Dancing into the Apocalypse. Kind of.

Highflyer and I often get a little nostalgic and think back about our idyllic"Lockdown Bubble" that made us realise our union is made for the bad times as well and I have talked about finding it quite hard to "re-integrate" into society when life got back to normal. Initially, I struggled to take the subway or visit crowded places without wearing a face mask and found it borderline crazy to do so. Well, times have changed and I have not only attended and "survived" our office Christmas party with approximately 4.5 k people (allegedly 7% of staff were on sick leave the week afterwards), but deliberately went to a crowded club last Saturday were people were dancing and shouting at the top of their lungs...at a time when Covid (and other seasonal) infections are at an all-time high. I can't pinpoint what exactly caused me to take this fatalistic stance but a friend whom I met last week and who used to be very cautious summed it up pretty well when she said "I used to wear a mask everywhere and still got infected (like me, first time round) so I thought there's not much point".  We still have our little stash of antigen tests at home and don't want to put other people at risk, least of all my parents, but as for avoiding people and not going anywhere without a mask where you don't have to...nope. Part of me is fascinated at how (fast) not only myself, but people in general have changed and how short-lived memory is. Which is probably a good thing, for mental health and overall wellbeing?