News and Notes, The Award-Winning Edition

Another week of furlough is upon us.  I'm enjoying these weeks way more than I should given the reason, but I am thankful for the free time and the ability to hang out with my family without feeling trapped at my desk.  I wish I had a few more meaningful things to fill the time, but the downtime is nice for now.

I probably should be more productive, but I do manage to fill the time.  I putter around the house.  I run errands when I can.  I read.  I spend a lot of time checking on my garden, which is thriving.

Tomatoes at the top, zucchini on the left, cucumbers on the right, green beans on the bottom

I have planted flowers in pots that seem to need constant watering, I've tried to seed and keep watered the holes in the grass from dandelions I killed, and I am constantly pulling weeds.  I've sat on my front porch more this spring and summer than I think I ever have, just because it's nicer to sit outside than it is to be a little chilled in the central air indoors.  We spend most afternoons in the pool, which is both awesome and exhausting.  The sunscreen ritual is getting old, as are the constant fights over splashing and squirt guns.  But the water is lovely and clear, and floating around can be blissful.  My legs are getting a good workout from the frequent whirlpool requests and I appreciate having this kind of an option to avoid the screens, but it can be tiring doing the whole routine every day.  It reminds me why sometimes fall feels so much more freeing and relaxing!  Not sure I've ever had that feeling as early as June before, so I think that's a sign we're trying to squeeze what we can out of this summer!

Furlough in general is just sort of odd.  I don't miss work at all, especially with everyone home all the time.  It's no fun when I'm stuck working and they're off having fun in the pool or finding other ways to have fun, so I'm appreciative to have this time.  However, it's also a challenge because I have to be more participatory in keeping the kids occupied, and that is HARD.  Between the screens and the bickering, it's a challenge.  That's why I'd rather have real activities to get us out of the house, but it turns out we're all mostly just a bunch of homebodies (or super lazy) because it's hard to get agreement to go anywhere.  Overall, the mental break is nice but having it in the midst of this crazy, messed up world right now is a bit bizarre.  All the time in the world, but nowhere to go, it seems.

The political situation is growing more insane by the day.  The President continues to downplay the coronavirus, even as the cases are rising like crazy in much of the country.  We're still holding steady here, but the longer there's indoor seating in restaurants and bars, among other things, the more nervous I am that the same thing will happen here.  The majority of new infections seem to be hitting younger people who can't seem to keep themselves home, masked, or distanced.  Heck, younger people in Alabama are having COVID parties, which seem to be like chicken pox parties, but the first to test positive wins a pot of money.  It's so incredibly stupid (especially because this is not one-and-done like chicken pox and is far more dangerous), but some people think it's just overblown by the media and it's not that serious.  At this point I don't even care what the statistics look like--I've heard enough stories that I know I don't want it for any of us, and we will continue to be careful because the experts (not the media) make it clear this is a problem.  And yet the President still insists it's going away and will not push masks for everyone, even though it seems to be the only logical way to keep businesses open and most of us feeling any bit of normalcy.  He's been having unmasked, undistanced rallies in hot spots and even talked multiple times about reducing testing so cases don't seem so bad...which obviously makes no sense.  How anyone can take it this lightly, let alone the leader of the free world, completely blows my mind.  While it all seems logical enough to me to mask and be careful, apparently we as a society need leadership to actually lead, starting from the top.  Instead, we have tons of division and the politicizing of a pandemic.  It's exhausting to watch this happen, though I'm happy we're doing okay so far in our area.

Still, it's getting harder to balance things as life starts to slowly get back to normal.  Jacob has basketball starting again soon.  He has to wear a mask for practice right now and it's driving him nuts.  But it's nervewracking to think of him playing games unmasked and having us sitting in a gym with a bunch of people.  But not playing at all would also drive him nuts, so we're trying to find a balance.  We have multiple family gatherings coming up in the weeks ahead, including Jacob's birthday party at some point, and I'm feeling very torn about them.  It's easy to think everything will be fine, especially outside, but when you hear about families with a dozen or more infections as a result of a party, you think twice.  We have to find a new normal because this isn't going away, but the more I hear about the virus, the more I want to hide.  It's scary.  I don't want to live in fear, but finding a safe, logical, livable middle ground is challenging.

Last weekend we tried to get back to a little bit of normalcy.  On Saturday I went for a run, shopped at Kohl's for the first time in months ($27 for four shirts, a necklace, and two pairs of pajamas for Carter!), then shopped as a family at a couple places (also for the first time in months) before getting in some pool time.  We ordered in for dinner and popped some popcorn for a movie.  Minimal arguing made for a very nice day.

Sunday was our 17th wedding anniversary.  It's pretty crazy to think we've been married that long. We reminisced a bit and then decided to celebrate by going mini-golfing.  It wasn't busy at all, but we did start out masked until we were sure we could properly distance on the course.

Aside from a couple bad sport moments from Carter, we had a nice time.  It definitely felt good to be doing something we would do during a normal summer.  We were excited to find out that the arcade there was open, as their Facebook page kept emphasizing all outdoor activities were open.  We had promised Jacob that we'd go as soon as it was open since we couldn't go for his birthday, and he was thrilled to be able to play his favorite basketball game.  And after a couple tries, he finally found his rhythm and beat the high score of 73 with a score of 80!  As an added bonus, he earned us the 109 ticket jackpot!

We grabbed some ice cream at Dairy Queen after to finish off a very fun and oddly normal evening.

My mom offered to come in one evening this week so we could go out for a proper anniversary dinner.  It turned out that Tuesday was the best night for it.  She arrived in the afternoon and took the kids out for a dinner of their own, and we went out alone for the first time in a long time!  I was still not comfortable with eating in a restaurant, even with distancing, but luckily it was a gorgeous night to eat outside.  We decided on Texas Roadhouse since it had an outside tent and hardly any wait, offered salmon for Craig and a couple options I like, and we knew we could bring rolls home to Carter who loves them!

We had a really nice dinner!  I even had a glass of wine, which I almost never do when we're out.  The food was great, and it was nice having conversations without constant interruption.  As an added bonus, the National Lacrosse League was in the process of releasing their annual award winners as we ate (every 10 minutes there was a new one posted).  Craig was up for the Media Member of the Year, and we had a little advance intel that the news might be good (okay, a lot of advance intel), so we were eagerly awaiting the announcement of that award.  When it was announced that Craig won, instantly his phone started lighting up with texts and Facebook messages of congratulations.  Then when I posted it on social media, I started getting the same thing!  It was really fun to see all the messages from friends, family, and all around the league, especially since Craig usually doesn't get a lot of fanfare despite being the longest tenured broadcaster in the league.  Ironically, it was nine years to the day that he got passed over by the ownership he currently works for when the Amerks were sold and they went another route with the PR department.  In the end it was probably likely that the Knighthawks had specifically requested to keep him, but it still didn't feel great at the time even though the switch to all lacrosse meant his life got a lot less busy.  However, in the end it ended up rather stressful anyway, thanks to an owner who seemed to consider him as on-demand help.  But last spring the team was sold again, which is how he ended up with the same ownership that originally passed him up.  So, after all of that, getting this extra bit of validation was nice.  It made dinner even more fun and celebratory, and brought back a lot of good memories as messages from all different parts of our lives and careers came through.

Not every night you get to have dinner with an award winner!

Because we wanted to stay out a bit longer and because Craig is obsessed with DQ's non-dairy Dilly Bars, we headed back to DQ to bring home some dessert.  The boys went for a swim with my mom after their dinner, finishing up just as we got home, and then we all hung out for a bit before bedtime.  My mom and I even got to take a nice walk the next morning before she went home.  It was great to have that time with her, especially since our time has been so limited in the past few months.

We've now entered a bit of a heatwave heading into the 4th of July weekend.  It was in the low 90s today and it looks like the mid-to-upper 80s into the 90s will continue with very little rain for the foreseeable future.  I'm not complaining, though watering is a challenge so I'd welcome some night rain, if nothing else.  While the relaxation has been nice, I'd really like to fit in some fun over the next 10 days before I head back for another week of work.  Everything still feels pretty limited but I feel like there are some doable day trips.  We're skipping my family's picnic on Saturday (as of now), and with all the fireworks canceled, it seems like we'll have to make do with pool time and maybe a viewing of our honeymoon video (which I finally figured out how to view on our TV, since it's on a Hi-8 camcorder cassette) that comes complete with a spectacular fireworks display from our hotel room in Las Vegas on July 4, 2003.  Haha!  But we'll see if we can come up with any other activities to spice up this weekend and week two of this extended furlough period.

I always hate how fast this period between Memorial Day and the 4th of July goes, and I know the rest of summer goes way too quickly as well.  Part of me wants to speed through all of this so we can get closer to a vaccine and getting our lives back on track, but then again, I know this period of our lives is unique and special in its own way.  I should appreciate it while it lasts and savor these moments, particularly since we have no idea what the future holds--for us or for the world.  Will we stay healthy?  How stressful will the fall be if school can't go on as planned?  Will we be able to have a normal Christmas?  So many questions and so few answers lie ahead, so while we're in this little bit of a quiet sweet spot, we just need to try to enjoy it.