All my clothes are dead to me. My life after lockdown May 2021

I was resilient; My husband was even better. We stayed home. We washed our hands for a long time and often. I learned how to make hand sanitizer with industrial lab-grade alcohol. I bought liters of the stuff. He knew how many people were getting infected every day and sourced masks, gloves, soap, and scrubs. Within a few months, I became an expert in the art of ordering groceries for pick up and delivery from multiple locations. I got so good at it. I may never go into the grocery store again. Now it is May of 2021. On Friday, April 30th, 2021, The CDC recommends that fully vaccinated people no longer needed to wear masks to walk the dog or other outdoor activities. On Sunday, May 2nd, 2021, NPR reported that LA county had no deaths for the Covid. Our life after covid has begun.

I still want to wear my mask a little. I am fully vaccinated. I quickly started to wear my mask around my wrist when I go outside if I come into contact with a gaggle of people or on the off chance I would have to go inside a store to buy treats. I love the way it flaps around like a reticule on the limp wrist of a foppish dandy of the 18th century. I had worried that without my mask, I would have forgotten how to smile and not look at people in disgust, my inside face. Not a problem, I am so jazzed all I do is smile. I suspect everyone still in a mask is scowling at my naked face.

Sizing up my friends and neighbors is an exhausting activity. People have moved into our building that we have never seen without a mask. I don't recognize our next-door neighbors without their bespoke masks and scarves. We went out to see friends on Sunday, May 2nd, who are also fully vaccinated. It was a coffee date at a coffee and tattoo parlor. We are already planning to have a dinner party and sing karaoke. Monday, I drove my WFH husband to get his hair cut during his lunch hour. Our friend Tipton gave him his first full-tilt haircut in months. Tipton asked when I would be getting mine done. I said, "when I have a job." I have been cutting my hair this last year, and I have the hat collection to hide my balks and errors. After every soul-nurturing encounter, I need a nap. All these new contacts decidedly overstimulate me. Everyone seems to be doing ok, change, of course. What else should we expect?

All my clothes are dead to me. When I go back to work, there will be a come to Jesus revival in my closet. There are gym shorts and tee shirts I never want to see again simply because I associate them with being trapped at home. Do you think there will be a shortage of clothing right out of the gate due to everyone else thinking they also hate their clothes? What I might do is find some friends of the same size and have a clothes swap just too tied me over until this all settles down. What's dead to someone else will be new to me.

Back to work, your coffee break is over.  There is a joke about a soul going to hell. This soul is being shown around to all the options available to him/her to pass all eternity. All the options are horrible, swimming in lakes of fire, getting torn apart by hell hounds, and so on. The soul has shown one more chance a group of friendly people drinking coffee and having a lovely chat while sitting in shit up to their necks. The soul says, "ok, that's the spot for me," and jumps in. Just then, a demon taskmaster yells, "ok, coffee break is over, get back on your heads." When the lockdown started and called it to shelter in place, my husband called it Artist in residence. We could not complain. We made do with what we had on hand. Not that we are minimalists. Because we would have spent our stimulus checks on a home gym, but they sold out. We sat and talked and drank our coffee. Now we need to get back to work and put all that time at home behind us.

People are definitely stupid but treat them well. It's my favorite line from the movie Babe, as well as the biggest takeaway from the pandemic. I think of everyone as having a tipping point of losing it. If three of four things go wrong in your day, I expect an average person is going to lose it in public. We didn't realize that waking up during the pandemic our days started at a two or three. I recognized it in myself. I did a bunch of stupid things the first couple of months. I am so sorry that I was a crabby old man. Most people do not have the luxury of self-reflection. People are stupid about how much crap it takes to put them over the edge. So give everyone a wide birth. You don't know what else has gone wrong in their day.