July 8, 2020

6 active cases, no new cases this month, no evidence of community spread.

Whew.

Today I put on makeup and packed up my laptop and walked to a meeting with a potential client, my first face-to-face meeting since before the pandemic began.

We sat at opposite ends of a long table that was disinfected before was sat down and after we left, we didn't shake hands or get that close to each other and I found it hard to focus on what I was saying because I was in a room with OTHER PEOPLE for the first time in months

and it felt awkward and weird and though I feel much more myself

happy, energetic, upbeat

after being around other humans I felt weird and apprehensive and I think we all did because even in a province that by all intents and purposes is (for now) relatively COVID-free

we're still in a pandemic and the world is a dumpster fire around us.

After my meeting I had lunch at Wall St Slice with Tineke who I also hadn't seen IRL since the pandemic began and even though the entire experience felt safe and clean and socially distanced

the whole time I was worried about how close people were

how long we were sitting

if our sitting was inconveniencing other people who wanted to sit

and a plethora of other socially anxious feelings that I managed to smother with slices of pizza and a beer and laughing and smiling and catching up with someone I love and haven't seen in

too long, honestly

the uncomfortable, anxious feeling of not knowing what to do, or knowing what other people around you are doing, and feeling like whatever you're doing is the "wrong thing" didn't feel so bad for a while.

Winnipeg has been lucky because (bless us) we're a big-small prairie town with low density and a high level of personal vehicles, so managing community spread seems to have been relatively easy compared to other places. Our cases started out low and stayed relatively low and have been low for weeks.

Things (almost) feel normal again.

But today Colin came over and a bit and as we sat a safe distance apart we talked about the precautions Sookram's is taking to reopen the taproom and about how other businesses are handling things and it was a reminder that

there's still a pandemic out there and until there's a vaccine life isn't "back to normal"

no matter what it feels like when yr out and about

and no matter how many slices of pizza or beers I have.