It's hard to believe it's been ten long years since I last wrote about a annus horribilis (a horrible year). This time of year always has crazy mixed feelings for me because of how 2010 and 2011 ended in such different ways (nevermind what we had to go through to make that happen).
We recently celebrated the twins turning nine. They are huge (I'm buying them 12/14 clothes...) and dealing pretty well with this nutty year. They are doing well with remote school (halfway through 3rd grade!), but unfortunately given the pandemic their activities have been scaled back considerably and/or moved online. We finally got a pet bunny just before Thanksgiving after months (years?) of begging and a PowerPoint research presentation. His name is Cookie. We are getting more settled in our new house, but still annoyingly trying to sell our old one. After six months on unemployment, I did all my regular annual work in Oct-Nov this year, which was a bit much, but we are obviously thankful to come out of this historic year better than we came in. It's a strange feeling, similar to one we had in the long 2008 recession, when the world is falling apart around you, but things are going well for you (except for when they aren't, see infertility).
Even though this is really an introvert's time to shine (though not so much if you are also a wanderlust), Covid also brings up so many feelings given all the loss we've experienced. It makes you grateful that all the people we've lost in recent years weren't lost to a pandemic that precluded us being together. It makes you worry about your remaining two grandparents (step-grandmas) in the rural Midwest in their fragile mid-90s and your three remaining parents in their 70s, especially a mother with preexisting conditions like asthma and RA, and siblings who are cancer survivors and those who work in health care. It's made me think about how I've spent the second half of my life as a post-viral long hauler. It's been 22 long years since I came down with a relatively mild case of mono early in my senior year of college, which single handedly changed the trajectory of every single aspect my life since then. My education, professional and personal lives, relationships, everything is different than it would have been had I not gotten sick and am now still plagued by CFS. I also had to reconfigure my life ten years ago because of infertility and parenthood that meant I already had a pandemic friendly WFH job and life before this year. How's that for foresight (aka trauma)...
The only lingering issue with the kids was getting them to gain a bit of weight. Enter quarantine and the Covid 15 and that problem is now officially solved for Alistair, though it means I have to actually have to make an effort to lose weight for the first time in my life. Our basement gym is now set up and I have a driveway a mile long to shovel. Watch out pool season, we are coming for you!
Wear a mask, stay home, and get your jab. Happy New Year!
No comments:
Post a Comment