Today I will do two normal things. Except they won’t feel normal anymore. They will be skewed by the new normal. In fact, these normal things will feel incredibly abnormal when I do them today. That’s life in the upside down.
First I will get my allergy shot. I haven’t gotten one in over two months, but tomorrow I have an appointment to get one at 9:45am. We used to not need appointments, but now we do. We used to not need masks, or specifically assigned seating arrangements, but now we do. It used to be just a thing I did on my way home. I would just drop in and get it done. Now it’s a big deal, with an appointment and protocols. I miss just popping in to do things. I miss it a lot.
After the allergy shot I will go to work. There won’t be any students there of course. I’m just going to start the process of closing my room for the summer. I’ll be clearing off counter tops and defrosting my mini fridge. I have hours and hours of work to do there, but I have to be home by 3pm so it will just be a start. I’m bringing a lot of materials back to school, things that I don’t need anymore. There are only three real weeks of distance learning left, and I don’t need much to finish off the year.
Finally I’ll run on my way home. I always love running on my way home from work because there are so many good spots. I’m going to try something new tomorrow, a 3 mile loop that is supposed to be less trafficked than my normal path.
I’m looking forward to the day away from home. It was a long week with my husband’s bad back and I’m proud of myself for asking for the time on Friday when I really started to lose my mind. My husband is taking most of the day off so I can actually leave. Just being away from my kids for five hours will be a welcome respite.
And of course that old normal, will now be weird too. I haven’t been away from my kids for this long in nine weeks. I certainly haven’t been this far from them for that long. I haven’t been away from my house for this many hours either. It’s going to be a surreal day, made all the more surreal by the fact that it all used to be totally normal.
A day out of the house sounds kind of amazing right now. I know I won’t be singing the same tune when I have to start seeing patients in the office again (end of next week!) but in theory it sounds like a crazy adventure. So weird. I get it.
Wishing you and all your readers well.
I am reading this while sitting at my desk in my office, having come here for the first time during regular business hours to work in over two months. It feels both odd and nice! Working from home is far less than ideal for me. My office is very quiet, and it’s easy for me to stay 10+ feet away from everyone.
I hope your day goes well.