(no subject)
don't think just post
Every couple of weeks, the Polish government announces another tweak to the current list of pandemic restrictions. For the most part, things have been tightening and tightening over the last couple of months while numbers surged. But yesterday, the announcements went in the other direction.
Numbers have been going down again, so as a "reward" (my phrase, not theirs), things are going to start opening up again over the next month. First up, hotels (which have been closed to all but medical and business travelers), followed by shopping malls and museums, followed by outdoor restaurant seating, followed much later by indoor restaurant seating.
I think I am most excited about the outdoor seating, frankly. There's a lot of places who have already started putting out their outdoor tables and chairs, though whether that was in blatant disregard of the rules or some other reason, I don't know. Frankly, people have found ways around that anyway, because the restaurants were allowed to remain open for take-away, so you'd get your food and find a park bench and eat right there. Certainly I've done that a couple of times - and what's it matter, if no one is sitting next to me, and I dispose of my trash properly afterwards? I'm not sure I see much of a distinction, except for proximity. And there's rules about that, too, in a restaurant setting.
Then again... I won't be fully immunized until the end of May (my second shot is scheduled for 10 May, and that's already the third rescheduling so I'm not holding my breath). Perhaps I'll feel differently on the day, when the possibility of having lunch in a restaurant (or just outside) is actually real and not theoretical. I know there are people who say they cried with relief when they got their first shot. I didn't feel much of anything, except the prick of the needle, and even that wasn't much because the nurse who gave it to me was really, really good at her job.
(While I'm thinking on it, an update on loopholes. There's a restaurant chain that has reportedly gotten around the eating-in ban by "renting" their tables. You go to the restaurant, and they make you sign an actual, legal lease agreement before serving you. You own your table for the night. I am... in awe, frankly. I'm also not going to eat there, because it's one of those chains that says they serve American classics but I've never heard of them before and I suspect the food along the lines of TGI Fridays, which is to say, fine, but overpriced, oversalted, and overfried.
But loopholes, man.)
As much as I'm looking forward to eating in a restaurant again, though, I can't help but wonder what I'll actually do when it happens. Am I going to do a mental calculation about where everyone is sitting? Will I keep my mask on until the food shows up? Or will I walk inside and immediately change my mind, and go home and bitterly eat my leftover soup?
I am undoubtedly overthinking this. Some things, I don't stress about. I go to the grocery store once or twice a week. I take the boys to the playground with other kids. I find excuses to meet up with other people, even if it's just to walk through a pretty set of gardens.
I'm still a lot more shut in than others. I know of half a dozen families who have traveled around Poland in the last few months, finding secluded cabins for rent and AirB&Bs, basically trading one set of walls for another, one set of playgrounds for the next. We haven't done that, and watching them post about their journeys is as enraging to me as it is making me horrifically jealous. I'd like to go somewhere. Inside Poland, outside Poland, doesn't matter. Since we found out we were coming here, I'd been looking forward to throwing the kids in a car and just tooling around, looking at awesome stuff, and we'd barely scratched the surface when everything went on lockdown last year.
Part of me is angry about it. In some ways, my experience in Saudi and my experience in Poland has been about the same. In Saudi, my movements were restricted because of security and gender issues - but at least I never had to cover my face! Maybe my anger is irrational - but there it is. I wasn't given the option to feel comfortable about going anywhere in Saudi, because I wasn't given the option to go anywhere. I've got the option here - but hanging over my head is the idea that I could be the next asymptomatic carrier. Or the person sitting next to me could be. I'm not sure there's much difference, in the end.
don't think. just post.
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth. Comment in either location.
Every couple of weeks, the Polish government announces another tweak to the current list of pandemic restrictions. For the most part, things have been tightening and tightening over the last couple of months while numbers surged. But yesterday, the announcements went in the other direction.
Numbers have been going down again, so as a "reward" (my phrase, not theirs), things are going to start opening up again over the next month. First up, hotels (which have been closed to all but medical and business travelers), followed by shopping malls and museums, followed by outdoor restaurant seating, followed much later by indoor restaurant seating.
I think I am most excited about the outdoor seating, frankly. There's a lot of places who have already started putting out their outdoor tables and chairs, though whether that was in blatant disregard of the rules or some other reason, I don't know. Frankly, people have found ways around that anyway, because the restaurants were allowed to remain open for take-away, so you'd get your food and find a park bench and eat right there. Certainly I've done that a couple of times - and what's it matter, if no one is sitting next to me, and I dispose of my trash properly afterwards? I'm not sure I see much of a distinction, except for proximity. And there's rules about that, too, in a restaurant setting.
Then again... I won't be fully immunized until the end of May (my second shot is scheduled for 10 May, and that's already the third rescheduling so I'm not holding my breath). Perhaps I'll feel differently on the day, when the possibility of having lunch in a restaurant (or just outside) is actually real and not theoretical. I know there are people who say they cried with relief when they got their first shot. I didn't feel much of anything, except the prick of the needle, and even that wasn't much because the nurse who gave it to me was really, really good at her job.
(While I'm thinking on it, an update on loopholes. There's a restaurant chain that has reportedly gotten around the eating-in ban by "renting" their tables. You go to the restaurant, and they make you sign an actual, legal lease agreement before serving you. You own your table for the night. I am... in awe, frankly. I'm also not going to eat there, because it's one of those chains that says they serve American classics but I've never heard of them before and I suspect the food along the lines of TGI Fridays, which is to say, fine, but overpriced, oversalted, and overfried.
But loopholes, man.)
As much as I'm looking forward to eating in a restaurant again, though, I can't help but wonder what I'll actually do when it happens. Am I going to do a mental calculation about where everyone is sitting? Will I keep my mask on until the food shows up? Or will I walk inside and immediately change my mind, and go home and bitterly eat my leftover soup?
I am undoubtedly overthinking this. Some things, I don't stress about. I go to the grocery store once or twice a week. I take the boys to the playground with other kids. I find excuses to meet up with other people, even if it's just to walk through a pretty set of gardens.
I'm still a lot more shut in than others. I know of half a dozen families who have traveled around Poland in the last few months, finding secluded cabins for rent and AirB&Bs, basically trading one set of walls for another, one set of playgrounds for the next. We haven't done that, and watching them post about their journeys is as enraging to me as it is making me horrifically jealous. I'd like to go somewhere. Inside Poland, outside Poland, doesn't matter. Since we found out we were coming here, I'd been looking forward to throwing the kids in a car and just tooling around, looking at awesome stuff, and we'd barely scratched the surface when everything went on lockdown last year.
Part of me is angry about it. In some ways, my experience in Saudi and my experience in Poland has been about the same. In Saudi, my movements were restricted because of security and gender issues - but at least I never had to cover my face! Maybe my anger is irrational - but there it is. I wasn't given the option to feel comfortable about going anywhere in Saudi, because I wasn't given the option to go anywhere. I've got the option here - but hanging over my head is the idea that I could be the next asymptomatic carrier. Or the person sitting next to me could be. I'm not sure there's much difference, in the end.
don't think. just post.
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth. Comment in either location.