I went to the 4 p.m. service at our local church this afternoon. I’ve been trying to go every weekend since they were allowed to re-open in June. It’s brought a little bit on normalcy back to my weekends. You remember weekends, right? Those two days in between the work week where you could stay at home and not leave the house if you didn’t want to? Yeah, I don’t remember them either.
Tonight’s mass was the most crowded I’ve seen it since they reopened. The church has every other pew roped off for social distancing and typically I sit at the end of one pew and there’s another person sitting at the opposite end. Every so often someone will be sitting in the middle, but there’s usually plenty of room to spread out and feel safe. And you have to keep your mask on the whole time you are in the church. Most people do, some decide that their nose is an exception. The pastor must have seen someone making that mistake from the altar, because he made an reminder during the middle of mass.
Well, I was a little late for today’s mass, as usual I got there right at 4 p.m., but they had already started. As I was walking down the aisle searching for a seat, I realized that all the rows towards the back of the church were full. I had to ask an older gentleman sitting at the end of the pew if I could squeeze in. He got out to let me in, but them I noticed that there was already someone in the middle, and someone at the other end. The four of us all had enough space to keep 6 feet between us, but this was the most crowded I have ever seen it. And I did think if there was ever a situation that I would get COVID-19, this was it. It took a few minutes, but my anxiety levels did go down. I used a little bit more hand sanitizer and I felt better.
At the end of the mass, when we were waiting to file out of our pews to head up the side aisles to receive communion before exiting the church (this is new COVID-19 protocol), the gentleman that let me scoot in starting inching toward me. He wanted to chat about how crowded it was and if I had watched the video recordings of mass. And I felt myself trying to inch way from him, but then I would be closer to the woman on the other side of me and I’m sure she wasn’t looking forward to that!
Now I always love to chat with strangers, but this pandemic has made me wary of that close contact when you chat with other people. And that makes me sad. Now I wasn’t going to rip my mask off and talk to this guy, but I also didn’t need to back away from him. He was just being friendly. I got over it and committed to having the conversation with him. And yes, if I do end up getting COVID-19, I’ll be able to pinpoint the exact date for the contract tracing, thank goodness!
Notes from a Self Quarantine 