Exhausting. That’s how it felt to travel during the ongoing pandemic. Oh sure, there was the altitude. There was blinding light without hat or sunglasses. One evening, there was waiting (and waiting) for friends from Denver to arrive in Boulder. But mostly we were stressed by how much time we spent around loads of PEOPLE.
I wonder how other introverts are finding society these days? Remember: Introverts are people who find being around other people draining. Ever since hearing that definition some years back, I’ve viewed my generalized reluctance to socialize through a more forgiving lens.
How has a sustained period of COVID isolation impacted the innate tendency to renew the self through long periods of being alone?
Luckily, we got out and about: hiking behind NCAR, hiking in two parks in Longmont, a day in Nederland, followed by time on Boulder Creek. And it was so, so nice to spend time with our younger son.
The yard surrounding our Airbnb was cluttered. There was no view. The place couldn’t, therefore, provide the renewing rest that a place situated in beauty can.
Nevertheless, and here’s where the contrast between appearances and experience gets highlighted, it was one of the friendliest, best provisioned, and most comfortable Airbnb’s we’ve ever stayed in. Peet’s coffee! Shampoo! Couches comfortable to sit on! Circulating air and an ice maker! These are not little things, trust me.
The trip ended with the longest line for security that I have ever seen. It took TWENTY MINUTES of walking to reach its end (and that was with three large serpentine sections). I could not believe it. No one could. K, who was TSA pre-check, after a long interval texted me, “Have you been arrested?” Ha ha.
Isn’t it nice to arrive home after being away? Picking up a wildly happy Finn was simply the best!
PS. Sorry to have dropped the ball on so many comments to last two posts. I went back this morning to maybe pick up the threads but it just seemed so long ago. Please forgive!
We are simply not socializing. But planning to travel at year’s end.
Who knows what it’ll be like then.
No traveling beyond the essential and sadly. no socializing either. It was hard to cancel and say no to getting together next month with two of my dear out of state blog friends:
The first get together was planned a long time ago, when New Mexico was open, case counts were down, vaccinations were up, my dear friend and her husband were coming here for lunch, had the menu all planned etc. The 2nd dear blog friend has a trip planned with her girl friends to Santa Fe next month but I had to say no to a meet and greet. October seems to be a good month for travel to New Mexico, BUT with the pandemic rising all over and here in New Mexico as well, daily case counts in the hundreds, hospitalizations rising, deaths in the double digits every day, I am simply not wiling to take any chances given my husband’s health conditions.
Saying no to these visits from my dear blog friends was especially hard and sad but I hold onto the hope that one day, we can meet and greet and hug and break bread together;just not yet…
you are wise … there is no undoing a mis-step in these Covid days …
So sorry the long-anticipated meetings (with Liz and Tina) are not to be, for now. A couple of years back, Deb Lacativa was invited to be the keynote speaker at a writer’s conference up in Salem and lucky for me, she stayed here. We attended together. It is so nice to meet someone in the flesh who you’ve only known online!
I’ll admit I am the friend visiting Santa Fe next week. And yes am disappointed ☹️ and sad that Marti and I will not be able to meet in person but I feel so closely connected already that it is OK. I have Aunt Uncle and cousins that I have not contacted because I don’t feel secure enough not to pass this virus on to them. Being vaccinated is just not enough. The numbers were going down and things were finally looking up when I planned this trip but I can’t honestly say I’m anywhere near as excited as I would be if things were different. But Santa Fe has been a place I have always wanted to visit and so I am excited just to walk around taking in the sights and sounds with some long loved soulmates.
I’m so glad you had time with your boy and friends and time in Nature and Away. As an introvert, I would be happy at home forever. Sadly, I was Thrust into the work force again as my EDD was running out. I wear two masks in a room of 1-2 year olds (no masks there!) and a nice, unvaccinated co-teacher. I sweat like a pig all day (room is so stuffy) and have had many meltdowns in the last 2.5 weeks of this. But, as the saying goes, it keeps the lights on…or the rent paid or whatever. I haven’t had time to do anything I want to, working at least 8.25+ hours a day. But, in my car (mask off! Yay!), on my lunch break, I have managed to finger crochet a few long strands of the very fine green yarn. I plan to weave it into a CMB at some point. It is very soothing to do.
These have been hard times for everyone for one reason or another. Glad you’re home safe and sound (where did that phrase come from anyway?)
xo
Good grief, can’t the preschool get some fans going? The thought of you going through 8 plus hours in a stuffy room with unvaccinated children and coworker is making me crazy!
Yeah, me too! (((hugs)))
you are very brave (((Dee))) I don’t want to fly in these strange daze!
Fingers crossed. No harm.
the beauty that is Colorado and time with your youngest … how could you not?
I confess that we are Marti’s other Santa Fe travelers … and I so admire her restraint in staying sheltered … but even though I am radically introverted, we are taking the risk of flying again (having first done so in July when we traveled to Folly Beach) … we are counting on vaxing and masking to be enough, but hoping we can get a Pfizer booster beforehand to increase the odds in our favor
I have a trip to LA planned for October and am planning to go. The alternative just isn’t great. To not see my brother? But as I am a few months shy of being 65 will have to wait on the booster. Damn it! The good news is that I got the first shots in March and April, unlike some folks who were getting them much earlier.