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| The view from our rental house on the Galveston Seawall |
The previous week, the City of Austin had canceled South by Southwest, and on Friday the 13th my husband received a message from his employer not to come to work on Monday; that his company would be working remotely "until it was safe to return to the office".
He's still working from home.
There was no way for any of us to anticipate what the next two years would look like. It turns out life during a pandemic is exhausting, frightening and isolating.
Even for those of us who are fortunate enough to have homes, jobs and families to sustain us, the last two years have been hard.
I haven't written a blog post in more than 6 months, because frankly I ran out of both the energy to write and things to say.
With vaccines, and now boosters, the world is starting to open up - a bit - again. I'm still not back in the jewelry studio - I don't know when that will happen, especially now that we have Omicron - but I am feeling renewed enough to sit down at my computer and blog.
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| Sunflowers and chrysanthemums at the beach house |
Three weeks ago we were able to spend Thanksgiving with our adult children and my in laws.
The following week, I had a fabulous long weekend with a group of women I've know for more than 40 years.
This past weekend, I caught up with friends from graduate school who I hadn't seen in person in two years.
Next time, I'll write about the girls' trip...which will actually have jewelry references in it! This time, you get Thanksgiving.
For decades, my mother in law has gone all out for Thanksgiving, starting her planning weeks in advance and cooking for days before everyone descended on her.
Her home, while lovely, isn't big enough to accomodate all of us overnight, so in the before times, I would book hotel rooms nearby. None of us felt comfortable with that arrangement this year, so instead we rented a historic house in Galveston, where we could all stay in one place.
To ensure things went smoothly, my husband and I arrived on Sunday - a couple of days ahead of everyone else - to get set up.
Things that used to be simple - like grocery shopping - have become more complicated. Covid has changed the way I do these things - to minimize my contact with people I don't know - in large part because Texas' lack of leadership has refused to allow local governments to put safety protocols in place.
Fortunately, I was able to schedule a curbside pick up ahead of time, just like I do at home. Because I wouldn't be in my own kitchen, and didn't want to spend all my time cooking (and we certainly weren't going to ask that of my mother in law), we ordered our holiday meal to go from Goode Co. BBQ in Houston.
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| Melamine beach plates and Goode Co. Thanksgiving dinner |
Side note - I've been getting flowers delivered weekly through a floral CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), and it has been one of the bright spots in a dark time. The flowers, and the folks behind them at Petals, Ink, are definitely worthy of a blog post...I promise I'll write one in the coming year.
The rest of our crew - kids and in laws - arrived on Tuesday, and frankly we could have simply had turkey sandwiches and it would have been a great trip! However, we didn't have to settle for sandwiches - we had quite the spread - smoked turkey, green bean casserole, mashed sweet potatoes, potatoes au gratin, rolls and of course, pie.
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| It's not a trip to Galveston without Gaido's |
It all went by far too fast, and we are once again scattered across the country - my kids on both coasts and us in the middle in Texas. But the week left me thankful for the time together, and hopeful that we will be able to find ways to return to seeing each other - in person - regularly.
If that means booster vaccines and testing before and after travel, sign me up.
I hope you have been able to find things to give you strength and carry you through this challenging year. I'm glad to be writing again, and grateful to everyone who reads my posts.
Until next time.
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