Musings of a marginally sane feline-appreciating female.

Saw my first unmasked face out in the wild today. OK, technically inside in the wild. And it was not who I expected it to be. I would have bet money it would be a douchy white dudebro, but no, it was a little white haired elderly lady at Starbucks. (Yeahhhhh, Starbucks gave up, too.)

And it was weird. I’m confident she was vaccinated, as our vaccination rates for the over 65 population has been really, really good. And the funny thing was, she had her mask in her hand – so I guess it might have been, “I am going to see how this feels to have it off inside but be totally ready to put it back on.”

And it was super weird for me – I so wanted to ask her, “ISN’T THIS WEIRD FOR YOU? DOESN’T YOUR FACE FEEL VERY NAKED? CAN’T YOU LITERALLY FEEL THE AIR MOLECULES BOUNCING OFF YOUR FACE?! YOU’RE KINDA MATURE, AREN’T YOU AT ALL WORRIED?!?”

But, I did not, and it’s a good thing my mask was on given that was the only thing keeping my jaw from legit hitting the floor, LOL.

As my internet bestie Ashley pointed out – we have gone through a LOT of trauma with all this, and she’s absolutely right. And yet, I keep telling myself, “I’m good. Didn’t lose anyone, didn’t get sick, was able to stay safe at home, only had one semi-public breakdown” – and yet I almost started to cry in the car yesterday when I realized I’d have to deal with crowds again and today wanted to shake a little old lady by the shoulders going, “HOW ARE YOU ABLE TO DO THAT?”! Yep, I am utterly, totally OK.

I knew we were going to drop mask mandates & capacity limits – I realized that part of why it’s bothering me so much is that I thought it would be done in more of a slow and deliberate manner rather than this clusterfuck – and I am really not tolerating clusterfucks out of this administration, and I’m super annoyed at blue Governors who have forgotten how to think and act independently. (Looking at you, Virginia & North Carolina!)

But, in all this mess, at least my beloved beach coffee and bookshop, Duck’s Cottage, has not disappointed me. On Sunday, they announced that for the foreseeable future, they will be maintaining their capacity limits and masks will be required, and it is non-negotiable. And if you don’t like it, go somewhere else. And the customer response was overwhelmingly positive and supportive.

So, it’s not all bad. But it’s gonna be weird for a while.

And…I’m great. Still feel it a bit at the injection site if I raise my left arm above my head, but other than that, really no after-effects it seems. Stayed up late and watched the Padres whomp up on the Cardinals last night and didn’t fall asleep on the couch. (Helped that it was done by a bit past midnight rather than running to 2AM.) My brother’s reaction was almost the same – he had a bit of a headache yesterday afternoon, and that was it.

I am glad they came out and said that the level of feeling like crap after the shots does not actually correspond to your actual immune response to the vaccine. Because, honestly – leading up to this I wasn’t sure which I was more worried about – a big response that had me flat on my ass, or no response at all.

I’m still very tweaked about the state dropping the mask mandates when we don’t even have 38% of the state fully vaccinated, but it is what it is. I can only hope the Governor’s office sees something in the data that I can’t. But I suspect we’re getting thrown under the bus for capitalism, because let’s be honest – 9 times out of 10, that’s driving everything.

They keep crowing about “over 60% of adults have had their first shot” – but over 20% of the population is under 18 – so we’re really only looking at just shy of 45% of *all* Virginians having their first shot – and we need to talk about the *whole* population when it comes to Covid & vaccines, not just adults.

I’m also annoyed at businesses who are dropping mask requirements for vaccinated customers and going on the honor system – but I also get it. These are places that have already been dealing with customers becoming violent over state-required mask mandates – if they don’t even have the state backing them up anymore on that…well, I can understand it. And if folks were getting violent over the masks, they’ll also get violent if they’re asked if they’re vaccinated.

But it’s just such an indictment of American society. We could have all said right from the start, “Of course I will do what I can to protect others. Putting on a mask is easy. I will do my part.” But, while lots of people did – so many didn’t. I will never understand how you can have so little care for others. It’s really destroyed my trust in others, which sucks.

Where I live, compliance with the mask mandates has been exceptionally high. I don’t know how much has been “Yes, of course, why wouldn’t I?” vs “Ugh, fine, whatever, but I won’t do it a second longer than I have to.” Guess we’ll be finding that out soon enough.

It’s going to be interesting to see how many folks around here start dropping masks.

I don’t know what my reaction is going to be when I start seeing the faces of strangers again. I will be hoping against hope that the face goes with a fully vaccinated body.

And as I continue to see folks with masks, I’m going to assume you’re not fully vaccinated yet and actually give a shit about your health and others (thank you!) or you’re fully vaccinated and a bit “ehhhhhh” about things at the moment. And that’s OK! I know even though I’ll be stepping a bit outside my comfort zone once I hit the magic two weeks, I’ll still be all masked up for it for a while.

And as always, if your mask is very cool or pretty – I am totally going to say something about that.

And to every pundit out there saying that vaccinated folks should just chuck all their masks and get over it – STFU and GTFOH. I’m sorry you haven’t been able to take a simple safety protocol and turn it into a lovely fashion accessory like many of us have.

And frankly, I feel fantastic. Had a big lunch yesterday, napped for a couple hours (I only got 2 hours of sleep Thursday night so the nap was probably not vaccine related,) watched some TV, stayed up kinda late, slept well. If I try to lift my left arm all the way over my head, the injection site is achy – but that’s it.

Mentally – I am still just gobsmacked at the decision by the Governor to drop the mask mandates when we don’t even have half the state population fully vaccinated. Our case numbers are looking great, but our average vaccinations per day have fallen off a damn cliff. We peaked towards the end of April and now we’re at half of that.

If he’d said, “When we have X% of the population fully vaccinated, we can drop mask mandates” – that very well could have incentivized some folks to go get the damn shot, but that carrot is gone now.

I’m still not mad that the CDC said, “If you’re vaccinated, you can safely do X” – it’s important to know what you can & can’t do, especially in private settings where you know everyone is vaccinated. But the Governor’s decision on public spaces just changes all my mental math.

I was still going to mask up until we hit better vaccination numbers, but I’d been making all my decisions based on the fact that I wouldn’t be surrounded by a bunch of unmasked, unvaccinated chucklefucks until we at least hit the majority of the population being fully vaccinated.

Now, I have to count on businesses to have an interest in keeping their employees and customers safe until we hit majority vaccination. And we’ve seen how well they do *that* without state intervention. Trader Joes, Walmart, and FML – Costco – are dropping mask requirements for fully vaccinated customers – tell me, are they REALLY going to be checking shot cards at the door? I doubt it.

If you’re thinking, “but you’re fully vaccinated and will be fully protected in 13 days” – yes, that is correct. But there is still the risk of breakthrough infection. And while I realize the risk of an infection is very low, and any infection actually being serious is insanely low – there is then the chance of my passing it on to someone at risk who is not vaccinated yet, or cannot get vaccinated. And we’re looking at a whole lot of unmasked, unvaccinated people being out and about.

My pro-mask stance has not just been for myself, but to *not* do put other people at risk. (Even assholes who *won’t* get vaccinated.)

If we lived in a society where folks actually thought about the greater good and looked out for each other, this would be a non-issue. We could count on folks who aren’t vaccinated to stay masked up until they were vaccinated – and that they would be actively working on getting vaccinated. But if we’ve learned anything in the last 14 months, it’s that we do not live in that society.

36% of the state’s population is fully vaccinated. 55% haven’t gotten a single shot yet. (My county is doing a little better – but still 47% with no first shot.)

So of course, the Governor is dropping mask mandates, effective at midnight tonight and all capacity restrictions are removed starting Memorial Day weekend.

His message was “get a shot or wear a mask” – yeahhhhhh, that will do it. So, now it’s back on businesses to decide if they either keep masks mandatory or try and figure out who is and isn’t vaccinated.

Businesses who already feel like mandatory masks are hurting their business sure as shit aren’t going to start asking to see shot cards. (I find the panic over vaccination passports so overblown – if anyone is actually going to be doing it, it’s going to be highly specific and short lived.)

Nothing wrong with the CDC saying “vaccinated folks can do X” – but we don’t have enough vaccinated people yet to just ditch all the public-wide safety protocols when NO ONE IS ACTUALLY GOING TO CHECK WHO IS VACCINATED.

The smarter option would have been to set a vaccination goal, and tell everyone, “when we get there, mask mandates will be dropped” – THAT could have spurred some more vaccinations – we’d all have something to really work towards.

Now, you *will* see people make the decision to not get vaccinated because the inconvenience of a mask is gone and no one is going to ask them about being vaccinated – so why bother?

I want nothing more than to be utterly wrong, but I hope we’re ready for the June spike, cause it’s coming.

I’m really disappointed in the decision.

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.

I hollered at someone in Starbucks this morning. Jerk didn’t put on his mask until he was already inside – which I was prepared to write off as a moment of absent mindedness. Then took it back off 3 feet from the door on his way out… That’s when the word ASSHOLE may have escaped my mouth.

FFS, we’re so close – just fucking put your mask on BEFORE you go inside and KEEP IT ON.

We haven’t dropped the mask mandate here. When we do, fine, I won’t call you an asshole. Until then, tho…

Also, this jackass bought a black coffee. You could literally make that at home in less time than it takes to make the round trip to Starbucks.