I have a very strong photic sneeze reflex which triggers every time I step out of a building during the day.
These sneezes are rather pleasant, unlike when you’re sick or affected by an allergen. On overcast days, I habitually cant my head upwards when I walk out of a building so make sure I get the requisite sunlight blast to get my sneezes.
Except that now I’m wearing a mask when I leave most buildings, and I don’t take it off until I’m in the car. I very much do not want to sneeze two or three times into my mask, so I have to actively avert my eyes from the light and hold back the reflex.
I’m in that postpartum phase where my self - image is in the toilet. I could really use a new haircut, contact lenses and a new wardrobe. None of these things can be justified based on our current situation.
My office at work is right next to the bathroom and I was in the habit of washing my hands frequently. I would always run my wet hands over my face, which was very refreshing.
Now that I have to wear a mask outside my office, I cant do that any more and I miss it.
Yup. It sucks for us too because it’s a first everything for Spice Kit. He’s never met most of his relatives and may not until he’s 18 months or older. Most of them refuse to stop engaging in high - risk behavior.
But I agree, it’s not really a stupid little thing. This virus has damaged our cultural traditions and sense of belonging. And for us, we’ve never celebrated these holidays outside of family - never put up a tree or decorations, or done anything special on our own. Now we have to figure out how to make it special for just the three of us.
The thing we’re missing, especially my kids, is our twice-yearly camping trips. We’d go with about 10 other families and get a few group sites. Spend the weekend swimming, playing games, and chatting. The kids would all bunk down in each other’s tents. We had our Memorial Day weekend and fall camping trips canceled this year - it just doesn’t seem possible to do in a way that wouldn’t totally suck the fun out of it (and the campgrounds were closed here in May anyway). This is my oldest’s senior year and he feels like he’s missing the last of all his special childhood things.
For a little trivial thing, I was just thinking today that I never come home to an empty house, now that the kids are doing virtual school and there aren’t any extracurriculars. I haven’t had to unlock the door for 7 months. That’s pretty nice in a lot of ways, but I sort of miss coming in and chilling for a little before everybody got home.
I love dogs. My building does not allow them. It used to be that I could get my fix by visiting friends with dogs. I cannot do that due to Covid. I also greatly enjoyed when somebody walking their dog would allow me to pet it. It was one of life’s simple and great joys. I cannot do that anymore either.
My college has in-person classes (low enough cases in this county in Minnesota), but I have simultaneous Zoom meetings, in case a student can’t come to campus or wishes not to, as well as for preparation for the inevitable stay-at-home order. Students are masked at all times, while we can unmask during lectures.
I have a student who usually attends face-to-face, wearing a mask, but last week she attended via Zoom without her mask on. I was surprised - I didn’t really recognize her! I had another student pull his mask down to take a drink of soda, and by golly he has a beard - I never would have guessed! So I agree that not seeing faces is is something I miss.
Yeah, like Czarcasm said - Smiles and facial expressions. No little smile to let the other person in line know they can go ahead of you. No little smile to let the cashier know you can put your stuff on the supermarket line. No little smile to let someone know that no offense was intended by cutting them off accidentally.
I realized that I do a lot of non-verbal communications, and its been tough.
I was supposed to see my favorite band on my birthday. They have now announced that they are on indefinite hiatus and there are no scheduled concerts. Not quite breaking up, but definitely going in that direction.
I’m almost missing the company canteen. I definitely miss the coffee corner with real cappucinos and daily desserts and talking about nothing with coworkers. I can get good espresso drinks at home, but I’m not making a new dessert every day. And most of my coworkers I have not seen in person since March.
Agreed. For many years now I’ve been visiting my parents (for the past few years, just my dad) every three months or so. I haven’t seen my dad since February, and probably won’t until next summer. His assisted-living facility has already had a COVID outbreak that killed eleven other residents; he came through unscathed (except for extreme social isolation due to the prevention measures), but the next outbreak there could very well kill him. I hope I get to see him again. This isn’t a stupid little thing at all, for me or you or Lurkmeister.
In the stupid little things category:
Everything is delivered now. We don’t go into retail establishments anymore, and I kind of miss the mental stimulation. Hardware store, grocery store, Home Depot, that sort of thing. Just walking past the aisles of goods and browsing the colors/words/shapes/ideas, all the sounds and smells, people-watching, and so on.
Been working at home since March. My coworkers and I have video meetings as necessary to get our work done, but they’re all scheduled. The spontaneous little conversations and bull sessions that seem to pop up when you are all in the same physical space together is gone, and I kind of miss that.
We’ve been getting take-out food from a couple of local restaurants, but that’s it. I haven’t dined inside a restaurant since March. There are several establishments whose food I miss, but what they offer wouldn’t work well as takeout. I miss a good cheeseburger, particularly from a couple of local places. Yeah, that could go takeout, but it would be soggy and gross by the time I got home with it.
Nurseries. I really miss going to a nursery, enjoying the plants and talking to other shoppers about their gardens. Even better was going to the big nursery in Cottonwood and spending an hour with one of their experts showing me around.
I had enrolled for several community college extension courses. Poof, gone.
That’s been a big one for me as well. It was really hard for me to wear that mask the first few times, I didn’t realize how much I communicate non-verbally until I was blocked from going it.
They took the library away from us in February. Now it’s October edging up onto November and the library still pretty much unavailable. They were using it as a fucking daycare for several months–still are for all I know.
Oh, sure, they have “curbside service” --which is confusing bureaucratic and necessitates waiting overnight or longer to receive materials that are in the stacks currently, and prevents one from just browsing and looking for interesting things.This is not accessible for some people and all around unsatisfactory.
I think they’re not planning to give it back at all. We may well never be allowed to properly go to the library again, ever.