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Endemic Pandemic
December 30, 2023
It feels like lots of my internet friends have gotten COVID this month, with pictures of positive tests showing up on Facebook again and again, and one of my small group of in person friends was also sick with it a few weeks ago. When I got COVID for the second time this past summer (my first round was in June of 2022, I didn’t share that news online. I felt ashamed somehow, thinking that if I’d just stayed home more and masked and used Enovid more when I did go out, I could have avoided it. I don’t know where I caught it either time, so what exactly I should have avoided is unclear. I didn’t do anything I haven’t done other times and not gotten sick (and I test for reassurance more than I think most folks do, so I don’t have to play the “allergies, lack of sleep, or COVID” game, so feel like I would have noticed if I’d gotten it more than the two times I know of … the second infection was one of those tests I did thinking it was probably allergies, so mild were my symptoms). I also didn’t want to invite comments on what I wasn’t doing right for a person with COVID—though I didn’t get any of that the first time, when I didn’t get Paxlovid and didn’t do deep resting either. I’ve been fortunate and have avoided long COVID so far (though I do wonder sometimes if the damage is done and just not manifesting yet).
I’m not sure why I’m confessing now; I suppose it felt wrong to me to end the year without mentioning something that felt significant. Yes, it could have been way worse, but it seems like an important marker of these times we’re living in.
On this date in 2022: Home is Where the Laundry Is
2021: Back on the Slopes
2020: Going Grey Eventually
2019: Spoiler-Free Star Wars Thoughts
2018: When All Else Fails, Scenery
2017: December Progress Report
2016: Facing the Forecast
2015: Icy
2014: Temptation at the Thrift Shop
2013: Little Karen
2012: Sock Monkey Tries Five Guys
2011: Sock Monkeys Redecorate
2010: Sock Monkey Goes Grocery Shopping
2009: Gadgetry
2008: Twilight, The Movie
2007: Fitter
2006: Chilly Afternoon Out
2005: Triplets
2004: Vacation Paddling
2003: Pikachu Loves Me, At Least for Now
2002: Lost Weekend
