Does this whole Covid situation occasionally feel like a dream?

Yes.

A couple of times it has really sunk in how life is different now and it has brought me to tears. It feels unreal. I quickly go back into denial mode for my own sanity.

It seems impossible what is happening. Like a bad dream.

Oh, yes. Like other major life things that I have given up (smoking, my mother) sometimes I wake up not remembering that Real Life is also not there. I sleepily make plans for the day, then…nope. I’ll dream about going to movies and gatherings, then shift.

Oh, well, planning for the After Time is another pandemic activity we indulge in.

Absolutely! Life seems so surreal sometimes.

My daughter is heading off to college next month, and I can’t believe she’s going to be experiencing it in this way. But in a way, I’ve learned over the years that my expectations about how things will be are extremely inaccurate. My mind is horrible at predictions, so I’m always surprised. But this?

I’ll find myself in a line for the market with everyone wearing masks, and it will feel normal. Then I’ll be struck with how different everything is and it will blow my mind that I’m processing this as “normal”. It reminds me of when I used to smoke pot. I’d often find myself extremely amused or terrified at a normal activity that suddenly seemed absurd and dreamlike.

A nightmare.

Yes. Maybe our minds are so limited we can’t take such a huge event in. Maybe some denial is a protective device. Or maybe unless it happens directly to you or your loved ones, it doesn’t seem real. But I certainly have times when I feel, “Is this really happening?”

Of course, the irrational disbelief doesn’t affect my precautions or behavior.

^ “Of course, the irrational disbelief doesn’t affect my precautions or behavior.” Same here.
I still take the recommendations and precautions seriously.
It’s just that these times do not seem real. I can understand feeling this way if I were smoking something or on some meds or whatever. But I’m not. My mind is perfectly clear.

@LuckyGuy I know exactly what you mean.

No!
It sometimes feels like a crap sci-fi movie though.
You know, Ricardo Montalban being the outrider who refuses to wear a mask while Victoria Principle ruptures an eyelash winking like a sexy bitch!

For me it’s a tie between feeling surreal and feeling like it’s been a welcome break from the rush-rush-rush of daily running to work. Luckily, so far, nobody that I am close to has been sick but what’s very scary is that there are still really bad spots in the country. NY did a big push to stay home and many people were bitching about the economy and how we all have our rights, and now look, we’re in better shape than Florida and AZ and TX and other states. However, these other states are going to keep the virus alive and well and it’s going to come back to haunt us.

@jca2 In my mind, now that Republican politicians are getting on board with promoting masks, and even Trump is talking about it, maybe finally more Republicans will wear masks and it will slow down the virus.

We need to get through this wave, spike, ripple, whatever it is, many cities and states are cancelling July 4th events (I am shocked about that) so they are trying to beat the virus back.

Where I live a new test center opened up at the Walgreens near me and it is steadily busy from what I understand. Testing is free.

Yes. Sometimes I feel grounded and go about my business in this new norm. Other times I feel floaty, like this isn’t really real.

And other times, I’m like @hmmmmmm. Turning around an everyday thing in my head, looking at it at a different angle that makes me want to start cackling maniacally at its absurdity.

It does seem unreal at times. There is nothing to point to that we can say is the cause of the problem. It seems bizarre even when viewed abstractly. There is this strange microscopic sliver of DNA or RNA that lies on the borderline between being alive and being inanimate, whose sole activity is to invade cells so it can hijack the cell’s innards in order to make copies of itself.

Yes. But I’m puzzled as to why. I mean by now I no longer understand why endemic mass irrationality should come as a surprise. After all, who among us believed at the outset that there was a chance in hell that our collective governments would properly manage this disease? Try to name a decision on any matter which you might entrust to the current President. The disease itself and its predictable results are the only rational expectation we are allowed.

A nightmare for us. For some idiotic reason, Rick’s former boss is stalling us out on unemployment and we’re running out of money, fast.

Nope. Everything about this feels exactly right. There are absolutely zero surprises here.

Just off the top of my head.

- A run on toilet paper despite diarrhea not being a symptom ✓
– We had warnings and ignored them ✓
– Woefully unprepared (PPE, testing) despite warnings and the only thing that was done was graft ✓
– Administration has head in sand and blames others ✓
– Buckets of bodies due to hyperpartisanship (masks) ✓
– The South gets hammered due to being fucking knobs (tons of warning) ✓
– Facebook continues to prefer profits over the heath of the public. ✓

This all feels so goddamn right I no longer feel despair. Normally I’m not a bootstrap guy. But right now I am all out of sympathy. I assume everyone is infected and act accordingly. I’m looking out for #1 right now.

we were warned

BUT trump has decided to wear masks because it makes him look like the Lone Ranger.
W
T
F

Feels more like a nightmare to me!!!

I was thinking while watching clips of his Oklahoma death rally, how many attendees would want their tombstones etched with “I died for the fool”. That big empty stadium, with the perfect opportunity to exercise and DEMONSTRATE social distancing with its meager 6 thousand. But no! Bunch the maskless dummies for photo-ops before their idol to idiocy.

Feels like a dream? Nope. A real nightmare, yes. The nightmares began those nights when deplorable Americans were cheering shallow and stupid words from trump’s filthy mouth. It turned into a real nightmare when he got elected.

The only surreal thing here is the millions of Americans who voted for a TV show host in the WH and those who intend to vote for him again after all that’s happened. That to me is surreal.

I’m just glad I’m not dead yet before my time because of this TV show host in the WH. Hoping I make it until a vaccine comes.