Over It, Pandemically

Well it’s been almost a year, and I think everyone’s pretty much just done with it.

I mean, it’s to the point where you can actually feel it. Everything is kind of ‘meh’ and the spark just isn’t there, the mojo is gone, whatever euphemism you choose to use here, but they all apply. We’ve just had enough of this pandemic thing and we’re ready for it to be done.

Sure, you can tell me that Mercury is in retrograde, and perhaps it is, and perhaps a distant planet actually does have some kind of influence over our daily frame of mind, but I think we’re just really done with all the ‘bleh’ that this pandemic has brought.

I’ve noticed it in the way people drive. I’ve noticed it in the way people walk. I’ve noticed it in the way they interact or don’t interact, and just the general way they regard their fellow man.

The other day I was out running errands and it was all just getting to me. Every last little thing. I went grocery shopping, and it happens every time I go, but this time it just pulled me absolutely over the edge. People walk in the door and then they just simply stop. There’s no way around them, they just stop, and then you have to wait for them to be consciously aware of their surroundings – which may or may not ever happen – and if it does happen, they may or may not choose to do something about you waiting behind them, on their time.

Next store on my list of errands, three people are standing just outside a storefront. They’re all roughly five feet apart and one of them is standing *in* the doorway, another is holding the door open, and a third is holding product that is I believe going out to someone’s car. I cannot enter the store because they are all having a very leisurely conversation, and although they are regarding me, they don’t seem to register the fact that I am in a bit of a hurry and I would like to get in the store to get what I need and home to my waiting puppy who has to pee really really bad, because I’m on my way home from work. I force myself to swallow the scream in my throat and weakly smile instead.

Next, I call a store that has alerted me earlier in the day that a product I wanted has just come in. I call them back and went through the entire automated answering system to get a woman who just could not stop asking me questions. Never mind the fact that I gave her all the answers she was asking the questions to at the beginning of the phone call. She still had to ask All The Questions. And while she was asking me All The Questions, I decided that I wasn’t going to bother. I was just too exasperated and would need to come back another day when I wasn’t quite so upset with her being stuck in automatic pilot.

I think the pandemic has turned people into some kind of zombies. Their apathy has morphed into unconsciousness. They’ve gone numb and are no longer aware of their surroundings or the conversations taking place. This isn’t the first time that somebody has continually asked me questions that I have already answered, and this is not the first time that people have been inconsiderate with their use of space – especially when it’s imperative we stay six feet apart and wear protective masks.

We’re all just over it and we just don’t want to deal anymore.

Not that it’s going to go away anytime soon, and therein lies the problem.

I am getting to the point where leaving the house for any reason at all is getting to be unpleasant. People are becoming unpleasant. Situations are becoming unpleasant. I try hard to put a smile on my face and be polite to all the people I run into, but it seems I’m in the definite minority here. And it’s so much easier to just stay at home in a nice comfy chair with a big glass of wine.

I’m a little bit worried. 

I took one of those Myers-Briggs tests way back in my twenties, and even then the doctor could see that I had a tendency toward being a hermit. I couldn’t figure out then why that’s a bad thing and I still can’t figure it out now. At least when I’m crabby, I can’t spread it around if I just stay home and drink my glass of wine. Isn’t that a good thing? To insulate all of you from my crabbiness? Because I can be crabby.

Where the hell was I going with this anyway? Oh yeah… well, I’m not sure there’s a light at the end of the tunnel here. I guess what I’m hoping for is that people just take a moment… just a moment now, and slow down just a tad… just a tad now, and try to think about the other guy. And how maybe they’re having a bad day, or maybe they’re in a hurry for good reason, or maybe they have a sick child at home.

Or a dog that has to pee badly.

And yes, I’m aware I need to be one of those people too.

We’re getting closer to the end of this nightmare every day, and if we just allow ourselves a little bit of humanity and a little bit of patience, we can get there without hurting each other a whole heck of a lot.

Does it sound like a deal? I promise to go first.

See you out there, folks.

Photo by Edwin Hooper on Unsplash