Day #25: Virtual Happy Hour and Outside
Shoutout to my cousin Valorie who helped me fill in some details about the family after yesterday's post, thank you Valorie, glad you read it. When this is over I'm adding road trip to finally meet Valorie and her mom to my travel list.
I think I'm gonna keep this kind of short tonight but I just wanted to say I joined the ranks of people who have done virtual happy hour with friends and I'm glad I did. Chatted with some mom friends...got to hear how everyone is coping and not coping. A little bit of venting, a little bit of laughter, a little bit of actual fear, kind of the normal combo for these times. I have a love hate relationship with technology but I am grateful that we can connect in all these ways now. My dad really can't...the tech is beyond him...and I feel for him because I think the isolation has been that much harder for him as a result.
Today we indulged in one of Daddy and James's favorite pastimes, which is walking on abandoned railroad tracks. Not a lot of people do that, so awesome for social distancing. I didn't realize how important outside was to me until all of this came about.
Speaking of which, the Girl Scouts made the decision to close camp for the summer yesterday which felt like a blow even though its impact on me is small, the cancellation of the annual campouts for the Friends of St. Albans. But camp itself is so important to me and holds such a place in my heart that hearing no one would be out there was a hard blow. Not surprising and I think a good decision, but it hurt all the same. One thing that I do know is it isn't unprecedented...in my learning about the history of the camp I know it was closed at times during the 1940s because of polio outbreaks, which is somehow reassuring.
It's odd what's both reassuring and depressing. When Max and I went on our road trip...last weekend? Was it really only last weekend? to the beach, I was watching the birds dive and play around in the waves (see? I told you...this is making me a birdwatcher...) I thought...if something, be it this or anything else really does wipe humanity off the planet, this thing, these birds, this beach, this scene...it will still be here. They don't need us to do this. The birds will do just fine. That shouldn't have been an uplifting thought...writing it here it sounds like the most depressing thing ever...but it was somehow soothing. Somehow a reminder that the world is bigger than me...bigger than all of us...really helped for reasons I don't totally understand.
We are now gonna go watch the documentary on tigers that is captivating the Internet so be aware some kind of post about media consumption in weird times is forthcoming in the next few days. In the meantime, I'm grateful for outside, flowers, that Max loves flowers, chicken soup, root beer, happy hour, birds, books, another day of health for my family, and naps.
I think I'm gonna keep this kind of short tonight but I just wanted to say I joined the ranks of people who have done virtual happy hour with friends and I'm glad I did. Chatted with some mom friends...got to hear how everyone is coping and not coping. A little bit of venting, a little bit of laughter, a little bit of actual fear, kind of the normal combo for these times. I have a love hate relationship with technology but I am grateful that we can connect in all these ways now. My dad really can't...the tech is beyond him...and I feel for him because I think the isolation has been that much harder for him as a result.
Today we indulged in one of Daddy and James's favorite pastimes, which is walking on abandoned railroad tracks. Not a lot of people do that, so awesome for social distancing. I didn't realize how important outside was to me until all of this came about.
Speaking of which, the Girl Scouts made the decision to close camp for the summer yesterday which felt like a blow even though its impact on me is small, the cancellation of the annual campouts for the Friends of St. Albans. But camp itself is so important to me and holds such a place in my heart that hearing no one would be out there was a hard blow. Not surprising and I think a good decision, but it hurt all the same. One thing that I do know is it isn't unprecedented...in my learning about the history of the camp I know it was closed at times during the 1940s because of polio outbreaks, which is somehow reassuring.
It's odd what's both reassuring and depressing. When Max and I went on our road trip...last weekend? Was it really only last weekend? to the beach, I was watching the birds dive and play around in the waves (see? I told you...this is making me a birdwatcher...) I thought...if something, be it this or anything else really does wipe humanity off the planet, this thing, these birds, this beach, this scene...it will still be here. They don't need us to do this. The birds will do just fine. That shouldn't have been an uplifting thought...writing it here it sounds like the most depressing thing ever...but it was somehow soothing. Somehow a reminder that the world is bigger than me...bigger than all of us...really helped for reasons I don't totally understand.
We are now gonna go watch the documentary on tigers that is captivating the Internet so be aware some kind of post about media consumption in weird times is forthcoming in the next few days. In the meantime, I'm grateful for outside, flowers, that Max loves flowers, chicken soup, root beer, happy hour, birds, books, another day of health for my family, and naps.
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