Haaa.
It's better, by a little, than March. At least we're used to and completely desensitized to things being cancelled by now. But it doesn't suck any less when it happens.
Texas started the reopening process at the beginning of May. We never saw a dramatic drop in cases, despite being mostly closed for 1.5 months. I think that was problematic for reopening but also, how were we going to stay closed for longer when our case count was still so low.
Things were incrementally increased throughout the month of May, more businesses allowed to open, more capacity in open businesses, etc. Some social gatherings were allowed if outdoors. I don't know what happened in there (some blame it on Memorial Day, some blame it on protests, some blame it on increased testing) - I personally believe it was just a mix of all the things and that everyone was just complacent after being cooped up for months and not seeing a big rise in the cases. Either way, I believe Texas's case count has tripled or more in the last 3 weeks. It's not great. We actually know people tangentially that have or have had Covid. Offices were opening but now are closing back up again. Restaurants are back to 50% capacity from 75%. Bars are once again shut down.
Last week felt a lot like March again. I drank too much, had trouble sleeping, it was just hard. I have major doubts about what the fall will look like for Owen for school and for both of us for work. Thinking about the future gives me a lot of anxiety.
Adam did an antibody test through work that came up non-reactive, which was a total bummer. We were sort of hoping he'd been asymptomatic and that maybe we'd all already have antibodies.
It's been a roller coaster. I vacillate between being overjoyed when we get to do anything abut also feeling the despair of feeling like I'm living a watered down version of my life, where nothing is as good as it once was. It's a weird spot to be in and a strange way to feel, to be certain.
Last week I was in this place where I thought I'd lose my shit if I heard one more person say, "I'm waiting to do XXX until there's a vaccine" as if that is guaranteed. This week I feel more hopeful that maybe there will be a vaccine and we'll get past this. I keep thinking about the Spanish Flu pandemic and hoping that this just takes it's course over the next few months and rides off into the virus sunset (NEVER TO BE HEARD FROM AGAIN GTFO CORONA). It's a pretty unhealthy place to be in terms of my mental health.
I'm up a little more than 10 lbs since this started. Goal is to work on that in baby steps first. Lose the Covid weight. Work on the Move-To-Houston weight. Work on drinking less. Work on sleeping more and consuming less news. Work on the things that I can change.
Monday, June 29, 2020
Halfway through 2020
Let me start of by saying - this year sucks. We'll be halfway through on Wednesday. It sucks to look back and think "cool. six months of the year are gone. two of them were fine. four of them sucked." What's even worse than that is knowing that the next six of this year are likely to continue to be pretty crappy.
Without further adu, let's see where we are on this goals list. BLAH.
1. Leave the country at least once. - THIS IS NOT LOOKING PROMISING. Dammit.
2. Run the Chicago Marathon and beat my time from 2009. Just waiting on them to cancel. I've already planning on not running because I don't want to do a watered down version of it.
3. Take Owen on another mother/son trip. This is still in the realm of possibility... we'll see.
4. Keep working on strength and yoga classes (goal is 4X of each per week) Strength A+++ I've done probably 200+ classes this year already. Yoga... abysmal fail.
5. Do at least one major house project to get it over with! Likely O's bathroom. We refinanced the house and for the same payment we were able to pull out about half of what we need. That plus some aggressive savings means that we're getting ready to gut the kitchen, laundry room, powder room, O's bathroom and do some of the not so glamorous stuff like re-piping the entire house and reinforcing our attic.
6. Date night once a month in Houston. I think we've actually been managing this???? YES.
7. Figure out better sleep habits with the Whoop. Sleep? HA. To be fair, I was doing really well with it before COVID so I'll give myself some grace on that one.
8. Get back to 2017 fighting weight and eating habits. EPIC EPIC EPIC FAIL. I've come real close to gaining the Covid 19.
9. Start budgeting every month with discipline. I didn't do well with this but I am ready for you July. We now have a car payment that I will attack with vigor.
10. Astros away game in Atlanta. WAHHHHH.
11. Go somewhere completely new. Fingers crossed we can go to Panama City Beach in September (rescheduled from May) so I can get this one.
12. Galleria staycation at Christmas and summer at the Marquis. Summer is not looking great at the moment... we. will. see.
13. Do something creative, even if it's just one of those drunk painting places. Yeah. They're all closed. Add to the list of I will do it if I can.
14. Take Owen to College Station. We were scheduled to go in April. Sad day. I might take him in the fall if the kids are back on campus.
15. Meet Pelo peeps at HRI and hopefully meet Jess Sims or Matt Wilpers! DOOOONNNNNNEEEEE CHECK CHECK AND CHECK! NAILED IT!
16. Continue to learn to be a better listener, you know, talk less, smile more. Nope.
17. Let's try this again. 3/4 fruits or veggies with every meal. So far so terrible.
18. Do something really fun for my birthday since it's A) on a Saturday and B) the big 3-9! All I want for my birthday, Christmas, all the everything is an effective vaccine!
19. Reorganize things I can change at work. I think this is going well ish.
20. Figure out my new retirement savings situation. Work in progress. On the positive side, Peloton stock tripled since we bought it. WOOT.
Without further adu, let's see where we are on this goals list. BLAH.
1. Leave the country at least once. - THIS IS NOT LOOKING PROMISING. Dammit.
2. Run the Chicago Marathon and beat my time from 2009. Just waiting on them to cancel. I've already planning on not running because I don't want to do a watered down version of it.
3. Take Owen on another mother/son trip. This is still in the realm of possibility... we'll see.
4. Keep working on strength and yoga classes (goal is 4X of each per week) Strength A+++ I've done probably 200+ classes this year already. Yoga... abysmal fail.
5. Do at least one major house project to get it over with! Likely O's bathroom. We refinanced the house and for the same payment we were able to pull out about half of what we need. That plus some aggressive savings means that we're getting ready to gut the kitchen, laundry room, powder room, O's bathroom and do some of the not so glamorous stuff like re-piping the entire house and reinforcing our attic.
6. Date night once a month in Houston. I think we've actually been managing this???? YES.
7. Figure out better sleep habits with the Whoop. Sleep? HA. To be fair, I was doing really well with it before COVID so I'll give myself some grace on that one.
8. Get back to 2017 fighting weight and eating habits. EPIC EPIC EPIC FAIL. I've come real close to gaining the Covid 19.
9. Start budgeting every month with discipline. I didn't do well with this but I am ready for you July. We now have a car payment that I will attack with vigor.
10. Astros away game in Atlanta. WAHHHHH.
11. Go somewhere completely new. Fingers crossed we can go to Panama City Beach in September (rescheduled from May) so I can get this one.
12. Galleria staycation at Christmas and summer at the Marquis. Summer is not looking great at the moment... we. will. see.
13. Do something creative, even if it's just one of those drunk painting places. Yeah. They're all closed. Add to the list of I will do it if I can.
14. Take Owen to College Station. We were scheduled to go in April. Sad day. I might take him in the fall if the kids are back on campus.
15. Meet Pelo peeps at HRI and hopefully meet Jess Sims or Matt Wilpers! DOOOONNNNNNEEEEE CHECK CHECK AND CHECK! NAILED IT!
16. Continue to learn to be a better listener, you know, talk less, smile more. Nope.
17. Let's try this again. 3/4 fruits or veggies with every meal. So far so terrible.
18. Do something really fun for my birthday since it's A) on a Saturday and B) the big 3-9! All I want for my birthday, Christmas, all the everything is an effective vaccine!
19. Reorganize things I can change at work. I think this is going well ish.
20. Figure out my new retirement savings situation. Work in progress. On the positive side, Peloton stock tripled since we bought it. WOOT.
Monday, March 30, 2020
Camp Corona Diaries - Edition 5
Since we had a week of Spring Break for both Owen and me, it was really boring. I consumed way too much news and social media. I had no real work to do. I think on Monday or Tuesday, they announced the school closures would go until Easter (anticipated return of 4/13) which is where we still stand.
They opened a bunch of drive-through testing centers in our area. Cases went up by a lot but not exponentially so I'm still of the hope that we caught it early here in Houston.
I think it was Wednesday that we decided to make a run to Total Wine and Adam's office to get a few things he'd be needing for working at home. I was in the car in the parking garage waiting for him and Owen to come downstairs when I called my dad. He was on his way home from the hospital where Eileen had just been admitted. She always has a low level cough but she got sick at dialysis and had a fever so they took her to the hospital as a part of their normal precautions. Except nothing is normal right now. Dad left her at the hospital where she was waiting to be tested for COVID among other things. He was crying, she was super sick. Once he went back to the hospital, he'd be there for the duration. He described people sitting in chairs outside the hospital, not able to be with their loved ones. After I got off the phone with him, I lost my shit. The gravity of everything was hitting me. If someone in your family dies right now, you can't even have a funeral or be there to comfort each other. I was upset about all the celebrations and the fun we'd be missing but I never even thought about the human need to be there for each other during the really shitty times, too.
That night was TOUGH. I slept so shitty that whole week. I remember panicking at one point thinking of this invisible virus holding all of us hostage that we can't see or even feel until it's too late. I was horrified and remember crying, "This thing is EVERYWHERE."
Thankfully the next day, we found out that Eileen was negative for COVID but she did have pneumonia. We knew she wanted and the hospital wanted her released as soon as possible so we waited. When I talked to Dad later that day (now Thursday) he said she was doing MUCH better and that we could call her. Owen and I got to FaceTime with her later, which thank goodness for FaceTime during this time or I think we'd have lost our minds.
Some random non-chronological asides:
1. I got a gallon of milk on 3/12 in my panic curbside order, when schools were closed. I looked at the expiration date (3/30) and thought as I put it in the fridge, "this will all be over then". When I threw out the last tiny bit of it today, that made me REAL sad. We are only at the beginning, I'm afraid.
2. Trump said yesterday that we're looking at April 30th. My baby's birthday. That was depressing.
3. At this moment, I'm watching a Harris County press conference and they said it's not a matter of extending the stay at home orders, it's more how long to extend for. I'm waiting for school to extend until at least the end of April at some point this week.
4. I'm sick thinking how many restaurants we love will have to close because of this.
It feels a bit like we are still in the very beginning of a nightmare.
They opened a bunch of drive-through testing centers in our area. Cases went up by a lot but not exponentially so I'm still of the hope that we caught it early here in Houston.
I think it was Wednesday that we decided to make a run to Total Wine and Adam's office to get a few things he'd be needing for working at home. I was in the car in the parking garage waiting for him and Owen to come downstairs when I called my dad. He was on his way home from the hospital where Eileen had just been admitted. She always has a low level cough but she got sick at dialysis and had a fever so they took her to the hospital as a part of their normal precautions. Except nothing is normal right now. Dad left her at the hospital where she was waiting to be tested for COVID among other things. He was crying, she was super sick. Once he went back to the hospital, he'd be there for the duration. He described people sitting in chairs outside the hospital, not able to be with their loved ones. After I got off the phone with him, I lost my shit. The gravity of everything was hitting me. If someone in your family dies right now, you can't even have a funeral or be there to comfort each other. I was upset about all the celebrations and the fun we'd be missing but I never even thought about the human need to be there for each other during the really shitty times, too.
That night was TOUGH. I slept so shitty that whole week. I remember panicking at one point thinking of this invisible virus holding all of us hostage that we can't see or even feel until it's too late. I was horrified and remember crying, "This thing is EVERYWHERE."
Thankfully the next day, we found out that Eileen was negative for COVID but she did have pneumonia. We knew she wanted and the hospital wanted her released as soon as possible so we waited. When I talked to Dad later that day (now Thursday) he said she was doing MUCH better and that we could call her. Owen and I got to FaceTime with her later, which thank goodness for FaceTime during this time or I think we'd have lost our minds.
Some random non-chronological asides:
1. I got a gallon of milk on 3/12 in my panic curbside order, when schools were closed. I looked at the expiration date (3/30) and thought as I put it in the fridge, "this will all be over then". When I threw out the last tiny bit of it today, that made me REAL sad. We are only at the beginning, I'm afraid.
2. Trump said yesterday that we're looking at April 30th. My baby's birthday. That was depressing.
3. At this moment, I'm watching a Harris County press conference and they said it's not a matter of extending the stay at home orders, it's more how long to extend for. I'm waiting for school to extend until at least the end of April at some point this week.
4. I'm sick thinking how many restaurants we love will have to close because of this.
It feels a bit like we are still in the very beginning of a nightmare.
Thursday, March 26, 2020
Camp Corona Diaries - Edition 4
Day 14.
We started this two weeks ago. Holy shit.
I'm discovering that it's easier for me to journal about this on crappier days. Therefore, I'm sure you've deduced that today is crappy. Haha. In the present moment, I woke up not wanting to wake up. I can't decide if that has more to do with margarita consumption or more to do with general malaise over the economy. I think people are all getting stir crazy and it shows. Taking a break from social media for the rest of the afternoon will be beneficial for me. Owen has his first Zoom meeting with his class today. Going to attempt to not lose my shit and cry. Last night Ms. D called the school with one of her recorded messages and at the very end, her voice broke and that was it. I had several days in a row where I didn't cry - streak busted.
Picking up where we last left of, we started this two weeks ago on Friday, March 13th. It was very unclear as to whether I was expected to be at work. I opted not to go (this turned out after the fact to be totally fine as we were paid for that day anyway) mainly because my husband was traveling all week and I was concerned about potential exposure and Owen was going to be at home so I felt like I should stay with him. I think at that point, this still felt like it was going to be a little bit of time off? I don't know, I don't remember. I remember being shell shocked but mostly life was going on around us.
I got up early and went to Food Town, our local market that is super close to the neighborhood. I also had a Curbside order scheduled at HEB for the late afternoon that I tried to cancel but I couldn't get through. I was concerned that none of it would get filled anyway so we left it as is. Food Town was crazy. The lines to check out made me think of what life would be like in a socialist country. It was horrifying on a million different levels. I got a cart full of groceries - not gonna lie - a LOT of snacks and junk food. I was exhausted from not sleeping and I feel like I possibly had a little hangover that day? I was freaking out about my brother and Sara getting out of Paris. They were scheduled on the super late flight. I wondered what would (or wouldn't) await them at US Customs. I started freaking out about my flight attendant friends.
GAH. Sidebar. I just got an email from the credit union we keep Owen's money in locally that you can borrow up to $4K right now with no collateral and no payments for 60 days. That is so depressing.
Anyway, we ate dinner at home, I think we had my mom over once or twice for dinner that weekend? I drank A LOT. I watched too much depressing news. I was so bummed about not getting to go to Cozumel. That whole weekend sucked. I kept thinking about the Sliding Doors version of life where we were doing laundry and packing for our trip. The one bright side was that we finally bought stock in Peloton, which I'd been wanting to do since they went public.
Mikey and Sara made it home super late Friday night. Texting with them (they got internet on the flight back to the US) as they worked their way over the Atlantic was so sad. They were trying to piece together what on earth was going on in the United States. They were facing a 14 day quarantine away from their kid. Dad and Eileen decided to keep him over that time. In my head it was still just a two week thing we were looking at.
Fast forward to Monday 3/16, the first day of "Spring Break" for Owen and I. Since we weren't going out of town, Adam canceled his PTO and went into the office to work. I was adrift. There was nothing to do work wise, nothing to do for Owen school wise (lots of my friends already had school work to do with their kids). I just watched the news like an idiot and sat around feeling totally bummed. Owen watched ALL the Nick Junior that week and eventually moved into the guest room with the TV. On Monday afternoon, Trump had a press conference and I went into our bedroom to watch it. I was sitting on the floor in front of my bed texting with Tara as we watched the horror. The CDC changed the social distancing guidelines to be "no gatherings of more than 10 people for the next 8 weeks". That shit hit me hard. EIGHT WEEKS. EIGHT WEEKS. Coming from freaking Trump. Holy shit. At some point soon after that, school pushed back to starting 4/13, the week after Easter, but privately they've been telling us all along not to expect to come back at all to finish the year. Right after that, Harris County and the City of Houston ordered bars and restaurants to close their dining rooms and move to take out only. What in the fresh hell was going on?
No sports. No theater. No spaces where people gather. No travel. No restaurants. A really large portion of the things I love, stripped from life in what felt like an instant. It was a LOT LOT LOT to take in. I kept thinking, this has never happened in not only my lifetime, but even in my parents' lifetimes, which is kind of bananas.
I remember Monday night being really surly on Facebook. We were already pretty damn close to lockdown status in Houston, but it seemed like a lot of the country still didn't get it.
We switched gears from "Eat All Dinners At Home From Our Grocery Stockpile" to "Order Takeout Every Night For Dinner". Which is no big deal but again it was another crazy shift from Life Before Corona to what we're living now. I realized this was NOT going to be a two week "vacation" from responsibilities. This was the long haul. I hoped and still hope we have restaurants to go back to when this is all over.
At that point, Adam and I were anticipating that Trump had laid the groundwork for what we assumed would be a nationwide shut down by the end of the week...
We started this two weeks ago. Holy shit.
I'm discovering that it's easier for me to journal about this on crappier days. Therefore, I'm sure you've deduced that today is crappy. Haha. In the present moment, I woke up not wanting to wake up. I can't decide if that has more to do with margarita consumption or more to do with general malaise over the economy. I think people are all getting stir crazy and it shows. Taking a break from social media for the rest of the afternoon will be beneficial for me. Owen has his first Zoom meeting with his class today. Going to attempt to not lose my shit and cry. Last night Ms. D called the school with one of her recorded messages and at the very end, her voice broke and that was it. I had several days in a row where I didn't cry - streak busted.
Picking up where we last left of, we started this two weeks ago on Friday, March 13th. It was very unclear as to whether I was expected to be at work. I opted not to go (this turned out after the fact to be totally fine as we were paid for that day anyway) mainly because my husband was traveling all week and I was concerned about potential exposure and Owen was going to be at home so I felt like I should stay with him. I think at that point, this still felt like it was going to be a little bit of time off? I don't know, I don't remember. I remember being shell shocked but mostly life was going on around us.
I got up early and went to Food Town, our local market that is super close to the neighborhood. I also had a Curbside order scheduled at HEB for the late afternoon that I tried to cancel but I couldn't get through. I was concerned that none of it would get filled anyway so we left it as is. Food Town was crazy. The lines to check out made me think of what life would be like in a socialist country. It was horrifying on a million different levels. I got a cart full of groceries - not gonna lie - a LOT of snacks and junk food. I was exhausted from not sleeping and I feel like I possibly had a little hangover that day? I was freaking out about my brother and Sara getting out of Paris. They were scheduled on the super late flight. I wondered what would (or wouldn't) await them at US Customs. I started freaking out about my flight attendant friends.
GAH. Sidebar. I just got an email from the credit union we keep Owen's money in locally that you can borrow up to $4K right now with no collateral and no payments for 60 days. That is so depressing.
Anyway, we ate dinner at home, I think we had my mom over once or twice for dinner that weekend? I drank A LOT. I watched too much depressing news. I was so bummed about not getting to go to Cozumel. That whole weekend sucked. I kept thinking about the Sliding Doors version of life where we were doing laundry and packing for our trip. The one bright side was that we finally bought stock in Peloton, which I'd been wanting to do since they went public.
Mikey and Sara made it home super late Friday night. Texting with them (they got internet on the flight back to the US) as they worked their way over the Atlantic was so sad. They were trying to piece together what on earth was going on in the United States. They were facing a 14 day quarantine away from their kid. Dad and Eileen decided to keep him over that time. In my head it was still just a two week thing we were looking at.
Fast forward to Monday 3/16, the first day of "Spring Break" for Owen and I. Since we weren't going out of town, Adam canceled his PTO and went into the office to work. I was adrift. There was nothing to do work wise, nothing to do for Owen school wise (lots of my friends already had school work to do with their kids). I just watched the news like an idiot and sat around feeling totally bummed. Owen watched ALL the Nick Junior that week and eventually moved into the guest room with the TV. On Monday afternoon, Trump had a press conference and I went into our bedroom to watch it. I was sitting on the floor in front of my bed texting with Tara as we watched the horror. The CDC changed the social distancing guidelines to be "no gatherings of more than 10 people for the next 8 weeks". That shit hit me hard. EIGHT WEEKS. EIGHT WEEKS. Coming from freaking Trump. Holy shit. At some point soon after that, school pushed back to starting 4/13, the week after Easter, but privately they've been telling us all along not to expect to come back at all to finish the year. Right after that, Harris County and the City of Houston ordered bars and restaurants to close their dining rooms and move to take out only. What in the fresh hell was going on?
No sports. No theater. No spaces where people gather. No travel. No restaurants. A really large portion of the things I love, stripped from life in what felt like an instant. It was a LOT LOT LOT to take in. I kept thinking, this has never happened in not only my lifetime, but even in my parents' lifetimes, which is kind of bananas.
I remember Monday night being really surly on Facebook. We were already pretty damn close to lockdown status in Houston, but it seemed like a lot of the country still didn't get it.
We switched gears from "Eat All Dinners At Home From Our Grocery Stockpile" to "Order Takeout Every Night For Dinner". Which is no big deal but again it was another crazy shift from Life Before Corona to what we're living now. I realized this was NOT going to be a two week "vacation" from responsibilities. This was the long haul. I hoped and still hope we have restaurants to go back to when this is all over.
At that point, Adam and I were anticipating that Trump had laid the groundwork for what we assumed would be a nationwide shut down by the end of the week...
Saturday, March 21, 2020
Camp Corona Diaries - Edition 3
Day? 9? 10? I don't know anymore.
Back to Thursday, March 12th. That day was a cascade of everything canceling and closing. It was crazy. Every website for a business that you checked had some sort of COVID-19 pop-up or disclaimer. I knew shit had gotten real when I realized that Hilton and IHG hotels were waiving their cancellation polices and letting people get refunds even on non-refundable rates. It was one of those surreal experiences where everything was happening so fast, each closure more shocking than the next. I think THAT has been my overarching crazy feeling about this entire time - my ability to remain surprised every time that something has happened. One would think that we'd all get used to it but when all of our societal norms have been stripped away, one by one, it's been shocking every single time. The sports all canceled or postponed seasons. Which bled all the way into high school athletics here in Texas.
Another place that I'd like to backtrack to. When the rodeo cancelled, that cascaded everything else here locally. We were asked to pull up all our student travel contracts. The Board planned an emergency meeting in which they revoked all permissions for student travel indefinitely. Because we were about to go on Spring Break, this was quite a few trips. The District also gave all administrators forms for us to fill out of anywhere we were going over the break, if it were international. I was pretty salty because we had people that were traveling domestically to places where they were more likely to get it than me going to Cozumel. Anyway, I'd like to go back and tell past me to not even worry about filling out the stupid paperwork.
We worked all day in between watching press conferences and staying informed on the seemingly endless list of closures. Right before the end of the day, most of the school districts that had been out on Spring Break that week canceled classes for the following week. I felt like things were imminent for us. I can't remember when I got the call but it must have been shortly after Owen and I got home because when I picked him up, I remember telling the after care girls good bye because who knew when we'd all see each other again. All of that was a half joke, so it's crazy what has come to pass since then.
HISD called - it was official, classes canceled at least until March 31.
At that point, mom asked if we wanted to go to Moderno. Uh, hell yes, margaritas were 100% needed. I had no idea at that point that it would be the last time we'd be dining in a restaurant in community with our neighbors for a long time. I think we all were shellshocked but also just in disbelief. Others showed up at the restaurant as we were there. That was when school closed at Spring Branch, too, so I think basically every private school in our area closed. There were no sports on the TVs. It was just a crazy time to be in a restaurant. I remember feeling like, yes, we needed to do this and be in that moment but also, isn't school closed so we'll all stay home? Terms like social distancing, self-quarantine, isolation, etc. were just being really introduced into my vocabulary and despite that I was probably MUCH more informed than the average bear, I still had no idea what I was doing. Things I remember - telling Owen his school concert was canceled. His reaction was, OH, that's ok, we will still have Field Day on Friday. Telling him that Field Day was also canceled and his confusion. I think he said, OH, that's ok, we're still going to Cozumel. Welcome to your 2020 Year of Disappointments, kid. We're all invited to the same shitty party. Telling him the Astros wouldn't be playing for awhile either was also a totally crappy parenting moment.
We went home, I'm pretty sure we had another drink and watched the news. I can't remember if I cried that day or not. I remember being SO upset when the rodeo canceled. Then all the sports. Then our trip. Everything we had been planning for months for over the next several months. I was overwhelmed. I'm still overwhelmed days later. Our entire way of life, and especially the things that my family enjoys, all gone in the blink of an eye. At some point, they decided that we should go into the office the next day. I told my boss I would be staying home with Owen. Adam made plans to work from home, as he'd been traveling all over the country that week. At that point, I remember thinking, please just let him not get sick. I can't remember what night it was but before bed, he asked what our plan would be if one of us did get sick. I barely slept because I had nightmares of us getting COVID-19 all night long.
More tomorrow.
Back to Thursday, March 12th. That day was a cascade of everything canceling and closing. It was crazy. Every website for a business that you checked had some sort of COVID-19 pop-up or disclaimer. I knew shit had gotten real when I realized that Hilton and IHG hotels were waiving their cancellation polices and letting people get refunds even on non-refundable rates. It was one of those surreal experiences where everything was happening so fast, each closure more shocking than the next. I think THAT has been my overarching crazy feeling about this entire time - my ability to remain surprised every time that something has happened. One would think that we'd all get used to it but when all of our societal norms have been stripped away, one by one, it's been shocking every single time. The sports all canceled or postponed seasons. Which bled all the way into high school athletics here in Texas.
Another place that I'd like to backtrack to. When the rodeo cancelled, that cascaded everything else here locally. We were asked to pull up all our student travel contracts. The Board planned an emergency meeting in which they revoked all permissions for student travel indefinitely. Because we were about to go on Spring Break, this was quite a few trips. The District also gave all administrators forms for us to fill out of anywhere we were going over the break, if it were international. I was pretty salty because we had people that were traveling domestically to places where they were more likely to get it than me going to Cozumel. Anyway, I'd like to go back and tell past me to not even worry about filling out the stupid paperwork.
We worked all day in between watching press conferences and staying informed on the seemingly endless list of closures. Right before the end of the day, most of the school districts that had been out on Spring Break that week canceled classes for the following week. I felt like things were imminent for us. I can't remember when I got the call but it must have been shortly after Owen and I got home because when I picked him up, I remember telling the after care girls good bye because who knew when we'd all see each other again. All of that was a half joke, so it's crazy what has come to pass since then.
HISD called - it was official, classes canceled at least until March 31.
At that point, mom asked if we wanted to go to Moderno. Uh, hell yes, margaritas were 100% needed. I had no idea at that point that it would be the last time we'd be dining in a restaurant in community with our neighbors for a long time. I think we all were shellshocked but also just in disbelief. Others showed up at the restaurant as we were there. That was when school closed at Spring Branch, too, so I think basically every private school in our area closed. There were no sports on the TVs. It was just a crazy time to be in a restaurant. I remember feeling like, yes, we needed to do this and be in that moment but also, isn't school closed so we'll all stay home? Terms like social distancing, self-quarantine, isolation, etc. were just being really introduced into my vocabulary and despite that I was probably MUCH more informed than the average bear, I still had no idea what I was doing. Things I remember - telling Owen his school concert was canceled. His reaction was, OH, that's ok, we will still have Field Day on Friday. Telling him that Field Day was also canceled and his confusion. I think he said, OH, that's ok, we're still going to Cozumel. Welcome to your 2020 Year of Disappointments, kid. We're all invited to the same shitty party. Telling him the Astros wouldn't be playing for awhile either was also a totally crappy parenting moment.
We went home, I'm pretty sure we had another drink and watched the news. I can't remember if I cried that day or not. I remember being SO upset when the rodeo canceled. Then all the sports. Then our trip. Everything we had been planning for months for over the next several months. I was overwhelmed. I'm still overwhelmed days later. Our entire way of life, and especially the things that my family enjoys, all gone in the blink of an eye. At some point, they decided that we should go into the office the next day. I told my boss I would be staying home with Owen. Adam made plans to work from home, as he'd been traveling all over the country that week. At that point, I remember thinking, please just let him not get sick. I can't remember what night it was but before bed, he asked what our plan would be if one of us did get sick. I barely slept because I had nightmares of us getting COVID-19 all night long.
More tomorrow.
Friday, March 20, 2020
Corona Diaries - Edition 2
Picking up where we left off yesterday, Wednesday March 11th. I had no idea the magnitude of how much things would change that day. I still hadn't thought to screen shot the statistics but I was monitoring the Johns Hopkins COVID dashboard all day. Which, now when I look, I'm amazed I was horrified then because the numbers were SO much smaller. But I had concerns about the day-by-day growth in Europe, especially Italy.
A thing I forgot to mention yesterday (and btw, this is all going to be word vomit because I just want to get stuff out), my brother and SIL went to Amsterdam and Paris on Friday, March 6th as they were scheduled to do. There just wasn't enough compelling info at the time for them to cancel. I would ABSOLUTELY have gone and in fact, from where I sit, I'm super jealous they got to go because God only knows when we can travel again.
Another thing I forgot to mention that now seems almost cryptic looking back, Owen's school had a Market Days on Wednesday morning. I was there and one of his classmates' moms, who happens to be French, came up and started kind of going crazy at me. Due to her accent and the fact that she was speaking panicked and fast, I had the hardest time understanding her but eventually figured out that she was yelling at me about the school still having this event with all the parents there and why hadn't they canceled anything else yet and why was no one taking coronavirus seriously. I was pretty shaken up because LITERALLY NONE OF THAT is/was within my control. I understand that she was upset but it was just such a weird encounter. I emailed the principal to tell her what had happened and we both dismissed her as a germophobe (at this point, the district had already said you didn't have to send your kids to school if you were concerned about COVID.
I was talking to my dad daily that week as things were building and I remember getting this not so great feeling from talking to him on Monday 3/9. He seemed nervous about them being over there, about the virus being a big thing here, about Eileen getting sick, it was just so weird and out of character for him.
Anyway back to Wednesday.
Once the rodeo canceled things got REAL in a hurry at work. It seemed like a closure was imminent and the real questions were: 1. How long? 2. Would we make it to Spring Break on Friday?
Most of the school districts in Houston were out on Spring Break, with the exception of us, HISD, Alief and Montgomery that I know of. Montgomery immediately canceled for Thursday and Friday since the community spread case was in their county but HISD and SBISD were still planning to finish out the week. Senior staff was in non-stop meetings and conference calls. The stress level in our office was high as we tried to do our normal prep leading into 9 days out of the office anyway + all the other coronavirus stuff going on. I don't remember much about those two days (Wed/Thurs) other than being strung out.
I picked Owen up from school on Wednesday. We came home and turned on the news. I was peeved because there was some dipshit involving the cops in a high speed chase so that was all we were able to see before his baseball game. We headed there and obviously the Rodeo cancellation and impending school closures were all everyone was talking about. At this point, as I was talking to our friend who we had concert tickets for the next night with, I was still planning to go to the concert and planning to go to Cozumel on Sunday.
We got home from baseball, Adam was on his way home from Detroit. I put Owen to bed and then headed to the couch. I normally don't like to drink when Adam isn't home but I was so emotionally exhausted from the day at work and the mom yelling at me that morning and the general stress of impending doom (remember, I had been intensively studying the data from Italy all week) required a beer.
I'll never forget the whirlwind of that night sitting on the couch. I can't remember what I watched. I think I missed most of Trump's address from the Oval Office. I just know that I remember texting friends at one point and saying "holy shit, when Adam lands and gets cell phone service he's going to be overwhelmed by the world ending while he was on that flight".
Things that happened in the space of maaaaaybe 2 hours:
- an NBA player, Rudy Gobert, tested positive for the virus just before he was supposed to play in a game (Jazz vs. OKC Thunder, in Oklahoma)
-Tom Cruise and Rita Wilson came out on Instagram saying they were positive
-the NBA suspended their season indefinitely
-Trump instituted a travel ban from Europe (which was especially nerve wracking with Mikey and Sara being in Paris)
-Italy was officially a nationwide "Red Zone" instead of the previous Red Zone just being the hard hit areas in the north of the country
It was as though we couldn't ignore COVID-19 anymore. I remember reeling. It was living in the information age gone wrong. Too much info and too quickly.
Consequently, I can't remember much about Thursday. Work was insane. I realized about halfway through the day that everything I wanted to do for the next several months was canceled. I realized that we couldn't go to Cozumel. I realized this was way bigger than I could ever comprehend.
And that was only the beginning.
A thing I forgot to mention yesterday (and btw, this is all going to be word vomit because I just want to get stuff out), my brother and SIL went to Amsterdam and Paris on Friday, March 6th as they were scheduled to do. There just wasn't enough compelling info at the time for them to cancel. I would ABSOLUTELY have gone and in fact, from where I sit, I'm super jealous they got to go because God only knows when we can travel again.
Another thing I forgot to mention that now seems almost cryptic looking back, Owen's school had a Market Days on Wednesday morning. I was there and one of his classmates' moms, who happens to be French, came up and started kind of going crazy at me. Due to her accent and the fact that she was speaking panicked and fast, I had the hardest time understanding her but eventually figured out that she was yelling at me about the school still having this event with all the parents there and why hadn't they canceled anything else yet and why was no one taking coronavirus seriously. I was pretty shaken up because LITERALLY NONE OF THAT is/was within my control. I understand that she was upset but it was just such a weird encounter. I emailed the principal to tell her what had happened and we both dismissed her as a germophobe (at this point, the district had already said you didn't have to send your kids to school if you were concerned about COVID.
I was talking to my dad daily that week as things were building and I remember getting this not so great feeling from talking to him on Monday 3/9. He seemed nervous about them being over there, about the virus being a big thing here, about Eileen getting sick, it was just so weird and out of character for him.
Anyway back to Wednesday.
Once the rodeo canceled things got REAL in a hurry at work. It seemed like a closure was imminent and the real questions were: 1. How long? 2. Would we make it to Spring Break on Friday?
Most of the school districts in Houston were out on Spring Break, with the exception of us, HISD, Alief and Montgomery that I know of. Montgomery immediately canceled for Thursday and Friday since the community spread case was in their county but HISD and SBISD were still planning to finish out the week. Senior staff was in non-stop meetings and conference calls. The stress level in our office was high as we tried to do our normal prep leading into 9 days out of the office anyway + all the other coronavirus stuff going on. I don't remember much about those two days (Wed/Thurs) other than being strung out.
I picked Owen up from school on Wednesday. We came home and turned on the news. I was peeved because there was some dipshit involving the cops in a high speed chase so that was all we were able to see before his baseball game. We headed there and obviously the Rodeo cancellation and impending school closures were all everyone was talking about. At this point, as I was talking to our friend who we had concert tickets for the next night with, I was still planning to go to the concert and planning to go to Cozumel on Sunday.
We got home from baseball, Adam was on his way home from Detroit. I put Owen to bed and then headed to the couch. I normally don't like to drink when Adam isn't home but I was so emotionally exhausted from the day at work and the mom yelling at me that morning and the general stress of impending doom (remember, I had been intensively studying the data from Italy all week) required a beer.
I'll never forget the whirlwind of that night sitting on the couch. I can't remember what I watched. I think I missed most of Trump's address from the Oval Office. I just know that I remember texting friends at one point and saying "holy shit, when Adam lands and gets cell phone service he's going to be overwhelmed by the world ending while he was on that flight".
Things that happened in the space of maaaaaybe 2 hours:
- an NBA player, Rudy Gobert, tested positive for the virus just before he was supposed to play in a game (Jazz vs. OKC Thunder, in Oklahoma)
-Tom Cruise and Rita Wilson came out on Instagram saying they were positive
-the NBA suspended their season indefinitely
-Trump instituted a travel ban from Europe (which was especially nerve wracking with Mikey and Sara being in Paris)
-Italy was officially a nationwide "Red Zone" instead of the previous Red Zone just being the hard hit areas in the north of the country
It was as though we couldn't ignore COVID-19 anymore. I remember reeling. It was living in the information age gone wrong. Too much info and too quickly.
Consequently, I can't remember much about Thursday. Work was insane. I realized about halfway through the day that everything I wanted to do for the next several months was canceled. I realized that we couldn't go to Cozumel. I realized this was way bigger than I could ever comprehend.
And that was only the beginning.
Thursday, March 19, 2020
Camp Corona Diaries - Edition 1
I figured I should start documenting this since at best, we are living through a global pandemic and at worst... well, I'm not going to go there today. It's too scary.
It's Thursday, March 19th, which means it's been 8 days since the bottom really fell out, but I want to start at the beginning.
I don't watch a lot of news, but we usually turn it on in the early mornings when getting ready for work and then I catch the very beginning of Good Morning America. I can't remember when they started rumbling about the coronavirus in China but I know it was likely beginning of February. I thought about it like "Oh, another SARS, no biggie." When we were in New York City (Feb 13-16th), they had CNN on loop in the hotel lobby and that was when shit was really hitting the fan in China so they talked about it non-stop. Again, I figured it was just like SARS and wouldn't really affect us.
Toward the end of the month, I feel like they started talking about cases in Northern Italy, but again, too far from us to be a big deal. I remember someone saying they canceled their trip to Italy on Facebook near the beginning of March and I remember reacting to it with frustration, thinking it was too soon to panic and man, this was going to suck for the travel industry.
March rolled in and we had a busy month laid out on the calendar. I was anxious about fitting in baseball, swim practice, games, theater, trips, work, all of it. The first week of March, the talk about coronavirus or COVID-19 (the disease caused by the virus) became louder and louder. I saw that someone started a petition to close down the Houston rodeo. We started getting travel related cases here in Houston, but they could all be traced to a cruise ship in Egypt that a big local group went on. We kept going on about our lives but on 3/6 we went to see the musical Come From Away, which is all about 9/11 and the aftermath and the airline industry and I sobbed because so much of it was so personal to me, but also there was so much going on regarding this contagious virus that it felt weird to be in a big room with that many people. The talk was escalating so quickly each day, I had started buying extra groceries and stockpiling a little more than I normally do just in case. Places were running out of hand sanitizer and toilet paper. We had an unexpected day off school/work when a water main broke in Houston and I remember starting to get freaked out about school closures due to the virus - if we were going to close for a water main break across town.
The following day, we went to the Rodeo (I will never not be thankful for this). I remember being kind of surprised there wasn't a ton of hand sanitizer around since everyone had been going so crazy about it. It's so strange to look back, to think that might have been the last time for a long time that we got to do something like that. It was a great day. I am happy I feel like we did everything we wanted to do and I soaked up every minute of the rodeo and the concert. I'll never feel the same way about Maren Morris again.
The next week began and was BUSY. Adam left for a trip (unfortunately not on his normal routine and on Delta Airlines and all over the place with long airport layovers). I took Owen to swim on Monday. The swim teams must have had an off week because the pool was eerily empty. I brought a book to read but I wound up spending the entire time in a COVID Facebook group reading the day's news and reading about people's personal experiences. Things were escalating rapidly. Italy was in crisis and I believe that day was when they went on a nationwide lockdown, instead of just the northern region being a "red zone" lockdown. I think that is when I started aggressively researching the disease and it's pattern around the world.
We started talking about it more in our office the following day, Tuesday, March 10th, but we were still all going about our normal business. My boss caught wind of plans to close Owen's school district for 2 weeks (1 week past our scheduled Spring Break). WHAT? WHY? We still had all of Spring Break ahead of us! Why would they make such a drastic decision so soon? Looking back now, they must have had wind of what was coming from the city and county and chose to make proactive plans, instead of reactive. But in that moment, I was confused, horrified and really freaked out. What would I do with my kid? (HAHAHA JEN.)
I started getting really anxious about Adam still being out of town, he wasn't sure if the clients would even let him in the office for their meeting in Detroit. They kept that portion of their trip just in case and wound up being able to have their meeting. I wish I had known I was soaking up my last few minutes of my Pre-Corona life. I say that because I don't know how I, or really any of us, will ever be the same after this. Seattle was rapidly deteriorating day by day. Cases there seemed to double each day. Cases in the US seemed to more than double each day. Looking at the data periodically in my office was starting to freak me out.
I'll finish with the next day, 8 days ago, March 11th, 2020. We were working away and sometime in the morning, Wayne and Ann called me from the warehouse and said they hated to tell me but the Rodeo was cancelled. Adam and I were supposed to go see Lizzo on Friday night and they knew how much I was looking forward to it. That was the defining moment where this got real and real fast.
There was a case in Montgomery County. A police officer who hadn't traveled abroad or had contact with anyone who had. This meant we had local community spread and even worse, the officer had been to the rodeo cook off, a HUGE event. (We now know several others caught it then.) The city and county made the drastic decision to call off the rodeo, which is a gigantic economic driver. It was becoming more and more apparent to me that this was way bigger of an animal than I was expecting and I was a very early adopter of this reality, as I'd come to see.
More next time...
It's Thursday, March 19th, which means it's been 8 days since the bottom really fell out, but I want to start at the beginning.
I don't watch a lot of news, but we usually turn it on in the early mornings when getting ready for work and then I catch the very beginning of Good Morning America. I can't remember when they started rumbling about the coronavirus in China but I know it was likely beginning of February. I thought about it like "Oh, another SARS, no biggie." When we were in New York City (Feb 13-16th), they had CNN on loop in the hotel lobby and that was when shit was really hitting the fan in China so they talked about it non-stop. Again, I figured it was just like SARS and wouldn't really affect us.
Toward the end of the month, I feel like they started talking about cases in Northern Italy, but again, too far from us to be a big deal. I remember someone saying they canceled their trip to Italy on Facebook near the beginning of March and I remember reacting to it with frustration, thinking it was too soon to panic and man, this was going to suck for the travel industry.
March rolled in and we had a busy month laid out on the calendar. I was anxious about fitting in baseball, swim practice, games, theater, trips, work, all of it. The first week of March, the talk about coronavirus or COVID-19 (the disease caused by the virus) became louder and louder. I saw that someone started a petition to close down the Houston rodeo. We started getting travel related cases here in Houston, but they could all be traced to a cruise ship in Egypt that a big local group went on. We kept going on about our lives but on 3/6 we went to see the musical Come From Away, which is all about 9/11 and the aftermath and the airline industry and I sobbed because so much of it was so personal to me, but also there was so much going on regarding this contagious virus that it felt weird to be in a big room with that many people. The talk was escalating so quickly each day, I had started buying extra groceries and stockpiling a little more than I normally do just in case. Places were running out of hand sanitizer and toilet paper. We had an unexpected day off school/work when a water main broke in Houston and I remember starting to get freaked out about school closures due to the virus - if we were going to close for a water main break across town.
The following day, we went to the Rodeo (I will never not be thankful for this). I remember being kind of surprised there wasn't a ton of hand sanitizer around since everyone had been going so crazy about it. It's so strange to look back, to think that might have been the last time for a long time that we got to do something like that. It was a great day. I am happy I feel like we did everything we wanted to do and I soaked up every minute of the rodeo and the concert. I'll never feel the same way about Maren Morris again.
The next week began and was BUSY. Adam left for a trip (unfortunately not on his normal routine and on Delta Airlines and all over the place with long airport layovers). I took Owen to swim on Monday. The swim teams must have had an off week because the pool was eerily empty. I brought a book to read but I wound up spending the entire time in a COVID Facebook group reading the day's news and reading about people's personal experiences. Things were escalating rapidly. Italy was in crisis and I believe that day was when they went on a nationwide lockdown, instead of just the northern region being a "red zone" lockdown. I think that is when I started aggressively researching the disease and it's pattern around the world.
We started talking about it more in our office the following day, Tuesday, March 10th, but we were still all going about our normal business. My boss caught wind of plans to close Owen's school district for 2 weeks (1 week past our scheduled Spring Break). WHAT? WHY? We still had all of Spring Break ahead of us! Why would they make such a drastic decision so soon? Looking back now, they must have had wind of what was coming from the city and county and chose to make proactive plans, instead of reactive. But in that moment, I was confused, horrified and really freaked out. What would I do with my kid? (HAHAHA JEN.)
I started getting really anxious about Adam still being out of town, he wasn't sure if the clients would even let him in the office for their meeting in Detroit. They kept that portion of their trip just in case and wound up being able to have their meeting. I wish I had known I was soaking up my last few minutes of my Pre-Corona life. I say that because I don't know how I, or really any of us, will ever be the same after this. Seattle was rapidly deteriorating day by day. Cases there seemed to double each day. Cases in the US seemed to more than double each day. Looking at the data periodically in my office was starting to freak me out.
I'll finish with the next day, 8 days ago, March 11th, 2020. We were working away and sometime in the morning, Wayne and Ann called me from the warehouse and said they hated to tell me but the Rodeo was cancelled. Adam and I were supposed to go see Lizzo on Friday night and they knew how much I was looking forward to it. That was the defining moment where this got real and real fast.
There was a case in Montgomery County. A police officer who hadn't traveled abroad or had contact with anyone who had. This meant we had local community spread and even worse, the officer had been to the rodeo cook off, a HUGE event. (We now know several others caught it then.) The city and county made the drastic decision to call off the rodeo, which is a gigantic economic driver. It was becoming more and more apparent to me that this was way bigger of an animal than I was expecting and I was a very early adopter of this reality, as I'd come to see.
More next time...
Thursday, January 2, 2020
2019 Year in Review
1. What did you do in 2019 that you'd never done before?
Went back to work full time while having a kid. I wasn't expecting to do this at this time last year but it worked out fine! Everyone is good. Most especially me, mental health (and less grey hair wise).
2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Like I'm new here or something, I didn't review my list so that big time played into me not doing as well as I'd like to have.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Not really, again, I think that ship of super close friends has sailed.
4. Did anyone close to you die? HAAAAA. My answer from last year is epic. "we narrowly escaped this with an almost 94 year old grandpa and 17 year old dog." SHIT. Grandpa died just days shy of 94 in early February. While I expected it and also wanted him to be free of earthly suffering, it still sucked so much ass. I cried way more at the funeral than I expected do.
Our Milo boy crossed the rainbow bridge in July. That also sucked and I also cried way more than I expected to. So I guess my life lesson is that death sucks donkey balls and to try to give myself the grace to just be with the grief for a little while.
5. What countries did you visit? We went to Belize with our friends in February (which holy shit seems so long ago) and Scotland/England in May (also seems like approx. 100 years ago). Both trips were amazing and I'd do again in a heartbeat. I was not expecting to fall in love with London so hard, having always disliked it previously.
6. What would you like to have in 2020 that you didn't have in 2019? better self-control over my diet (same stupid answer as last year, dammit)
7. What dates from 2019 will be etched upon your memory, and why? July 17, my first day back in an office in 13 years. September 6, I officiated Laura's wedding!
8. What was your biggest achievement of this year? Probably starting said job, not going insane and carving out some sort of work/life balance. I managed to get up early to workout more often than not this fall and that makes me really proud!
9. What was your biggest failure? Parenting. Just expect that to be my answer for the rest of my life.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Not really! Nothing major. So I'm either working out not hard enough or just right, right? haha.
11. What was the best thing you bought? Every time we swiped the credit card for travel related purposes. I just tried to come up with a top 9 photos of the year and I was at like 24 in 6 months. We made memories out the wazoo this year and I will always be 100% behind spending money for that.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Owen. He's really come into his own as an excellent traveler. He's a joy to be with 99% of the time. I love taking him places and we usually get compliments on his excellent behavior.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Not appalled by any means but I'm still depressed things didn't work out for me at my former job.
14. Where did most your money go? The mortgage and travel, that was SO much of the annual budget, haha, sorry I'm not even a little sorry.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Our Scotland/England trip, really all of our trips. Having something constant to look forward to was awesome.
16. What song will always remind you of 2019? Anything by Lizzo.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?a) way happier
b) same, but only because I was tubby year end last year, too, oops
c) way richer
18. What do you wish you'd done more of? ordered salads
19. What do you wish you'd done less of? eating and drinking crap. basically same as last year. SHOOT.
20. How did you spend Christmas? Had an epic Christmas Eve dinner after going to church. Woke up and opened presents. Ate french toast casserole and played in the yard until we went to Drafthouse to see Cats. Did a lot of packing as we got up in the early morning to go skiing the 26th.
21. Did you fall in love in 2019? Yes! With our new family member, Daisy Mae!
22. What was your favorite TV program? Schitt's Creek
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? No.
24. What was the best book you read? I read something that I cannot remember the title but it was about Queen Elizabeth going to Scotland to see the Royal Brittania and we'd just been so it was so excellent to read.
25. What was your greatest musical discovery? Lizzo, definitely
26. What did you want and get? a new job, a Peloton Tread
27. What did you want and not get? probably nothing other. I am spoiled rotten.
28. What was your favorite film of 2019? Downton Abbey
29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 38. On my actual birthday, I worked and we went to Hopdoddy for burgers. We also did a staycation at the Westin Galleria for that weekend and it was awesome. We got a lot of Christmas shopping done and recharged.
30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? In reading my answer from last year, Holy Shit, 2019 was a LOT better than 2018. Yeah. Nothing. This year was SO SO SO SO SO MUCH better.
31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2019? Office wear for the first time in MANY MANY YEARS.
32. What kept you sane? Vodka and beer.
33. What political issue stirred you the most? Politics at the moment exhaust me. I did enjoy watching British news during our time there and realizing that we aren't the only country with a vocal minority of morons.
34. Who did you miss? Our friends in Dallas, most definitely still.
35. Who was the best new person you met? Probably Emilyn, my work bestie. She taught me all the things I needed to know in the beginning when no one else would. It's nice to have someone have my back at work.
36. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2019.
Travel is my happy place. I need to keep figuring out how to feed that beast.
1. What did you do in 2019 that you'd never done before?
Went back to work full time while having a kid. I wasn't expecting to do this at this time last year but it worked out fine! Everyone is good. Most especially me, mental health (and less grey hair wise).
2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Like I'm new here or something, I didn't review my list so that big time played into me not doing as well as I'd like to have.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Not really, again, I think that ship of super close friends has sailed.
4. Did anyone close to you die? HAAAAA. My answer from last year is epic. "we narrowly escaped this with an almost 94 year old grandpa and 17 year old dog." SHIT. Grandpa died just days shy of 94 in early February. While I expected it and also wanted him to be free of earthly suffering, it still sucked so much ass. I cried way more at the funeral than I expected do.
Our Milo boy crossed the rainbow bridge in July. That also sucked and I also cried way more than I expected to. So I guess my life lesson is that death sucks donkey balls and to try to give myself the grace to just be with the grief for a little while.
5. What countries did you visit? We went to Belize with our friends in February (which holy shit seems so long ago) and Scotland/England in May (also seems like approx. 100 years ago). Both trips were amazing and I'd do again in a heartbeat. I was not expecting to fall in love with London so hard, having always disliked it previously.
6. What would you like to have in 2020 that you didn't have in 2019? better self-control over my diet (same stupid answer as last year, dammit)
7. What dates from 2019 will be etched upon your memory, and why? July 17, my first day back in an office in 13 years. September 6, I officiated Laura's wedding!
8. What was your biggest achievement of this year? Probably starting said job, not going insane and carving out some sort of work/life balance. I managed to get up early to workout more often than not this fall and that makes me really proud!
9. What was your biggest failure? Parenting. Just expect that to be my answer for the rest of my life.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Not really! Nothing major. So I'm either working out not hard enough or just right, right? haha.
11. What was the best thing you bought? Every time we swiped the credit card for travel related purposes. I just tried to come up with a top 9 photos of the year and I was at like 24 in 6 months. We made memories out the wazoo this year and I will always be 100% behind spending money for that.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Owen. He's really come into his own as an excellent traveler. He's a joy to be with 99% of the time. I love taking him places and we usually get compliments on his excellent behavior.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Not appalled by any means but I'm still depressed things didn't work out for me at my former job.
14. Where did most your money go? The mortgage and travel, that was SO much of the annual budget, haha, sorry I'm not even a little sorry.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Our Scotland/England trip, really all of our trips. Having something constant to look forward to was awesome.
16. What song will always remind you of 2019? Anything by Lizzo.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?a) way happier
b) same, but only because I was tubby year end last year, too, oops
c) way richer
18. What do you wish you'd done more of? ordered salads
19. What do you wish you'd done less of? eating and drinking crap. basically same as last year. SHOOT.
20. How did you spend Christmas? Had an epic Christmas Eve dinner after going to church. Woke up and opened presents. Ate french toast casserole and played in the yard until we went to Drafthouse to see Cats. Did a lot of packing as we got up in the early morning to go skiing the 26th.
21. Did you fall in love in 2019? Yes! With our new family member, Daisy Mae!
22. What was your favorite TV program? Schitt's Creek
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? No.
24. What was the best book you read? I read something that I cannot remember the title but it was about Queen Elizabeth going to Scotland to see the Royal Brittania and we'd just been so it was so excellent to read.
25. What was your greatest musical discovery? Lizzo, definitely
26. What did you want and get? a new job, a Peloton Tread
27. What did you want and not get? probably nothing other. I am spoiled rotten.
28. What was your favorite film of 2019? Downton Abbey
29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 38. On my actual birthday, I worked and we went to Hopdoddy for burgers. We also did a staycation at the Westin Galleria for that weekend and it was awesome. We got a lot of Christmas shopping done and recharged.
30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? In reading my answer from last year, Holy Shit, 2019 was a LOT better than 2018. Yeah. Nothing. This year was SO SO SO SO SO MUCH better.
31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2019? Office wear for the first time in MANY MANY YEARS.
32. What kept you sane? Vodka and beer.
33. What political issue stirred you the most? Politics at the moment exhaust me. I did enjoy watching British news during our time there and realizing that we aren't the only country with a vocal minority of morons.
34. Who did you miss? Our friends in Dallas, most definitely still.
35. Who was the best new person you met? Probably Emilyn, my work bestie. She taught me all the things I needed to know in the beginning when no one else would. It's nice to have someone have my back at work.
36. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2019.
Travel is my happy place. I need to keep figuring out how to feed that beast.
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