THANKFUL FRIDAY

I had a rib out. I visited my chiropractor this week for a routine maintenance and she discovered my bottom rib was not where it was supposed to be. I told her that my left wrist hurt when ever I was in plank and my right ankle hurt every time I pressed into child’s pose. I don’t know what part of my body surprised her the most, the misaligned rib or the sound my ankle made when she put it back into place. I left my chiropractor feeling different. I hadn’t even noticed the whole rib thing so there’s no telling how long that’s been wonky, but I did notice the difference it made to have it back in place. I like things in order. I am at ease when things are in order. Tiddy, straight orderly lines are soothing. This is my weighted blanket and why I love roaming the isles of the Container Store. When my surroundings become too clutter and messy, I get real testy. Turns out the same is true when my body is out of place.

This week has been a full and busy week, but not in bad way. Mask mandates have been lifted at work for all who are fully vaccinated and all of us scientists tentatively took off our masks. Then we all grinned at each other because many of us had not seen each other’s faces outside of a Zoom meeting in well over a year. There has been an obvious lifting of the strain we have all been carrying on our shoulders since all of this started. Some of us, including me, have been face to face with all of the COVID data on a daily basis for over a year. Every day, I watched the numbers of deaths steadily increasing while at the same time I watched a portion of the general public ignore all guidelines. It did not take long to see the correlation between the two and the feeling of hopelessness to settle in. As scientists, we walked around with the weight of all of that data. As we suspected, vaccinations are turning all of this around and we can relax a little. I will still be wearing a mask at the grocery store and in crowded areas. If I am not feeling well, I will be wearing a mask in public. This should have been our general norm even before COVID.

I have received some real good hugs in the last few days. I’m talking about the kind of hugs that make you sigh with relief, the kind of hug that melts the tension in your body. Seeing the smiling faces of my coworkers and dear friends, being able to hug those dear friends, all of this makes me feel more hopeful than I have in a long time.

HALF WAY THERE

When Steph and I were maybe sophomores in HS, we signed up for all these different science camps for the summer. Steph got into the one focused on the environment and I got into a biology camp (yes, I am fully aware of the picture I just painted of my HS self for you). Both of those camps required an up-to-date tetanus shot. Steph’s grandpa usually picked us up from school every day and then he would take us to Sonic, or we’d stop to see Steph’s mom at the tag office. This day, Steph’s dad, Mike, picked us up and we went to the tag office. When we got there, Steph’s mom Jenny said “Mike, do you still want to take Steph to Claremore?” It was raining and sometimes there’s an issue with the roads between Collinsville and Claremore when it rains. Me, being all pestery and curious started bugging Steph about why she had to go to Claremore. Steph replied “I have to go…” then she paused and I could see her face light up with an idea. Then she said “I’m going to get a tetanus shot and Cindy needs one too! Mom, you should call Pat and see if Cindy can go too!” I laughed and said “My mom is not going to let this happen.”

And then my mom totally let it happen.

Wednesday, I called a random number my friend Jeff sent me for a vaccination place thinking I would make an appointment for later in the week. The woman on the other end of the line said “Can you get here right now?” and before I knew it I was getting my first dose of the COVID vaccine. Just like all those years ago with Steph, I started my day with no idea that I would at some point be poked with a needle. Just like all those years ago, it all happened so fast that I still haven’t really mentally processed it all. It took ten minutes to drive to the clinic. I spent another ten minutes in line and another five minutes filling out paperwork. Then it took a second to get the shot, after which I was herded to a recovery room to wait for fifteen minutes. I was so flustered that when I left the recovery room, I crashed into a National Guardsman. He was very very apologetic and all I could say was “Oh my goodness, you’re so so tall!” Then I was home, blinking and thinking “WHAT JUST HAPPENED!” I had a bandaid on my right arm and vaccination card in my left hand with instructions for coming back to get the second dose.

The pain in my arm today is not as great as the hope I feel in my heart. While I don’t believe we will ever go back to the normal we had over a year ago, I do believe that this new normal is going to be a happier one.