It's a little late in the pandemic, but not too late to reminisce on some of the great things during the pandemic, mainly from having to go to the office:
1.) I DON'T meet The morning Starbucks/ breakfast/ fruit guy. When I lived in New York, every morning was like a 10-round boxing match, from being woken up by the sound of the alarm going off to sliding into the door at the office, sometimes with various subway lines and buses to go through. By the time I got to the office, I'd already gone through a whole day's worth of stress and travel, working up an appetite and having to go see the donut guy, or the bagel guy, or the fruit stand guy right there outside on the curb of Lexington and 55th street, who I swear made a killing selling a bag of grapes for $5 or bananas for 3 for a $1. During the pandemic the commute is simple: I roll out of bed, I walk from my bedroom to my living room and a makeshift office, turn on my office, and start to work. Probably one of the biggest things I will miss about the pandemic, if we ever go back to the offices full-time.
2.) I DO MEET the security guards checking me in at the library: The library is a very personal process for me and a quickstrike extraction operation like a SWAT team: I have a target, I go into the library, I acquire the target, and I evacuate the premises. Except now with Covid, libraries are indoor gathering places, so temperature checks are required and mandatory assessment of Covid risks with questions like "have you had Covid symptoms in the last 24 hours?" (I wonder if anyone ever answers yes to these questions, or if you have had Covid symptoms would you just smile sheepishly and slink away).
3.) I DON'T MEET people in the elevators; I groggily got up at 7:30AM this morning to go pick up MJ from a night shift (I really do appreciate her effort and feel bad that she has to do night shifts from 7:00PM to 7:30AM in the morning, she calls herself the vampire and saw 4 people already in the elevator, and instantly made up my mind: I'll take the next one. Whereas pre-pandemic I'd have no problem squeezing into a crowded elevator, especially in NYC where the next one might not be coming for a while due to the sheer amount of people and I'd risk getting breathed on, stepped on (no laughing matter nowadays after the Travis Scott concert deaths due to being trampled on), I now am pre-conditioned just to pass on sharing space with strangers.
4.) I DO MEET people at Costco and Whole Foods, nowadays hot spots for people to gather to get essential goods but also feel normal again; I sure did during some down days just to feel alive again and make sure I wasn't in a "28 Days Later" or "I am Legend" movie, that I was in fact sharing the planet with live human beings. Especially with supply chain shortages hitting Christmas shopping and retail, I feel like even more shopping is done at Costco and Whole Foods (own the stocks of both) or at least it felt that way this weekend, possibly due to the pre-Thanksgiving Day rush.
5.) I DON'T MEET the Black Friday shoppers, EVER! I never have and never will get into the Black Friday weekend push, even though it was paused last year but is possibly coming back in select stores this year. MJ and I may do a little international travel because well, most other countries don't celebrate Thanksgiving and won't have the travel rushes from American travelers stuck at home eating turkey.
6.) I DO MEET various internet personalities online, from podcasts to Youtube videos to Netflix specials to online cookbooks, I've used the internet to expand my social horizons. Last night I even used an online recipe to combine 2 things I normally wouldn't get excited about, zucchini and mushrooms, to make a sautee dish. Secret: butter makes everything butter, even if you use vegan butter like MJ and I constrain ourselves to do. Other new people I've "met" online: Ken Jennings through the Omnibus podcast and recent Jeopardy host roles, Easy French Youtube videos to do a refresher course on French (it's actually fun and energizing to get back on that saddle, like speaking to a friend I haven't met since high school), even more Jim Cramer but also his possee of David Faber and Carl Quintanilla on Squawk on the Street, etc.
7.) I DON'T MEET many waiters and waitresses who are friendly but with an agenda: The thrill of eating at a restaurant is gone, if it ever existed. I will go somewhere for the food if it's renowned and if MJ has diligently scouted somewhere that she wants to go, but like Las Vegas I've outgrown the sit-down restaurant for the sake of it, and the whole tip system is now even invading fast food and pickup/delivery places. Although the restaurants aren't mandating it, I DO MEET pretty often that computer screen that asks how much I want to ask (the person giving me my order coyly requests that I just "answer a question for me") and it starts at 15%/18% as more and more restaurants pass off the cost of labor (I know it's difficult to hire people nowadays) onto the customer, and in fact the stock market is rewarding companies that do so (like Home Depot) with higher stock prices and punishing those that don't (Walmart) even though as a customer I feel like Walmart is doing the right thing to try to help the working people consumers of America who are still struggling to make a living. We'll be paying 15% for picking up food pretty soon and 30% for service at a sit-down restaurant. The humanity!
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