And I got a whopping 2 hours of sleep last night, so I’m very happy I am not trying to go back to work after my appointment.

And everyone is mad at the CDC… May I gently suggest your anger is not really at the CDC, but at the same assholes that have ruined everything for us the last 14 months?

I get it. It feels like it’s too much, too fast. And holy shit, parents are PISSED. (But – and I say this with zero snark – were the kids not masking up before now? I thought they were? They seem to be around here.)

But, the CDC has an obligation to let vaccinated folks know what they can do safely. They can only go so long begging people to get vaccinated while saying folks have to maintain the status quo – if anything, there comes a point where you’re going to have part of the population who may have been on the fence decide “why bother if nothing changes?”

And the assholes who will lie about being vaccinated – they were always going to do that. Always.

And I’ll admit, I’m cringing a bit about the fact that mask mandates are probably going to start being dropped left & right. Hopefully those decisions will be made with vaccination rates and case counts in mind – and provisions made to reinstate them if needed.

But, no one is saying I can’t keep masking up if it makes me comfortable. Plus, at least we’re not going to see folks in this administration mocking people who aren’t quite ready to put the masks away.

My hair appointment in two weeks? (Two weeks!!!!) I’ll certainly still be all masked up, regardless of the salon/state/county policy. Outdoors will be easier to adjust to than anything indoors. I’ll keep watching the vaccination stats and case counts for the county as part of my decision making process.

I’ll admit, I do like living in an area that has had amazing mask compliance and I suspect we’ll have a lot of vaccinated folks around here that continue to mask up for any number of reasons.

It’s going to be a *big* adjustment – over a year of making sure you’re masked up is a habit you aren’t going to be able to just drop on a dime. Take your time. Be gentle with yourself and keep those masks part of your “phone/keys/wallet” routine as long as you need to.

As for me, I just ordered another box of disposable masks, because I’ve been using them for double masking and I’m down to one left – and I’m going to need the throwaway ones for my hair appointment. Not getting hair color splashed on my pretty ones.