Today is my 150th day at home. I can’t believe that so much time has passed, in some ways it feels like it was just last week that I was packing up my office plant and dragging my crap on the commuter rail train heading for home…
And today is also my nephew’s 14th birthday and to celebrate, we joined my husband’s sister and her family for dinner! And we did indoor dining too, which is a first for us, usually we only do outdoor dining — not because we are worried about eating indoors, I guess, we just like the outdoor atmosphere much better. Put a big white tent in a parking lot, and I immediately think I am on vacation! And that’s important right now!
Dinner with my in-laws tonight was fun. We haven’t seen them since Christmas — isn’t that insane?? But I haven’t seen my parents since Christmas either… What a strange year this is!
OK, back to dinner tonight. They picked an Italian restaurant in their town that my husband and I had never been to, we were excited to try something new. And they didn’t tell the birthday boy that we were coming, hopefully it was a good surprise. At 14-years-old, is seeing your uncle and aunt the best present you could get?? Probably not, but hopefully this pandemic year has dulled his expectations a little bit. I mean he didn’t seem upset that we were there… and it’s not like this was his 16th birthday and he expected a car (dream big, kid, dream big!) and he got us and some lasagna instead… Hey, at least he’ll have something to talk to a therapist about in 20 years!
Dinner was good — I didn’t mind eating indoors, it was a plus to get real glassware instead of the plastic cups you tend to get during the outdoor dining experience. I ate a ton of bread and pasta which is always a good thing! And I actually forgot that we were in the middle of a pandemic, maybe because we were with the largest group of people we had been with for a long, long, time (we had to split up between two tables) — I only remembered when our waitress showed up at our table wearing her face mask. Once she was gone, I forgot about the whole thing. Yay, for being oblivious!
And it was so good to hang out with family! And to hear new stories — my husband and I just don’t have anything new and exciting to chat about anymore, it’s one of the pitfalls of spending all your time at home with one person. And the birthday boy appeared to have a good time!
My husband and I were happy as we drove home tonight, until we got stuck in completely stopped traffic just south of the city. Even during the middle of a pandemic, the highway department is repaving the expressway at 9:30 p.m. on a Thursday night, adding an extra 25 minutes to our 45 minute commute home. I guess there are always things that you can count on — the phrase is “death and taxes”, but I’d like to add “road construction”!
Notes from a Self Quarantine 