Pen-demic

The 2021 school year has arrived. Backpacks are packed.  First day of school outfits are chosen. Teacher assignments are received. The last thing on my checklist is to have the kids fill out their chalkboard for the first day of school. Obligingly, my son and daughter will stand in front of our home – backpacks on and hair fixed – and hold their respective chalkboards. Those boards are currently blank slates but soon they will be filled with each child’s age, teacher, and aspirations for what they want to be when they grow up. I’ve been anxiously awaiting their teacher assignments and over the past week, I’ve been asking them to think about what they want to be when they grow up. Last year they both said they wanted to be soccer players. To be exact, my daughter said she wanted to be the greatest soccer player EVER (she’s got some serious goals!). As I stare at the blank slates in preparation for the 2021 school year, I’m thrown back to last year. A time when we took their photos i...

  At times, it’s the little things I’ve “lost” during COVID, that seem to make a difference.     I never used to leave the house without makeup on, but if I’m wearing a mask, no one is going to see my  face, only my eyes and forehead, so makeup ends up being an eyebrow pencil and perhaps a touch of lipstick, in case I take off my mask to drink something.   My ears were pierced as a small child.  My mother used to say that little girls would “play” with their jewelry if they could see it, but since we couldn’t see our earrings, we didn’t play with them.  But after losing a few as I took my mask on and off  going into stores, getting back in my car, etc.  putting earrings on became something I don’t automatically do any more.   I miss the normalcy of hugs and handshakes.  Of going to lunch with friends and colleagues. I miss w andering through stores, not because I need something, but because I want to see what’s “new”.  I m...