Friends of mine are back at work / school after their bout with COVID. One co-worker called in sick for the rest of week because of COVID. In a videocall I see others with a still heavy cold, at least they look and sound like it. I hear about how much staff calls in sick at work in parts of our health system; possibly not all with COVID, but other respiratory infections. Not everyone bothers taking a test these days.
I on the other hand am taking a test whenever I just sneeze more often than usual. I know, I know that might be the other extreme. I might never quite loose that part of my anxious mind, that’s sometimes worrying too much or too early. But I really neither want to be plagued with COVID again right now. Or ever to be honest. Nor do I want to spread it unknowingly. Over the past few years I got used to wearing a mask in crowded situations so I don’t mind doing that again this winter. I took the rather crowded train to Düsseldorf on Saturday and was under the impression that I was the only one wearing a mask. I’m glad I’m not bothered anymore if I stand out by doing that.
I plan to wear a mask in the small club in Copenhagen, where I plan to see my favourite artist play some songs on Sunday. I was about to write “it’s been too long since I’ve seen him”, but that’s not really true, as it has been only 2.5 months. BUT it’s only my 2nd Frank Turner gig this year and that’s just not enough. I know I’m blessed to be fangirling over an artist who loves to tour as much as he can and I sometimes have to remind myself that in general I’m quite lucky in that regard. But I still like to be in a crowd to sing my favourite songs with likeminded people more than twice a year, damn it! And that’s why I’m going on the longest road trip ever or at least yet.
On former trips like these I did share lots of stuff on social media (mostly Instagram Stories), but I most probably won’t do that again this time. Or ever again? I don’t know. Yesterday I started a rather rigid “trying to cut down on my social media time” routine and sharing as much as I used to would be 100% counterproductive? This also means that I will stop with the “Positivity” Instagram stories for now (or ever?). Three days after I started with them. Oh well. Needs must and all. Spending less time on social media hopefully frees up time for writing. Blog posts possibly, but in November also the NaNoWriMo project I’m still planning to do. Right now I think my story will be very much influenced by personal stuff. Therapeutic writing? Maybe.
On Saturday I had thought about going for a run in the morning, but that would have made afternoon plans a bit stressful. So I went to Düsseldorf, met a fellow blogger, I’ve known online for over a decade for coffee and cake. And then walked around for a bit longer, took photos and all that. All in all 13.00o steps, almost 10 km, as good as a run, right? I did do the run on Sunday afternoon even though it took me a while to really get motivated. I decided to try out the route of the most local parkrun and to see how long it would take me to do it. It went fine so far and just now I at least registered at parkrun. I most probably might be the last one to cross the finish line and I’m not sure my mind is ready for that yet. I know it’s stupid to think or to worry about that and I hopefully will get over that fear soon and take part in an official parkrun. Exciting, isn’t it?
