Things in our neighborhood opened up a few weeks ago, and we’ve remained cautious. However, this week, we took a few calculated risks, which may have been a bad idea.

We ate out in a restaurant for the first time in months. It was unplanned, as we had to return an item to American Furniture Warehouse and we were hungry. Initially, we had ordered food from an Indian restaurant to take-home, but when they were backlogged, we canceled the order, and dined-in at a Waffle House.

I can’t believe that Waffle House, especially for dinner, was our first post-lockdown/dine-in meal. It’s disappointing that we went this direction. That said, the restaurant was empty. For a majority of our meal, we were the only customers, and then a solo customer sat on the other side of the restaurant. Masks all around and the restaurant was spaced out, so that even if it had been at capacity, we would have been far from other customers. It felt safe…or at least as safe as they could make it for dine-in. I felt good about supporting the staff and they seemed grateful to have us.

I finally got my hair done. I made the appointment weeks ago, after careful consideration that the situation, with covid regulations in place, would be low-risk. This was my first cut/color in Colorado and I was thrilled to find a mobile salon that comes to our neighborhood.

Cuts on Location offers a full salon in an airstream trailer. It’s very cool. I had been going to my Los Angeles stylist, Vanessa, for fifteen years, so it was a difficult transition to find someone new. Luckily, Crissy was amazing. I love my new cut and color; definitely much over due and appreciated.

As with the Waffle House, precautions were taken and it felt low risk.

I felt normal and healthy during my appointment, but shortly after returning home, I came down with a high fever (101.9) and chills. I was nauseous and had an upset stomach. I basically went to bed at 2pm and slept for six hours.

We are fortunate to have neighbors who are doctors and they gave advice on OTC fever medication, so I took Aleve and the fever broke around eight-thirty pm. It’s now the following afternoon, and my fever has not come back. I’m very tired and still feel “off.”

I’ve just returned from UC Health in Colorado Springs, where I was swabbed for Covid- 19. Getting the test was surprisingly easy. We made the appointment last night, and there were only a few cars ahead of us at the drive-up testing site. It took about twenty minutes total, and I should have the results within twenty-four hours.

The swab was uncomfortable. It was a sensation that is hard to describe. The swab goes pretty deep up the nose and scrapes against something squidgy. They had to swab both nostrils, each taking about 10-15 seconds. My eyes were teary and it was unpleasant, but not so much that you shouldn’t get it done, if you need it.

The hardest part of this situation was emailing my new hair stylist. She couldn’t have been nicer about it, but it was hard to tell her that she (and the other clients/other stylist) may have been exposed. Whether I have Covid or another type of virus, it really hit home these things happen. You can feel healthy in the morning, and be sick by the afternoon. You don’t know that you’re sick. It makes me feel more nervous about things opening up, even with precautions.

In other news, we had our garage floors coated this week, and Dan was finally able to organize his workshop. He was so excited. It looks awesome. I love how the bikes are mounted.

We watched Michael Winterbottom’s new film, Greed, starring Steve Coogan and Isla Fisher. Although it didn't get very high ratings, I thought it was thought-provoking and timely. Also, truly unexpected with its characters and plot twists. Coogan plays an egocentric fashion mogul, who doesn’t care or realize the impact that his influence has on others.

Lately, I’ve been reading many articles on fast-fashion, companies like H&M and Zara, Greed calls them out, especially with a slew of shocking facts about the fashion industry that are shown during the credits. Greed is book-ended with the same quote from E.M Forster’s novel, Howard’s End. Howard’s End is one of my favorite books ( the film version is a favorite too,) and the quote deals with the idea that everyone makes choices that impacts the lives of others.

Last weekend, I wrote several new pages for my novel, and I had a zoom meeting with my writer’s group. I’m feeling really good about making progress towards life long goals this year. Despite all that is happening, great things are going on in 2020.

I’ll end with two cute picture of Tom. Dan took the one of Tom on the stairs, and the second one, I took when Tom climbed into my office cupboard.