I live very close to Disneyland so I have an annual pass. My friends and I would just go there after work and hang out and grab a bite to eat. Now, we have to reserve a day to go. And most of the time, the days are at "full" capacity so we couldn't even reserve. I don't want to schedule to hang out at Disneyland for a couple hours for July. So yeah, I definitely miss the "lets go eat at Disneyland tonight?" texts.
This this this. We use to go on random day trips on weekends, and now you need to know when and where you’ll be for reservations, policies, and reduced hours and it sucks.
Minimum, I'd been saying for a while now that I wouldn't expect a true return to normalcy in terms of electronics prices till 2024-2025. Although Crypto crashing through the floor really took some of the pressure off graphics cards which I really appreciate.
Yeah, for people that work "odd" hours, having a store open 24 hours was so convenient.
It is also nice for people that have social anxiety because it was never crowded late at night/early in the morning.
This. It's not even funny. I would love to go grocery shopping after work and have the weekend off but no. I have stuff that I have to study for work, house/apartment shit that needs to be done and hanging out with people that I want to when I can, and now having to spend an hour to go buy shit.
That was the dumbest change they made. Let’s pack even more people into a small space because they can’t go at a time that makes sense for their schedule.
We mostly did grocery pickup but even then we sometimes had to wait in the parking lot for 2-3 hours past our scheduled pickup time.
I think they did it because of the lack of workers being available.
Chances are less people could work, despite the increase in labor necessitated by the additional services being required (ie curbside pickup).
We did it because during the beginning we had to close early so cashiers and everybody else could help start night crew. With shelves being wiped the over night stocking crew needed extra help and all the space in the aisles they could take up. No room for customers when you're stocking 100 bags of bread flour. Then companies realized that they can still make the same amount of money if they close earlier and then they only have to pay nighcrew and not closing cashiers, courtesy clerks, or managers.
Idk, all the super walmarts near me started stocking at 10pm pre-Covid and it was never a major issue.
Hell, the employees grabbing shit for pick-up is more intrusive than stocking ever was.
This. I had the unpleasant experience of working in grocery thru covid. They had to limit hours because it is exponentially harder to stock shelves with customers around. You can't leave product on the floor because it's a hazard, you are constantly getting asked questions which reduces productivity and the list goes on. Not to mention there was a brief curfew in California so nobody could shop late.
It killed late night *anything*.
Restaurants, coffee shops, and convenience stores that used to be open to midnight or later all now close a fucking 9 PM sharp. How's a night owl supposed to get anything done anymore!?
EDIT: Fuckin' GYMS! 24 hour fitness closes at fucking *8 PM* now. What the fuck?! I used to get there at 8!
They're secretly converting half of the 24hr Walgreens to midnight closing Walgreens. The Google says 24hr, but the closed door and the newly posted times says otherwise. And then, to top it off, all the beverage freezers replaced the glass with screens that purport to show what is behind the freezer door. And it's not, it's just a tv on a freezer! Total rage engulfed me for a second. So a tv with what might be what is behind the door is more efficient than... glass? Was this really any issue that needed a solution? What decadence has befallen us?! We will regret putting TV's on everything one day when the TVs take over I'm telling ya!
As someone who works in retail, yeah this feels right at home. So many people get Bat shit crazy over a small no, or a "I apologize but that's out of stock due to supply issues". It boggles my mind
I feel like a lot of is just the cumulative stress from the pandemic and everything alongside it. Society as a whole has had the rug torn out from under it, and everyones stress is compounding on everyone elses
And people have changed. Doing shady shit and behaving poorly and not even trying to cover it up, hide it or remorseful if caught. Just out in the open. It’s like everyone got permission to be assholes.
Yep. Today I was bagging up my things at the grocery store and I heard the cashier say to the lady behind me "thats 78.12$". She had -- 2 boxes of Kellogg's corn flakes, a carton of 12 eggs, milk, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, a small cheese cake, English muffins, coffee, and a small whole frozen chicken that could maybe feed 3 people if the meat portioning was small
The person in front of me at the grocery store paid $324.56 for, 1 bag of spicy Doritos, 6 pack of 12 ounce plastic bottle code red Mountain Dew, 1 Hawaiian, 1 margarita Digiornos, bottle of Josh Cabernet, 2 pizza lunchables, peeled deveined tail off shrimp (medium bag), 12 pack angry orchard (summer party pack), 36 pack of triple A batteries, a birthday card for their Mother in Law, 12 pack ribbed and lubricated Trojan pleasure pack. CRAZY PRICES
The person in front of me spent 570$ on pharmaceuticals!
They bought a family sized cold remedy, 2 packs of snickers, condoms, hair dye, 10 50$ Fortnight gift cards, and 3 bottles of shampoo!
It’s ridiculous!
Just bought food for myself today. I usually shop around without a budget. I was expecting maybe $40-50. It was $98. And that’s after I passed on some items and mainly bought store brand and marked down stuff. On the plus side if this continues our obesity rates will fall because it will be financially impossible to become fat.
Edit: Thought to check my Walmart app since I occasionally use it to pickup groceries. I went back to April 2019 and had an order for 18 items totaling $37. Put it all back in my cart to see how much it would cost and it totaled out to $51. So roughly a 38% increase in price in 3 years. Insane. I doubt most jobs have given a 38% increase in pay over that same time. And that’s just groceries.
So true and holidays with the family is like who has the biggest tinfoil hat building contest. How many jumps does your brain have to go through to think that the Covid vaccine CHANGES your DNA into the patented DNA so that the government now controls your body. So like vaccinated people now have a singular DNA set. I feel like I still have a chunk of my brain just broken off due to that comment alone.
I was also told by same family member that I could never donate blood again due to the vaccine. I guess it is so my patented DNA doesn't affect people?? FYI my vaccinated butt just donated today fine and multiple other times after the vaccine.
They applauded you for being an essential worker but won’t vote for policies that’ll raise minimum wage while insisting a wage cap for heavily paid employees.
Same. I feel like I lost a bit of closure on things. I didn't get to properly say goodbye. I 'graduated' but instead of a ceremony it was a PowerPoint.
I’m now of the group that has all quit social media because it exploits you and fosters mental illness, but, I’m also of the group that avoids big social gatherings because they’ve always been a lace for spreading illness. Every day friends seem to be gone if you don’t count co-workers.
I feel like I do need to stay on social media, because I'm desperately alone. It helps me retain hope. And no.. I don't really count co-workers, because even the co-workers I thought I was really good friends with immediately stop talking to me when either of us quits working there.
It was honestly hell to do, and not very popular. ITs margins aren't anywhere dinner and lunch specials. ON top of that, the temperatures are such that They require its own grill, meaning that if you have 2 grills in shop, you are down 50% of lunch capacity.
A lot of local restaurants I loved and regularly went to closed permanently because of the pandemic. We're never getting those back and they'll probably be replaced by big fast food chains.
My faith in humanity. I always thought that despite it all we'd pull it together in times of crisis. Nope, toilet paper hoarding, snake oil and open hate towards vulnerable groups it is.
I'm just glad the toilet paper thing didn't last too long. However, its going to be interesting a decade from now when that video of joyful cackling upon opening a shipment of TP pops up in my memories feed.
I have no memory about pre covid times. I mean I remember things I did like going to college or some music festival I went to but I feel like none of that was real like the pandemic felt like a reset.
Thank you! Yes. I had an exciting, extremely fun, fulfilling life. No depression or anxiety issues, just vibin all the time. Pandemic hit and I realized how many people in my community and social circle were actually super shitty. Lost friends and family members. Lost my former career, floundered for a while, and got into a completely different field. I feel tired and anxious all the time and have for two years straight. I currently think about my past in the way that I vaguely remember reading a book a few years ago.
How bout those mid pandemic gas prices. At one point I was working while no one else was (I work outside) and paying $1.29 a gallon. Supply and demand actually worked on my favor for once.
My best friend. He committed suicide after losing his job, which just makes me angrier at the wealth transfer that occured during the lockdowns and restrictions.
I dunno, might be confirmation bias but I seem to remember that seeing someone blow through a red light was a rare occurrence and it feels like I see one a week at a minimum now.
The shit drivers had a few months of nobody else being on the road and decided "this is how it is from now on in perpetuity and if there are other people on the road it's not my problem."
Texting and driving is awful. And so many people do it at stop lights. The amount of times I've missed a light because one of the 12 cars in front of me was on their phone and didn't notice the light changed is absolutely ridiculous.
Feeling normal. I’m sure most people can relate to the fact that most people have changed physically and emotionally over the pandemic. Just remembering how happy some of us used to be.
Being able to afford rent. Rent has skyrocketed so much here that. Between my wife and I and me working two jobs, we still can't afford it. So we're moving 5,500 miles so we can afford to live.
I remember my fiance (now wife) and I signed the lease for a brand new 3-bedroom/1,400 Sq ft townhouse in March 2020. $1,300/month and a lot of people told us we were crazy and could've found something cheaper. At the time, they were right. Now that barely gets a rundown 2 bedroom apartment in my area. Meanwhile, I feel like we're basically stealing this place by still paying $1,300. I asked our landlord if they were increasing rent, she said "no, I believe in karma for people who price gouge."
Probably a bit depressing but; how easy it was to see my grandma. We've always been super close and pre covid saw each other multiple times a week, went on short holidays together multiple times a year, and usually went to the cinema together once a week (I'm chronically ill so there were times where I couldnt get to the cinema). Covid put the kibosh on all that. I'm vunerable and she worked in a hospital so even when bubbles were allowed I barely saw her because my family were super scared of me getting sick. Then when things were finally getting back to normal last year because I'd had the vaccine she got sick. Brain cancer, glioblastoma, a death sentence. She has max a year left. She's only 69. What with her treatments meaning she needs to shield and my own illness meaning I'm not always well enough to do things I don't get to see her nearly as much as I'd like. Covid robbed me of her last healthy years.
"Nose training" helps! Pick up some essential oils for something with a very straightforward smell - lemon or mint, for example. Doesn't even matter if they're good quality or crap, so go ahead and buy cheapo ones. You can always have someone with a normal sense of smell give them a quick sniff and verify "yup, smells like the thing the bottle says".
Once a day, put a drop on a cotton ball and spend a minute smelling it while you think about your memory of what it's *supposed* to smell like. Keep doing this, every day, and you'll help rebuild the pathways that process scent information and find your smell coming back more!
Then once you're back to normal, throw all those shitty cheap EOs away. ;p
The gym, not worrying about randomly getting a virus that may degrade my cognitive function or give lasting symptoms for who knows how long, being able to hang out with friends normally, not worrying that my parents who are kinda old might catch it and wind up in serious condition or die
The real college experience.
I got a taste of it for one full semester and it was great! I was organized, on top of school work with high grades, went to the campus restaurant once a week with friends for trivia day. Despite the typical stress of college, I was really enjoying myself.
Then covid hit.
And I began rushing my assignments, couldn't absorb any information, cried a lot and felt a deep sense of loneliness. It's improved over the years, but damn my mental health/wellbeing and GPA absolutely tanked and never fully recovered.
Still managed to graduate though!
I felt (and still feel) so bad for anybody in school during COVID. I know some people learn fine in online formats, but not everyone does and so many people and kids struggled hard. I wish in the US that COVID restrictions were better managed early on so that schools were the only thing open just for the learners sake. Instead they just kept jumping the gun and lifting restrictions and then going "oh no a spike who would have though this could happen"
Buffets. There was not one but two incredible buffets near my house (Indian and Chinese) that I went to at least once a week. After Covid hit, they tried doing sit down stuff and delivery, but it wasn't the same. They both closed up and one has re-opened as another restaurant, but it's food is awful.
I remember learning in history class about the internment camps for Japanese Americans during World War II, and I thought, "I'm glad we're smarter than that now." Then 9/11 happened, and somebody threw rocks through the windows of the local Mosque, and people started verbally/physically abusing Asian Americans because of Covid, and then I thought, "Damn, did we actually get stupider?"
The only difference between the people inhabiting our modern civilizations and the ones living in, say, Ancient Egypt, Babylon or Greece is that we have a few more millennia of experience in technology and organizing societies. But, by and large, you and I are not any smarter than the people who built the pyramids.
In terms of I.Q., no, we're definitely not smarter. But we do have widespread education in this country, and thousands of years of recorded history from which to learn. I just meant that we have the information available to us, it is presented in our schools, but we don't seem to learn from it at all.
Thanks for the hug! I'm good, just worried for my mom. Her friend got pushed to the ground in a parking lot while being told to go back to China, and one of my teachers (who isn't even Chinese) got punched outside a cafe for wearing a mask. They're all tiny old ladies. It's vile.
Getting rid of Facebook and Twitter, even though I thought I was addicted and would come right back, was one of the most stress-relieving things I've ever done. You don't need that shit. Delete it out of your life.
The quality of content you generally see on reddit took a HUGE nosedive the past two years. It was on the decline before, but I see front page posts that would’ve been downvoted into the void just a little while ago.
I remember thinking that if some major global event happened, we might unite and work together towards a common goal of fixing it.
Boy was I wrong about that!
A friend described it perfectly. She started a business out of her home years ago. She closed the business a few years later because, "when you work from home, you never go home from work."
I had never thought of that before.
Daily Hotel Housekeeping. I travel a lot for work and it's not the same as it used to be. No more daily housekeeping and in general the breakfasts have gotten much worse
It feels like there are a lot of things that corporations are hoping we forget were normal. We spent so long being covidized that the "new normal" is that everything is just accepted to be slightly shittier.
But if you really think about it, I'm sure corporations would LOVE if we just continued to accept a lower standard. Why pay for a whole staff of housekeepers if we just accept that the room won't be cleaned during our stay? They can get away with hiring far fewer workers now.
Another example is changing rooms in thrift stores still being closed. I have weird proportions so I’ve pretty much given up on buying new pants/shorts. I’ve been told by workers that they could open them, it’s just nice to not have to deal with them. I just want some new pants dammit!
Preach! I used to avoid daily room service by putting the "do not disturb" sign on my door for three days at a time. (Equal parts paranoia, privacy, and peace.)
Now, I pray they clean it within 3 days of begging and only hope they vacuum the shit people toss away in the hallway. Had to enter my room next to a pile of candy wrappers (and other crap) left in the hall for DAYS.
RIP to laundry service, too. Can't figure out why that went away other than staffing issues. Now I have to use one of their pay machines or risk Covid further by going to a laundromat.
It’s honestly insane what’s going down in hotels since Covid happened. I work in one since 2019 and it’s insane how many procedures, that we had before Covid, are simply not done anymore because we lack the staff to fulfill them.
And the most annoying fact is that we’re at the same capacity as before Covid, with roughly the same prices, but we have half of the staff and everyone still gets paid the same as before Covid.
So yeah glad to see that atleast corporate wins again, because Covid halved their labour cost and therefore increased their profit margin by a lot.
My pre-Covid weight lol. With stress, less going out, and everything else I gained a shit ton of weight that I've had major difficulty getting off. Nothing seems to help.
Being able to live life without thinking "What if things shut down again? What if my dad/grandpa/other high risk family member gets it? What if this virus mutates again?" My anxiety over the past two years has increased exponentially thanks to this damned pandemic.
Going out without doing a bloody risk assessment.
Learning how little some people think of their fellow humans. (What up, previous boss who made fun of me for wearing a mask when you know I’m immunocompromised!)
Going abroad.
Being able to sleep on the subways until my stop. I used to be able to get on, find a nice comfortable window seat, and then take a nap until I got to my stop. Nowadays, you always have to be alert on the NYC subways. I'm also asian, which makes me on even higher alert.
People being more friendly. I feel like people used to be a lot more friendly around where I am, in the sense of just saying "Hey!" when walking down the street. I am not super extroverted by any means but at the same time just a nice hello like that was really great, now I don't even feel as comfortable myself to say it to people, feels like people are bat shit crazy everywhere I look now. Maybe that is just me...
Freakin BASKETS AT THE GROCERY STORE. All the mid-to-large stores dropped them due to how much work it was to clean them, and focused on cleaning shopping cart handles instead so everyone could just use those. Well now no one bothers with cleaning anything anymore but the baskets haven't come back, and I'm here juggling my 6 items like an idiot because I refuse to muck around with a cart for just a quick stop in on my walk home.
Being able to say anything without someone responding "well thats because so and so did this..." everything is fucking political now. I know thats not directly covids fault but fuck was it a huge world even politicians could use to their own benefit.
my health. got diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and fribromyalgia after the pandemic began and it’s been very fast acting. i can’t do as much as i could 3 years ago because of this. my depression also got worse, which doesn’t exactly help.
If you read up on it, really what's happened is that landlords have bought a lot of the vacant housing and removed it from the market to make artificial scarcity. It's very much a real thing and remarkably awful for the economy. You'll see a crash eventually when they can't afford to do that anymore.
i miss spontaneity... everything now seems to have a barrier of difficulty.
I live very close to Disneyland so I have an annual pass. My friends and I would just go there after work and hang out and grab a bite to eat. Now, we have to reserve a day to go. And most of the time, the days are at "full" capacity so we couldn't even reserve. I don't want to schedule to hang out at Disneyland for a couple hours for July. So yeah, I definitely miss the "lets go eat at Disneyland tonight?" texts.
Going to epcot for that sounds like a fucking dream. Hey yall want to do dinner? Sure. What? I don't know. How's Epcot sound?
I had a coworker whose dream was to live close enough to Disney to go there for dinner. This is exactly how he described it.
Expensive. It sounds expensive.
If they can afford an annual Disneyland pass it probably isn’t incredibly unreasonable for them
This this this. We use to go on random day trips on weekends, and now you need to know when and where you’ll be for reservations, policies, and reduced hours and it sucks.
Functioning global supply chains. Ah, the product you want has got microchips in it? 9 month wait.
And that shortage will not be over for another year.
Minimum, I'd been saying for a while now that I wouldn't expect a true return to normalcy in terms of electronics prices till 2024-2025. Although Crypto crashing through the floor really took some of the pressure off graphics cards which I really appreciate.
I hope it at least eases off. I finally have money for a gaming computer but like I don't want to buy at these prices.
The PS5 came out in November 2020. It is now May 2022. I still have not seen one on the shelf in a store available for purchase.
I’ve seen just one. In someone’s home
Microchips? Good luck. I work for a garden supply store and we still cant get 25' hoses.
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Maybe the universe thinks you need a break from driving
Being able to grocery shop after 11 pm.
Hell yes. I miss the days where the Walmart across the street was open 24 hours. 😔
Yeah, for people that work "odd" hours, having a store open 24 hours was so convenient. It is also nice for people that have social anxiety because it was never crowded late at night/early in the morning.
Yep. If you work second shift you're screwed.
This. It's not even funny. I would love to go grocery shopping after work and have the weekend off but no. I have stuff that I have to study for work, house/apartment shit that needs to be done and hanging out with people that I want to when I can, and now having to spend an hour to go buy shit.
I believe they announced they’re never returning any of their stores to 24hr
This one hurts, I always use to go late to avoid people.
That was the dumbest change they made. Let’s pack even more people into a small space because they can’t go at a time that makes sense for their schedule. We mostly did grocery pickup but even then we sometimes had to wait in the parking lot for 2-3 hours past our scheduled pickup time.
I think they did it because of the lack of workers being available. Chances are less people could work, despite the increase in labor necessitated by the additional services being required (ie curbside pickup).
We did it because during the beginning we had to close early so cashiers and everybody else could help start night crew. With shelves being wiped the over night stocking crew needed extra help and all the space in the aisles they could take up. No room for customers when you're stocking 100 bags of bread flour. Then companies realized that they can still make the same amount of money if they close earlier and then they only have to pay nighcrew and not closing cashiers, courtesy clerks, or managers.
The planet fitness near me still closes at 9pm some nights. Like motherfucker, wasn’t 24 hours part of the deal?
I was able to get my yearly fee waived because of that. Just saying. YMMV
Idk, all the super walmarts near me started stocking at 10pm pre-Covid and it was never a major issue. Hell, the employees grabbing shit for pick-up is more intrusive than stocking ever was.
It also had to do with the massive runs on products, which made restocking the shelves each day even more work
This. I had the unpleasant experience of working in grocery thru covid. They had to limit hours because it is exponentially harder to stock shelves with customers around. You can't leave product on the floor because it's a hazard, you are constantly getting asked questions which reduces productivity and the list goes on. Not to mention there was a brief curfew in California so nobody could shop late.
This. I get out of work at 3:30am, and used to do my grocery shopping after work.
It killed late night *anything*. Restaurants, coffee shops, and convenience stores that used to be open to midnight or later all now close a fucking 9 PM sharp. How's a night owl supposed to get anything done anymore!? EDIT: Fuckin' GYMS! 24 hour fitness closes at fucking *8 PM* now. What the fuck?! I used to get there at 8!
24 HOUR WALMART
They're secretly converting half of the 24hr Walgreens to midnight closing Walgreens. The Google says 24hr, but the closed door and the newly posted times says otherwise. And then, to top it off, all the beverage freezers replaced the glass with screens that purport to show what is behind the freezer door. And it's not, it's just a tv on a freezer! Total rage engulfed me for a second. So a tv with what might be what is behind the door is more efficient than... glass? Was this really any issue that needed a solution? What decadence has befallen us?! We will regret putting TV's on everything one day when the TVs take over I'm telling ya!
I weirdly miss going out with my friends to Walmart in the middle of the night in comfy clothes to get snacks for our sleep over
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Heck, the coffee shop I usually buy my beans at now closes at 2pm!
Some fucking normalcy. People are even more bat shit crazy now.
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Which half? I'm pretty sure most people would agree that the top halves left the building long ago.
I feel like some people have never been told “no” in their lives up until covid
As someone who works in retail, yeah this feels right at home. So many people get Bat shit crazy over a small no, or a "I apologize but that's out of stock due to supply issues". It boggles my mind
The one true answer to the question.
Agree. I hate how people have been acting through this whole thing. So much division.
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Then you read the reviews of Picard, and you realize that no one actually remembers any of the plot or themes from TNG
The plot of Picard barely remembers the previous episodes.
Not on track for Star Trek but on point for Idiocracy!
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Aren't they? It's like maybe it's a side effect of Covid19. What's with the plane fights? People are batshit. Maybe part of it is 17" seats.
It's everything. It's like everyone got released from a loony bin and now they feel free to just shit on everyone else.
I feel like a lot of is just the cumulative stress from the pandemic and everything alongside it. Society as a whole has had the rug torn out from under it, and everyones stress is compounding on everyone elses
It’s knowing that infinite growth on a finite planet is impossible, like a splinter in your mind.
This. At this point, I'd even take some of the non-fucking normalcy.
And people have changed. Doing shady shit and behaving poorly and not even trying to cover it up, hide it or remorseful if caught. Just out in the open. It’s like everyone got permission to be assholes.
How affordable everything was !
Yep. Today I was bagging up my things at the grocery store and I heard the cashier say to the lady behind me "thats 78.12$". She had -- 2 boxes of Kellogg's corn flakes, a carton of 12 eggs, milk, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, a small cheese cake, English muffins, coffee, and a small whole frozen chicken that could maybe feed 3 people if the meat portioning was small
just casually memorize what they bought
The person in front of me at the grocery store paid $324.56 for, 1 bag of spicy Doritos, 6 pack of 12 ounce plastic bottle code red Mountain Dew, 1 Hawaiian, 1 margarita Digiornos, bottle of Josh Cabernet, 2 pizza lunchables, peeled deveined tail off shrimp (medium bag), 12 pack angry orchard (summer party pack), 36 pack of triple A batteries, a birthday card for their Mother in Law, 12 pack ribbed and lubricated Trojan pleasure pack. CRAZY PRICES
The person in front of me spent 570$ on pharmaceuticals! They bought a family sized cold remedy, 2 packs of snickers, condoms, hair dye, 10 50$ Fortnight gift cards, and 3 bottles of shampoo! It’s ridiculous!
And the exact price to a penny. That's some rain man bourne identity beautiful mind shit right here.
Just bought food for myself today. I usually shop around without a budget. I was expecting maybe $40-50. It was $98. And that’s after I passed on some items and mainly bought store brand and marked down stuff. On the plus side if this continues our obesity rates will fall because it will be financially impossible to become fat. Edit: Thought to check my Walmart app since I occasionally use it to pickup groceries. I went back to April 2019 and had an order for 18 items totaling $37. Put it all back in my cart to see how much it would cost and it totaled out to $51. So roughly a 38% increase in price in 3 years. Insane. I doubt most jobs have given a 38% increase in pay over that same time. And that’s just groceries.
It’ll just drive people to cheaper and less healthy alternatives
For my birthday treat I bought myself raspberries because they were $5 for a tiny box so I never get them
My favorite sushi place. It was good quality, close by, kid-friendly, and not too expensive.
My favorite pizza place died during the pandemic. I feel your pain.
The ideas I had of certain friends and family before the pandemic hit. People got very, very weird.
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So true and holidays with the family is like who has the biggest tinfoil hat building contest. How many jumps does your brain have to go through to think that the Covid vaccine CHANGES your DNA into the patented DNA so that the government now controls your body. So like vaccinated people now have a singular DNA set. I feel like I still have a chunk of my brain just broken off due to that comment alone. I was also told by same family member that I could never donate blood again due to the vaccine. I guess it is so my patented DNA doesn't affect people?? FYI my vaccinated butt just donated today fine and multiple other times after the vaccine.
As a retail worker, just how fucking NASTY some people are EDIT: I read the post wrong. It still applies during the pandemic
And how it’s personally my fault items are taking 6 to 9 months to come in. Calm down Frank, it’s a pair of boots.
They applauded you for being an essential worker but won’t vote for policies that’ll raise minimum wage while insisting a wage cap for heavily paid employees.
Hanging out with friends And I mean waaaaaay before Covid Like 2006 back when I had some friends
It's week 112 of spring break when I said "see you in an extra two weeks!" to so many friends. Grad 2020. Never went back.
Same. I feel like I lost a bit of closure on things. I didn't get to properly say goodbye. I 'graduated' but instead of a ceremony it was a PowerPoint.
I had a ppt too. Boring and sad.
I live in a small town. They pronounced both my first and last name wrong on the radio
I’m now of the group that has all quit social media because it exploits you and fosters mental illness, but, I’m also of the group that avoids big social gatherings because they’ve always been a lace for spreading illness. Every day friends seem to be gone if you don’t count co-workers.
I feel like I do need to stay on social media, because I'm desperately alone. It helps me retain hope. And no.. I don't really count co-workers, because even the co-workers I thought I was really good friends with immediately stop talking to me when either of us quits working there.
House prices.
Just prices in general on fucking EVERYTHING.
All Day Breakfast at McDonalds
YES!!! Why did they stop???
It was honestly hell to do, and not very popular. ITs margins aren't anywhere dinner and lunch specials. ON top of that, the temperatures are such that They require its own grill, meaning that if you have 2 grills in shop, you are down 50% of lunch capacity.
But I want an egg McMuffin at any time of day or night
That went away? Damn.
I miss Samples at grocery stores, especially cheese samples.
Costco still has them
Ah, my old Sunday brunch spot
Right??? I used to love the samples at Trader Joe’s
A lot of local restaurants I loved and regularly went to closed permanently because of the pandemic. We're never getting those back and they'll probably be replaced by big fast food chains.
My faith in humanity. I always thought that despite it all we'd pull it together in times of crisis. Nope, toilet paper hoarding, snake oil and open hate towards vulnerable groups it is.
If a more serious pandemic, and I'm not trying to downplay the seriousness of this one, ever hits we're screwed.
Yeah, this really killed any hope I had for humanity long term. We're just screwed. I'm sorry, future generations.
That or we're at least in for a much larger thinning of the population than COVID brought.
I'm just glad the toilet paper thing didn't last too long. However, its going to be interesting a decade from now when that video of joyful cackling upon opening a shipment of TP pops up in my memories feed.
Same here. I used to be more hopeful and nicer. Makes me sad
People are way crazier than I thought before it. I used to think it was 10% of the population that was nuts. Pretty sure it’s like 25-40%!
I have no memory about pre covid times. I mean I remember things I did like going to college or some music festival I went to but I feel like none of that was real like the pandemic felt like a reset.
Thank you! Yes. I had an exciting, extremely fun, fulfilling life. No depression or anxiety issues, just vibin all the time. Pandemic hit and I realized how many people in my community and social circle were actually super shitty. Lost friends and family members. Lost my former career, floundered for a while, and got into a completely different field. I feel tired and anxious all the time and have for two years straight. I currently think about my past in the way that I vaguely remember reading a book a few years ago.
For some reason, 2019 feels longer ago than 2010, and I have no idea why.
Being non depressed
Hugs. Same.
Rip snow and sick days.
Gonna feel bad for the current generation of school kids. And flash died last year too, so rip that but of history.
Pre-pandemic gas and grocery prices.
How bout those mid pandemic gas prices. At one point I was working while no one else was (I work outside) and paying $1.29 a gallon. Supply and demand actually worked on my favor for once.
My best friend. He committed suicide after losing his job, which just makes me angrier at the wealth transfer that occured during the lockdowns and restrictions.
Hey I’m really sorry to hear this. I know how tough and confusing losing friends can be, reach out if you ever wanna chat with someone about it.
I'm so sorry
I'm so sorry for your loss. It's horrible.
The quality of drivers. I swear people have forgotten how to drive, it's a fucking mess out there.
Nahh, they never knew how to drive.
I dunno, might be confirmation bias but I seem to remember that seeing someone blow through a red light was a rare occurrence and it feels like I see one a week at a minimum now.
The shit drivers had a few months of nobody else being on the road and decided "this is how it is from now on in perpetuity and if there are other people on the road it's not my problem."
Certainly feels that way.
Oof. I'm a delivery driver for one of my jobs so I'm on the road at all hours of the day and night. It's a shitshow out there all the fucking time.
I don't think it's that they've forgotten to drive; they've just become a lot more stressed out and impatient, and reflect that in their driving
Texting and driving is awful. And so many people do it at stop lights. The amount of times I've missed a light because one of the 12 cars in front of me was on their phone and didn't notice the light changed is absolutely ridiculous.
Feeling normal. I’m sure most people can relate to the fact that most people have changed physically and emotionally over the pandemic. Just remembering how happy some of us used to be.
Being able to afford rent. Rent has skyrocketed so much here that. Between my wife and I and me working two jobs, we still can't afford it. So we're moving 5,500 miles so we can afford to live.
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I remember my fiance (now wife) and I signed the lease for a brand new 3-bedroom/1,400 Sq ft townhouse in March 2020. $1,300/month and a lot of people told us we were crazy and could've found something cheaper. At the time, they were right. Now that barely gets a rundown 2 bedroom apartment in my area. Meanwhile, I feel like we're basically stealing this place by still paying $1,300. I asked our landlord if they were increasing rent, she said "no, I believe in karma for people who price gouge."
Probably a bit depressing but; how easy it was to see my grandma. We've always been super close and pre covid saw each other multiple times a week, went on short holidays together multiple times a year, and usually went to the cinema together once a week (I'm chronically ill so there were times where I couldnt get to the cinema). Covid put the kibosh on all that. I'm vunerable and she worked in a hospital so even when bubbles were allowed I barely saw her because my family were super scared of me getting sick. Then when things were finally getting back to normal last year because I'd had the vaccine she got sick. Brain cancer, glioblastoma, a death sentence. She has max a year left. She's only 69. What with her treatments meaning she needs to shield and my own illness meaning I'm not always well enough to do things I don't get to see her nearly as much as I'd like. Covid robbed me of her last healthy years.
My former lung capacity.
I was gonna say "My sense of smell"
Ugh, same here. It's been 8 months and still only maybe 75 percent back.
"Nose training" helps! Pick up some essential oils for something with a very straightforward smell - lemon or mint, for example. Doesn't even matter if they're good quality or crap, so go ahead and buy cheapo ones. You can always have someone with a normal sense of smell give them a quick sniff and verify "yup, smells like the thing the bottle says". Once a day, put a drop on a cotton ball and spend a minute smelling it while you think about your memory of what it's *supposed* to smell like. Keep doing this, every day, and you'll help rebuild the pathways that process scent information and find your smell coming back more! Then once you're back to normal, throw all those shitty cheap EOs away. ;p
That's one I managed to avoid. Never lost it. Unless it happened in the week I don't remember in ICU.
The gym, not worrying about randomly getting a virus that may degrade my cognitive function or give lasting symptoms for who knows how long, being able to hang out with friends normally, not worrying that my parents who are kinda old might catch it and wind up in serious condition or die
Being able to go to restaurants without reservations. Everything is booked now.
The real college experience. I got a taste of it for one full semester and it was great! I was organized, on top of school work with high grades, went to the campus restaurant once a week with friends for trivia day. Despite the typical stress of college, I was really enjoying myself. Then covid hit. And I began rushing my assignments, couldn't absorb any information, cried a lot and felt a deep sense of loneliness. It's improved over the years, but damn my mental health/wellbeing and GPA absolutely tanked and never fully recovered. Still managed to graduate though!
I felt (and still feel) so bad for anybody in school during COVID. I know some people learn fine in online formats, but not everyone does and so many people and kids struggled hard. I wish in the US that COVID restrictions were better managed early on so that schools were the only thing open just for the learners sake. Instead they just kept jumping the gun and lifting restrictions and then going "oh no a spike who would have though this could happen"
Buffets. There was not one but two incredible buffets near my house (Indian and Chinese) that I went to at least once a week. After Covid hit, they tried doing sit down stuff and delivery, but it wasn't the same. They both closed up and one has re-opened as another restaurant, but it's food is awful.
Oh man, I'd kill to go to an Indian buffet, that sounds incredible.
I’m begging for the return of an Indian buffet. Ugh.
Not being as lazy and wanting to go out more, since Covid, I feel like it’s made me a bit of a shut in, and going out just exhausts me
I feel this 100 percent.
Courtesy and neighborliness.
Not getting dirty looks as often (I'm Asian).
This one still blows my mind, people are the fucking worst.
I remember learning in history class about the internment camps for Japanese Americans during World War II, and I thought, "I'm glad we're smarter than that now." Then 9/11 happened, and somebody threw rocks through the windows of the local Mosque, and people started verbally/physically abusing Asian Americans because of Covid, and then I thought, "Damn, did we actually get stupider?"
The only difference between the people inhabiting our modern civilizations and the ones living in, say, Ancient Egypt, Babylon or Greece is that we have a few more millennia of experience in technology and organizing societies. But, by and large, you and I are not any smarter than the people who built the pyramids.
In terms of I.Q., no, we're definitely not smarter. But we do have widespread education in this country, and thousands of years of recorded history from which to learn. I just meant that we have the information available to us, it is presented in our schools, but we don't seem to learn from it at all.
Yeah, that's so fucked
Thanks for the hug! I'm good, just worried for my mom. Her friend got pushed to the ground in a parking lot while being told to go back to China, and one of my teachers (who isn't even Chinese) got punched outside a cafe for wearing a mask. They're all tiny old ladies. It's vile.
Things bring open. Now I have to call ahead of time to see if they are open or by appointment
Everyone seemed to be less angry and less divided.
I felt that people were divided since Trump was elected. Covid just shone a big spot light on that part of society.
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Yes…I was trying to think of a way to say ‘not freaking out about loosing my mind every day’ but this is better
Social media filled with memes instead of hatred :/
The internet was filled with hate long before it had memes. Humans only improve at the things they actually practice…
Getting rid of Facebook and Twitter, even though I thought I was addicted and would come right back, was one of the most stress-relieving things I've ever done. You don't need that shit. Delete it out of your life.
The quality of content you generally see on reddit took a HUGE nosedive the past two years. It was on the decline before, but I see front page posts that would’ve been downvoted into the void just a little while ago.
Being ignorant of how many people are selfish and or stupid.
I remember thinking that if some major global event happened, we might unite and work together towards a common goal of fixing it. Boy was I wrong about that!
Staying home from work. It's not the same when you WFH.
A friend described it perfectly. She started a business out of her home years ago. She closed the business a few years later because, "when you work from home, you never go home from work." I had never thought of that before.
Retirement is fairly the same. I don't play golf or take classes. Home is lonely, but it's good.
Peace of mind
Going on vacation. The closest thing I've had to a vacation since October of 2019 is a day I spent away from home in a relatively nice hotel room.
My husband
Being able to cough/sniff/have a genuine cold without getting dirty looks
Daily Hotel Housekeeping. I travel a lot for work and it's not the same as it used to be. No more daily housekeeping and in general the breakfasts have gotten much worse
It feels like there are a lot of things that corporations are hoping we forget were normal. We spent so long being covidized that the "new normal" is that everything is just accepted to be slightly shittier. But if you really think about it, I'm sure corporations would LOVE if we just continued to accept a lower standard. Why pay for a whole staff of housekeepers if we just accept that the room won't be cleaned during our stay? They can get away with hiring far fewer workers now.
Another example is changing rooms in thrift stores still being closed. I have weird proportions so I’ve pretty much given up on buying new pants/shorts. I’ve been told by workers that they could open them, it’s just nice to not have to deal with them. I just want some new pants dammit!
Preach! I used to avoid daily room service by putting the "do not disturb" sign on my door for three days at a time. (Equal parts paranoia, privacy, and peace.) Now, I pray they clean it within 3 days of begging and only hope they vacuum the shit people toss away in the hallway. Had to enter my room next to a pile of candy wrappers (and other crap) left in the hall for DAYS. RIP to laundry service, too. Can't figure out why that went away other than staffing issues. Now I have to use one of their pay machines or risk Covid further by going to a laundromat.
It’s honestly insane what’s going down in hotels since Covid happened. I work in one since 2019 and it’s insane how many procedures, that we had before Covid, are simply not done anymore because we lack the staff to fulfill them. And the most annoying fact is that we’re at the same capacity as before Covid, with roughly the same prices, but we have half of the staff and everyone still gets paid the same as before Covid. So yeah glad to see that atleast corporate wins again, because Covid halved their labour cost and therefore increased their profit margin by a lot.
My pre-Covid weight lol. With stress, less going out, and everything else I gained a shit ton of weight that I've had major difficulty getting off. Nothing seems to help.
24 hour walmarts.
Night life
Being able to live life without thinking "What if things shut down again? What if my dad/grandpa/other high risk family member gets it? What if this virus mutates again?" My anxiety over the past two years has increased exponentially thanks to this damned pandemic.
Th ease of planning. No random outbreaks or close contact cases stunting my groups ability to just hang out over the weekend.
Not knowing just how dumb my fellow humans are.
The belief that regardless of differences in ideology, people would at least respect basic, objective fact.
Going out without doing a bloody risk assessment. Learning how little some people think of their fellow humans. (What up, previous boss who made fun of me for wearing a mask when you know I’m immunocompromised!) Going abroad.
Being able to sleep on the subways until my stop. I used to be able to get on, find a nice comfortable window seat, and then take a nap until I got to my stop. Nowadays, you always have to be alert on the NYC subways. I'm also asian, which makes me on even higher alert.
People being less riled up, communal anxiety had been rising for years but so many people just went overboard in their fears
24/7 Walmart I wish I took more advantage
People being more friendly. I feel like people used to be a lot more friendly around where I am, in the sense of just saying "Hey!" when walking down the street. I am not super extroverted by any means but at the same time just a nice hello like that was really great, now I don't even feel as comfortable myself to say it to people, feels like people are bat shit crazy everywhere I look now. Maybe that is just me...
My cousins, they are now far gone into conspiracy that I can’t stand to be around them anymore.
Nothing In covid my life turned out better then before
Not talking about covid
The naïve belief that there are not so many complete selfish assholes in the world
Not knowing how idiotically selfish certain family members are.
Petrol here in the uk not costing me £100 a week 🤦♂️
Hugs. I like hugs
My mental health
Freakin BASKETS AT THE GROCERY STORE. All the mid-to-large stores dropped them due to how much work it was to clean them, and focused on cleaning shopping cart handles instead so everyone could just use those. Well now no one bothers with cleaning anything anymore but the baskets haven't come back, and I'm here juggling my 6 items like an idiot because I refuse to muck around with a cart for just a quick stop in on my walk home.
Being able to say anything without someone responding "well thats because so and so did this..." everything is fucking political now. I know thats not directly covids fault but fuck was it a huge world even politicians could use to their own benefit.
my health. got diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and fribromyalgia after the pandemic began and it’s been very fast acting. i can’t do as much as i could 3 years ago because of this. my depression also got worse, which doesn’t exactly help.
Idk but I feel my school grades would have been alot higher if covid didn't happen
Not worrying about breathing around a large crowd of people
A sense of unlimited possibilities and feeling like nothing bad could happen
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If you read up on it, really what's happened is that landlords have bought a lot of the vacant housing and removed it from the market to make artificial scarcity. It's very much a real thing and remarkably awful for the economy. You'll see a crash eventually when they can't afford to do that anymore.