Happy Sunday Tuesday, friends!
This past weekend, we had a brief visit from Jim’s nephew and his wife, as they flew into Milwaukee to pick up their new-to-them family car. They stayed with us for a night and then took the opportunity to go on a short culinary tour of the midwest and south by hitting Chicago for their deep-dish pizza, Memphis for their BBQ, and New Orleans for their cajun cuisine. Don’t worry. We made sure to introduce them to real fried cheese curds, a fish fry, New Glarus beer, and kringle from Racine.
Our house is emptying out faster than I expected it to as Jim is finding success with selling our furniture. So far, we sold a hutch, one major bookcase, the chaise from my library, my hammock, and the sunroom furniture. The loss of the hutch and the bookcase meant having to start packing up my books. The losses of the chaise and hammock mean two less comfy reading chairs, and the loss of the sunroom furniture means we are resorting to foldout chairs when wanting to watch TV for the rest of the summer. It also means less furniture we have to move, so it isn’t all bad. Roughly two more months to go before the condo is ready and less than sixty days before we have to move out of our current address!
This week, in an effort at some normalcy, Holly’s dance team begins its three-week choreography camp where they learn their new competition dances for the season. Normally, this is the most stressful month for me as the team directors hold these rehearsals in the middle of the day, meaning having to figure out the logistics of getting her to where she needs to be without missing meetings or deadlines. This year, it is so much easier but still a pain in the ass as she has one too many one-hour rehearsals during which it makes no sense to drive home only to turn around and drive right back. Plus, for the next two weeks, she still has summer classes, so I have to take her back to the studio in the evenings for more dance. Thankfully, she will be obtaining her driver’s license at the end of the month, so this is the last time I will have to do this.
Lately, I feel as if life is on pause. We are waiting for so much. Waiting to hear about fall sports and plans for the poms’ team. Waiting for the builders to finish our house. Waiting to pack up and move out. Waiting to find out whether Holly’s school will remain a hybrid attendance or become completely virtual. Waiting to see what will happen with the pandemic. Waiting to find out who Biden will choose as his VP. Waiting for November and the chance to make a very necessary change. Waiting for something, anything.
In many ways, I wish the states never opened up their economies again. While we continue to avoid eating in restaurants and minimize our contact with the outside world, it was almost easier when we had nowhere to go because everything remained closed. Now, we have just enough in the way of possibilities for us to recognize how limited we are. In my opinion, this exacerbates the frustration and wish for pre-pandemic access to places. In my heart, I know that even if COVID19 were to disappear completely tomorrow, we will never again feel 100 percent safe in crowds and that we will forever look at a sick person as a potential threat. But it is certainly nice to dream about attending fairs and concerts, sporting events, and even fireworks, and so I continue to wait.
I know it’s probably a pipe dream, but I really hope we can adopt a more Japanese approach to illness and masks post-pandemic. If you’re sick or have been around someone who is, wear a mask. Period. It’ll keep even normal disease like the flu from spreading, in addition to ingraining a cultural norm of looking out for other people. It is certainly something we could use in our country, but with masks being as politicized as they are, I doubt this is going to happen.
We know that our school is going to start virtual for at least the first few weeks, and then i think there’s going to be a choice for kids. Laurence will definitely be staying home. I can’t imagine sending him to school in this kind of environment. :/
Hell, my town can’t even get a majority of the inhabitants to wear their masks correctly. I can’t even imagine them wearing a mask out of courtesy when they are sick. Too many excuses of “I can’t breathe wearing one of those things.”
I’m really introverted and love to stay in my house, but oh my GOD I miss going to things. I miss the movie theater, I miss the bookstore, I miss going into shops without 100% clear idea of what I was going to do there and just browsing around, I miss festivals and book sales. GAH. It is a very very stupid time, Michelle.
EXACTLY! If this were last year, I would fight going out to the stores or to events. But holy hell, at least we had the option. Take away that option and suddenly I want to become the most extroverted person of all time!
I never considered myself much of an event person. But I do miss concerts in the park and shows and movies in the theatre.
My daughter’s intensive ended and she got directly admitted into the BFA program without an audition so that’s pretty good. She is still considering all the other schools though and they just announced today that Unifieds in all three states have been cancelled. Unifieds is where all the schools come for in person auditions. That means many schools will use Zoom for auditions but there are still a few insisting on in-person, on campus auditions which is dumb. Not gonna fly there and stay there during a pandemic for one audition.
School starts for us on Tuesday so I’m sure my kid will be super busy soon. Again. Like you said, now that things are partially open, things tend to get booked and that means having to attend some of these things. My calendar is filling up and when someone books something like a choir concert, I can’t help but roll my eyes like, you really think that’s going to happen? I mean, Unifieds are in FEB and that’s cancelled. So…
Right now, I just put everything on the calendar and hope for the best! It feels too fatalistic to assume schools and cities will cancel everything. It is probably realistic to think so, but I can’t be THAT realistic right now.