I basically had a complete meltdown at Kevin and Jed a few nights ago because I wanted to have two vaccinated girlfriends over to our basement for crafting, and I didn’t want us to have to wear masks for it, and the boys were both resistant, even though our entire household is now fully vaccinated (Anand turned 12 in September, so this just happened, hence the need to reassess risk protocols).
I’m totally fine masking to go into campus and teach, though it does require a little more effort to project well, and it can be hard on students with auditory issues, although some of those students really love Zoom because they can have auto-captioning on, and I give them the option of Zooming in if they prefer. But that’s all on the professional front, and is about best practices, etc.
It turns out that I am personally REALLY TIRED of masking with close friends. I MISS THEIR GORGEOUS FACES. I know this is pure emotion on my part, and I’m not going to claim it’s based in anything logical in terms of risk assessment.
I’m just hitting my limits, I think, similar to that point in May 2020 where I got so stir-crazy that I had to go to a garden store and walk around so I wouldn’t scream at my family.
Right now, I need to feel like I have the option to take the mask off in some situations where I know everyone is vaccinated. Or else I will just cry and cry.
(I’m going to wait until after Jed leaves (he’s visiting for a few more weeks), to simplify things, and Kevin gave in when he realized how important this was to me, rational or not. Which is perhaps why we’ve made it 30 years…)