Whenever things seem to be getting better with the pandemic, I’m a little worried that the improvements will lead to another uptick. We’ve slowly been opening up more and more in California (and in LA) and fortunately, the numbers haven’t been getting much worse. I think we are lucky here because so many people are vaccinated or almost fully vaccinated. So as we have more opening up, the risk factor isn’t that much worse.
I know we aren’t out of this just yet, but it continues to improve and seems hopeful. We do have a big change coming up in a week when things are supposed to be opening up 100% and masks are not always going to be required (although individual stores and businesses can still require them) and knowing that is about to happen does make me nervous. But I’m trying to stay in a positive mindset that everyone has been doing what they need to do so we can safely reopen. And I know other states have reopened already, and while they did have an uptick at first things have calmed down as people are vaccinated.
And since things are looking good, I’m finally starting to try to plan for my summer. Last summer was spent isolated for so much of it and I spent so much time in fear of getting sick. And while I’m still cautious and will probably continue to feel that way at least through this year, I am starting to see what is open and what I want to take advantage of and do.
There is the small downside of having fewer friends living in LA now than there was a year ago. So many people that I would have made plans with are no longer local and I either need to find others to hang out with or be ok with doing things alone. And I think I will be doing a mix of that. There is nothing wrong with doing things alone and there are plenty of things that I have done alone for years. But I also want to take advantage of being able to be around others again.
There are some things I want to do that aren’t necessarily time-specific for the summer. I want to go to the beach at least once. I don’t always go to the beach every summer since I need to be careful in the sun, but I also can be careful so hopefully, I won’t get that sunburnt. I also want to look at some easy hikes/walks around LA that either I haven’t done in a while or have never done. I want to do more things outdoors, even though I know that I will likely never be a big hiker. But I want to take advantage of what there is around me because I know I haven’t been doing that. And once I feel safe to go to the movies again, I want to see movies in the theaters. This one might take me a bit longer to be ready to do, but I think I will have a better sense of how I feel about this once masks aren’t required everywhere and we can see how the numbers look.
And there are things that either I want to do with others or don’t like to do alone. I want to be going out for more meals with friends. I have only been to 2 restaurants to eat there since last year. Both times I ate outdoors and it felt pretty safe to be there. I don’t know about eating inside just yet, but again, I have to see how the numbers look as more and more people are out and potentially not wearing masks. I also might want to go to Disneyland. I usually don’t go in the summer since my pass hasn’t been good over the summer, but now that there are no passes, I have to buy a ticket whenever I want to go. I know it will probably be very crowded, so I have to decide if I might want to wait until the fall when things might be a bit less crazy. But I also miss Disneyland so much and really want to have a fun day there with friends.
And one of my favorite summer things to do, going to the Hollywood Bowl, is already on my schedule! The Bowl has announced they were opening for this summer and I took a look at the schedule as soon as it was posted. I found a few shows that I want to go to and discussed summer plans with my parents. And they decided to come to LA for a few days to see me and one of the shows I thought they’d like is the weekend that they are here! I bought tickets the day they went on sale because I wasn’t sure how quickly things would sell out. And I didn’t get exactly the seats I wanted, but I did get us the first row of a section which is my favorite since you have a better view and the barrier to use as a table for whatever snacks we bring with us.
And of course, I’m sure there will be some random friend hangouts that I won’t plan since that’s how things naturally go. It will be nice to be able to be spontaneous again and not have to worry if someone has been around others or what the risks would be to see each other. I don’t know if there will be any BBQs or other things planned since so many of us are being careful and waiting to make sure things don’t take a turn before we plan anything. But the more time that goes on, the better we all have been feeling about it.
Hopefully, I can have a summer that has a lot of fun stuff happening. I don’t plan on going too crazy since I know then I will hit burnout, but I want to make up for lost time from the past year. And I can’t wait to see what adventures I get to have this summer and what traditions I get to have again and what new things I might want to turn into traditions.
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