First the bad news: I got Covid again.
That's it. There is no good news.
Well, I guess you could say the relatively good news is that it's not very bad. I'm, like, one fiftieth as ill as I was the first time I got it. It feels like I have a cold and not even a particularly bad one. Also, nobody else in my family tested positive, so that's good. Although it means I have to quarantine in the basement. If we all had it, at least we could all hang out. But still, it's better that they don't have it.
I don't really know what else to say about this. On the one hand, you could say I had it coming because I have been very incautious in my behavior -- I've been going to gym, going out for drinks, going into the office, etc. On the other hand, that's just living life. I'm healthy, youngish, vaxxed, boosted, and I already got Delta last summer. If people like me aren't supposed to do normal life things, then we should basically be in full shutdown mode again, and I don't think that that's the solution. Now, maybe I could do some things around the edges, like wear a mask more often, but I don't know if that would help. I mean, I usually do wear a mask to, like, pick up coffee or to ride the Metro or whatever, but it's not practical to wear a mask to martial arts class (it just falls off) or to eat at a restaurant. You either have to unmask or just not go.
The fact of the matter is that with where we are in the pandemic, the possibility you might get sick is just part of the calculus. And, frankly, if this is as bad as it gets, it's totally worth it. I'll gladly exchange a night or two of feeling a little bit crummy for nine months of "freedom." Of course, it's not over yet, though. I could feel a lot worse tomorrow than I do today, but I doubt it. My trend is toward feeling better. Friday night I would describe myself as actually sick (enough so that I took a Covid test). Saturday night I was just kinda out of it. And tonight I feel almost totally back to normal. In fact, I have to fight the urge to take another Covid test in hopes of getting a negative result. It's too soon and would probably just be a waste of a test -- maybe tomorrow night.
The bigger fear for me is long-term Covid. It's very scary, but what can I do about it now? You can't be scared into paralysis. There are no guarantees one way or the other with any of this. We all just do the best we can with the information we have. There are no solutions; there are only tradeoffs.
One thing I do wish, in retrospect, is that I didn't rush to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Had I waited a few days, my number would have come up to get Moderna or Pfizer. But this is just hindsight, and it might not have even mattered. At this point, most people I know have contracted Covid, regardless of the vaccine they got. Plus, I got the Pfizer booster. The bottom line: This disease is just ridiculously resilient, and the only way to avoid it is to get super lucky or literally isolate yourself completely from outside company.
Well, being quarantined did give me a chance to watch a movie on our TV, which is something I rarely get to do (unless it's a kid's movie -- Paddington, not half bad). I rented Licorice Pizza, which was very good, but not quite as good as I was hoping it would be. I have high hopes for Paul Thomas Anderson movies. Other than Tarantino (the GOAT), he's probably the only filmmaker going whose films make me think I definitely gotta see that one when they come out.
Of the six PTA films I've seen so far, I'd put Licorice Pizza third. The complete ranking is thus:
6. Hard Eight: To be fair, I've only seen part of this movie, and it was a long time ago.
5. There Will Be Blood: If only the movie itself was as great as the performances of Paul Dano and Daniel Day-Lewis. Somehow the whole is less than the sum of its parts.
4. Magnolia: The weird-ass ending didn't work for me -- rest of the movie was fantastic though.
3. Licorice Pizza: I get the feeling I would have liked it more if I was 10-years older. It's of an era I'm a bit too young to fully appreciate.
2. Phantom Thread: The best review I heard of this film: "so beautiful, so boring." It worked for me though.
1. Boogie Nights: You've got the party, and then the hangover, and both are super compelling to watch.
Alright, I think that's all for this post. I gotta go eat dinner. I'm just waiting for my family to go to bed so I can use the kitchen in peace without infecting anybody. Then I got a big night of sports watching ahead. S said I can't watch Severance without her (we are only one episode in, but it's very intriguing already), so I'll have to settle for basketball -- and hockey, actually. I've been keeping up with NHL playoffs a bit. I forgot how fun hockey can be. I think I'm pulling for the New York Rangers for some reason -- original six, maybe -- but it would also be cool to see the Calgary Flames pull it off. I loved their 1989 team -- old man Lanny McDonald and his mustache, Doug Gilmour, Joe Nieuwendyk, Al MacInnis, a young Theo Fleurry, Joe Mullen, the terrifically named Hakan Loob, Mike Vernon between the pipes -- super fun team. And it's amazing how I can remember almost a full roster from over 30 years ago, and yet I can't tell you a single player on their current team that I just watched play two nights ago. Wait, yes I can -- they have a Tkachuk on their team, and I only remember him, because his dad Keith Tkachuk was actually in the league 30 years ago. I don't even know his first name. Ah, it's Matthew. Cool.
Until next time...
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