What fresh hell?

 Apparently THIS is the baby who should be named Dorothy

Today, my friends, is the day that Ben and I are fully vaccinated. My campus app is permanently green, meaning I can have building access without a spit test. I can go to the grocery store with impunity. BUT WHEN? When can I go to the grocery store? This is the tricky part because when I have a free second, Ben is usually busy and vice versa. And Minnie? I mean, she can't even wear a mask. I felt OK about taking her to Whole Foods, but the regular store and Target both seem less awesome. Maybe this is just simple snobbery, especially since Whole Foods is teeny. In any case, I have brunch plans with a friend, pedicure ambitions, and acupuncture on the calendar. All of that feels like a dream.

We are keeping the kids home for the rest of the school year, and we feel OK about that. We have decided, though, to spend our interaction budget with them a little differently. Since they are not going to school, we feel OK about Little League. They have all 4 started hanging out (outside, with masks) with one or two other kids. We let Jack go to a birthday party that had 6 guests and was fully outside. The kids wore masks except when they were eating, and they ordered from a menu and had individual pizzas and salads. It was great. Harry wen to an outdoor party as well where they wore masks and played video games on a huge movie screen. Cooper and Dorothy both have neighborhood friends who are staying home from school that they can bike and play outside with, and even though her little bestie next door returned to in-person school, we are OK with Dorothy playing outside masked with her. We are trying to slowly open up our circle, keeping things outside, distanced, and masked, and it feels pretty great. I mean, Ben and I fully intend to hang out with our vaccinated friends with our naked slutty faces out, but we are staying cautious with the kids.

In other news, I am FASCINATED with discussions about the vax and menstruation. I feel freaking GREAT in terms of hormone-induced anxiety this cycle-- what if all these years, all I needed was some m-RNA? I am sort of being serious here because PMS and cycle-based mood issues are the reason I do acupuncture in the first place. I always feel amazing during pregnancy (which is why the pandemic wasn't as stressful fr me as it could have been, I think), but I was itching to get back to acupuncture as my postpartum period returned and with it came PMS. I even get mini-PMS during ovulation. But since my second dose, I feel none of those things. I wonder if I will have hormone-related milk supply issues this month. It's so wild, and just think, it hasn't been very long since people with uteruses even had to be included in clinical trials (since 1993, I think). 

Anyway, we are ready to inch out into the world, but we are still freaked out about the return to in-person school among vaccine hesitancy, no vaccines for older kids, and new COVID variants, idiots who don't want their kids to wear masks playing baseball, and kids on team sports hanging out like it's 2019. BABY STEPS.