Breaking The Glass Wall, part 3: First Day of Freedom

Right now, like everyone else, I’m thinking a lot about all the things I wanna do as soon as this quarantine is over.

Even though I’m always content with staying at home, this has been a very extreme stay-at-home situation, and it’s been going on long enough that it’s starting to drive me a *little* insane. (Trust me, that’s saying a lot.)

When quarantine finally ends, it’ll probably take a while for it to hit me that it’s really over. I’ll feel so weird being out in public places, like I shouldn’t be there, because for a long time now we haven’t been allowed to. How do restaurants work, again? What even is a mall?

And it’ll probably take me longer than other people to feel comfortable getting out and going places once we’re able to again. I think my first instinct is to wait a bit and see what happens with everyone else first, just to make sure it’s actually safe to go out. But at the same time, I’m so ready to get out of here that I’d love to just hop in my car and leave the state.

But that’s a little much for a first day back out. I’d rather put off a major road trip for a while and start out small, and do a few things that I haven’t been able to do in a while. Nothing too crazy. Just some simple, everyday, but very important things that we often take for granted.

Work out in a gym again.

My social media feeds have been full of fitness people everywhere saying how they’re going crazy without access to their gyms.

I’d be lying if I said I'm not one of them.

Fitness is a big part of my life; it's a sort of therapy for me, as it is for lots of other people, and not being able to be involved in it to the fullest has made getting through quarantine difficult.

I definitely plan on going and getting a day pass at one of the gyms in my area, although I’m not sure which one yet. But honestly, it doesn’t even matter which one. I just miss the gym atmosphere. Being able to lift weights and take group classes, like Zumba and yoga and HIIT, is the best. I wanna do all that again.

I’d also love to go take a class at Flight Risk Aerials again.

Before all this craziness, I wanted to start getting serious about aerialist stuff and gaining more flexibility. And I’m eager to get back into that.

It’s like the combination of strength and flexibility practice of yoga, but with the fun upbeat vibes of a dance class. Who doesn’t love that?

Go out to eat.

Being able to eat out at restaurants is such a seemingly insignificant thing that’s really a huge privilege; one we all forget to appreciate.

I’ve been making a list of places I haven’t been able to get food from since lockdown started. I’m honestly not sure which one to hit up first, but Inspiration Roll is definitely high on my list.

It’s my favorite place for ramen, and I’d really like to get some good ramen there again. (Their Pork Shio bowl is totally worth the $13.)

I’ve been trying to make my own ramen at home for now:

It’s been fine. But let’s be honest, it’s not the same.

Cheesecake Factory at the mall is a must though, because #TreatYoself. But the mall food court also has a Wendy’s, a Nathan’s (which is not something you see often these days), and a Cinnabon, which all sounds so tempting right now.

But wherever I end up eating, I’ll just be glad to sit in a restaurant again.

Go to the mall.

Speaking of the mall, I wanna go shopping so bad.

Shopping online, as convenient as it is, is starting to get old.

I never got to go to the mall that often before quarantine, so I’m long overdue for a legit shopping day.

I’m excited to try on clothes in actual stores again. Now that I’ve lost a bunch of weight, I wanna reward myself after working so hard these last few months.

I wanna try on clothes at Guess; I love their stuff, even though I can’t afford anything there. I’ll probably just make a list of stuff I really like and plan to save up for it, like I’ve done every other time I’ve gone into their store.

Victoria’s Secret is usually a go-to spot for me. They may be expensive, and maybe a little overhyped, but they usually have something good. They do have good sports bras, and I could always use more sports bras.

I might even go try stuff on at American Eagle. Even though I hate jeans, I’m interested to see how they fit me now. I could probably use some jean shorts anyway.

I definitely plan on buying stuff at Lush, because I need to stock up on skincare. And I love walking into their stores just because it smells like heaven.

Maybe I'll stop at Sephora too. I could use some makeup.

And while I’m having fun shopping, I wanna flip off the Abercrombie store again (it’s something I do every time I walk past it).

If you remember, back in 2013 their crusty troll of a CEO, Mike Jeffries, made some shitty comments about how he didn’t want fat women shopping at his stores. Ever since then, I’ve had a lot of resentment towards Abercrombie and their stuck-up elitist attitude. And every time I walk past the store, I flip it off.

It’ll feel good to be able to do that again.

Get my hair done.

I’m sure a lot of you can relate on this one.

One of my plans for 2020 was to get my hair trimmed every month. Well, that plan died pretty fast, just like most other plans for 2020.

At this point, I’m just gonna get several inches cut off to make up for all these months without a trim, because now I’ve got a lot of split ends to get rid of.

I prefer to go to Cutting Edge Academy, since services at beauty schools cost half as much as salons. ($15 for a cut and a blowout, 10/10 recommend.)

It’s gonna feel so good to finally let go of all that old, damaged hair, and with it all that weight of quarantine.

And after that, I might also do a thing I’ve wanted to do for a while and dye my hair black-brown with oVertone.

I’ll probably make a mess of myself in the process, but I’m excited to try a fresh hair color!

Go donate blood.

As a way of giving back and helping out the medical community, I wanna find a blood drive/bank and donate blood, and then continue to donate blood as often as possible.

The medical community has been so overwhelmed by COVID-19, and blood is always in high demand anyway, so this is an important way to contribute.

I wanna be doing this already, but it’s just not safe right now. I can’t wait to hop on it as soon as I can.

And before the pandemic started, I was also looking into participating in some paid medical research studies as a healthy volunteer. I’d love to start looking into that again. I don’t mind getting poked with needles and being hooked up to machines. I think I’d enjoy it.

And this is just Day 1!

There’s so much more to do going forward after quarantine ends.

I’ll definitely be getting together with my family to celebrate and make up for all the months of social distancing.

I’ll definitely go visit my grandmother, who’s in a nursing home.

I’d love to meet up with my friend Taylor, who's an avid wine enthusiast, and go get wine drunk at a vineyard, which we’ve wanted to do for a while.

I want to go visit my out-of-state friends, or maybe even get them to come visit me.

And I’m ready for all that, but this Day 1 plan is definitely a good start. I just wanna experience the simple things that we all take for granted again.

I can’t wait till we can finally break this glass wall that is quarantine. But until then I’ll keep dreaming of better days ahead!