Hi ladies, my name is Laurel Scardelli. I live alone and I'm single so this quarantine has

been a lot of solo time for me and romance has been on all time low as you can imagine.

So to kind of remedy this sometimes loneliness, I've been doing some things super simple,

just lighting a candle and keeping it next to me while I'm working at my kitchen table

or relaxing on the couch or eating a meal. And the candle just kind of reminds me that

I can ignite the fire in my life without somebody else there like I can sort of romance myself and my guy.

This is NPR's Life Kit. I'm Malak Garib. I'm a journalist on NPR's Science Desk.

Last week I was inside a convenience store and a delivery man was stocking up sodas without

wearing a mask. It made me feel really uncomfortable. We were in a small window of space together.

If a delivery man was sick and shedding virus, it could have easily spread through the air inside

the store. As I waited in the checkout line, I felt my anxiety growing. What was I supposed to do

in the situation? Should I say something? Is that rude? He's just doing his job. But also, what if he has

COVID? Living in the age of coronavirus means confronting thoughts like these. All our normal

ways of being in the world have new rules now. And the rules are so new and people are all

interpreting them differently. Hanging out in a friend's stoop, attending a backyard barbecue,

going for a jog with your running buddy, behaviors that feel vital to surviving this weird time

are also potential points for friction. How do you navigate social situations when everyone is

on a slightly different page? Folks just want to know what to do and how to conduct themselves so

that they're not offending others, so that they're not hurting other people's feelings, so that they

too show up as their best selves in this particular instance. That is Elaine Swan,

she's an etiquette expert. And she's a bit of a hot commodity right now as people are shifting to

a new social contract during this pandemic. I called her up to get down into the nitty-gritty of

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