I’ve seen all those tutorials online, everyone looks super creative and stylish with their fancy face coverings, but won’t those hair ties hurt your ears??
So I went to Shaw’s this afternoon — we needed a few items (or I needed a few items for lunches this week). I went at 5 p.m. figuring most folks would be home already preparing dinner. They weren’t.
I made this trip with a plan — debit card already out of my wallet and slipped into an outside pocket in my purse. I also read online that a Q-tip is helpful to push the buttons on the credit card machine, so I put one in the pocket with my debit card. I always bring a disposable plastic bag — there is no way I am touching a shopping cart or basket right about now.
This time I grabbed one of my scarfs from the coat closet — I wrapped it around my neck with a piece of it over my nose and mouth and the long ends in front of my chest so I could pull on the “straps” to make it tighter. It looked ridiculous, but it was the closest thing I had to a face mask without getting out some scissors and hair ties. Maybe that will be a project for another day.
I get everything I’m looking for in under 10 minutes — no cart, I just carry everything in my hands. I only touch things I am going to buy. The one hold up was a man in a wheelchair hanging out in front of the cucumbers checking his shopping list. I walked away to give him room and swooped in for my two cucumbers (only touched two!) as soon as he was a safe distance away from me.
Now I wait in line — the store has clearly marked on the floor where to stand so there are two cart lengths between shoppers. Most pay attention, but some just don’t. Like the women who ends up standing behind me — she’s wearing an actual mask so I know she got the memo, but she is creeping up way too close behind me.
I get to the register and the stupid Q-tip doesn’t work so I have to use my finger, which was the whole point of having the Q-tip!! Thank goodness for handsanitizer.
The whole trip might have taken me 20 minutes, but still it was exhausting. I was so busy watching other folks the whole time, trying to stay out of their way. Does everyone do that? Or is if just me?
I got home and must have washed my hands 4 times. And I washed the cucumbers, but not the other packaged stuff I bought. Then I saw another tutorial online about how to clean your groceries when you get back from the store. And now I am freaked out because I only washed the cucumbers.
At least I got something for lunch tomorrow!
Notes from a Self Quarantine 