I am oddly nostalgic for the early days of the pandemic

I get it, being somewhat claustrophobic I was glad to finally have an excuse to avoid crowded places I never could stand anyway

OP, me too. As an introvert, I kind of loved lockdown. And it was really nice to have the roads and highways around here relatively empty.

Same

and then there was the cruising, scandalous rendezvous with the threat of impending guards watching your every move and hunting you down unless you were a senator, a celebrity or protesting. My erections stood straight up for justice and not even covid could defeat justice. . . I miss the solidarity we once had, finding other freedom fighters, lurking in the alleyways and woods, abandon warehouses and park restrooms free of children and the homless, in those dark and isolating times.

I loved it. We were in lockdown and I flowered like never before.

and just so many other places without children... and the few places there were, they were gloved and masked, bound and gagged... no wild ones running through aisles, screaming, tantrum throwing ones were quickly ushered outside.

It was strangely comforting. My stress level was dangerously high at the beginning of the pandemic. The isolation I can only compare to a heavy snowfall. It is quiet, calm, insulating.

[quote]The isolation I can only compare to a heavy snowfall. It is quiet, calm, insulating.

Captures my feelings perfectly r7

And the sky was so blue

I'm also an introvert and loved it and as mentioned above the absent traffic and crowds was wonderful.

I remember when we first went on lockdown here in Mayberry RFD. It was so dead and barren with no one coming outside their homes those first few days. I gazed out my window for sure I'd see a few bales of tumble weed rolling down the hill. Fuck this! I need a pack of smokes and a tall boy of Miller Light! I drove to the drive thru hoping they'd be open - they were. On the way there and back home the theme from Mission Impossible played in my mind as I thought I'd be pulled over and arrested at any minute! (there were people calling the police to ask for permission to leave tneir homes!)

It was great. I could travel where I wanted, and prices were cheap.

r9

How come the skies are always so blue even on a dark and stormy night? 🤔

I wish the world could’ve stayed that way permanently.

R15- Mine has.

I also found lockdown surprisingly relaxing. Already worked from home, so that wasn't an adjustment. When things opened up a bit I took a holiday and loved how quiet it was.

Same. I also thought that maybe we had an opportunity for real social change, and I am furious and despondent that humanity went absolutely crazy falling over themselves (and literally killing themselves by allowing the virus to run rampant) to get back to our dystopian hellscape "normal."

It revealed how very little a large portion of this society cares for their fellow man.

I am too. I told a therapist (during a video appointment, which I loved) that isolating wasn't at all difficult for me and I felt that for once the rest of the world was experiencing what I had. She said many of her clients had expressed the same thought.

Yeah, and you didn’t have to deal with useless manager types who need to micromanage everyone and everything in order to feel useful.

I don't miss the somewhat desperate hunt for high quality toilet paper, sanitizing products and bottled water, but it was peaceful in a good way. Even though some people lost their minds hoarding and over-buying those things for their own selfish reasons, most people seemed to take the pandemic seriously and acted appropriately. THEN it got political and ugliness ensued.

We are so very over populated now that I do not find any enjoyment in going shopping or most things that I once enjoyed. Long lines, rude, loud people. Everything is much more stressful and frustrating. Ungodly traffic. Armed gun nuts and rampant mental illness and homelessness. All armed. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted from me , it was such a relief to not have to deal with it all. Medical visits by phone. Heaven. Who tf would want to go back to all of that stress?

I FINALLY stopped flying FOREVER

God I hated flying before Covid. Every time I've ever gotten sick in my adult life was right after a long flight. Hours stuck in a tube breathing the same air with people from all over the world and now you couldn't get me on a plane with a free ticket. If I can't drive there, I ain't going 😠

R24- Good for you. Flying is the Walmart of the skies now. Jerry Springer Airlines.

r18 I was hoping more people would consider home schooling their children or seeking alternatives to the public schools but instead, they couldn't wait to get them back and start a new wave of lawsuits and protests... that just suggests we should abandon public education entirely because no parent will ever be satisfied... and inevitably whatever drama they bring soon sounds the war drums on forcing these views upon the rest of the world.

The same could be said for most on-site jobs, too.

Though it was entertaining watching people adjust to the shutdowns... and that brief but massive surge towards all things DIY and where inane hobbyists and niche lifestyles rose to sainthood for once common homesteading skills.

Only on DL could someone long for a lock down that destroyed the world economy

I vividly remember taking a week off work near the start, & on my first day off I watched Midsommar, which was so trippy & made a huge impression.

I went back to work & a couple days later the lockdown went into effect & I had to go back home. I was the lead of a unit of 5, & remember I wanted to sacrifice myself by staying at work & holding down the fort. A coworker had the same idea & we both kept deferring to the other: no, I’ll stay, you go home. No, I was just off, you should go home. Later that day my supe called & said all of us had to go. I was scared at first, being very tech-phobic, but got everything sorted in the end.

I worked from home for 6 months & then retired. My unit is still remote. A few days before I left, I had to go in & train a new employee who was replacing someone else who’d left several months before. I kinda resented having to go in & train him, was hoping he’d pick up on things quickly, but it took about a week. It was during the horrible CA fires of 2020, when the skies turned orange like we were on Mars. But it was kinda par for the course, Life did feel like we were on Mars!

I followed the news very closely & remember feeling schadenfreude about the whole debacle, but felt guilty about how thrilling it kinda was at first, when it was very limited in scope. A friend was making jokes about it, & I remember feeling, uhh, don’t laugh, this is going to spread like wildfire (and she ended up getting it about a year later).

I remember feeling hopeful for the environment, that the traffic and most flights would stop for a bit and maybe the global temperature would go down , even if slightly. Sigh. Of course I should have realized that nothing will come between corporate greed and their profits.

Sure R24, because of course the economy is the most important thing, always and forever.

How dare we stop to consider prioritizing people's quality of life, mental health, physical health, the environment, or even contemplate for a moment changing the destructive capitalist wreck of our whole society. Sheer Evil!!

R30- Spot on.

R30 The lockdowns destroyed quality of life and suicides rose enormously (fuck your mental health argument)

While the society needs to be looked at the lockdowns helped no one but fucking jeffy bezos.

You are what's wrong with the world R32.

Early 2020 lockdown was pretty much me using copious amounts of pot; playing music and wasting time with my friends on discord. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Compared to my sober 2022; which totally has sucked ass. Can’t wait for this horrible year to be over with. My 25th year is not one I will look back on with great pleasure— my first true annus horribilis.

Anti social thread

Miss it often. I miss being “stuck” safe at home with zero frivolous obligations. No company or visitors. No social or work obligations.

I compare it to when I shattered my ankle years ago and had to recover for 2 months after surgery. It was the opposite of terrible. I got to stay in bed or on the couch all day except for physical therapy. No errands, no stressful work. And I didn’t gain any weight and was walking normally again within a few months.

It was a bit scary, the city (Berlin) felt post-apocalypse at times. Strange seeing famous boulevards almost devoid of people.

But here comes the best part: I took my chances with a little break to Paris in early 2020, with the pandemic still very much raging. Went to Versailles: There I was, in the fabled Hall of Mirrors — EMPTY!

The entire palace, the gardens, Le Petit Trianon, Le Hameau.. just me and a handful of local pensioners.

Unforgettable.

(forgot to add the pic: this is what it was like)

R38- Stunningly beautiful.

R39 I can't take credit for the picture, you'll find it on the Versailles website — but this is exactly what it was like, and it was eerie, mesmerising.. Beautiful.

And not an Asian tour group in sight.

When it first started I still needed to go to the office 2x a week in the morning. It was the tail end of winter and I get off the bus and walk 5 blocks to work. I am dead serious when I say that I was the only moving creature for several months. No cars, no pets, no people. It was eerie but also incredibly beautiful as an experience. I would put on my headphones with Disturbed's live cover of The Sound of Silence and it was surreal.

I am not nostalgic for people obsessing about antisepticizing everything. My apartment building smeared every possible surface with the most foul-smelling substance, not once but twice. And the sanitizer nonsense. And half of you queens providing hourly Lysol reports. I laughed at the idea of spraying groceries and delivery pizza with Lysol in particular.

And some things were taken away I can never get back. Not "thing" things, but experiences: a class in Italian I was taking; travel; eating out.

How anyone could feel nostalgic about this time is impossible to comprehend.

Different folks, different strokes, R42.

And just to offer some contra: Not all was fantastic. Friends who were terrified to meet even for a walk outside, worrying about your old and frail relatives, hoping for a vaccine, reading the daily death counts and watching how the virus spread to every single country..

It was a very strange time, I'm sure nobody is longing back to the anxious part. But to go outside and hear nowt.. beautiful.

Me too.

R34 is 26? Wtf how is anyone here younger than me (30)?

Nowadays it always scares me coming across a 20-something or highschooler posting here, even though I myself came here at age 21 (back in the halycon days of 2015) and never left...

Go out and be free, Youngins! Live your lives away from this pit of vipers! Don't do what I did!

One of us! One of us!

I enjoyed the lockdown. Surprisingly, I loved working from home too. I now go into the office a few days per week, and it really bugs me.

The main lockdown felt a little bizarre, but my stress levels honestly reduced. I’ve got many friends and family members who I love, but in many ways it was nice not to have to attend social events like weddings/birthdays. I enjoyed it more than I could possibly admit to my loved ones. Many of them worried about me because I live alone, which I find perplexing: do people really think itks not possible to be happy in relative solitude?

My family worried a lot about me, and it made me realise that although I love them and they love me, they do not really understand who I am and what makes me tick.

r32 suicides were low at the beginning of the pandemic, which aligns with Thomas Joiner's interpersonal theory of suicide: he posits that suicides go down dramatically in the wake of a national crisis, because there is a strong feeling of social cohesion. Suicides also decreased by a wide margin in the weeks following 9/11.

Mental illness thread

Am struggling to let go of some of my pandemic coping habits tbh.

Like my fixations, e.g. on the football (soccer). I don't even deeply care about it, it's trivial inconsequential rubbish and an excuse for the rich to clean their money, I know that. But because my brain latched onto it as a form of distraction from major anxiety, I now use it as a crutch to make me feel safe. Most nights now, I find I have to listen to commentary and punditry and sports news just to help me go to sleep or unwind. Bear in mind I have never kicked a ball in my life, don't support a major team, and spent my teen years rolling my eyes at fans of the sport (or any sport). I feel like my brain's been rewired.

[quote]Mental illness thread

Being an introvert is not a mental illness.

I think that while there were nostalgic moments, the hot vaxx, roaring 20's vibe that was promised or heavily implied never really happened. We are in or heading towards a recession and things just don't feel all that amazing since the world has opened up. Covid is still alive and well. I just had it for the first time last week and it sucked. Only now all the practices I thought would change about going into work sick have gone by the wayside. There is still an implication to come into work, work sucks, and people feel like raging assholes. Hopefully 2023 will be the year. The latter half of 2022 has been the shittiest for me since the beginning of the pandemic - everything feels very challenging right now.

I liked it because it was an excuse to not work as much, the environment improved, and everyone was out walking. I also did a lot of organizing.

Is anyone else having problems sticking to reasonable wake and sleep times? Anxiety, depression and having to isolate fucked up my already fucky patterns, and now I’m finding it a struggle to get up and out of bed before noon (I wfh) or fall asleep before 2/3am despite efforts. I’m taking all the advice about getting light, drinking water, bathing, meditating at the right times etc, but it’s not taking.

Yes, R54!

I can't really explain it, but it simply doesn't feel "natural" or "logical" any longer to force myself out of bed at 7:00, even though I know that would help me make most of the day.

Under a flight path to three airports (DCA, BWI, IAD), I loved the quiet skies at night. Blissful!

I'll bet all the negative comments here are all from extroverts. Perhaps extroverts and "people people" should all just move somewhere together, where they can gab and party and know each other's kids names and rely on "word of mouth" for everything. Let the rest of us enjoy our privacy and solitude

[quote]suicides go down dramatically in the wake of a national crisis, because there is a strong feeling of social cohesion.

R48, maybe, but I think it’s more because people have something else to pay attention to - something immediate, interesting and scary that diverts their minds from their own problems.

I loved the lockdowns. Hopefully some other virus will emerge to cause more in the near future.

Am still living like it's relaxed lockdowns. The dread of one day having to go back to an actual job outside my house is crippling.

I miss no traffic.

I hate dealing with the busier subways and places in general. It was so nice without all the traffic and congestion. It made life... enjoyable.

People say humans are social beings. But after COVID, I am not so sure.

I agree, OP. it was like an enforced vacation where you didn't have to feel guilty. The whole world seemed peaceful from my windows. Like one long weekend with no Monday deadlines. I remember how well I slept and I stopped setting an alarm and just slept as long as me body needed.

I say that not having been sick or had loved ones sick and dying. And not having to work a front-line job. For some it must have been a hell.

Everyone on my street got out and walked and met my dog. No one seemed miserable.

What I hate now is the fact that every single public even has ungodly crowds. I went to a local stables flea/farmers market wich I attended several times in the past,and there had to have been 50,000 people.Traffic was horrific,and when I saw the huge feilds packed with cars and a line of cars waiting to get in I was all "Nope!". I find everything that way now and I just loathe it.

I find this thread odd. I haven't seen it before today (noting that OP started it 10/24). And I'm surprised that it has so many WWs (38 at the time of this reply).

I'm not at all nostalgic for the early days. What I recall was thinking that the pandemic would engender somewhat of a reset in our politics, with the needs of the many finally getting the attention it — we — deserved, but that was quickly and obviously proven incorrect. People just seemed to immediately go into hyper-tribal mode and we split into two factions: those who have empathy and those who are selfish, but it wasn't even the normal selfishness characteristic that we've developed in the last 30 years. It was a selfishness based on what I've come to understand as angry white Christian men demanding that they and they alone command respect, dignity and worth; plainly stated, they will not be told what to do under any circumstances.

And so they wouldn't wear a mask even when it was shown to protect the people around them, presumably people that they would want to keep safe. They won't get vaccinated and instead spew ridiculous conspiracy theories that aren't just provably wrong but anyone with two brain cells to rub together can see are just plain bonkers. And worse, when their cheeto Jesus lost the election, they tried to overthrow the will of the people and keep him in office (with the lingering question that I have neither seen given voice nor answer: to what end? For another term? For life? Or, was it supposed to be dynastic and we would never see another POTUS not a direct descendant of Shitler?).

Angry white Christian men won the pandemic, which explains why we are still dealing with it nearly 3 years later. We learned nothing.

I'm a teacher, and I really enjoyed teaching online in that time. I had a lot of fun creating lessons and activities for my students stuck at home. It was a few hours of day and then I was free to do what I wanted.

29 year old introvert here, I enjoyed it as well. For me it felt like life was moving really fast before the pandemic, and I felt a great sense of peace as time 'stood still', in a way. Like I had more time to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and future, because I had always felt a bit behind but now the entire world had to pause and put things on hold for a little bit. Everyone seemed to be cooking more of their own meals, discovering new hobbies or TV shows, there was a sense of camaraderie and potential change on the horizon. I made edibles for my sharehouse every week, we sang around the piano, and we all approached the situation with a lot of humour.

Unfortunately It didn't reset our politics or society the way I thought it would, and now I'm finding it a bit hard to adjust to getting back to the outside world. Needy friends who would call me constantly for stimulation during the pandemic haven't stopped this bad habit. My entire work team has changed in the last 2 years, the new people are not as fun, and now we're being forced to go in to the office and interact with each other and the culture is just not the same, no matter how much the company try and force it. Rich people have become even more greedy and corrupt since the early days of COVID (if that was possible), and two days ago I tested positive for it for the first time, so I'm feeling a little sorry for myself.

I wouldn't wish anything like this on the world again of course, but I do wish we could all collectively pause and take stock like we did from time to time.

OP has aids brain, cuntbrain, and long covid. What a stupid bitch.

Don’t worry OP, I’m sure a worse virus will arrive. Hopefully it kills even more Republicans who want their freedumbs.

It made me realize how much of a joke my job was. I ended up quitting it after 11 years.

Most DLers are nostalgic for the 70s…

The 30s^.

R72 Uphill both ways, no stilettos!

I can’t agree more. As an extreme introvert I found the lifting of any and all social obligations a massive relief. I basked in the silence, the lack of vehicle and airplane noise; the ability to work from home peacefully and without interruption and without the constant struggle of trying to block out background noise.

I lost weight, I got fit and healthy, looked ten years younger. Felt more vital and energetic than ever before. No commuting meant I could engineer my day around my natural body clock so I got up really early and went to bed really early.

Those months were the happiest and most productive of my life - I excelled at work and even won a couple of awards.. But now everything Is back to normal and I freely admit that I am not coping too well.

This week I attended a noisy and crowded work event with over 100 people in a small space. This would have been awful at the best of times but I found it almost unbearable and had to keep taking time out in the loo. When it ended I was shaking. So humiliating.

Yes, I know, Mary! But the world is designed and rewards extroverts. We others just have to fit in at great personal cost.

I already have a family Christmas party this weekend. I miss having an excuse not to go to these things. In 2020 all my holiday parties were canceled and I loved it.

I miss riding my bike in DC without any traffic whatsoever. It was erring but fantastic as a cyclist.

'eerie'

And the animals started coming into the city...

It was humbling. I felt chastised by nature. It was a good feeling to get to know our place.

The work at home shutdown in San Francisco happened very suddenly and I didn't really expect it to happen. Fortunately my employer already had the IT system in place for people to work at home since most of the partners and upper management people were doing it already. Still, I remember a lot of anxiety at the time that my job might be eliminated. I handled the isolation OK but I got out of the habit of going anywhere unless it's absolutely necessary. Evan now, just going out to a movie seems like more trouble than it's worth. Also, the City drastically reduced the bus lines for a while so it was hard to get anywhere. Things still aren't really back to normal.

You can have it. Things were going well for me before we went into lockdown and all of those opportunities died.