Compare my lovely, carefree Wednesday morning with Carla to this one, during which my voice grew firmer and louder the later we got, and I repeated myself a hundred different times about a hundred different things, and I got in a really great workout of my sighing muscles, and we left the house at the time we were supposed to be AT school and it was only at that very moment of leaving, when Carla had FINALLY tied her shoes, that I noticed she had a hole in one knee of her leggings. (She went to school with the hole.) At one point, Carla said, “Don’t YELL at me, Mommy!” and I wanted to yell, “THIS IS NOT YELLING. WE HAVEN’T GOTTEN TO YELLING YET THROUGH A MASSIVE ACT OF WILL POWER.” Oh well. You can’t win them all.
The skin of my face has also decided once again to turn on me. You will recall that I made the grave error of experimenting with anti-aging lotions and potions, and, after ONE application of such, my skin hissed at me that I WILL age and if I ever so much as LOOK at a product containing retinol again I will find myself wishing I never even had a face. I returned to the very gentle products I have been using for YEARS without incident, and, eventually, my skin calmed down. But today I awoke with red, raw, itchy cheeks, and the underside of my bottom lip is itchy and so puffy I look as though I’m recovering from a botched lip implant. (Though I can assure you that I will not be experimenting with fillers and Botox, based on the reaction I got from NEUTROGENA PRODUCTS.) I don’t know WHAT the deal is – I have not deviated from my routine, nor have I used any new detergents or pressed my face into any unusual fibers – but man am I glad that I can wear a mask in public to keep my lip from view.
Mask usage is still robust in my area, but every time I venture into a public space, more and more people are bare-facing it. Devil-may-care that I am, I went to BOTH Target and the grocery store today. Inside! I’d say a good thirty percent of the people in Target were bare faced, including some employees. There were fewer people without masks at the grocery store, but SOME, which was shocking after seeing maybe a scant handful of unmasked customers in the past year. I understand, logically, that it is okay to go without a mask now that I am fully vaccinated. Even if a bunch of unvaccinated people are also going maskless (as we all know they probably are). The science is very clear that I should be FINE. That I am unlikely to contract Covid-19, and that I am unlikely to pass it on to my daughter, who is herself unlikely to contract Covid-19 and, if she does manage to do so, is unlikely to suffer from a severe case. I know all this logically. But it’s very hard to counter an entire year-plus of vigilant mask-wearing, an entire year-plus of purposeful separation from other humans, an entire year-plus of focusing solely on keeping my family safe through the power of masks and distance and isolation with simple logic.
I got quite a lot of stress acne during this pandemic and I have been very pleased that it has been about 97% covered by my masks when I actually do venture out into the world. So convenient!
I am still wearing my mask, too, which has been GREAT now that I keep getting ZITS under my bottom lip. I can even put a little zit-treatment patch on it, then put my mask on over it, and NO ONE KNOWS!!
I’m sorry you had a rough morning – it happens.
Your poor face! Try some ibuprofen – my friend, who is nurse, suggested I try then when I had a weird rash – she said it is amazing at reducing swelling of any kind.
I also keep seeing more and more bare faces. I continue to wear my mask (and stay home as much as possible) – particularly after reading an article that they just don’t know HOW protected people with compromised immune system are with the vaccine. Not only that, I feel that it’s better to be safe than sorry.
We all have those days, that is for sure. You win some, you lose some. We still have mask mandates here – and I hope we will for a while to come. My kids wear them all day to school and my younger son mentioned that his skin gets irritated and broken out because of the mask, but also no one can see it because of the mask, so it’s basically a wash. I see lots of bare faces when I’m out walking or running – it’s easy to distance, so I don’t wear a mask outdoors either, except if I was walking closely with a friend – but I haven’t seen a face INDOORS for quite some time. I think that’s going to be weird. I also think we have all become accustomed to giving people space when walking – stepping way around people – that it’s going to be strange when we don’t have to do that anymore.
We are traveling right now and I am seeing a lot of unmasked faces and it’s freaking me out a bit, even though I’m vaccinated. North is only partially, so there’s that worry tugging at me a little.
Oh my goodness it finally “clicked”, I have been getting one or two zits that keep popping up randomly and just figured maybe at 50 I’m going through puberty again lol 😆. Thanks for helping me realize it’s from wearing my mask 😷 😁
I am struggling with re-entry into greater society, as well. I don’t know what the right answer is re: masks/no masks, distance/no distance, travel/no travel. But I’m going to have to figure some things out really quickly because I’m traveling through multiple states next week to see my mom for the first time since September 2019. I refuse to feel guilty over it (we all vaccinated), but I’m struggling with my plans on how to eat, sleep, and get around.
I think all the low-level stress we have around these issues is also making us a little bit (or a lot bit!) anxious and it’s manifesting itself in short fuses and abnormal outbursts. Give yourself grace and know that this will eventually be over.
I hate mornings like that. I had my fair share back in the day when wrangling everyone into the car to get dropped at school was a nightmare. Coach was usually at work early in the morning. Reg once decided I put too much milk in his oatmeal. He threw the bowl and oatmeal went everywhere. Rather than clean it up, I had everyone exit the house through the front door instead of the garage door. Reg was 2 or 3. Pretty sure I impressed upon him that he would never eat again if he repeated that stunt.
I wore my mask in stores a few times even though I didn’t need to. I checked with store staff and the next visit I entered without a mask. I kept it in my pocket just in case I couldn’t handle the stairs. It does feel strange.