Day Two Hundred Ninety-Three

It seems wildly inappropriate to string together words in the space without acknowledging the attack on democracy that is taking place. So, I won't, other than to convey a thing that Alexis said after we had a long discussion about how politics has dramatically changed in my lifetime.

I had just finished explaining how historical the events of today were, and how I could have never imagined such a thing happening when I was her age. But ... politics are different now.

Alexis responded, "I like reading about history a lot more than I like living it."

Yes, Alexis. That.

Day Two Hundred Ninety-Two

I have a question. I would like to know why exactly it is that reentry after the holidays is just as miserable during a pandemic as it is without one? And why is reentry after the holidays miserable even if you don't take the two weeks off from work? I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

I don't know why I thought it would be less bad, but it wasn't. JUST ASK MILA.

Her biggest problem is that she really does think she's going to make staring at her Kindle a full-time job. She's not, but she thinks she is. Her other problem is HOLY CRAP IS THAT KID'S SLEEP CYCLE A MESS.

It's so bad.

We did good while school was out for winter break with keeping up the appearance of a routine. That's mostly because I super don't parent after 9:00 pm. For real. If a kid makes eye contact with me at 9:01, there's a chance I might yell, "I'M OFF DUTY GO TO BED RIGHT NOW GOOOO." My introverted little heart needs time to recharge and that time starts at 9:00. The girls get it.

New Year's Eve, though. Mila was super excited about New Year's Eve and equally disappointed that we weren't headed downtime to watch the "disco ball" drop. Apparently we've done exactly that enough times that Mila has decided it is the normal, so hearing that we would have to watch it all on TV was a super sad thing. That means that I had to deviate from my plan of bluntly lying to my child and telling her it was the new year at about 10:00 pm and sending her on her way. I had to let her stay up for the real thing.

It was all very exciting and charming and whatever, but when 12:05 arrived and I was all, "GO TO BED NOW, CHILD!" Mila was too excited to fall asleep. From there, the dominos fell and it was pure chaos. I think Mila finally fell asleep at about 2:30 am, which generally screwed up everything for the next few days and then school started and hahahahahaha... NOPE.

Mila is a mess.

But at least we made it to 2021?

Day Two Hundred Ninety-One

So ... 2020 happened. It was a thing and it happened and we made it through. Somehow. Everything and yet nothing happened in 2020, which is why I feel like I need to summarize it with a little review. Ahoy!

January

After celebrating the original Burgh Baby's 14th birthday with a roller skating party with ALL of the people (seriously, it was a big party), I rushed off to London for work. The thing that stands out the most from that trip is the fact that I basically had every plane to myself. It turns out, the rest of the world knew something we didn't.

So, uh, maybe we shouldn't have had a big party?

February

February 2020 was pure chaos. It was the sort of chaos that bleeds together and becomes a giant blob of chaos. Mostly we ran to dance and cheer and basketball and ... there was a lot of running. Funny how that turned out, eh?

March

Hahahahahahahahaha ... sob. March. March 2020. We should probably all do a shot every time we think about March 2020 because it is the month we should have been drunk for, even those of us who rarely or never drink. For the sake of remembering, we went to a dance competition near Hershey, PA right before the whole world shut down. We spent days wading through crowds and having all sorts of fun and then it all stopped, just four days after our return home. The last thing I did when I was in an actual office was walk to all of the floors handing out the little door doohickeys you can use to cover your laptop camera because I legit didn't need to see some people's homes.

April

Remember April? That was a good time, right there. We were still early in our understanding of this whole global pandemic thing, so we all sort of operated on the theory that things were going to go back to normal, maybe soon-ish. The situation was day-by-day and we certainly thought it would be fine by Easter.

So innocent. We were so innocent.

May

Reality set in. The girls weren't going to set foot in a school again in 2020. I wasn't going to set foot in an office again in 2020. We figured out how to do the whole virtual thing and spent our time away from our computers hiking.

We have gone on a lot of hikes in the past nine months.

The best part of May was when school finished and we could all stop pretending we were succeeding at the whole thing.

June

While technically Mila's sixth birthday was at the end of May, we let the celebrating roll right on through to June. She didn't get to have a party for the most obvious of reasons, so we compromised and built a playhouse instead. The girls lived in the playhouse for much of the summer, with some time spent in the pool and hiking.

Always with the hiking.

July

By the time July rolled around, we were starting to go stir crazy. We expanded our horizons past hiking every trail within an hour's drive and added the Botanical Gardens and Phipps to our list of places we were willing to go. There was no summer camp, no dance camps, and legit a lot of available time for adventures. It was incredibly different than February - while July was a blob of nothingness, there was no chaos.

August

School started! We opted to go with PA Cyber instead of our school district, which has turned out to be a very good decision. The girls got a fancy office out of the deal. That has played no small part in their ability to focus and keep on track all year. Truly. It's amazing what making a decision and then crating a supportive and dedicated space for it in your life can do.

Also, we've not had to deal with the day-to-day changes in what's going on with school. Predictability is a happy thing.

September

We went to the beach. It was a definite privilege born, in part, of the decision to go to virtual school because the girls were just as able to go to school from a house on the beach as they are from Pittsburgh.

It was a strange vacation, though. First we were there during the off-season, so it was pretty vacant, but also we didn't go places. On a normal vacation I shape the days around ice cream acquisition and walks on a boardwalk and definitely some major shopping. We went to Target a few times instead.

October

Blah, blah, blah ... Halloween and school and dance classes and such. They all happened. More importantly, I built Matilda. I still lurve her.

November

What the hell was November? I don't even know. It was the point when I became fed up with basically everyone because this whole concept of "don't breathe the same air as other people who don't live in your house" seems relatively simple to me. Apparently I'm wrong, though, because here we are. We can't even agree that it's a bad idea to sit in a restaurant and eat while sucking on the same air as strangers EVEN THOUGH WE KNOW IT'S A BAD IDEA.

Ahem.

Also, Thanksgiving was weird, but I'm not sure that I want to go back to the other way. I kind of like the peace and quiet of not travelling.

December

I still remember December as a distinct and unique thing! That will come to a crashing end soon enough because all COVID months start to blur together eventually.

In December, we stayed home a lot. We still managed to sneak in a few hikes and a few trips to Phipps, but mostly we stayed home. Lots of things were shut down, including the girls' dance studio which had managed to stay open most of the fall. It worked out, though, because it gave me time to make sure Christmas Crazy went off without a hitch.

And it did.

2020 was a giant ball of suck stuffed between rays of shining light. There was good in it, even as we lost far too many of our family, friends, and neighbors to COVID-19. I wish we could have a do-over, perhaps one where everyone is safe, but I wouldn't change how it ended. Christmas Crazy was definitely a beautiful cherry on top of questionable year.