A Return to Normalcy?

7-11 in Denver. Photo by Nina Snyder.

Colorado's stay-at-home expired yesterday, which means that today was the first day of the revised "safer-at-home" order. I ventured out to Dunkin Donuts to celebrate. What better way is there to mark one month of surviving a pandemic than deep-fried sweets?

It was almost back to normal. There was traffic. Someone honked at me, and another person cut me off, just like old times. I have never been more grateful for rude drivers. For the last month, everyone has been preternaturally polite.

The drive to the donut shop seemed almost normal, except for the fact that myself and my two children were all wearing masks in the car.

We passed a construction site, now bustling with construction workers. Normal. 

We passed my daughter's preschool, now closed for the school year in April. Not normal. 

We passed by 7-11, where I stopped to get gas at $1.65 a gallon. NOT NORMAL AT ALL.

Either I traveled back in time to two decades ago when gas was that price -- or
the new normal is an alternate universe where everyone stays at home, generating a precipitous drop in gas prices.

I vote for the first option.

Nina Snyder is the author of ABCS OF BALLS and the designer of the HOT PINK ORCHARD JOURNAL. Follow her on Twitter @nsnyder_writer.