COVID-19

The next generation

~ MaryG ~ 10 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What is your career plan?
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I’m retired (I think) and looking forward to becoming a grandmother and doing some meaningful volunteer work. So, I’m going use this prompt to provide an update on the next generation.

I’m extremely pleased to report that my son landed a job! He’s a senior in college and this is his first post-grad position. I’m super proud of him!

The college class of 2024 (high school class of 2020) has not had it easy. They had their senior prom, graduation, senior spring sports seasons, and numerous other rites of passage cancelled due to Covid. In addition, many of them (including my son) took their very first semester of college classes remotely from home. MAJOR bummer is an understatement! His second semester, though not remote, was not at all normal. Masks, testing, and Zoom classes from dorm rooms are not fun. My son got put in isolation for TEN DAYS over Easter because he was exposed to a bus driver who tested positive. (My son never did.)

Sophomore year was somewhat normal and thankfully he had a terrific semester abroad junior year. And now, the famous final scene…the last few weeks of college.

So here’s to these very resilient young people. GenZ is in the house and they are going to do things differently. We’re handing them a broken world, but I have faith that they will improve things in ways we can’t yet imagine.

Cheers 🍻 to my son and the Class of 2024 ❤️

Try painting first

~ MaryG ~ 21 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Describe one positive change you have made in your life.
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One positive change I made during the pandemic was in my kitchen. I finally had my 1980s wood grain kitchen cabinets painted Benjamin Moore Linen White. I know it doesn’t sound like a big deal, but I spend a lot of time in and near my kitchen (it’s one of those kitchen/family room combos) and having it be light and bright makes me happier.

I don’t know what took me so long. I kept thinking I had to have the cabinets ripped out and replaced. Painting was so much cheaper.

I forgot to take a “before” picture, but believe me, they were dark and depressing.

Related post:

I like my porch

Walk, Don’t Run

~ MaryG ~ 5 Comments
Daily writing prompt
How often do you walk or run?
View all responses

I never run anymore, unless I really need to. Late for a plane, caught in the rain, small child fell into a pool, etc.

I try to close the green exercise ring on my Apple Watch every day and the easiest way to do it is to go for a 30+ minute walk. I usually go about two miles around the neighborhood and it takes 40 minutes or so.

My walks are weather-dependent. I don’t walk in rain. During Covid, I bought a full snow suit so I couldn’t use cold as an excuse not to walk.

Me in my winter walking “track suit” – purchased that first Covid winter

Monthly delights

~ MaryG ~ 4 Comments

Tell us about the last thing you got excited about.

For Christmas 2019, my husband got me a 3-month subscription to BloomsyBox, a monthly delivery of beautiful flowers. By the end of the three months, COVID had hit and we were stuck at home, so I kept the subscription going. It was just so nice to have these gorgeous blooms to look at, especially in the winter.

Three years later, I still get these monthly deliveries. Each one is different and quite stunning. And I get excited about each one.

Here’s this month’s. Yellow is such a great color.
July’s were exotic – hot and tropical
June’s were really gorgeous. My birthday month.

TIP: I ordered and paid for an entire year of deliveries on Black Friday and saved hundreds of dollars.

Oases (Oasises?) for All

~ MaryG ~ 2 Comments
The pool at One Dalton, Boston

How would you design the city of the future?

For about six months in 2019 and 2020 (pre-pandemic), I was able to swim laps in Boston’s fanciest new building – One Dalton Street. It’s both a Four Seasons Hotel and a very expensive condo building, all in one deluxe skyscraper.

At that time, the condos were still under construction, but the hotel was open, so management kindly let people who lived or worked in the neighborhood use the fitness center. They didn’t advertise this — I just happened to ask, so I typically had the whole pool to myself. The occasional hotel guest would come and go.

The light-filled pool area has a gentle arc and sweeping view of Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood and Christian Science Plaza. The locker rooms have complimentary everything – from cucumber water, to fluffy white robes and the thickest emery boards I’ve ever seen. It’s a true urban oasis. After swimming, showering and pampering there, I would drive home in a relaxed state.

I knew it wouldn’t last, so I tried to enjoy it. But I never thought a virus would be the thing that ended it!

Anyway, in my fantasy City of the Future, everyone would have access to an oasis like this.

It’s 64 feet – long enough to swim laps

I like my porch

~ MaryG ~ 4 Comments

What do you love about where you live?

I have a screened-in porch, which I grew to appreciate during the pandemic. During those first three summers, I lugged an inflatable mattress out there because I wanted to have a comfortable place to read and smoke weed. I called it my flop bed. This year, I bought an actual chaise. It’s not quite as comfortable as the mattress, but it looks better.

Screens are key in New England due to the mosquitoes.

I like the nature sounds and tree view on my porch.

Related:

Sounds of Summer

Two More Weeks

~ MaryG ~ 4 Comments

Two more weeks until Election Day. I can’t believe it’s been FOUR years since Pantsuit Nation got the crushing news that America is way WAY more racist and misogynistic than we thought. (It turns out Black people were already well aware of this and were not terribly surprised that the pussy-grabbing reality TV star won, but it sure was a massive shock to the rest of us.)

So, here we are, after 7 months of COVID-19 lockdown with 220,000+ dead and no end in sight. We all want Trump to lose by a HUGE margin, so that he won’t be able to dispute the results and start a Civil War. We need the Senate too, especially now that the Supreme Court will be so conservative. (Amy Coney Barrett terrifies me even more than Brett “I like beer” Kavanaugh, because I think she’s smart and her worldview was formed in some sort of extreme Catholic sect.)

I’ve already voted, sent postcards to swing state voters, annoyed my social media friends with numerous political posts, and made sure my kids and their friends got registered to vote. I’ve taken action on local legislation that will hopefully protect my state if Roe v Wade gets overturned. I even went to Town Meeting to vote for a Climate Action Resolution. It really feels like there’s nothing left to do but wait and worry.

Sometimes I think it helps to imagine the worst, so you can let it go—like writing a letter that you’ll never send. (Picture the worst.) OK, that just can’t happen.

Postcards to Florida Democrats

Things I Will Miss About My Son’s “Cancelled” Senior Spring

~ MaryG ~ 1 Comment
  1. Seeing him play lacrosse, the game he loves, with his best friends for the last time
  2. Seeing him recognized as a team Captain on the field and scoring goals
  3. Hearing people cheer for him and hearing his name announced over the loudspeaker
  4. Senior Night
  5. Taking photos before the prom on the town common and seeing the entire class so beautiful and happy
  6. Watching him walk across the stage to accept his diploma
A happy memory of the team celebrating after a big win over a rival