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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.

<strong>The other day I jumped in my friend's car and we drove 550 miles from suburban Maryland to her cabin in the mountains of Western North Carolina. </strong>It felt really great to get out of town--the leaves are starting to really turn now</strong>--bright crimson topped the trees and the highways were adorned by miles and miles of white Queen Anne's Lace and flaming yellow goldenrod and blue aster and it felt like <strong>a rainbow of colors everywhere, summer turning to autumn,</strong> the earth going about its business just fine. Walking around the back roads since getting here feels like another world too--not a soul in sight and no need to pull my mask out for hours, just breathing in crisp, cool mountain air. It's been good for the soul. And <strong>yet, driving through Southern Virginia and Tennessee was a shock too--almost no one wearing a mask</strong> at the gas stations we stopped at, when in our area just outside Washington D.C most everyone wears a mask. <strong>It was like crossing over into another country. "What part of this science do you not believe in", I want to ask these people?</strong> <strong>I feel like I am working so hard to stay sane and do my part</strong> to restore some normalcy to the U.S.--<strong>writing letters to people encouraging them to vote, training to work the polls because of the poll worker shortage.</strong> I am 58 and not at low risk, but at much lower risk than people in their 70s who usually staff the polls, and I am willing to take that chance to make sure EVERYONE can vote. And yet, <strong>nothing feels like enough. Last night my dreams were crazy-anxiety- filled; over and over I kept arriving to large public gatherings with no one wearing a mask--not even me, and then I would wake up in a panic that I was nfected with COVID.</strong> <strong>Watching Trump's latest shit-show this week--getting the virus, and then pretending it wasn't a big deal</strong>--never mind that he got the best medical treatment ANYONE in the world has gotten--<strong>makes me sick to my stomach. </strong>The sheer amount of lies he tells makes me sick. I think it's just too much cognitive dissonance to withstand--the narrative he creates versus the one we KNOW that we are all living, and he gets SO Much press and attention. I cannot wait for him to be gone and have someone in the White House who actually cares about the people he serves.