Keepin' it positive and testing negative

 Hey Friends,

Well not only the Cayman Island Covid bubble burst, but it's burst and exploded, rapidly spreading Covid-19 across all three of our islands. 

The good news: 

1) Almost 80% of our adult population is vaccinated.

2) We currently only have 4 people admitted to hospital due to Covid

3) We now have lateral flow tests on island (rapid tests)

3) Our borders are set to open (No quarantine) on November 20 to vaccinated adults. This is huge for the island, as we've been closed since March 2020 and tourism is taking a beating!

The bad news, however, is that over a hundred people are testing positive on a daily basis, resulting in hundreds of families who are currently in isolation. Businesses are shutting down temporarily or reducing their hours and schools are becoming scant with staff and students as families are waiting out their isolation at home. It kind of feels inevitable at some point, that we will all test positive, given that our island is so small and we all interact with each other on a daily. 

I had my first brush with a positive today, in fact, when I was notified that the two children I pulled for therapy on Wednesday had both tested positive. Immediately my brain was inundated with flashbacks of Covid positive #1 sucking on his fingers before wrapping himself around my legs in an attempt to receive a second sticker, and Covid positive #2 sneezing on "Room on the Broom" when he temporarily moved his mask down to his chin. Yikes. Within the hour I had convinced myself that I was surely positive as well, although I willed my vaccine to do it's damn job and waited for my lateral flow test to arrive. 

I found a quiet corner in my office to wait for the test to arrive. Most of my colleagues knew what was going on and we jokingly referred to my quiet corner as the "Covid corner." I noticed my lovely coworkers making wide circles around me when they had to pass. I had also brought cookies to the office that day and noted that suddenly no one was eating my "Covid cookies." The stigma is real, people. 😜

I took the test in the staff washroom with another coworker who had worked with Covid positive #2 and it felt strangely like some weird colleague pregnancy test bonding moment. 

"God I hope I'm not positive. I'm not ready for this."

"I don't have the time right now for a positive!"

Thankfully, we were both negative. This time. We lived to see another Covid-negative day, which is challenging as a "front-line worker" who is sneezed, coughed, and spit on (inadvertently) by little unvaccinated people swarming with germs on a regular basis. 

I'm either not pregnant or Covid negative. Either way, it's good news for me!

During this process, I whatsapp'd Evan various messages, explaining the situation.

Me at 10:15am: 2 of my kids tested positive. Just waiting now for my test.

Me at 10:45am: Island is sold of tests. Just waiting for manager to bring me a test from Department of Education

*At 11:00am, I could see that Evan had not read my messages, which is a common occurrence. 

Me at 11:15am: Still waiting for my test. I will need to test for 4 consecutive days, and as long as I'm negative, I'm good to go. 

*Evan has still not read any of my messages

Me at 11:45am: I'm negative...today anyways. 

I kind of forgot about Evan's radio silence on the Whatsapp and carried on with my day after high-fiving my co-worker for narrowly escaping our first brush with Covid. 

Finally around 12:30pm, I could see that Evan had replied, after missing 5 of my Whatsapp messages:

Evan at 12:30pm: You're not a downer at all! 

Huh?

What?

Oh. My. God. Did Evan even read my messages? 

I can only assume that he had read the last message, determined that I was feeling down in the dumps, went to his bank of positive affirmations, and sent one my way!

Firstly, it's kind of nice that Evan has a bank of positive affirmations for me, and I do always appreciate his lovely messages. But honestly...

This is hilarious. What if I had been HIV positive?

Kirstie: Evan I'm HIV positive

Evan: Good! Love your sunny outlook! 

My office and I laughed for hours over this unfortunate miscommunication. 

*Disclaimer: Evan swears that his response was a a joke. But my story is funnier, and I don't really believe him. 

Funny enough, this isn't the first time that I've caught Evan sending pre-recorded positive messages from his "wife bank."

Back in the day, when we owned our first gym in Prince Albert, Evan was working 12 hour days, and we were rarely seeing each other. I figured that the least he could do was send a message or two throughout the day to stay in touch. 

"Why can't you just send me a message...like see how my day's going? Like don't you care?" (Oh man, I sound soooo needy, right?)

Immediately following my whiny request, Evan began sending me a daily message:

"Hope you're having a good day, bud!"

"Have a great day, buddy. Love you!"

"How's the day going, bud?"

I was pleased to see that my attentive husband was responding to my needs, and despite the fact that he was pulling ridiculous hours at the gym, I felt like he really cared.

It took a solid year for me to realize that these daily messages were coming in at the exact time each day. Similiar messages were suspiciously cycled through on a weekly basis as well. 

Finally one day I confronted Ev about his daily check-ins. 

Ev confessed immediately, obviously not thinking that this was a problem at all,  "Well, ya. So I sent myself a notification. Every day at 2pm, my phone reminds me to send you a message." 

"So you aren't actually thinking about me at 2pm?"

"Yes I am thinking of you. My phone notifies me and I think about you."

Hmmm....so you're saying that you ARE thinking about me?

I mean...it's kind of brilliant. 

It totally takes the romance out of the situation, but kinda genius.

I feel like Ev could make mad money if he used his genius to create a "happy wife, happy life" app that automatically sends positive messages to your wife on a daily basis. Just a thought. 

Anyway...that's the update for now.

Cheers to keepin' it positive and testing negative....for now.