{"id":545,"date":"2021-03-25T18:09:19","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T01:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.luanneoleas.com\/?p=545"},"modified":"2021-03-25T18:09:19","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T01:09:19","slug":"out-there-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.luanneoleas.com\/?p=545","title":{"rendered":"Out There Again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I went out into the wide world and met a friend for lunch. Armed with my mask, socially distancing, hand sanitizer, and a fully efficacious vaccination. Guess what? It felt good. It felt close to normal. Maybe not completely normal, but closer than I\u2019ve been in a good long while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wondered if I could adjust. Would I be nervous? Would I start to enter the restaurant, then bolt? Scenarios raced though my head of how long it would take me to relax. What kind of anxiety I would experience when eating food made by someone outside of my household? (I\u2019ve been very conservative since March 2020.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It transpired like clockwork. Like I\u2019ve been eating out and talking with friends my whole life. Because, guess what? I have. COVID precautions never became the new normal, despite what we said. It was the new abnormal that lasted a really long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Eating Out Again!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Facts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There was a little prep work, definitely. I brushed up on the facts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my county, at the worst of the pandemic, the cases of COVID per 100,000 people were in the hundreds. I live in a crowded place. When there were that many cases, there could be almost a thousand people having cases somewhere nearby. And those are just the tested people. What about those asymptomatic folks?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Santa Clara County Stats<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now my county has 5.7 cases per 100,000. I was eating lunch in the next county, which has 5.0 cases\/100,000. My lunch buddy came from a third county that had 6.0 cases\/100,000. I know this sounds like torture to those of you who grew up hating math, but it\u2019s how I cope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With less than a half a million people in the area where the restaurant was located, it meant less than 25 people with COVID existed in a 10-mile radius. Those were odds I could live with. Literally live with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Priorities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My vaccine shot reached full protection\u2014 well, 95% protection \u2014 about the middle of March. At that point, I had some decisions to make. So did my husband. We wanted to limit our (and other\u2019s) exposure at least somewhat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Prioritize Your Priorities<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s the practical sort. He got a haircut. He signed up for overdue dentist and eye doctor appointments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I contacted friends. I needed human interaction with friends, not doctors. I\u2019ll get there. I probably need a haircut too, but for me, socializing took precedence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Signs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

All around, I saw signs of Spring. Signs that the pandemic was ending. Our local fruit stand is even opening this weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Fruit Stand \u2014 Opening Soon!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another sign? It didn\u2019t feel dangerous out there. I wasn\u2019t panicked about washing my hands, though I did several times. I touched my face more than I should have, but I had my handy, dandy portable hand sanitizer with me. (Kudos to my sister, Kathleen, who gave me five tiny bottles, all different scents.) For some reason\u2026 the air, the store, the restaurant, felt cleaner. I only know that in my bones, I didn\u2019t feel like racing home and locking the door. I felt like taking deep breaths and using the public restroom\u2026 not at the same time of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

End is Near<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

All in all, it was inspiring to see smiling faces\u2014or at least eyes. Inspiring enough to write about, something I haven\u2019t felt like doing in a while. (Don\u2019t even check the date on my last blog post.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someday, a few years from now, kids will ask us what it was like to live through the pandemic. How did we stay in our houses for so long? What did we do? Netflix probably won\u2019t be around then, so we\u2019ll have to explain that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But mostly, we will probably tell them what a relief it was to have it end. What a joy it was to have someone bring food to our table. We\u2019ll tell them how we got two shots to make it happen. Shot number #1 for hope a better day was coming. Shot #2 for relief that we could live again. The stressor isn\u2019t going back out there. It\u2019s living abnormally for so long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeing others, eating out, and resuming our lives is how we make memories. It\u2019s something we naturally, not something we forget even if we haven\u2019t done it in a while. It\u2019s like riding a bike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Just Keep Pedaling<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I went out into the wide world and met a friend for lunch. Armed with my mask, socially distancing, hand sanitizer, and a fully efficacious vaccination. Guess what? It felt good. It felt close to normal. Maybe not completely normal, but closer than I\u2019ve been in a good long while. I wondered if I could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.luanneoleas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.luanneoleas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.luanneoleas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.luanneoleas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.luanneoleas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=545"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.luanneoleas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":555,"href":"https:\/\/blog.luanneoleas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions\/555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.luanneoleas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.luanneoleas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.luanneoleas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}