My answers don’t differ very much. Peace of mind, family and friend gatherings, etc. Traveling (when I have money for that sort of thing). Conferences, too!
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It’s funny, the nature-related things have barely been affected by the pandemic, so I will probably actually do less of them, because I’ve been doing more of them as they are much of what I can do. And my family is spread so far out, that hasn’t been affected as much because we never have been able to get together easily and frequently so it’s not a huge change.
My big things I’m looking forward to:
- Social dance, especially weekly swing dances
- Parties, especially dance parties. Parties with a lot of people where I can talk to people for hours and meet new people.
- Going to the bar and sitting there for hours with friends drinking beer
- Having people over for dinner
- Going out to eat, especially Asian food, especially eating at buffets, dining halls, and food courts, probably the thing I’ve missed most.
- Sitting in public spaces like coffee shops, academic buildings, or the indoor common areas of my apartment complex, while doing my own work around other people, meeting friends to talk, or just hanging out.
- Meeting people face-to-face for business, indoors, to talk about things we’re working on, and being able to sit down at the computer together, or at a desk with papers, and show each other stuff.
- Meeting new people in general; this has crawled to a snail’s pace during the pandemic and when I have been introduced to people, it’s felt more distant.
- Thrift store shopping, spending hours in the store and trying lots of stuff on
- Language clubs or hours where I meet people face-to-face to speak in a foreign language I’m trying to learn
- Celebrations. Weddings, graduation parties, holidays, big get-togethers.
- Being able to do basic stuff without it having to be stressful and complex. Taking my time and chatting with people while I do it. Not having to wear a mask all the time. I’m really looking forward to grocery shopping, which I used to do more frequently and in smaller chunks, and which was way more fun.
- Not having to call businesses to check hours before going there at reasonable times when they normally would have been open. Not having to check travel restrictions when going across state lines, which I do a minimum of a few times a week during the course of my “normal” life.
- Public transportation. Riding buses and trains!!!
- Board game days/nights, especially with those really long strategy games. Playing stuff like Terraforming Mars, Castles of Burgundy, Terra Mystica, 7 wonders, Concordia, Puerto Rico, Agricola. But…I will probably not be playing Pandemic haha.
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Even before this I led a relatively quiet life with only occasional evening events, but I miss chance to spontaneously socialize and see a neighbor’s indoor art studio or congregate for Shakespeare in the park. The only shopping I do now is online.
My state has fewer restrictions, so our self policing has been less understood by those around us. To be the only standout who won’t attend a birthday party or garden event feels surreal.
You should try making some Asian food. Soba noodle soup is fun to eat and fun to make. Also I recommend baking bread. Bread dough is the original play dough.
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Personally, I’m looking forward to going on backpacking trips again! Right now I feel that it would be irresponsible to travel or hike with others, but hopefully, the pandemic will get better soon so we can all enjoy nature. See you out there!
- Accipitridae
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Getting the health care backlog cleared and being able to have my ‘elective’ surgery done and returning to some level of pain free life. Sadly, it may be 2022 at best before that happens.
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Yeah… what happens when someone who isn’t experiencing the pain gets to decide what is “elective.” 
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We’d planned a trip to see Carlsbad and Alamogordo again for September of this year; that…did not happen. I want to see family in the area, assuming they’re still alive (one is in hospice now, dementia). I want to see the Sands again. I want to see the bat flights at Carlsbad. Maybe luck in some gemsbok, and black tail rattlers, and new sparrows, and confusing sceloporus. Some kangaroo rats would be cool too, or geckos. And getting up to Cloudcroft to see the different mountain birds, and elk, and maybe get lucky enough to see a bear.
On a much more prosiac note, I just want to go to a restaurant and catch a movie. I want my kids to be able to play sports like they wanted to (not my thing but hey if they wanna play soccer…).
Been bouncing around east Texas with the kids a lot (20ish state parks this year total) since that’s outside and social distancing is easy that way. Let them play and swim in the lakes and streams and I do some very casual birding and herping with one short trip to the Wichita’s in Oklahoma. Lots of picnics with sandwiches and fruit.
had a friend FINALLY get her knee replacement done recently after being put off repeatedly for COVID. Yeah it isn’t life saving but she can actually walk without massive pain now. I wish they’d have kind of prioritized that stuff differently.
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I understand that even in the elective surgery line there are people prioritized ahead of me. That being said I’m not looking forward to another year or so of this (goodness knows how big the backlog will be after this surge, my fear is we will be in shutdown mode until late spring or early summer here, so months more of stuff will be backed up).
That being said, I really would like to know when I get get it resolved, I’ve got an elbow ligament totally torn off the bone that needs repairing.
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I look forward to going on group birds walks again. During this time the birders in NE Ohio have communicated more online. That has been fun. But, if we do run into each other out in the field, we keep our distance.
While I really like that a lot of people are discovering our local parks, the parks need a break. They are very crowded at times. So, I hope the parks a less crowded as people can go back to restaurants, movie theaters, etc.
I would also like to be able to go to a store to try on clothes.
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Oh no! Right at the beginning of the pandemic my mom tore off a tendon in her pinky finger, and the doctor basically told her it was never going to get fixed because it isn’t a big impact on her life. It stopped being painful after a few months, but the finger doesn’t fully bend any more and she misses it when gripping things. Your elbow, that sounds much worse.
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seriously?? In any sane world the patient would determine that, not the doctor… that sounds like a serious injury to me! (If only the costs of medical care in the US weren’t stupid…)
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