We have been like this for over a month. It's scary to think about, but I feel like I'm getting used to it, I feel like I'm accepting when I don't have the usual greeting to go back to. Gone is the old habit.
A warm hug with a friend you haven't seen in a long time may be gone forever. The spinning cheers will no longer work; unhygienic as well as perhaps the metaphorical misfortune and collision-shoulder. It’s hard to call arm and shoulder because, you know, social and physical distancing even at the metaphorical level. Or maybe even a high-five or a handshake will be too late. Flying kisses will be popular across ages. Fortunately, my suitor answered me and we were still holding hands when we were still safe and still slaves to the thrill; fortunately he married me (without remorse?) and had two children before it happened. However, this is not a guarantee not to worry.
I should be especially worried because I am the strongest body in our house, so I have the name of the quarantine pass that I use every time I go to the town. This is despite the fact that there are two maintenance medicines that I take every day due to neglected health when I was young. Except for the medicine for my recurring allergy. I had never repented before. Why is it always late?
Like many of us today, my family does not leave the house. Except for Easter, when my husband was hospitalized and operated on outside of our town. It used to be difficult to be hospitalized, but now it is more difficult, the plague is spreading to anyone, anywhere, especially in hospitals. Add to that the many must-pass checkpoints, including an explanation of why we had to get out of town and be confined. I made a hospital clearance - there was a fee! -just to be picked up by a caring neighbor (shoutout to the Baldovino family! Thank you!) When the obstetrician-gynecologist cleared us so my husband and I could go home. I just want to clarify, nothing to do with COVID-19 has been my husband illness. However, we treated ourselves as potential carriers of the disease, so after the hospitalization, we quarantined our children at home so that we would not infect our children with any viruses and germs. There was a quarantine area within a quarantine area. But I had to go out because I had the quarantine pass issued by captain. I was overwhelmed with anxiety while in the hospital and watching over the sick housewife. Wondering if there was enough food we left at home for my two young children and the senior citizen father -in -law, for how many days. What if one of them didn’t feel well? How is that treated? Do we still have to pay if we are hospitalized? In those moments, I asked God to just bring me back to normal. I went back to normal life.
But, I still ask myself while in the hospital, what is my habit and normal life going back to? Establishments are closed due to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in the town where the hospital is located. I buy food and other hygiene necessities at a hero convenience store, about a kilometer away from the hospital. I think I just want to go back to the normal day. Yes, we even had an ECQ at home. That’s what I accept going back to normal. No longer the pre-COVID-19 that is common. In the more than a month since I was convicted of not going to work first, what I consider to be the norm is that every action is scheduled every time I go out to shop in town. This is what I'm used to. So coming home from the hospital on Easter, it seems easier to shop, than to line up in the market. The strategy that in the early days of the ECQ, was like a forcible punishment imposed. I have lived alone for a long time. Even with a family. I almost only own my cargo. So when it comes to ECQ, shopping is not new to me. What’s just new to me is the minute difference of women’s products I should buy for my family. Yes, every visit to town is accompanied by new knowledge, such as the variety of with wings, non-wing, long, maxi, dry, thin, ultra thin, cottony, and overnight that I thought was just the same because , isn't it, just the same brand? With detergents and chemical rinses, I should be familiar with the smell and brand and flavor. In lard, there is coco and palm. I also became convinced that many advertisements that said they could eradicate grease from the plate in a few drops were false. Such.
So, ironically, I am less affected by the viral social media posts of men who are sentimental or men who were once confident but are now disturbed by the suspicion of buying a product that passes the critical taste of their partner. True, happy anecdotes are brought to us by the obligation to leave the house despite the ECQ, especially by those who are accustomed to the care of the true emperor of every household. The obvious middle-class privilege of being able to choose what to eat, be delicate or demand the brand they are accustomed to is sometimes fun. Because it is also true that many of our compatriots did not have this privilege back then. Especially now.
Another privilege I now have is to be part of a small-town community effort to make it easier to trade any product.
But although most are food, you may find some non-food products. My first sin was the other day, looking for shoes because I left my walking and light workout shoes. My message: “Looking for training/running shoes. Size 9.5 or 43 (European size). Even second hand as long as it is not torn and there are no radical repairs. Any decent brand will do. Thanks. I just need a walker and a light cardio workout. ”
Less than an hour later, someone PM me, offering at a cheap price his cross-trainer of a famous shoe brand that was not used because it was small in size. Mutually beneficial to be the money given to his shoes that I can use in the twice-a-week 3-kilometer walkathon to and from town when shopping or buying medicine. The transaction was completed the next day at the meet-up that took place. Even my wife who is recovering is now having fun ordering food on the online forum, which apart from the apparent shopping mall, is also an avenue for socializing and gossiping sometimes in the town.
Talk about closed-community ties and inciting robust local economy, not surprisingly in the days to come, as long as there is no clear light on where this ECQ caused by the virus is headed, and-hopefully not! - Expenses have been exhausted due to unemployment, the online store will also become a job placement site. I also know many in different countries today rely on small-scale and fast trade over social media.
Honestly, when I get into that situation, I can work in the bakery again like I did when I was in elementary school. Or, I'm ready to be interviewed again for a new job. Ma’am/Sir, I’m not picky, I’m ready to rehearse and learn. Because I don’t have to get used to the usual anxiety, I’m especially what my family expects.
