Pete's Log: Happy March!
Entry #1894, (Life in General)(posted when I was 42 years old.)
JB has been waking Jamie and me up maybe two out of three nights the past week or so, so maybe the rest of this entry is all just sleep deprivation talking. But it feels worth while to capture my state of mind for future reference.
Life has weighed on us somewhat strangely lately. On the one hand, almost all the snow is melted, it's been light out later, and we've been able to spend some quality time outdoors with JB and Boogs. On the other hand, we're just a couple weeks shy of hitting one year of pandemic lockdown.
I must add that I am well aware of just how lucky we have been. The fact that we're struggling mentally despite all the advantages we have really makes my heart feel for those who've been less lucky.
I already mentioned that it's been about a year since the geek bowl, but that thought seems to cross my mind daily. Last March also saw Tony visit us. There was already a feeling in the air that something was up — the conference he was in town for had seen many last-minute cancellations. It's weird now to have gone a year without out-of-town visitors.
I was also already seeing emails from management at work informing us that they were monitoring the situation. When we did finally get the word that we were switching to work-from-home, the initial expectation seemed to be that we were looking at somewhere between a couple weeks and a month. It still feels surreal that it's now been a year.
More than half of JB's life at this point. We feel extraordinarily lucky that she's at an age where she hasn't really perceived any impact from the pandemic. And we also feel lucky that she was able to return to daycare at the end of July. We joke that she has more of a social life than we do, but we really do see the benefits she's getting out of spending time with other kids.
Bert, Mary and Ruby stopped by on Saturday. We put out our fire pit, some toys for the kids, and some beers for the adults. As we headed into fall last year, we had invested in various items that we thought would enable us to continue having outdoor hangs through the winter. And even though we managed a handful, it wasn't what we were hoping for. The climbing case rate over the winter plus other factors just conspired against us. So the feeling of coming out of the thaw feels nice. As does seeing the case rates continue to drop along with good vaccine news.
As much as I consider myself an introvert, it's been quite revealing just how important social interactions seem to be. Early on there were some efforts to participate in zoom happy hours/game nights, but those just didn't really work for me. Regular Starcraft games with Brian and Branden have been a constant highlight of my social life. But it's weird to find myself thinking of the idea of just hanging out at a bar for a night of trivia to be incredibly luxurious.
I do worry that I won't even remember how to interact with strangers. But I feel hopeful. Getting to hang out with friends, even if outdoors in still-somewhat-cold weather, is wonderful. Getting to see JB interact with Ruby was real fun, since even though she's hanging out with kids her age every weekday, we don't usually get to observe it.
Things are going to be OK. Just get me that vaccine please.