Illinois is Moving to Phase 3

Last Friday, Illinois started to reopen. To be more specific, the whole state entered Phase 3 of the reopening plan. The state is doing surprisingly well, keeping all the numbers under control.
I called my eye doctor (not opened yet), my hair salon (got an appointment for Saturday), and my nails spa (got an appointment for Wednesday). It’s not like those are the most important things in my life, but those are small parts that started to fill the places they belong to.

It is also about human connections. I know both the hairstylist and the spa owner for quite a while, and they know me, and our conversations are usually beyond a barbershop small-talk.

In the hair salon, they reorganized the space so that each stylist has plenty of space on both sides. Everybody wears masks, and they clean thoroughly after each client. Also, they are not using blowdries anymore.

In the nail spa, everybody was ecstatic to see mom and me. I chatted at length with the owner. She told me that she applied for a small business grant, but is still waiting for approval. They are pretty busy after reopening. However, she is upset that some people do not keep appointments, and she can’t take anybody without an appointment these days.

I wish her to get through these rough times. She is doing all the right things to grow her business, offering exceptional services, working very hard, and always smiling.

I didn’t do the outdoor dining yet although I saw lots of places setting the tents outside.

Igor was able to come to Palatine for a couple of hours and visited with my mom. I suggested they would sit at the shelter on the platform, which is outdoor, but comfortable enough. I also instructed mom to wear a mask, which she did, and Igor did as well. I stopped by to give Igor a whole shopping bag of different fruits from Eurofesh. In view or the subsequent events, it was a great idea :).

The most important thing for me, however, is the fact that we are resuming clinic escorting. We have new procedures, and last week, all the experienced escorts were invited to zoom training sessions. The first day of escorting will be on Friday. I was worrying that the Loop will remain closed, but it reopened today. Metra is still running a weird schedule and will continue for the rest of the week. That means, I will be an hour late for the shift, but our team leader said it’s okay. I can’t even describe how excited I am to be back, even with our reduced powers. For the record, antis never stopped 😦