And yet, anecdotally, it seems like everyone around me is catching it right now. I’ve had about six friends and their kids get it in the last week, plus our neighbors, and an event running this weekend in Minneapolis apparently was down a front desk person and several musicians. There’s a massive spike happening, once again, right on top of our event, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
Of course this weekend was full of covid-tastic events - massive Metallica concert Friday night (the H and I had masks glued to our faces), a packed nightclub gig for me last night (had mask glued to my face except when I was singing), two indoor mall birthday parties for the kids yesterday, and now my final Knott’s gig tonight (at least it’s outdoors). I cannot get sick this week. I cannot. But the kids will be in school, and the H works with people all day with no mask. I can’t control my environment, and that’s horrifying right now.
I did have the thought, as I was freaking out about it, that the idea of staying home and directing the whole event from my phone actually sounds kind of awesome. I mean, everyone knows what they’re doing - as long as all the stuff gets there on Friday, other than singing, is my physical presence really that necessary, in a pinch? Well, let’s hope we don’t have to find out.
This is the first time I’ve had to deal with this - last year I had immunity so had no fear, and of course the two years before were canceled. Right now we’re all well, so I’m just going to keep that thought. Every morning we wake up with no symptoms through Friday will be a blessing. Just five more days, that’s all we need. Five days of waking up symptom-free.
This of course doesn’t help when it comes to all the other non-replaceable people who won’t be taking this week before as cautiously - the teachers, the musicians, the sound guys, the judges, the volunteer staff, the camera guys, the DJs, etc etc. The list goes on and on. There’s no way none of those people will contract it in the next few days, and there’s no way to have a backup plan for every single person. It’s just an impossible situation to be in.
Everyone I’ve talked to said they don’t care if they get it during the event, they just want to make it to the event. I’ve only had one person cancel due to catching it, and one due to fear of catching it. I’m sure these numbers will start increasing next week. But hey, at least I won’t have to deal with last year’s last minute freak out which was realizing pretty much no one had gotten the required booster. I don’t ever want to go through that again.
Right now attendance is at a respectable number - below my hopes and below 2019 still, but only by a couple hundred people. Not sure at this moment how the money will shake out. I know it won’t be great and I also won’t be destitute, so there’s that. I do worry for next year when it’s not an anniversary year, but I get the feeling not many people really care about that - right now it’s more “can I afford this this year”, and for a lot of people that answer is no. We’ll see how that changes for better or worse next year.
Today the boys are at Knott’s on my final free passes while I go sing later. Yesterday was a mad dash to two birthday parties very far apart - I literally spent the entire day driving hundreds of miles to drop them off and pick them up; plus walking four miles in circles in a giant mall looking for a Dave and Busters; I loathe those giant malls with the heat of 10,000 suns. It sucked I couldn’t stay at any of the parties to chat with parents - we all have so many questions about junior high schools and magnet points and who’s going where; now’s when I need to talk to other parents the most, and yet I had to run out each time, with apologies. Sigh. At least the parents remembered to include our kids even though they’re at a different school now. Apparently school tours are already filling up - as much as I still want the kids to go to the local jr/sr high, I know I need to look at other options as well, especially with Bobby now being labeled as highly gifted, which opens more doors. So that’ll be a priority after next weekend.
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