Tbh my wife and I have gotten a lot closer through all of this and our relationship has never been better. But obviously YMMV on that and it helps that our jobs have been stable and both our companies are doing well during this.
Tbh my wife and I have gotten a lot closer through all of this and our relationship has never been better. But obviously YMMV on that and it helps that our jobs have been stable and both our companies are doing well during this.
Rorschach put it quite eloquently: "None of you seem to understand. I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with me".
I mostly just had to re-evaluate what level of exposure I was comfortable with. I was doing full complete reclusion for over two months and it was getting to me.
In the urban environment a few months in, enough people actually were receptive to in person dates because half of the population already went back to their at-risk parents and the other half wasn't going to, so our risk profile had some discretion. With enough information about the disease, after ensuring I wasn't an early adopter, my distancing technique expanded to just making sure my personal R0 is less than 1, as opposed to being actually worried I got it. So that just meant two weeks between encounters, routine tests, and select small groups of people.
I've since had great flings, and the biggest surprise was how many people I was able to get to come back to the city. People I didn't hit it off with before were going stir crazy at their parent's house or in whatever rural area they had retreated to. I have a good cadence now and with completely new dates I just ask them what their current distancing policy is.
But around early May it was definitely unsatisfactory. An absurd level of loneliness, and jealousy towards fulfilling relationships and thinking about the improbable poor luck to get here: I was involved with half a dozen women before lockdown, 2 left the city immediately, 2 got covid, 1's roommate got covid and sheltered in an area I couldn't reach while getting spooked, and 1 went full on recluse like me. Its been a wild ride on the dating scene since May for me, and it just requires a different level of discretion, testing, periods of not interacting with other people which is actually super easy for an ambivert leaning towards introvert like me. (interacting with other people definitely drains me, instead of adds energy to me)
Just adding some color to "the grass is greener", as well as what a sometimes-extroverted bachelors actually wants.
Yup, that's been my experience as well. I have no kids, but live with my girlfriend. We're certainly experiencing some cabin fever, but things are mostly ok. My parent friends have been going crazy with stress, and my friends who are sheltering by themselves miss human contact, and many of them really want to be back in the social atmosphere of an office.
We all choose the life we want because of our own individual preferences.
I'm a deeply introverted single guy, but personally I'm done with this. I don't like video games or TV, and virtual meet ups are so two dimensional... my pets and plants have kept me sane but I need real people again.
What I've been sucessful with is limited gatherings on a weekly basis. (That's to limit who I see, when, and if something does come up you can responsibly disclose all of your ~partners~ contacts for the last week.
Internet dating has been pretty excellent as the priorities there have seemed to change as well, along with everything just being slower. There is less distraction and competition for attention, it feels like. Video dates were never the move, nice try though.
The thin possibly of a great collaborative partner that has a matching libido is enticing after a few months of the extreme contrary. At this point I just try to keep my own R0 to <1, if I happen to get it or are around more than 1 person/group in a two week time period.