Prologue
- Thrilled
- Like a ping pong ball lost in a racquetball room made of tiny ice cube trays
- Powerful
- Like a cart on a rollercoaster right before the drop
1. Out Into THIS World
I knew because last time I ran up three flights of stairs wearing a sweatshirt and was greeted by a nurse who, after taking my temperature, promptly gave me 'a look' and then asked me to wait in a separate room for five minutes before returning to re-take my temperature. My temperature was a decimal point above the norm because I had just devoured three flights of stairs after spending weeks in quarantine doing zero stairs up or down. And I was wearing a sweatshirt. SO. I sat in the room trying to lower my body temperature while simultaneously trying not to have a heart attack out of fear. Then the nurse returned and we both leaped for joy as I came back with a normal temp. THANK GOD.
So, this time, I was ready. I gave my self extra time for travel, took the stairs slowly, didn't wear a sweatshirt, and waited two minutes outside of the office to 'cool down' just in case before coming in. Then the nurse took my temp and gave me 'the look' again and just before I spilled my verbal guts of excuses on the floor she said, "no, no, it's not you, I think I didn't get the angle right." She stuck the thermometer back in my ear and heaved a sigh of relief. 98.5! Yippee! We jumped for joy again.
The new thing for this trip was that I had to sign a consent form stating that they as a place of business could in no way guarantee I would not be exposed to COVID in their location, despite their greatest efforts, so I could not sue them for exposure. I was happy to sign because (1) I was already in the office and (2) I could see they were doing their best to prevent exposure. They had forcibly scheduled appointments with more time a part so less people would be waiting in the lobby at a time. Additionally, as you can see in the photo, they blocked off chunks of chairs with pieces of papers screaming "SOCIAL DISTANCING! PLEASE DON'T SIT HERE! THANK YOU!" The best muggle howlers I've ever seen.
An Hour later, I headed to my favorite vegan fast food restaurant, HipCity Veg. I was completely out of groceries and had already spent 30min in the waiting room of my allergist's office apologizing for my stomach's pleas for sustenance. So, since I was already out, I ordered food from HipCityVeg for pickup. They were not allowing anyone to come inside to have their order taken. You could only come in, one at a time, to pick up your order when it was ready. They only took orders online through their website or through Caviar delivery.
In rehearsal, Paul would often still be wearing his mask after we had stopped rehearsing a scene and it would be difficult to see his current emotional state behind the mask. SPOILER ALERT! I had also just watched him 'rip someone's face off' in-scene, so I begged him to remove the mask whenever we weren't rehearsing. He'd say, "What? I'm smizing!" (Smizing being his word for smiling). So there I was, standing outside HipCityVeg saying, "Don't worry friends, I'm smizing!"
OR
Some sick joke Glassdoor just played on the world
2. Less Is More
But I am happy to report that I sold everything I needed to sell and I am about 70% packed. And the other 30% is what I call 'pre-packed' (just needs to be shoved into a bag and then tossed in the car but is already sorted and organized). Go team! Or me. I guess its really just me. So . . . go ME!