January 24: It was the year we were strong and fought for our joy
We were just over a dozen of us at Abington Meeting's weekly Black Lives Matter vigil. The honking was nearly as happy as the Sunday after the news orgs called the election for Biden. People yell "Thank you!" out their windows. People clap and wave as they drive by. Someone offered us hand warmers. One Black man parked his car and talked to each of us. The 77 bus drivers honk increasingly enthusiastically at us. I love throwing peace signs as people drive by. We fought. We won a battle. It is the impetus to continue the fight.
And yet on Thursday there was a small crisis in our circle of friends and family. It was a little tense. There was a lot of hard work by a lot of people to get things back on track. Today I heard a beloved laugh.
January 21: We've stopped sliding backwards
I worked through the inauguration too.
Inauguration Day is also Lynn's birthday, and we had a lovely hour-long chat. I miss her so much. I miss them so much. I miss everyone so much. Lynn was so joyful about the inauguration, and said it was the best present. With plans in place for vaccinating and economic support to allow quarantining without starving to death, both of which will let the US get COVID under control, I'm planning what menus to make when friends come for post-COVID dinners.
There was no attack on inauguration day; I watched Obama's inauguration as a talisman, as if my watching could prevent the assassination I feared so much. As we know, Obama served two successful terms. But I couldn't watch Biden's after the attempted Congressional assassination two weeks earlier.
It seems the FBI finally taking White Supremacists even the least bit seriously as a the threat they are, and investigating and arresting them, along with employers firing them, has checked the White Supremacists' enthusiasm for sedition.
January 7: The year of an actual coup
Yeah, I worked through the coup yesterday 'cause I knew if I paid attention I'd fall apart.
January 5: Quarantine day 300
For years if not decades, each Advent I would plan to bake a king cake for Epiphany. This year, with no parties to host and the office closed through today, I had enough energy yesterday to make rosca de reyes, a Mexican king cake, and it is lovely. Victory! (If you make that recipe, I deviated from the outlined directions: I melted the butter for the cake, and mixed it, the eggs, the yolks, the yeast sponge, and the extract together before mixing that into the other dry ingredients; for me the paste for decorating the bread was more a very soft clay, and a lot of it; I baked for 35 minutes at 375). This afternoon I tried to make a cafecito, but used far too much coffee when trying to whip the sugar.
This extended break I've strived (ha!) to relax and recover from the insanity that was last year. It's much like the recovery rides I've been doing on the Peloton. Instead of working through a massive to-do list for the break, each day has only four or so items to check off — and sometimes even those don't get accomplished. No intense cleaning — fuck the baseboards. In fact, the house went uncleaned one weekend, while our cleaning crew remains furloughed (with pay).
Yesterday was my 29-day appointment at Temple to draw blood and assess my immune response. I didn't pass out! The PI, Dr. Gentile, said they plan to submit to the FDA in mid-January, and hope for emergency approval in mid-February. If I am offered a vaccine (and UPHS wants to vaccinate all staff — even office staff who can stay home and I don't feel that's ethical — but am I even UPHS staff as I remain one of the few University employees) I should contact the study a week beforehand, and they will unblind me. If I'm in the control group, I'm cleared for the vaccine. If not, they ask I don't re-vaccinate. Which, fine by me. A new nurse took my blood and we bitched about how awful the app is.
January 2: It was the dawn of a new year
We zoomed New Year's Eve and had a blast with some Jackinthebox games (which are poorly explained on the Jackinthebox website). From Pack 3, we played Quiplash (like the old Match Game, every player answers two fill-in-the-blank questions in the funniest way possible; afterwards players vote who had the best answer), Murder Trivia (trivia game, wrong answers get you killed), and Tee KO (build amusing T-shirts from the other players' poor drawings and mottos; everyone votes for the "best" shirts). It was fun. Gena, Illy, and Scott & Lynn were strong players.
We had some COVID symptoms, and got tested, and all of us came back negative. Jorj was no surprise. So that's good? The system to get the results was shitty, of course. Distinct from the system to sign up for the test. Asked for (but didn't require) last four SSN. (Which, WTF?)
I've been trying to write a cute disaster for the site and can't even grind out two paragraphs. Break has been only relaxing and doing a single fun craft (glass etching! hemming pants! embroidery!) a day. To get myself going, mokka has become part of the day. The best thing would be to stop trying; recovery days aren't just for the knees.