Help me out, Awkwards…
Here in Texas, coronavirus and heat are having a heyday. I’m not in a huge city, so the graph isn’t the gargantuan landslide you see in the more populated areas, but things are still rough. The governor is pushing school openings back (Texas schools usually open the first few days of August), everybody’s supposed to wear masks inside businesses, and restaurants are open at reduced capacity. Church services happen online or outdoors, or they’re sparsely-attended affairs.
The school year is something I look forward to, and I’m starting to plan—I’ve got masks and high heels and dresses I’m having a hard time squeezing into, but I’m a teacher. It’ll be a good story, however it works out.
My family stays inside most days, and our routine revolves around episodes of Disney Channel shows. I have work to do for the next school year, and my husband has graduate work that he does while watching shows about which lizard makes the best pet. We order groceries and turn them into meals, but I’m mostly surviving on cereal. My son’s days are filled with ‘exercising’—running in circles—and writing his name in crayon in old notebooks. He also dances, pretends to be characters from Snow White, and yells about how high he can count (to 100, if you help him with 60).
My days are filled with online-shopping, eating cereal, sporadically exercising and then pinning pictures of desserts that taste like Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
But enough about me. How are y’all?
I have readers all over the US, a few in Europe, and a couple in Asia. What are your pandemic days like?
Will you let me know in the comments? Honestly?
The world has shrunk, and the news (in the US) is treating the disease like a political tennis ball.
My life is still a life of plenty, and I’m grateful for every day. But I’m exhausted from worrying. I have a drawer for just masks now.
Are you going out? Do you have to wear a mask? How’s the weather? How’s work? What about school? I’m just wondering—it’s the only window I have to see the world right now.
Comments are down here…under ‘leave a reply’…
the heartfelt awkward 
You guys are a lot more open that we are. Schools were going to open, but then they closed again. Restaurants opened at reduced capacity, then they had to close again unless they had outdoor patios. (Some cities, including mine, have responded by relaxing rules about restaurants putting tables in the parking lot as makeshift patios, which isn’t so bad.) After four months of my head getting so uncomfortable to the point that I couldn’t even hide it with a hat because my hair was too long, haircuts opened for about a month, and then closed again just before I was getting to the point of needing another one. (Some places are legally doing haircuts outside, but not the place I usually go.) I feel like I’ve lost just about everything that makes life worth living, and it’s harder than usual to concentrate on writing because I just end up getting sad about everything in the past that is gone. I have more thoughts that I really shouldn’t share publicly. I know I shouldn’t feel this hopeless, it goes against everything I believe as a Christian, but I hate it and I don’t want this world…
I’m sorry to rant like this. You did say you wanted honesty, though…
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It’s not ranting, it’s just where you are. I’m sorry, dude.
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I feel like it’s harder for me because I already had such a traumatic 2019 that I hadn’t completely recovered from. As this year’s rainy season ended, with no roof problems for the first time since 2017, I was really looking forward to spring and summer because of the end of the basketball season, the start of baseball season, Spring Picnic, karaoke, the Alan Doyle concert, and game nights with friends… All gone. All of it. And no end in sight.
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The ‘no end in sight’ is awful, I agree
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I’m thinking about completely disappearing from social media and the Internet. I can’t handle news or people right now. But I’d still have to work, which is just as bad…
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Well, it might be better, mental-health-wise. But we’ll welcome you back whenever!
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That wasn’t directed at you. WordPress is easy to unfollow people, I have no intention of unfollowing you, and the few comments I get on my page aren’t usually the kinds of things that bother me. I’m mostly thinking of certain real-life “friends” on Facebook and Instagram… and this is the kind of thing I want to say more about, but I don’t know if I should.
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Things seems to be better at your end! School, Colleges, Gyms, Malls are closed and all political game. Can’t take this anymore. Hope things get better soon.
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What are the numbers like where you are?
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We are doing pretty well in Massachusetts. After total “lockdown” in the Spring we are now able to go to restaurants. Strange how a thing like that can make you feel happy. For weeks I was the only one in my family to enter a food store, since I am working in the hospital system and was out anyway. We are actually getting on a plane and going on vacation in two weeks. I will just have to quarantine when I get back. We are back to church, with reservations for seating, and I am feeling more hopeful. Maybe the draconian rules our state instituted were right. Just sad for people who have lost loved ones without being able to say goodbye, and all the businesses that have suffered and closed, and probably losing my precious Monadnock 😭😭😭. Things may become the same, but they will never be the same. May His will be done.
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It’s definitely getting to that place where I watch tv and see people not in masks gathered together and think it looks strange. The masks and social distancing are kindof all we can do to help keep others safe, so it’s life for now. Trying to minimize to a small set of things so that I’m not around a lot of new people. Hope you’re doing well, Lindsay!
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I am, thank you! I mean, as well as we all are right now, but my family is healthy at the moment, that’s the important thing.
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