Rona ……. you scary!

So …. This weekend I did a thing. I packed a bag …. I got in a car and I traveled to the other side of my state. A good 340 miles, a little over 5 hours (give or take traffic/my brother’s lead foot etc.) and a crapton of anxiety about this decision. See my nephew is a JR. in High School. He’s run cross country in the past but over the last spring/summer he got really into it. Like almost annoyingly into it. It was all he talked about, all he thought about, all he did. Not that I’m complaining, the truth is if he’s going to be obsessed with something it might as well be this. So one day last spring he says to me, “One of my goals is to make it to State” I said I’m sure you will, you are definitely putting in the work. He said, “If I go to State will you come?” I was sitting in my chair, working from home cause of this damn virus, and he was at our house during the week cause he was out of school (doing virtual school) and helping my dad with a project. However it only took a moment for me to say, “Of Course! You make it to State and I’ll be there!” 

The way I see it he and I won’t have a lot of these moments left and well if it weren’t for this damn virus I’d have definitely been there. Little did I know that as a Country we’d suck at Pandemics. That we’d have a leader in the White House that convinced everyone it was fine when it was most definitely was not. That not only would we still be in the throws of it but in some parts of the world Round 2 would be getting underway. Nah oh that Spring afternoon looking into his excited face I just wanted to watch him run. Damn if he didn't call my bluff and make the State Championship, which resulted in one of the best but most stressful trips of my life.

According to the interwebs, which are totes never wrong there were over 2,000 kids at this meet. So say each of those kids has 2 parents with them and then throw in a few siblings, some grandparents, aunts and uncles, not to mention volunteers, vendors, concession stand workers so conservatively I’m guestimating there was at least 6-8,000 people at this meet. Give or take cause I suck at math. I saw masks and social distancing but also tons of hugs, lots of people using port a pottys, high fives (some as they left the port a potty), and well the recipe for putting my state back on the national map everywhere I looked. I was standing in the middle of a super spreader waiting to happen. When I think about the number of schools participating from all over the state and how this thing has the possibility of getting way out of hand I gives me heart palpitations.  

I’ve done everything I was supposed to do. I wore a mask. I used hand sanitizer. I social distanced. Every time someone got too close I faked needing to look for something and walked away from the conversation around me, not that anyone noticed. Yet here I sit feeling like a ticking timebomb about to go off cause frankly I just don’t fucking know. My nephew made a similar statement when I meet up with him at the course (I could tell his anxiety had already ramped up just like mine was). I looked at him and said “We are here now, nothing we can do about it so enjoy it. Run your little heart out and have fun. Make this trip worth every second of it!” However inside I wanted to grab him by his hoodie high tail it back to the car, get a hotel room for the night and take a hand sanitizer bath for about 4 hours. He did look at me and say “well we know one thing, if we don’t get it today, it’s just not in the cards for us to get it at all.” Which both made me laugh and scared me that he felt that way. Every day is a new battle so just cause we missed the shrapnel from today (God willing) that doesn’t mean we won’t be hit tomorrow.

Here’s what has me totally freaking out ….. the inevitable contract tracing to come. I traveled with my brother and sister in law. We checked into the hotel and went straight to our room. We ate dinner Friday night. After going to three other restaurants and not wanting to wait the 45-50 minutes on their tables ended up at a Mexican place near the hotel. So you have that waiter, plus the lady who took payment for said delicious dinner, and the ladies we spoke with at the other two places before deciding to move on. On the way back to the hotel the Nephew requested a milkshake from Chick-fil-a, so add the kid who took our order and the kid who brought our order to the list. Plus whomever all of these people served the rest of the night/weekend. Also keep in mind I couldn’t begin to tell you where those two restaurants were located cause it was dark and my brother was driving. My nephew visited us once we got there, and he had 2 roommates, not to mention his coaches and other teammates that he ate dinner with that night and traveled on a buss home with. Plus the buss driver, you gotta add him to the mix. Plus notice I'm not including anyone that we walked by on Saturday, talked with etc. cause it was a crapton of people. On the way home Saturday we stopped for a bite at a Wendy's, again only God knows where, and dealt with the window lady. Plus add two rest area stops, one stop at a gas station in which we all got out and stretched our legs. So lady behind us in line for the potty that stood far closer than she should have good luck cause I don’t even know your damn name. Then upon returning home you have my parents to add to the mix. This morning I got up and went to Church where I counted the money as part of the treasury with another lady, cut a check for one of the members, had several conversations with our preacher throughout the day. While waiting on me mom and dad went to Winn Dixie for a few items so whomever they dealt with there counts I guess. All while wearing a mask but still. That’s just me. That’s just my list of where I was and what I did. That doesn’t include who my brother saw today, whom my SIL saw, or my nephew. That’s how this shit gets so damn out of control so damn fast and that’s what has me all freaked out. This is the aspect of this entire virus situation that people don't think about.  Plus all of that is just from say Friday to Sunday ..... what about the week ahead? Do we count them too? it's quite overwhelming to think about. 

Since March I’ve been good. I’ve stayed home from work (working from home), I’ve left the house only when it was absolutely necessary. I've worn masks, I've used the hand sanitizer, ....  I’VE DONE EVERYTHING RIGHT. I had one lapse in judgement and I pray with everything I have that it doesn’t ruin everything. Especially when all I needed to hear that day was "I really am glad you came, I know these kind of things freak you out now." I'd do anything for that kid, even get RONA I just pray he doesn't get it or I don't give it to others during the process. I also pray that should we get it he doesn't blame himself tho he's enough like me that he will. 

Marcy (whose more scared of Big Rona than Rona is of me but that scares me even more)