I’ve started going into places without a mask on.

I welcome this development wholeheartedly, and I’m thrilled when I can see the faces of servers and store clerks and baristas who have been shrouded and muffled beneath layers of fabric all year. But it does feel a little odd. It feels like I’m forgetting something.

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I don’t remember where I first heard it, but there’s an idea out there that high-achieving people should strive to be a little better every day.

Like a lot of well-meaning life advice, this one sounds all right until you dig deeper.

What does it mean to get better? How do you measure it? Are we supposed to be getting better at everything we do, or one thing at a time? And what happens if you don’t get better?

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I tend to have trouble sticking to a routine.

I thought this was a personality trait. Ironically, though, it’s a habit: a habit of not having consistent habits. I supposed it stems from personality traits, like my desire for novelty and my optimistic take on life. But the pandemic has shown that, when the variables are reduced, I can stick to a routine just fine. And in fact, I’ve really benefited from doing so.

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Last fall, back when things were normal, I joined a singles tennis league.

I had started playing tennis only a couple of months before, but one of the reasons I started playing tennis in the first place was to develop my competitive side. My penchant for seeking win-win solutions had been causing me to back down in situations where it was arguably inappropriate to do so.

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When I bought sheets to outfit our tiny apartment, I just knew that they had to be 100% cotton.

I’m a snob when it comes to sheets, and a cotton/poly blend wasn’t going to do it for me. Maybe I’m too sensitive, like the princess of "The Princess and the Pea,” but cotton/poly blend sheets makes me feel like I’m sleeping in a plastic bag. So I walked down the aisle of the local Wal-Mart until I found a few 100% cotton sheet sets and picked one.

But over the next few months, I felt that something was off. These sheets just felt so flimsy. They were so soft that they always felt dirty, even when they were perfectly clean. I realized that even though the softness of sheets is often a selling point, I didn’t like soft sheets. I longed for the thick, cool, crisp sheets I had had has a child. Where were those?

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