Reopening

As the country begins to open up, I’ve started to look back at these last few months and towards the future. Questions flood my mind: How safe it is? How often I will personally go out? What did I do these last few months? What do I do now?

Is it safe?

Man, I don’t know. I am the proud completer of several college science courses, and I know enough to trust the experts, but the experts don’t know my life or situation. So, for me personally… probably with the right protection and behavior. I live outside Columbia, South Carolina and we were not hit hard by the pandemic by any measure of the word. Of course, I also have to think about the other people in my household. I also want to visit Pennsylvania this summer and see my friends again. We’ll probably go, but what will the visits even look like?

Here's a great guide from NPR to consult on activities and risk: From Camping To Dining Out: Here's How Experts Rate The Risks Of 14 Summer Activities

So then, how often will I go out?

I’ve gone out three times recently. The first was to the grocery store. It’s a necessary trip. Among other things, we need more peanut butter. When this all started and I made my first big trip to buy food, I picked up a four pound jar of peanut butter. Back then we had no idea what to expect and it’s a solid protein with a long shelf life. Well, four pounds later, time for more! I can’t believe my boyfriend and I went through all of it so quickly, but if I’m honest, it was mostly me…

At the store, I’m fascinated by the distance most people give each other now. No one comes up behind you to quickly snatch an item off the shelf or bump you with their cart. Most of us have masks and those of us that do, look with suspicion at the ones who do not. I’ve always tried to make my trips to the grocery store quick, grab what I want and go, but it has a new urgency for me. It also seems everyone does this now. The toilet paper and paper towels were still empty. I really wonder when that will be normal again. The kid that checks me out is protected by a large piece of plexiglass, the pin pad by some plastic film that I assume they change frequently. I know assumptions can be wrong, it’s in their nature, but I trust it anyway. He doesn’t wear a mask and I hope that he doesn’t have at risk people in his home. We talk about cooking while he checks me out. By the time I’m grabbing my bags, he’s decided to bread some chicken in dorito crumbs. I’ll admit it, I’m curious, but I’m more surprised that I remember how to hold conversations with random people. I’ve never been particularly good at it and I’d really thought I’d lost the knack.

My next trip out was to a restaurant. Mark’s sister was celebrating because she successfully took a final in a particularly difficult class. The thought of being in a small closed off building made me anxious and I almost said no immediately, but then I discovered that she wanted to go to a restaurant with outdoor seating. We’ve been there before together and the view overlooking the lake is beautiful. I began to look forward to the fruity concoctions and good company. Then it started to pour on the way over… Now, the outdoor seating has a roof, but they put down thick plastic to protect their patrons from the rain and that plastic reminded me a lot of the closed walls inside the building. I gritted my teeth and pushed past it. There was a wait but we were told that we could go to the bar to get drinks. There were roped off chairs and removed tables to ensure social distancing, but there was nowhere else to go to order a drink other than the roped off chairs. We weren’t the only people to do this. We took our drinks outside under an overhang and waited until we were called. All the staff wore masks, but one of the hostesses left her nose out the entire time I watched her. The bartenders wiped down all the menus before passing them between people and everyone wore gloves, so that made me feel better. The food was disappointing, but the drinks were tasty. Over all, it just left me feeling uneasy. I probably won’t repeat that for a while. Take out only for me.

My third trip was my first day of work in 70 days. My part time job is at a book/media/instrument store. I generally cashier with a little bit of cleaning and shelving. Not anymore. I was the only cashier on for the entire day and it did not allow for much cleaning (besides sanitizing the register area) or downtime. They don’t have the hours for people and I’m not surprised. Less people than I would have expected wore masks. A few actions confused me, like a woman and her son. He wore a mask, but she didn’t. If she contracts the virus, she would still likely infect him at home. I also sold a lot more puzzles than usual. As a puzzle lover, I’m enjoying their surge in popularity. I flexed my people skills all day and headed home feeling pretty good about my time spent away from home. Mark had also had to work, which meant that Robby had the run of the castle while we were away. I found him sleeping. Apparently, he didn’t miss us…

Overall, being out still leaves me uneasy. I’ll continue to keep it to a minimum and exercise social distancing.

What has quarantine done to? For me?

It took a lot of adjusting. I remember the fear and uncertainty. I wiped everything down that entered the camper. I made masks complete with pockets for filter inserts. I heavily invested my time at the beginning into chainmaille. First, I posted one new item a day on social media. I kept up with it pretty well, but my hands and creative juices felt a little worn, so eventually I switched to every other day. I’m still there now and proud of that. Plus, I try to post memes on the off days. Follow me: Facebook or Instagram.

I also built a garden. It’s not finished yet and won’t be for some time, but I really enjoyed the work that I did. Unfortunately, I got an awful case of poison ivy that had me fairly useless for almost two weeks. When I was almost fully healed, I tried again, with added protection, but still got a bit more. Just a few days ago I finally planted the herbs that I’d purchased and laid the mulch. Thankfully, I came off unscathed, but I’ve tasked my boyfriend with clearing the rest of the area that I want to work in.

That poison ivy riddled time left me with useless limbs and the desire to move as little as possible. I read through the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy and remembered why I wanted to write in the first place, so silver linings. I’m currently on a writing kick that feels like I might just be an aspiring fantasy author. Look for a short story that I’ll be publishing in the coming weeks. It will introduce you to the world of Asaldium. If you haven't already, follow me on Twitter to see what writing exploits I've been up to.

Overall, I can’t say that my time in quarantine has been bad. I’m a bit of a homebody to begin with and it has allowed me to focus and better hone my crafts. I know that a lot of people out there have not had such positive experiences and I know that we barely know what the waves of this will be to the future, but I hope that many of you can at least find your own silver linings in all the pain and misery that the world is feeling right now.

For now, I’ll be sticking with take out and I’ll be wearing my mask for quite some time, but I hope that we can come back from this with a better understanding of how to address this type of problem in the future. Be sure to check out the chainmaille shop and see my new items. Also, June is Pride Month and all my Pride pieces will be on sale! Celebrate Pride with chainmaille this year!