Omarion

 

You are not invincible.

It broke my heart letting my mother know that this time is a bad time. I told her this knowing there may never be the time ever again. I also know that I can do whatever I want when I can. But my mom can't. I can get on a train right now and be in Paris in two hours. I can literally decide to have a cocktail on the Seine in an afternoon. I can also do this a year from now or longer. The Seine will be there and so will the Aperol. And I want to believe my mother will be with me when I finally have that drink. And I will not allow myself to feel bad about not taking the opportunity now. Because we are not invincible and neither are you. I envy everyone who is where they want to be right now. But I also pity you. Because you are taking a risk with not only your life but the lives of others and for what? A selfie drinking an Aperol spritz by the Seine? 

I am joking about Omarion stomping his way onto the scene. But this variant is taking us out. Pretty much everyone and everything I know is disabled by it. And I am baffled at how fast it took ahold yet how slow people are reacting to that. I have a friend in Africa. I know a girl in Mexico. Another friend is in Vegas. My in-laws are skiing in Austria. And then I also know entire families, man, woman and child who are shooted and boosted --- all zooted by the Omnicron virus. There is also another strain out there as well as a fun, hybrid of this years seasonal flu and the rona named Flurona. Ladies and Gentlemen, it will only get worse from here. I am not interested in dining al fresco, next months concert or whatever movie will come out in the spring. It is game over. It is only time before all the flights get grounded and all these things we have relied upon for two years now stop working (if they ever really did). Stores are closing because there aren't enough staff to run them. Fast food operations are closing early because shifts cannot be worked with sick people. People on their dream vacations are being made to stay in quarantine on their own dimes. My fucking Christmas cards just arrived and it is Three Kings. The reality is the world is already being crippled more than at the height of the Pandora. What makes you think I am inviting my mother to go to fucking Paris. 

The cold doesn't help. The metal tube in the sky is an incubator. Her getting a cat sitter puts her at risk. Cats get fucking Covid too! I am irritated because people keep taking these risks and it is affecting me and effecting the world in a very, big, bad way. She asked me what if we did it anyways and one of us tested positive. I had to explain that we would be responsible for taking that risk. Financially responsible for the expense going to waste and or having to quarantine wherever we are. Mentally responsible for being apart of the problem or worse something happening to either one of us. That we would have to prepare for all of the above which wouldn't make things fun or memorable. I had to tell her that her idea of lockdown and quarantine is not how it works everywhere else. I had to tell her that her flights being re-navigated aren't controllable or preventable. I had to explain that at the height of the pandemic my husband bought me flight tickets not once but three times. I had to see her face accepting the weight and disappointment of how real this all is. She is like a child. But even children know what is happening at this point. She has just been in a bubble. But it is those not in that bubble who pretend to be invincible in a new normal that is nothing of the sort. Our normal is no more friends. 

2022 - Q1 is about staying the fuck at home. Maybe we try again next quarter.