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Week of Rain

Jake’s mom made an analogy this week that really resonated with me about the expansiveness and depth of what’s happening right now. That every thing impacted by COVID in our daily lives is like pin in a cork board. And there are millions of pins. And it’s not just the number but the depth of the pins, too. I told her that I can’t spend too much time thinking or working on any one pin or the depth becomes too much for me to emotionally or even logically tolerate.

I felt that a lot this week – from not knowing when I’ll be able to see my family again to the policies we’re working on to protect the lives of residents in nursing homes. If I spend too much time thinking about any one thing, I become overwhelmed. So I move to the next pin and it all feels manageable again. And then this week my grandmother fell and fractured her hip and broke a rib. In the best of circumstances, this would have been horrible. But in this new normal, the pin felt infinite: we couldn’t be with her; I couldn’t go home; my mom had to say goodbye to her through a crack in the door as she was taken to surgery; that she is confused and alone. So I find myself trying to distract myself from this too. That finding distance and distraction is the only control I have in all of this.

Here is a picture of my grandmother I took many Christmases ago that I came across this weekend.

While it rained all week, in good there was also all this…

It was my niece, Lily’s 12th birthday this week. Jake and I did a Tik Tok, but it’s terrible. More like I’m terrible, so it shall not be posted. But we had fun with it anyway.

We had date night Friday – Jake baked his best bread yet for it.

Blurry Bread – sorry!

We got lots of Easter goodies – a jigsaw puzzle from Jake’s parents (a VW Bus jigsaw puzzle, at that!) and a box of of goodness from my parents.

Listened to Tallest Man on Earth virtually play for the world. Jake and I had tickets to his concert back in October. Thing is, the concert was cancelled. But we didn’t know that. I had purchased the tickets back in like March. The concert was cancelled in June. The concert itself was not until October. I didn’t receive a cancellation. I was refunded on my credit card, but hadn’t noticed (note to self about checking my credit card bill monthly). So we showed up for the concert to a dark Walt Disney Concert Hall. So this was a treat.

It was my other grandma’s 81st birthday this week, so the family went out to her house to sing her happy birthday from the yard – here they all are. I got to say hello from the car.

It finally stopped raining, so we escaped the city with a drive out to the Salton Sea and down to the border. The desolation was surprisingly reenergizing.

And then this joy my sister made with KK. Can’t. Stop. Watching. It.

Happy Easter

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