camping with a group of friends at a cabin in the Poconos, after making sure to isolate extra hard for two weeks and get tested. The trip was a success, and I went back into isolation, with my partner and people on screens as my primary companions again. We'd prepared for a second camping trip in January, upstate, and when I went to get tested in preparation for that trip, it turns out my partner and I had both caught COVID... likely from a shitty, toxic coworker of my partner's who, rather than take two weeks of paid leave, decided to show up two days after presenting with symptoms and infect the entire Sanitation garage he and my partner worked in. Thankfully, we didn't infect my partner's mother, and we had mild cases, more akin to a bad, long cold, than the fevery, sensory-depriving horror I was worried about. Never-the-less, I did have some lingering Long COVID like symptoms for the year after.
2021 did eventually bring a little bit of relief. My partner and I got vaccinated in March. I visited my elderly, vaccinated parents for Easter. I started therapy for Social Anxiety, anxiety that predated COVID, but only became more acute after I got vaccinated and realized there was a time coming where I could be and wanted to be in the world again. I was able to travel to Chicago for the US Air Guitar National Championships, even if Finland would have to wait. (There weren't enough international competitions to make a World Championship that year feasible.) I got to go to a handful of shows and even go dancing again, but Omicron began to spike just as I was preparing to finish out 2021 with gender-affirming surgery. Fortunately, the spike in cases didn't keep me from my surgery, and so I was able to sit out Omicron, and all the associated horror, for a couple months.
It's 2022, and I'm finally hoping that with cases as low as they are, things can really approach a sense of semi-normal for me. I've got a concert calendar again, and finally rebooked my trip to Finland. I'm being vigilant about masking, even though the requirements to do so are falling by the wayside. I don't want a second infection, even if being triply-vaxxed and having had COVID means it's likely to be even milder. Why risk spreading it to make things worse? Yet, my mental health is greatly improved by being able to go out into the world, go dancing, see shows, and be places with people. I don't blame anyone for being cautious, staying in isolation, and not planning anything in large groups. Doubly so if they have children under five.
If the Pandemic time is, finally, slowly, agonizingly coming to an end, I'm emerging from it a very different person than I was going in, but most of the changes ones I chose to make. I'm ready to leave my unexpected chrysalis behind, and I hope the world is going to be in a place where that's truly possible.
posted by SansPoint at 10:03 AM on March 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
I started a new job at a well-known NYC museum two weeks before the pandemic shut the city down. I'd also booked a trip to Finland to attend the Air Guitar World Championships, which I had to cancel. Six weeks after everything shut down, I started feminizing hormone therapy, officially kicking off my medical transition. I came out to my parents, my job, and the remainder of my friends who didn't already know, all while living in a one-bedroom apartment and working from home while my partner took a few months of paid vacation thanks to their union gig. A dear friend of mine left Brooklyn to move back to Finland, as the pandemic destroyed her job in travel. Sadly, after the summer of 2020, my partner had to go back to work, which will come into play later. The only person I saw on the regular was my partner's mother who lived in the same building.
In September of 2020, I was able to take a trip out of the city, camping with a group of friends at a cabin in the Poconos, after making sure to isolate extra hard for two weeks and get tested. The trip was a success, and I went back into isolation, with my partner and people on screens as my primary companions again. We'd prepared for a second camping trip in January, upstate, and when I went to get tested in preparation for that trip, it turns out my partner and I had both caught COVID... likely from a shitty, toxic coworker of my partner's who, rather than take two weeks of paid leave, decided to show up two days after presenting with symptoms and infect the entire Sanitation garage he and my partner worked in. Thankfully, we didn't infect my partner's mother, and we had mild cases, more akin to a bad, long cold, than the fevery, sensory-depriving horror I was worried about. Never-the-less, I did have some lingering Long COVID like symptoms for the year after.
2021 did eventually bring a little bit of relief. My partner and I got vaccinated in March. I visited my elderly, vaccinated parents for Easter. I started therapy for Social Anxiety, anxiety that predated COVID, but only became more acute after I got vaccinated and realized there was a time coming where I could be and wanted to be in the world again. I was able to travel to Chicago for the US Air Guitar National Championships, even if Finland would have to wait. (There weren't enough international competitions to make a World Championship that year feasible.) I got to go to a handful of shows and even go dancing again, but Omicron began to spike just as I was preparing to finish out 2021 with gender-affirming surgery. Fortunately, the spike in cases didn't keep me from my surgery, and so I was able to sit out Omicron, and all the associated horror, for a couple months.
It's 2022, and I'm finally hoping that with cases as low as they are, things can really approach a sense of semi-normal for me. I've got a concert calendar again, and finally rebooked my trip to Finland. I'm being vigilant about masking, even though the requirements to do so are falling by the wayside. I don't want a second infection, even if being triply-vaxxed and having had COVID means it's likely to be even milder. Why risk spreading it to make things worse? Yet, my mental health is greatly improved by being able to go out into the world, go dancing, see shows, and be places with people. I don't blame anyone for being cautious, staying in isolation, and not planning anything in large groups. Doubly so if they have children under five.
If the Pandemic time is, finally, slowly, agonizingly coming to an end, I'm emerging from it a very different person than I was going in, but most of the changes ones I chose to make. I'm ready to leave my unexpected chrysalis behind, and I hope the world is going to be in a place where that's truly possible.
posted by SansPoint at 10:03 AM on March 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
It's very likely I'll punch someone
Said it before and I'll say it again:
Glove up first.
posted by flabdablet at 10:19 AM on March 3, 2022 [4 favorites]
Said it before and I'll say it again:
Glove up first.
posted by flabdablet at 10:19 AM on March 3, 2022 [4 favorites]
I'm starting to feel weird about my insistence on still masking inside.
Yeah, I think the time of mask shaming for those still wearing them and aren't pretending that everything's normal and okay are coming/already here. I don't look forward to the shame I'm going to get this month. I'm so angry at everyone giving up and pretending things are okay now.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:31 AM on March 3, 2022 [7 favorites]
Yeah, I think the time of mask shaming for those still wearing them and aren't pretending that everything's normal and okay are coming/already here. I don't look forward to the shame I'm going to get this month. I'm so angry at everyone giving up and pretending things are okay now.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:31 AM on March 3, 2022 [7 favorites]
I ran the numbers a couple of weeks ago, right in time to note the 700th day since I took a Friday off in March 2020 to relieve my mother-in-law, who'd been watching the kids for us as our daycare had closed the week before. Around mid-day my boss called me to let me know that if I could supply a Wintel laptop and internet connection,* I could work from home while we ride this whole business out.
I marched out to Best Buy and bought the last cheap laptop they had.
Around the same time, I went to the grocery store and stocked up on dry and canned goods. I remember loading up on Easter candy as well, thinking to myself, "just in case this goes longer than a couple of weeks, it'll be nice to give the kids a good Easter morning."
Yesterday was Ash Wednesday. Two years ago, the first Sunday of Lent was the last time my church offered communion wine. I remember saying to my wife that we should make a list of things that were stopping, just to remember them. The next week was our last week of in-person Mass until this summer when they started holding Mass outdoors.
Oh, during that same trip to the grocery store, I grabbed a box of brownie mix. I stashed it in the back of my closet, thinking that if things got really dire, it might be heartening to be able to make a quick batch of brownies. A few months ago I found that box and was overwhelmed with emotion.
We've been lucky. We kept our jobs; we haven't lost anybody to COVID; our kids seem to be okay psychologically, or at least within normal parameters. So it feels selfish to complain about all of this, but even the slow, relentless challenge of assessing risks and dealing with the changes to life are really wearing. I'm having some real trouble focusing on work tasks, for instance, and having a real hard time hoping.
Earlier in my career, I worked in disability rights advocacy, so it has not surprised me to see how Americans, both policymakers and ordinary citizens, treat old and disabled people as disposable afterthoughts. It's awful, and it has been troubling to see it embraced so nakedly, but it's not surprising. I don't know when I will stop wearing a mask indoors in public places, even though I don't like wearing them; I would like less to learn that I had been part of a chain of infection which killed someone.
* I work for an organization that is very bureaucratic and slow to adapt, which, combined with supply chain issues that were already manifesting, as well as limitations on what our IT department can realistically do in a 40 hour week, meant that we were still using desktop computers. My work-issued laptop was not ready until January 2021. While I 100% agree that a workplace should provide its employees with all the tools required to do their jobs, I was happy to spend the $300 on a laptop as an investment in not getting COVID myself, and in not giving it to my kids or their grandparents or others in my community.
posted by gauche at 10:59 AM on March 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
I marched out to Best Buy and bought the last cheap laptop they had.
Around the same time, I went to the grocery store and stocked up on dry and canned goods. I remember loading up on Easter candy as well, thinking to myself, "just in case this goes longer than a couple of weeks, it'll be nice to give the kids a good Easter morning."
Yesterday was Ash Wednesday. Two years ago, the first Sunday of Lent was the last time my church offered communion wine. I remember saying to my wife that we should make a list of things that were stopping, just to remember them. The next week was our last week of in-person Mass until this summer when they started holding Mass outdoors.
Oh, during that same trip to the grocery store, I grabbed a box of brownie mix. I stashed it in the back of my closet, thinking that if things got really dire, it might be heartening to be able to make a quick batch of brownies. A few months ago I found that box and was overwhelmed with emotion.
We've been lucky. We kept our jobs; we haven't lost anybody to COVID; our kids seem to be okay psychologically, or at least within normal parameters. So it feels selfish to complain about all of this, but even the slow, relentless challenge of assessing risks and dealing with the changes to life are really wearing. I'm having some real trouble focusing on work tasks, for instance, and having a real hard time hoping.
Earlier in my career, I worked in disability rights advocacy, so it has not surprised me to see how Americans, both policymakers and ordinary citizens, treat old and disabled people as disposable afterthoughts. It's awful, and it has been troubling to see it embraced so nakedly, but it's not surprising. I don't know when I will stop wearing a mask indoors in public places, even though I don't like wearing them; I would like less to learn that I had been part of a chain of infection which killed someone.
* I work for an organization that is very bureaucratic and slow to adapt, which, combined with supply chain issues that were already manifesting, as well as limitations on what our IT department can realistically do in a 40 hour week, meant that we were still using desktop computers. My work-issued laptop was not ready until January 2021. While I 100% agree that a workplace should provide its employees with all the tools required to do their jobs, I was happy to spend the $300 on a laptop as an investment in not getting COVID myself, and in not giving it to my kids or their grandparents or others in my community.
posted by gauche at 10:59 AM on March 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
"Yeah, I think the time of mask shaming for those still wearing them and aren't pretending that everything's normal and okay are coming/already here."
They are in my town. A couple weeks ago, on my bike ride to work, I was yelled at by some rando on the sidewalk for wearing a mask*. He was emboldened by truckers, I think. Thanks, truckers.
*Whether I actually need to wear a mask while on the bike, I'm doing it for the time being, and that is of no impact on anyone else, so what's the problem?
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:42 AM on March 3, 2022 [5 favorites]
They are in my town. A couple weeks ago, on my bike ride to work, I was yelled at by some rando on the sidewalk for wearing a mask*. He was emboldened by truckers, I think. Thanks, truckers.
*Whether I actually need to wear a mask while on the bike, I'm doing it for the time being, and that is of no impact on anyone else, so what's the problem?
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:42 AM on March 3, 2022 [5 favorites]
Also I noticed a few weeks ago that my first kid, born April 2018, had spent more time in the pandemic than out of it.
I will rejoice when my second kid, born December 2020, has spent more time out of the pandemic than in it. Except that won't happen, because there won't be a clear ending date.
posted by madcaptenor at 11:46 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
I will rejoice when my second kid, born December 2020, has spent more time out of the pandemic than in it. Except that won't happen, because there won't be a clear ending date.
posted by madcaptenor at 11:46 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
Also I noticed a few weeks ago that my first kid, born April 2018, had spent more time in the pandemic than out of it.
My cousin teaches first-graders (six-year-olds) and realized a few days ago during a lesson that mentioned restaurants that her students were last in a restaurant when they were four years old.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:04 PM on March 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
My cousin teaches first-graders (six-year-olds) and realized a few days ago during a lesson that mentioned restaurants that her students were last in a restaurant when they were four years old.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:04 PM on March 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
When I did cultural reintegration sessions for Peace Corps is advance of leaving Togo (West Africa) after having lived there for two years, one of the things we were warned about was that on return we might feel like everything “should” be the same as when we left. That the rest of the world had been put on pause while we were abroad, which of course was not true. While I was in Togo people got married, moved, got new jobs, experienced grief and loss.
COVID feels about the same. Like some people have been on pause while others have been fast forwarding ahead and now no one is on the same page.
posted by raccoon409 at 12:04 PM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
COVID feels about the same. Like some people have been on pause while others have been fast forwarding ahead and now no one is on the same page.
posted by raccoon409 at 12:04 PM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
My cousin teaches first-graders (six-year-olds) and realized a few days ago during a lesson that mentioned restaurants that her students were last in a restaurant when they were four years old.
My older kid (almost four) has been in restaurants since this all started, but not many. She is definitely worse at restaurants at almost-four than she was at almost-two. Then again, that might just be that three year olds are a handful.
posted by madcaptenor at 12:18 PM on March 3, 2022
My older kid (almost four) has been in restaurants since this all started, but not many. She is definitely worse at restaurants at almost-four than she was at almost-two. Then again, that might just be that three year olds are a handful.
posted by madcaptenor at 12:18 PM on March 3, 2022
Yeeeah. My Dad died in October of 2020 and I had last been home to see him in February. His nursing home was just letting people back in at a distance to visit in a weird plexiglass room when Mom got the call. Time has sort of blended into a blue since then
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 12:27 PM on March 3, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 12:27 PM on March 3, 2022 [4 favorites]
It's very likely I'll punch someone.
Me again. I've been preparing to avert physical-violence-triggered-by-mask-shaming by rehearsing a steely-eyed rendition of this line. I'm a big guy so it'll probably work.
posted by neuron at 7:05 PM on March 3, 2022
Me again. I've been preparing to avert physical-violence-triggered-by-mask-shaming by rehearsing a steely-eyed rendition of this line. I'm a big guy so it'll probably work.
posted by neuron at 7:05 PM on March 3, 2022
I was supposed to go to London for a work meeting the week of March 16th. The Monday prior, an automated email came from our travel agency, saying we'd been directed to cancel all international travel. Which I promptly did, and then notified the meeting organizers. They came back to me overnight and said, why did you cancel? You're the only one (out of maybe 40 people). Also, it's not possible to do this meeting virtually.
So I wrote them and said, Italy is closed. Italy. Not a town, the whole country. In the heart of the EU. Where do you think all of this is heading?
The day after that, Wednesday the 11th, the London meeting magically became virtual.
I went around quoting Heather Havrilesky - BEND THE KNEE AGAIN, MOTHERF--KERS.
posted by sockshaveholes at 8:48 PM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
So I wrote them and said, Italy is closed. Italy. Not a town, the whole country. In the heart of the EU. Where do you think all of this is heading?
The day after that, Wednesday the 11th, the London meeting magically became virtual.
I went around quoting Heather Havrilesky - BEND THE KNEE AGAIN, MOTHERF--KERS.
posted by sockshaveholes at 8:48 PM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
I've been measuring time in books. Not books that I've read for myself, because I find that I have almost no appetite left for "adult" narrative right now (although I've been reading the Dortmunder novels lately, which are delightful in their own way, but certainly not deep), but books that I've read to my daughter, who was just about to turn six when the long March (uh, maybe not the best phrase?) began and is about to turn eight now.
We'd always read together before bed, but she was just starting to get into chapter books and narrative arcs and so we took out increasingly-complex e-books from the library. First it was Junie B. Jones, for whom I still have a soft spot. Clementine. Captain Underpants (really delightful, to be honest). Judy Bloom. Roald Dahl. And, during the last year or so, Lemony Snicket. We are, in fact, just about finished with the Snicket oeuvre, a few chapters from the end of "Why Is This Night Different From All Other Nights."
I'm too old to have grown up with the Snicket books, but it turns out that they're fantastic. Watching my six- and now seven-year-old gradually wake up to the wry metanarrative and show genuine interest in the allusions and deliberately expansive vocabulary has been a real bright light in an endless dark tunnel.
I don't know what we'll read after this (any suggestions would be appreciated; I like prose that reads aloud well, and neither of us cares particularly for fantasy, so, for example, Narnia is right out), but I will read to her as long as she'll let me, because it's really the best part of my day.
posted by uncleozzy at 10:32 AM on March 4, 2022 [3 favorites]
We'd always read together before bed, but she was just starting to get into chapter books and narrative arcs and so we took out increasingly-complex e-books from the library. First it was Junie B. Jones, for whom I still have a soft spot. Clementine. Captain Underpants (really delightful, to be honest). Judy Bloom. Roald Dahl. And, during the last year or so, Lemony Snicket. We are, in fact, just about finished with the Snicket oeuvre, a few chapters from the end of "Why Is This Night Different From All Other Nights."
I'm too old to have grown up with the Snicket books, but it turns out that they're fantastic. Watching my six- and now seven-year-old gradually wake up to the wry metanarrative and show genuine interest in the allusions and deliberately expansive vocabulary has been a real bright light in an endless dark tunnel.
I don't know what we'll read after this (any suggestions would be appreciated; I like prose that reads aloud well, and neither of us cares particularly for fantasy, so, for example, Narnia is right out), but I will read to her as long as she'll let me, because it's really the best part of my day.
posted by uncleozzy at 10:32 AM on March 4, 2022 [3 favorites]
Now you know what happens when you don't take decorations down by January 6th.
Fine, fine, I put up the spring wreath.
This was partially because of the shame I felt from this post and partially because my parents are coming to visit and I want them to think I have my shit together.
posted by madcaptenor at 3:33 PM on March 4, 2022 [4 favorites]
Fine, fine, I put up the spring wreath.
This was partially because of the shame I felt from this post and partially because my parents are coming to visit and I want them to think I have my shit together.
posted by madcaptenor at 3:33 PM on March 4, 2022 [4 favorites]
Numbers are looking better* where I live, so masks have been disappearing. My office will drop its mask mandate on Monday, which is very stressful to me. I will certainly be masking for the foreseeable future, but that won't help much if the rest of my coworkers are unmasked. I'm holding down the panic response right now, but we'll see what happens Monday.
*Better is such a relative term. I believe people are making excuses because they're tired of the plague. But being tired of it doesn't make it go away. Sigh.
posted by blurker at 7:19 PM on March 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
*Better is such a relative term. I believe people are making excuses because they're tired of the plague. But being tired of it doesn't make it go away. Sigh.
posted by blurker at 7:19 PM on March 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
I test people for COVID, and the other day I had to ask at least five patients to put masks on. They just walk up to us, maskless, and I can't figure out if they don't see us workers as humans with lungs or if they just don't care about COVID. I told one guy "You need to put on a mask" and he replied "not for long." We have people showing up in fake masks or with their noses sticking out -- so many exposed noses -- to a freaking COVID testing site and I think "you're why we're never getting out of this."
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:38 AM on March 5, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:38 AM on March 5, 2022 [9 favorites]
Hopefully next time we have a global crisis deciding to believe it's not real in a way that prolongs it and makes it worse just wont be a thing anymore.
posted by bleep at 4:08 PM on March 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by bleep at 4:08 PM on March 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
OMG it's almost Sunday, when did this happen.
posted by not_on_display at 9:08 PM on March 5, 2022
posted by not_on_display at 9:08 PM on March 5, 2022
I test people for COVID, and the other day I had to ask at least five patients to put masks on.
OMG WTF BBQ.
Can't you just turn them away? I'm in Aus and you don't get a PCR without using the provided mask.
I don't get why a person (I'm an old, so I'd say 'loon', but that is a bit misogynistic)(I want to say psycho|idiot|moron but again they're all a bit ableist) would turn up to be tested for something that they seem to think is not existent or transmissabale or something.
...like: why are you even here, you... low-brain-functioning-person
posted by pompomtom at 7:54 AM on March 6, 2022
OMG WTF BBQ.
Can't you just turn them away? I'm in Aus and you don't get a PCR without using the provided mask.
I don't get why a person (I'm an old, so I'd say 'loon', but that is a bit misogynistic)(I want to say psycho|idiot|moron but again they're all a bit ableist) would turn up to be tested for something that they seem to think is not existent or transmissabale or something.
...like: why are you even here, you... low-brain-functioning-person
posted by pompomtom at 7:54 AM on March 6, 2022
Nobody has refused to put on a mask, and we have plenty to give away, so it hasn’t been a huge problem. The people in the fake masks, we just roll our eyes and mock them once they’ve left — they’re not worth the fight.
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:58 AM on March 6, 2022
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:58 AM on March 6, 2022
Oh, they show up to get tested because they need negative results for work, events, school, to get into restaurants, etc. They’re not vaccinated (she says, swinging an astoundingly large brush around) but at least for the next few days you need to show either proof of vaccination or a recent negative PCR test result to get into a lot of places.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:00 AM on March 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:00 AM on March 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
The people in the fake masks, we just roll our eyes and mock them once they’ve left — they’re not worth the fight.
When I do a test here, I can wear whatever shite mask on the way in, but I don't get into the buidling unless I'm wearing a (provided) compliant mask.
There is no fight. If you don't wear the mask provided, you don't get in. Surely infecting the very people measuring the problem is (words fail, sorry) fucking lunacy?
Like, measles vaccines are mandated, right? Rubella? Mumps and shit (I got mumps as a kid. Advice: don't get mumps. IT FUCKING SUCKS BIGSTYLE).
Maybe someone here is going to tell me how wrong I am, for FREEDOM.
Only mods who have had mumps may delete this for my rudeness
posted by pompomtom at 8:14 AM on March 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
When I do a test here, I can wear whatever shite mask on the way in, but I don't get into the buidling unless I'm wearing a (provided) compliant mask.
There is no fight. If you don't wear the mask provided, you don't get in. Surely infecting the very people measuring the problem is (words fail, sorry) fucking lunacy?
Like, measles vaccines are mandated, right? Rubella? Mumps and shit (I got mumps as a kid. Advice: don't get mumps. IT FUCKING SUCKS BIGSTYLE).
Maybe someone here is going to tell me how wrong I am, for FREEDOM.
Only mods who have had mumps may delete this for my rudeness
posted by pompomtom at 8:14 AM on March 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
I got mumps as a kid. Advice: don't get mumps. IT FUCKING SUCKS BIGSTYLE
Can confirm. As a kid I got it twice, and measles once (also a thoroughly miserable experience). No vax available for either at the time.
posted by flabdablet at 9:40 AM on March 6, 2022
Can confirm. As a kid I got it twice, and measles once (also a thoroughly miserable experience). No vax available for either at the time.
posted by flabdablet at 9:40 AM on March 6, 2022
It is fucking lunacy, it's not more complicated than that.
posted by bleep at 9:49 AM on March 6, 2022
posted by bleep at 9:49 AM on March 6, 2022
When I do a test here, I can wear whatever shite mask on the way in, but I don't get into the buidling unless I'm wearing a (provided) compliant mask.
Same here - no if, no but, wear a real mask (or put on the one handed to you) and wear it properly or you don't even get near the door, never mind through it.
We also can't get in a restaurant, pub or club etc or any event (including the outdoor caravan show this past weekend) without proof of being fully vaccinated. Most places have drawn a hard line at the state 'check-in' app with vaccination status linked and no exceptions.
Having gone through mumps, measles and chickenpox as a kid (pre-vaccines for each), I roll my eyes at least internally at anyone that even slightly suggests vaccination should not be mandated. What frustrates me the most is how many people that have been saved from the effects of so many diseases by themselves being vaccinated by mandate now protest about vaccination by mandate. I wish there was a way to take away their vaccination and replace it with a solid case of mumps.
posted by dg at 2:19 PM on March 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
Same here - no if, no but, wear a real mask (or put on the one handed to you) and wear it properly or you don't even get near the door, never mind through it.
We also can't get in a restaurant, pub or club etc or any event (including the outdoor caravan show this past weekend) without proof of being fully vaccinated. Most places have drawn a hard line at the state 'check-in' app with vaccination status linked and no exceptions.
Having gone through mumps, measles and chickenpox as a kid (pre-vaccines for each), I roll my eyes at least internally at anyone that even slightly suggests vaccination should not be mandated. What frustrates me the most is how many people that have been saved from the effects of so many diseases by themselves being vaccinated by mandate now protest about vaccination by mandate. I wish there was a way to take away their vaccination and replace it with a solid case of mumps.
posted by dg at 2:19 PM on March 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
If we could have a non-transmissible version of mumps for this purpose, maybe. But you know they'd just blame it on the vaccine and wind up even more derangement-contagious.
posted by flabdablet at 10:28 PM on March 6, 2022
posted by flabdablet at 10:28 PM on March 6, 2022
> When I do a test here, I can wear whatever shite mask on the way in, but I don't get into the buidling unless I'm wearing a (provided) compliant mask.
Same here - no if, no but, wear a real mask (or put on the one handed to you) and wear it properly or you don't even get near the door, never mind through it.
Oooh la la, look at you with "buildings" and"doors" for your COVID testing sites!
When I go to a doctor's office it's the same -- they give me a mask to wear, which I can either swap into or put over the mask I'm wearing. But I've worked at a few COVID testing sites and they're all outdoors. In December, when we were testing over 1,300 people a day, we didn't have the time or staff to hand out masks to everyone (just people who didn't have any kind of mask at all on). Luckily things have calmed down for now.
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:01 PM on March 7, 2022
Same here - no if, no but, wear a real mask (or put on the one handed to you) and wear it properly or you don't even get near the door, never mind through it.
Oooh la la, look at you with "buildings" and"doors" for your COVID testing sites!
When I go to a doctor's office it's the same -- they give me a mask to wear, which I can either swap into or put over the mask I'm wearing. But I've worked at a few COVID testing sites and they're all outdoors. In December, when we were testing over 1,300 people a day, we didn't have the time or staff to hand out masks to everyone (just people who didn't have any kind of mask at all on). Luckily things have calmed down for now.
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:01 PM on March 7, 2022
Oooh la la, look at you with "buildings" and"doors" for your COVID testing sites!
Heh, I guess I was over-generalising a little. I've only had to be tested twice - once was a testing clinic in a nice, modern medical suite, but the initial screening was done outside under a marquee and, until you were suitably masked and confirmed as asymptomatic, you didn't get to approach the actual door. The second time was a small portable building in the middle of a park, where the tester leaned out the door and administered the test while you stood outside. A significant part of the testing here has been done in drive-through sites.
Of course, I live in an area relatively untouched by COVID until the great leveller Omicron came to town, so my experience is clearly not yours.
posted by dg at 2:52 PM on March 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
Heh, I guess I was over-generalising a little. I've only had to be tested twice - once was a testing clinic in a nice, modern medical suite, but the initial screening was done outside under a marquee and, until you were suitably masked and confirmed as asymptomatic, you didn't get to approach the actual door. The second time was a small portable building in the middle of a park, where the tester leaned out the door and administered the test while you stood outside. A significant part of the testing here has been done in drive-through sites.
Of course, I live in an area relatively untouched by COVID until the great leveller Omicron came to town, so my experience is clearly not yours.
posted by dg at 2:52 PM on March 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
> It is fucking lunacy, it's not more complicated than that.
It is complicated fucking lunacy. There are so many moving parts to this shitstorm. It's like trying to wrangle 1000 kittens. into a garden shed.
DON'T ASK WHY.
posted by not_on_display at 10:45 PM on March 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
It is complicated fucking lunacy. There are so many moving parts to this shitstorm. It's like trying to wrangle 1000 kittens. into a garden shed.
DON'T ASK WHY.
posted by not_on_display at 10:45 PM on March 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
show me the way to the next whiskey bar
posted by flabdablet at 2:03 AM on March 8, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 2:03 AM on March 8, 2022 [4 favorites]
The only thing that has been enabling a sense of time passing for me is the slow progress I've being making in the travel trailer I'm building. And because some strong man a half a world away had to be an asshole gas has jumped up to the point I might not be able to tow it farther than the end if the block when I get it finished.
There are certainly some weird mask policies. The place I get my blood tested requires non-surgical masks which I put over my N95 because there policy doesn't accept the much better option.
I get tested for COVID weekly (indoors) and masks are required with a quick pull down for swabbing but they require you keep your mouth covered which results in the nasal wire in the mask directing my breath onto their hands.
At work I stay in a camp with currently about 2500 other residents. Last week ~500 of them tested positive for COVID and were moved to isolation. But I seem to be the only one who thinks masks are good and that eating in a big room with everyone else might be contributing to the spread. Recently the camp has restricted what food we can take out (to reduce food costs) so I'm basically reduced to living on power bowls and tuna sandwiches. Lunacy is probably the politest thing I call it.
I've lost faith in humanity.
I honestly might never stop wearing masks in public and I no longer care if I ever eat inside a restaurant again. Thank $deity patio weather is almost upon us.
posted by Mitheral at 10:28 PM on March 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
There are certainly some weird mask policies. The place I get my blood tested requires non-surgical masks which I put over my N95 because there policy doesn't accept the much better option.
I get tested for COVID weekly (indoors) and masks are required with a quick pull down for swabbing but they require you keep your mouth covered which results in the nasal wire in the mask directing my breath onto their hands.
At work I stay in a camp with currently about 2500 other residents. Last week ~500 of them tested positive for COVID and were moved to isolation. But I seem to be the only one who thinks masks are good and that eating in a big room with everyone else might be contributing to the spread. Recently the camp has restricted what food we can take out (to reduce food costs) so I'm basically reduced to living on power bowls and tuna sandwiches. Lunacy is probably the politest thing I call it.
I've lost faith in humanity.
I honestly might never stop wearing masks in public and I no longer care if I ever eat inside a restaurant again. Thank $deity patio weather is almost upon us.
posted by Mitheral at 10:28 PM on March 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
Like, measles vaccines are mandated, right?
Yeah, there are people deeply convinced that should be overturned as well. I have occasionally attempted to engage with such people: I point out that polio also didn’t infect everyone, left some people with transient, mild symptoms, others with lifelong side effects and killed a small minority of those who contracted it.
The worst year for polio in my country saw ~500 deaths from it. COVID-19 has killed 37,000 in the last two years. And we still thought it worthwhile vaccinating against polio.
I am confidently informed, though, that we were well on the way to developing a natural immunity and that five hundred per year were all the results of the vaccine. Ah.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:17 PM on March 19, 2022 [4 favorites]
Yeah, there are people deeply convinced that should be overturned as well. I have occasionally attempted to engage with such people: I point out that polio also didn’t infect everyone, left some people with transient, mild symptoms, others with lifelong side effects and killed a small minority of those who contracted it.
The worst year for polio in my country saw ~500 deaths from it. COVID-19 has killed 37,000 in the last two years. And we still thought it worthwhile vaccinating against polio.
I am confidently informed, though, that we were well on the way to developing a natural immunity and that five hundred per year were all the results of the vaccine. Ah.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:17 PM on March 19, 2022 [4 favorites]
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