Christmas in the Time of Covid 1

 

I'm not going anywhere.

That's the first thing to know about Christmas in COVID times.

We were going up to the Atlanta area to see my son Doug and my daughter-in-law Paige, but we are putting it off for now after discussing it with them.  It's disappointing, but it is not worth the risk to them and to us.

I normally go to prison on the last day of the year to observe and audit the prison's commissary. Due to Coronavirus concerns, our firm is not doing that this year.  Prisons have been a hotspot for coronavirus transmission.

My workplace is restricted this week due to employee concerns and outbreaks related to a staff member's family, so only a small group covers assignments that have to be covered - I am not in that group and will be home this week.

We continue to go to Church and look forward to Christmas Eve mass.  Our church has been extraordinary in deploying safety measures, and it is much safer going there than in any place in the area (except maybe the public library). 

We go to the grocery store when we have to.  The mask-wearing there is mixed, but we do our best to maintain our distance.  We eat restaurant food only about once a week, and when we do, we bring it home.

Christmas will be just us and Alsion's mother, Rose, with whom we are the only people she is in contact with.

I have not been in plays for quite a while, the last being Murder on the Orient Express well over a year ago.  I don't normally have that long of a break, and it does make me antsy.  There have been at least three plays I wanted to do but passed on due to COVID concerns.

Last night, I had a dream where I was in a play again, and I performed well, except that I did not come out for two scenes that I was supposed to be in.  They were filming that night for a documentary, and I became the focus of it, as an aging actor who should not be performing anymore.  Such are my fears of what it may be like once I can be in plays again.  I fear the theatre has moved beyond me and doesn't need me or want me anymore, that my whole theatre career was nothing more than a forgotten illusion.

In the same dream, I was also going back to college, one that was a couple hours away, and that midterms were going on the same week as the play.  I kept missing classes and realized that I had never studied for the tests and had no idea what was on them.

So, in my dreams, my acting career is a sham, my academic abilities gone.  All the pillars that made me me were disintegrating. 

Fortunately, I woke up before I lost anything else.

I look forward to the virus being under control.  I pray the vaccines work, that new strains (such as the one emerging in Britain) can be contained and vaccines remain effective against it, that people use precautions until the vaccines take hold.  

As a shy person who took months and years to build up the confidence to be around people, I will not rebound back as easily as some. Please be patient with me.

Christmas time is almost here!