Quarantine is finally winding down as businesses, bars, and restaurants start to open back up. Some feel this is happening too soon while others feel we waited too long. I was thrilled to see old friends at my “church” and do some catching up. I’ve managed to blog almost every day of this quarantine although some posts were old recycled ones and others were quite lazy. I’ll officially stop the Covid Chronicles when I reach blog post number 100 regardless of where we stand with the lockdown. As life returns to the new normal, I wonder how many people are happy about quarantine ending and how many actually enjoyed the solitude.
For me personally, I was really starting to enjoy my simple life of getting up in the morning, cooking breakfast instead of eating out, opening up my laptop to work online, and spending my evenings doing more productive things instead of just ending up at a bar or some other social event. Don’t get me wrong, I very much enjoy socializing, but I got a lot more done during this lock down and saved a ton of money during the last couple of months. I also got used to not filling every free moment with some kind of social interaction. A little bit of solitude can be really good.
It felt so surreal the first time I got to sit in a restaurant and eat a proper meal instead of taking it to go. It’s hard to resist the temptation of just buying food and eating out all the time and I’m going to try to continue cooking as often as I have. It’s been much cheaper and a lot healthier. I am, however, eager to support my friends’ local businesses again. I hope they’ve all been able to survive the lockdown and the economic uncertainty ahead. Despite these hardships, there are new businesses thriving and I have every intention of supporting the local shops in my hometown more than the chains and big corporations I used to frequent.
I am elated to see all of my friends again and to do the things I used to do, but it is bitter sweet. I was actually enjoying the lock down quite a bit. It’s going to be hard not to pick up the bad habits I had before this pandemic, but I’ll do my best. How do you feel about lock down ending soon?