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The pandemic has undeniably been a boon for third-party food delivery companies. DoorDash, as we described late last year, posted profits for the first time in its history, owing largely to pandemic-fueled deliveries to the suburbs. Similarly, Uber told investors late last year that it too expects to finally hit profitability, likely by the end of 2021, owing largely to—you guessed it—UberEats.

Albertsons, the nation’s third largest grocer, recently announced it is discontinuing its in-house grocery delivery system, replacing thousands of jobs by outsourcing its delivery operations to Instacart.

I’ve always known we were going to get out of this phase of the pandemic, but this week was the first time I actually could see it playing out. Indeed, what has been a distant promise is slowly becoming a tangible future as concrete plans are being laid across the nation for a gradual relaxing of social distancing standards and a reopening of shuttered businesses. While logistics and timetables are going to vary from state-to-state, county-to-county, and even city-to-city, examining California’s recently announced, four-stage reopening plan offers our first real glimpse at what our new normal will look like and how we will get there. 

Despite feeling like they keep everything in place and static, for the people under lockdown, quarantines are quite dynamic. Measures to address a pandemic, and the way people respond to those measures, change over time and seemingly on a dime. We did not all suddenly shift into pandemic mode and stop evolving and adapting. 

Yesterday at about 11:30 AM, for no particular reason other than that we could, my man and I ordered 70 (yes, s-e-v-e-n-t-y) pieces of KFC popcorn chicken for $10, with free delivery to boot. Having recently abandoned any hopes that our Coachella/summer beach bodies will be of any use to us during a lockdown, we are determined to eat whatever the heck we want, whenever the heck we want it. It’s the form our grief takes.