Life gets crazy, even in a pandemic. We are approaching the 1st anniversary of the initial lockdown of the pandemic. What a different a year makes. Or, conversely, how little has changed in the past 12 months.
Reflecting on that, we are still in a raging pandemic. We are still wearing masks and trying to social distance. Vaccines have picked up and R and I have had our first of 2 shots. But no letting up yet on the masks and distancing. I have been able to return recently to playing violin at church, which I have missed horribly.
And yet, much as I wish we could go back to normal, I am not sure we can as a society. I'm not even sure I can as an individual. Take today, for example. The way I spent my day to day, that would have been quite foreign to me before the pandemic. In early March last year, I was still employed at MAC, working with Cindy. Which was pleasant, not terribly demanding and I suppose a good segue back into the world of working. I had about another 2 weeks left, although I was not aware of that at the time.
Today I have a full-time position paid through Americorps, which has been mostly a good experience although it's nto as lucrative as a real job. I am hoping to have a full-time job with a more reasonable salary after August.
And although I am working from home by and large, for a variety of reasons, today felt more normal in several ways. I started the day practicing music, then went to pick up copies of my first WET newsletter, then to the office. The newsletter looks pretty good, by the way, I'm pretty happy with it overall. I helped ME with some tech issues and then had to drive over to SU to get a COVID test (every 2 weeks at this point) and then walked over to the lab and spent an unexpectedly pleasant afternoon in the lab. I went expecting to learn some of the lab procedures involved in testing our Creekwatcher water samples, and that did happen. But it felt surprisingly comfortable for me, being in a lab and performing some very basic, simple procedures. It had been 35 years since I'd been in a lab setting. I stayed to help finish up some of the samples from last season that needed to be tested and I may get to spend more time there helping out, which mixes it up enough to be interesting. Yesterday I did a "selfie" video that was required as an Americorps assignment. Sooo glad to have that off my plate. Hated it, very self-conscious. I am planning to pursue a certification as a nonprofit professional or leader, something like that.
Bottom line: Working from home has been tougher than I thought. Freelancing alone isn't enough for me, too unstructured. But I am definitely growing. And feeling more hopeful that I was before. A lot of the early tension and frustration has left me, partly because of changes in the larger world that I alone had no real control over, and partly because I am apparently adapting to this strange new world we live in at the moment. As I was cleaning up after dinner, I began to think about what it used to be like, when we could just meet at a restaurant for dinner, or I could meet up with a friend at The Brick Room over a glass of wine. That seemed like such a foreign concept to me now. Yes, I am feeling good about being half-vaccinated, and by the end of March I will be, God willing, fully vaccinated. But I do not see that as a ticket to freedom, not yet.
It does mean I will probably feel comfortable rejoining the breakfast bunch after Mass on Sundays. But not doing an entire dinner in a regular restaurant. I will feel better about taking walks at Pemberton Park, but will do so wearing a mask nonetheless.
All in all, so far we have been fortunate, all things considered, our little family group. Medical experts are saying we in the USA should achieve herd immunity by early to mid summer, IF the pace of vaccination continues to increase. There's something to think about and hope for. We've certainly been humbled and beaten down and had our faces rubbed in tragedy and sorry this year, not us as in my personal family, which has not been untouched but also has not lost any members. For that I am grateful.
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