Saturday, May 18th, 2020
Saturday, weekend. Another day of inactivity driving me crazy. I keep thinking back to my life before March 13th, 2020. After a coffee in bed, scanning the news, I would have left home at 9:45 to head to the dojo, spend two hours on the matt, dashed to the pool for a swim and then done the grocery run. By the time I would return home it would be 3ish and time to make lunch with probably a plan to go to the movies with EM (winter) or spend time with friends or some other social activity.
Now, a long lazy morning with the news and social media (normally reserved for Sunday’s only). Then move to the garden with a book in the sun. Some texting, some calls with friends before sorting out our one meal for the day - Chicken Wellington. A bit of gardening, a walk, end of day. This inactivity is killing me.
Today was a little different as in the evening I actually went on a date! I was very much in two minds about it and expected to last all of 30 minutes. Turned out to be a very fun evening on a picnic table in a park, though I doubt we will meet again. My life could just as well be located in a different universe; in terms of world views, things I think about my past life, my current life, education, financial strength could not be more different. Also he was more in the camp of this virus is similar to the flu, we will need to live with it, which is so not where we are at in my household and my social circle. Yes, we will have to live with it, but it fundamentally alters how we live. Nonetheless, it was fun – strangely and very unexpectedly, so am almost a little sad that it will go nowhere. It did feel a bit like normalcy though to go out with make-up, heels and even jewelry, despite maintaining social distance. Which had me thinking about how to date in the age of COVID-19, starting of with how does one even meet people (okay online)? Even in a life without the virus I found dating to be complicated. Figuring out what each person wants, establishing mutual interests is hard enough without a life-threatening virus out there. But how to go from a virtual or even a distanced date to establishing some level of safety to interact more?
Infections the world over continue to rise, as does the death toll, so this is in no way over, with the new epicenter now Latin America; in particular Brazil and sadly also Peru.
However, there is some positive news from Modena who is now proceeding to phase two of its vaccine trial.
On the bad news front it turns out that at least one of the party goers on Memorial Day to a resort tested positive for Corona. If ever there was an opportunity for the virus to spread this must have been it. Just looking at the infected individuals schedule ensures contact with lots of people.
So a mixed bag.