Friday night. If I were less honest, I would’ve said how much I miss going out on a night like this – but, to be fair, most of my evenings before the pandemic were just like this: finish up work, play some video games, stream some TV shows, maybe read. The main difference now is that I’m saving a whole lot of time and money on my commute, and that I’m not going to the gym after I leave work. (I miss the gym…) And to be fair, after this whole mess ends, my routine will likely stay exactly the same, give or take a few minor differences. People always default to their baseline, eh?

I’m still celebrating the invitation to apply for permanent residence. That plan has been in the making over four years. Even in February 2016, I knew that a country that would even consider Donald Trump was a country that had something very wrong with it… I never could’ve foreseen his victory on technicality, or the mess he’d make, or the once-in-a-century pandemic. (I hope there won’t be another one like it anytime soon, but my hope could be wrong.) I tried transferring first to the United Kingdom, then to Poland, then to Canada, then to Australia, and then to Canada again. It took five tries and three years, but I made it out. And now, 14 months after I got here, I finally have the permanent residence within my grasp. It’s an indescribably amazing feeling, having your long-term stratagem play out just as expected.

…and meanwhile, in the US, approximately 1,000 Americans die of covid each day, but you wouldn’t know it if you watched most media. It’s almost as if people are fooled into thinking that all is well now, that it’s safe to come out, that the virus is behind us, just like a particularly persistent news story that just wouldn’t go away but finally left us at last. Part of it is just human nature: people are likely tired of waiting and self-isolating. Restaurants are open again, and the weather is great, and why the hell not, eh?

My own resolve wears thin sometimes: I would love to have some of those scrumptious Tim Hortons egg&bacon sandwiches, or go to my favourite Egyptian restaurant that’s just a few minutes away. And yet… That’d be a phenomenally bad idea, even if Ontario has just had fewer than 200 new cases for the first time in quite a while. Oh well. I guess I’ll just have to get better at making beans and/or eggs.

Enjoy the first night of your weekend, fellow pandemic peeps.