Your overall pandemic experience

[chum1]

I’m just being honest here, do any of you feel like you missed a year & a half out of your life? Like, I’d be sick about that, but whatever. Go cats! Hope to see you soon!

This is a really good question, and no I don't. It was a different experience, but it was an experience and I had good times and bad times. I missed pickup basketball but became a CrossFit bro and made new friends in the process, I didn't get to go to Croatia but I got to go on a road trip to Oregon with some of my best friends, my kids' school experience sucked but we got to spend more time together than we had before, etc. etc.

And honestly since I've been vaxxed my life is pretty much like it was before but with more options, especially since so many concert venues are requiring vaccination. I wear masks quite a bit but who gives a crap

This topic probably deserves its own thread.

Agree

[chum1]

Changes that seem to be sticking for me.

Out: two regular volunteer gigs
In: AMPLE down time

Out: career progression/advancement
In: hoarding money

Out: going to the office for work
In: never again going to the office for work

Out: going to restaurants
In: getting take out

Out: concerts, movie theaters, sporting events
In: Fortnite

Out: vacations
In: uhh, no vacations ???

[sys]

hasn't been a huge change for me in lifestyle (has in like media consumption, topic mindshare and stuff like that).  work is the same, leisure time is mostly unchanged.  biggest change has been (lack of) travel and i'm planning on getting back to baseline in that regard asap.

[michigancat]

I've come to enjoy a Friday night in the house a lot more than I did before

[IPA4Me]

2020... Pretty damn locked down until September-ish.

Still went to the beach for my usual fall vacation. Summer was limited to day trips.

Dining habits changed. We did Hello Fresh 3x a week. Once restaurants opened, we started going once a week. We've since dropped HF. Buy more meat and grill more.

Couldn't be on-track for my horses running last year except one time. That kinda sucked. Things are mostly back to normal on that front.

2021 has been mostly normal except that I'm WFH 90% with limited biz travel.

[michigancat]

Oh yeah I became a good cook

[star seed 7]

hasn't been a huge change for me in lifestyle (has in like media consumption, topic mindshare and stuff like that).  work is the same, leisure time is mostly unchanged.  biggest change has been (lack of) travel and i'm planning on getting back to baseline in that regard asap.

This, lack of travel was the biggest restriction but all that pto (and cash) is banked and ready to be unleashed.

[chum1]

I'll have to travel somewhere one day just to see if it is something that I still think is worthwhile. I currently have no strong urge to go anywhere.

[Dugout DickStone]

Got a little pudgy but then that made me mad so dropped that and then some and got ripped.

better cook

missed 2 trips but that didn't save any money because work sponsored. 

missed 1 season of softball and hockey, that is back.

Kids: tbd.  They seem to have done fine, oldest maybe missed some friends and it is a set back I think.  She probably grew apart from maybe 2 good ones that she was pretty tight with but made some new ones who live closer.

[star seed 7]

Media consumption is an interesting one. I had moved completely to streaming services (aside from live sports) before the pandemic but early into it I started watching a lot more YouTube and twitch. Now probably 80% of my media consumption is from YouTube and I love it. The pandemic got a lot of people involved in being a content creator and I think it's very cool that creative and talented people can break into the media business and make a living directly from audience support.

[420seriouscat69]

Besides getting that ass, sports and traveling are my two favorite things on this planet. So yeah, the last year and half sucked. It was weird seeing NFL teams play in empty stadiums & the cats having 30 players out for a game due to covid protocols, etc. Getting furloughed sucked ass too, but I'm doing well again, so all is good there. Go cats & ass!

[kstate4life]

hasn't been a huge change for me in lifestyle (has in like media consumption, topic mindshare and stuff like that).  work is the same, leisure time is mostly unchanged.  biggest change has been (lack of) travel and i'm planning on getting back to baseline in that regard asap.

This, lack of travel was the biggest restriction but all that pto (and cash) is banked and ready to be unleashed.

Mid 2020 our company went to unlimited PTO to prevent that pto bank.   Not happy about it, but pretty genius in reality.

[michigancat]

hasn't been a huge change for me in lifestyle (has in like media consumption, topic mindshare and stuff like that).  work is the same, leisure time is mostly unchanged.  biggest change has been (lack of) travel and i'm planning on getting back to baseline in that regard asap.

This, lack of travel was the biggest restriction but all that pto (and cash) is banked and ready to be unleashed.

Mid 2020 our company went to unlimited PTO to prevent that pto bank.   Not happy about it, but pretty genius in reality.

it's a shitty policy but take advantage of it by going to weekday afternoon baseball on like a Tuesday

[kstate4life]

Biggest hurdle for us (my wife and I) is we had our first child July of last year.  It was tough not allowing any family\friends to see him.  Plus with the hot Denver summer and wild fire smoke we couldn't even go on walks outside until about October.   And because we couldn't go anywhere, our 13 month old now won't nap anywhere but his crib or pack n play.  We had to delay our babymoon to Hawaii 3 times, but finally are going in 3 weeks!

Other than that I played a crap ton of golf, ate a ton of great takeout, became a sports gambling degen, and drank more booze than I can remember... all fun things!

[kstate4life]

hasn't been a huge change for me in lifestyle (has in like media consumption, topic mindshare and stuff like that).  work is the same, leisure time is mostly unchanged.  biggest change has been (lack of) travel and i'm planning on getting back to baseline in that regard asap.

This, lack of travel was the biggest restriction but all that pto (and cash) is banked and ready to be unleashed.

Mid 2020 our company went to unlimited PTO to prevent that pto bank.   Not happy about it, but pretty genius in reality.

it's a shitty policy but take advantage of it by going to weekday afternoon baseball on like a Tuesday

Yeah the biggest issue I have is I work in tech, so I constantly work after hours.  And previously I could bank those hours as comp time, and save the PTO.  Now comp time is no different than unlimited pto and I have no pto bank. 

[michigancat]

oh jeez, you're really getting mumped.

[_33]

Working from home is definitely the biggest change for me.  At first I loved it, and there are times I still do, but I also miss the office at times now. 

[bucket]

Working from home is definitely the biggest change for me.  At first I loved it, and there are times I still do, but I also miss the office at times now.

Last spring I was hybrid and I went in 1-2 days a week. It was perfect because it allowed you to get out of the house, but you also had the freedom WFH provides whenever you wanted. I returned to the office full-time on Monday. 

[Pete]

I think I will look back on it much more fondly than it felt at the time.  I got to spend massive amounts of time with my family.  However, at the time I was in a pretty constant state of trying to manage my emotions and fears...I grudgingly admit it was "growth."  I was pretty caught up in fear of economic insecurity, much more so than death or permanent disability, so that should tell you something about my defects of character right there.  :( 

I sometimes think about how much more wonderful it could have been if I had chosen to let go of all fear and be free to enjoy that time. It was still great, don't get me wrong, but it could have been so much more wonderful, and I am the reason it wasn't.

The life lesson (and one that I have had literally hundreds if not thousands of chances previously to learn) is that is that everything is OK, and it will be OK, I just don't get to know how it will be OK.  That's something that I have to recommit to every single morning. 

[_33]

Working from home is definitely the biggest change for me.  At first I loved it, and there are times I still do, but I also miss the office at times now.

Last spring I was hybrid and I went in 1-2 days a week. It was perfect because it allowed you to get out of the house, but you also had the freedom WFH provides whenever you wanted. I returned to the office full-time on Monday. 

Yes, going in 1-2 days a week would be perfect.

[Stupid Fitz]

Mine has been ok. Lucky both of us have jobs still, none have been sick, etc. I like working from home so that has been great. They are prob going to make me go back a couple days a week for no apparent reason, which is annoying. I don't work with anyone located in my office so its pretty pointless. Cooked more, figured out good takeout (Joes KC app and pickup  ). Also, managed to stay and probably get more fit during all of this. Since I'm home more, I can get a good hour/hour and a half of kicking my ass in each day, which has been great. I have discovered lately that I am really bored though. Like bored with everything. We still go out a bit, but Mrs SF is starting to worry a lot more now with cases rising and kids getting it more. Went to a couple concerts last week which was fun, but it was hard to not think about all of the unvaxed dumbasses the whole time. Not really sure what I need, but I need something to get me out of the funk that I mostly attribute to the pandemic or at least I think that is what it is.

[michigancat]

Mine has been ok. Lucky both of us have jobs still, none have been sick, etc. I like working from home so that has been great. They are prob going to make me go back a couple days a week for no apparent reason, which is annoying. I don't work with anyone located in my office so its pretty pointless. Cooked more, figured out good takeout (Joes KC app and pickup  ). Also, managed to stay and probably get more fit during all of this. Since I'm home more, I can get a good hour/hour and a half of kicking my ass in each day, which has been great. I have discovered lately that I am really bored though. Like bored with everything. We still go out a bit, but Mrs SF is starting to worry a lot more now with cases rising and kids getting it more. Went to a couple concerts last week which was fun, but it was hard to not think about all of the unvaxed dumbasses the whole time. Not really sure what I need, but I need something to get me out of the funk that I mostly attribute to the pandemic or at least I think that is what it is.

have you ever been to therapy? I know it can be hard to find folks but my wife had really good luck with betterhelp.com

[steve dave]

I think I will look back on it much more fondly than it felt at the time.  I got to spend massive amounts of time with my family.

Same Pete. Honestly if we had to go back to full lockdown for a time I wouldn’t be terribly upset.

[pissclams]

as someone who was just starting to begin my mixed martial arts career, covid has really had a big impact on me

the gyms have been very limited in terms of training time and a lot of sparing is done via AR.  i’ll be ok but it’s just a tough hill to climb when you have goals like I do in the art

[cfbandyman]

It was/is going to be biggest weird period of my life.

Working from home is mostly awesome, but there are a lot of benefits in the office, IDK, I wish you could have a lot of the personal interactions that isn't so cold and remote as teams but also not needing to dress up or commute to work. Those both suck and I don't even really dress that much up or drive that far, but still, shows how much I don't enjoy that. Like I never missed being cut off, or just weird ass drivers, or crappy parkers, etc.

I think living by myself during that period taught me a lot about myself, but it wasn't a lot of overall good things and I found there is definitely too much time to yourself. I think I found myself drinking a lot more, became more short with people, and I guess resented the fact I had to interact with anyone more then than when I do it now more on a regular basis being back in the office or going out. Basically being personable became harder work because I wasn't around people all the time. I also paradoxically I think worked more or at least put in more hours as it was harder to get away. I did learn to cook more/better and it was also nice to in general spend less on things, so those were positives.

I also thing the lack of sports and other "going out" activities also taught me how, almost forced it seems like doing a lot of the activities are, like, I don't need to go to a game, I don't need to go out if I don't want to, it'll be ok. Overall I think in a good way FOMO kinda evaporated. What is there to miss out on everything is missed out on? And that feeling has kinda kept going.

I think overall what it really reinforced was my natural tendency to want to be alone, but I need socialization because too much of being alone is not good and you need personal interactions and contact. And if I weren't to be alone it better be with someone I don't mind spending that much time with.