Random thoughts in a pandemic

My summer work wardrobe will be like brand new next year, if we are finally past the pandemic and able to live more normally. I've been wearing T-shirts, jeggings and capris with sneakers or flat sandals all summer. 

And makeup? Why bother? My face is basically covered when I'm out in public. I wonder if cosmetics and salons will see a big resurgence when this is over with. 

The  again, perhaps we will have gained some better sense of priorities by then. 

I keep getting tempted by deep sale prices on summer sandals, lovely and chunky, practical and not so practical. Then I think to myself: Where would I wear them? Who would ever see them? But they're only $30, marked down from $135. I mean, who can resist that? I'm still mulling that one over. My size is available and they're only $30. And there will be future summers when I may want to wear them, not dressy, better than total casual. 

Just spent 2 days at MAC in deliberative meetings with a nonprofit committee, an annual event that was dispatched in record time this year, partly because we did some of the work at home this year. Not nearly as much money to allocate as in previous years, no big surprise there. 

I need to read Anne of Green Gables now. We just finished watching a TV series on Netflix called Anne with an E, based on that book. 

Wearing a mask all day makes my nose get congested. Still better than getting sick, yet annoying. So much change in our lives. 

Mary sent me pictures of herself and her daughter and granddaughters walking alpacas on leashes in the countryside. In a subsequent email, and in response to  my query, she said that is a "thing" in Scotland. People walk alpacas the way we walk our dogs here. Except it's not their personal alpacas, it's a rental thing, apparently? 

Something I definitely want to experience if we go back. I do hope we get to go back, sooner rather than later. 

Coronavirus cases are on the rise again here. Even in Maryland, although not dangerously so, and apparently the culprits now are young people who are tired of quarantining and distancing and masks. 

I have a feeling if I ever do go back, I will wear a mask on the plane even if I don't have to by law. 

I warned you this would be random thoughts. 

I'm toying with the idea of just freelancing for now instead of seeking gainful employment. I want a real camera, and I want to learn how to use it. I can find online courses in how to use the equipment. I want to be able to take really spectacular photos. 

I feel for the parents and children who are facing some dire decisions this fall, in a few weeks, about school and childcare and all of the implications for learning and socialization and life in general. I recall cramming as many people as we could into a Volkswagen Beetle and riding around town. I don't know how many it was, might have been 8 or 10 people. But crammed together in odd positions, unable to move. 

I remember dancing on a crowded dance floor at Hullabaloo, an under-21 nightclub. It's amazing that I don't have hearing loss from damaged ears. Strobe lights, blacklights, day-glo paint on the walls and a pint of sloe gin tucked into the tank of a toilet in the girls' room. 

That's all part of the past now. I'm glad I experienced it. 

I saw a Scottish town on a TV show the other night, and it was exactly what I recall from touring around with Mary. Not that specific town, but they all have a definite style about them. Old stone houses, a public square, walkable village. Just incredible. And that countryside that lies between towns? A marvel. 

And with that, I leave you.