Here’s something I’ve learned about myself in the pandemic: I open produce bags by licking my fingers. My entire life, after touching the car keys or the inside of the metro, and my shoe, and the cart, and anything else that is around, and before touching my fruits and vegetables, I have been sticking my fingers in my mouth.
Now I know, if I don’t have access to my mouth, I’m just going to stand there muttering to myself and rubbing the end of the bag and poking at it and generally feeling like an incompetent human.
Before, infectious disease was not something I spent a lot of time thinking about.
Now, infectious disease is something I spend a lot of time thinking about.
I used to think very little about introducing novelty into my life. Now, I will purposefully buy a new brand of soap, just to try something different. I’ve been walking down the alleys in my neighborhood to see the back sides of houses. Earlier this year, I tried Fig Newtons for the first time since childhood. (Have you tried them lately? They are so odd. How can a cookie be both mushy and gritty?)
One day a few weeks ago I sat on the opposite end of the couch from usual. It was thrilling.
Sunday I got my first shot of the Pfizer. This feels like another turning point, when after a year of relative isolation I can start to consider a world where I can go places and be indoors with strangers. Novelty will be easier to come by.
But I’m not sure I’m ready to give up my life at home, where all it takes to get a new perspective is a lemon-verbena-scented bar of soap.
A very little dab of hand sanitizer (you do carry it don’t you?) on your fingertips helps get the plastic bag open.
Well said. Many of us have become better “noticers” over these months. Was it less traffic that increased the number of songbirds? Whatever the reason, we overheard neighbors, (who we are much better acquainted with) exclaiming over them on our masked walks in the neighborhood. Not all of the quarantining was bad.