Monthly Archives: September 2024

Pandemic Masks

Memories, Musings, Obsessions, Things, ,

Is it too early to talk about the masks we wore to protect us and others from Covid-19? I’m talking about the earlier days — the fabric masks. The handmade ones, the ones that suddenly appeared on Amazon. The ones that really were not that effective.

To be clear, I was happy that we were not expected to wear masks when out and about at the very beginning. I’d seen people wearing masks in my day and I was happy I didn’t need to do that — it seemed so odd and embarrassing. I just didn’t leave the house — so I didn’t need to worry about getting Covid-19. I was completely devastated for many reasons when it was announced that the general public should begin wearing masks. To begin with, I didn’t know where to find a mask. The good ones were reserved for doctors, nurses, first responders. A FB acquaintance even went so far as to shame anyone who was able to get N19 masks. I don’t recall her exact words, but they were sharp and scathing and she didn’t back down when some people explained that they had N19 masks left from house projects or dealing with forest fire smoke.

Another reason I was terrified to wear a mask was because I didn’t know how to and I felt uncomfortable about doing so. I thought they were ugly and bothersome.

My first concern was eased by someone on our neighborhood email list who offered to make masks for people in exchange for a donation to her favorite charity. I made a donation and stopped by her house one day and picked up my mask on her front porch with the instructions to wash it in hot water in case she was inadvertently passing on Covid germs.

My first mask

My second and third concerns were eased only by experience.

A local women’s group held an outdoor mask sale to benefit their non-profit and I bought one or two masks there. I bought more on Amazon, two through King Arthur Flour, and a few from the company that made KA Flour’s masks. I gave some away for Christmas that year as well. My friend Catherine who’d just moved to Seattle sent us one that had ‘VOTE’ on the front. I gave that to Dean because it was too big for me.

Dean modeling my VOTE mask

My favorite mask was my Kate Bush mask that featured a woman in a red dress standing in various poses with ‘You know it’s me — Cathy’ written on the bottom. Unfortunately that was just for looks because the material was too porous. I wore it over another mask when I was out and about.

My Kate Bush mask
Daughter’s IG story about my mask

Most of the masks were too big for me so I bought beads to string on the ear bands and hooks to wrap the ear bands around my head.

Eventually we were able to easily purchase N19 and KN19 masks and the fabric masks became redundant. I even have unused masks left over.

I’m keeping my fabric masks for the time being. Not that I think I’ll need them, but because, in a way, they make me feel a little safe.

A Ring

Memories, Things,

I don’t know when I bought myself this double-gem ring, but I’m pretty sure I was around 17 and working at Ben Franklin, saving for a trip to England. It is also possible I got it from a vending machine. I’d forgotten about it until I went through a bag of costume jewelry I’d given my daughter who gave it back to me. I’m pretty sure it had both stones in it when I gave it to her.

Of course it is not real. The ring part is sterling silver. So maybe it didn’t come from a vending machine. The ‘gemstones’ are made out of glass or possibly plastic and painted with stripes of blue, pink, and green. Perhaps the glass is colored that way — who knows. I do know, though, that I liked wearing it. I especially remember finding my hand attractive when I was wearing a dress shirt with button sleeves and when I lifted my hand to button my sleeve and my fist was slightly closed. I didn’t find any part of me attractive, so that was an unusual feeling.

I’ve been going through photos but cannot find any in which I am wearing the ring. Oh well. I have the image in my head.

I think I will save it just for the glass stone. It does not take up much space.

Experiment

Social Media

I am trying an experiment. I’m staying off all social media for the foreseeable future. The reasons are many — the upcoming election is one. I’ve noticed that I am so much more anxious lately, and I think that’s because I’ve been hanging out on Threads a lot lately and my feed is full of other anxious people which fuels my anxiety. I also mistakenly replied to a negative post about Kamala Harris on my mom’s magat cousin’s page which made me anxious, mostly since my magat brother and magat cousin replied (I didn’t read what they wrote), I just saw the notification. I unfollowed my mom’s cousin and turned off notifications of replies on that post. (I unfollowed my brother and cousin long ago).

Another reason is that I spend far too much time on Threads. It was always the first thing I looked at when I unlocked my phone, including in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep. I’d scroll and read for hours.

I’ve always known that social media is bad for me but I didn’t realize just how bad it was until lately. I felt like I had friends out there because sometimes they would respond to me or like something I wrote.

They are not my friends.

I now wonder how long it will take me to stop mentally writing a social media post in my head after an insignificant thought. Or how long before I stop thinking of insignificant questions to ask my followers on Threads or Facebook.

My plan is to one-by-one delete my social media accounts, starting with ones I never use (Bluesky, Mastodon, Twitter). Then ones I use like Threads and Instagram. I’ll keep Facebook because of the few people with whom that is about the only way I interact with them, but I will severely prune my friends list.