I was so looking forward to reading this book! I love NYC, and Central Park, and the summary of what was to come hooked me right in. I thought it would be a celebration of love, marriage, and family. It would also include sacrifices. It may have been, if I could have read past the 4th chapter.
It’s a style thing. Could it have worked for me if there were about a thousand more synonyms for the word “remember”? I remember. You remember. After the 3rd chapter, I decided to flip forward to see if this would continue throughout the remainder of the book. Unfortunately, it did.
I’m sorry to mark this as DNF. Being a wannabe writer I know how difficult writing can be. I took a break from writing a scene today, to hopefully get some inspiration and motivation from reading.
I’m trying to be more forward-thinking. The pace of change reflected in the daily news these days, provides a lack of predictability on several levels. It’s like whiplash. I’m typically a planner. I am in a good position to have options and have the benefit of going with the flow. There was no better evidence of needing to do that, than the pandemic experience.
Daria posted about her experiences with some thoughtful questions. I am taking inspiration from her. Here we go:
What do you remember most? I remember the anti-Asian sentiment and feeling targetted for being Chinese. I remember being obsessed about toilet paper, hand sanitizer, Lysol spray, gloves, and masks
I became crafty (hats anyone?) Who knew?
I went on to make enough to cover the heads of my immediate family. My mother got 2. My aunt also got 2. I made them for my siblings and all of their spouses and kids. Yes, I am a bit obsessive.
How did we get here? I was getting ready for a work trip on January 19, my second visit since October. I had heard rumblings of this wave of sickness making its way across the globe. And thinking it would be good if I could get a mask, maybe at the airport. While at the airport I couldn’t find any, but I didn’t worry much.
As I sat in my seat waiting for take-off, I got a text from my son:
“Mom, did I hear right from Dad? Are you flying to Seattle?
“Yup, just finished boarding”
“You do realize, they just identified the first case of this virus in the US. In Washington. What the … ?!”
It’s true. It had been confirmed in Everett—about a 20-minute drive from my company’s head office. I was flying into the unknown. That was January. It was only going to get worse.
We were monitoring the situation closely. My daughter was scheduled to go on her first trip abroad with school. She was going to Portugal and Spain for March break, how exciting at 15. I had gone out and bought a box of KN95 masks for her to take with her. We had already got some Euros for her to bring for tipping. We were hoping for the best. We were proud of her for wanting to do something adventurous. The pandemic hit Spain and Portugal first and several students could not return home to their countries because of it. Our school trip was cancelled just days before they were scheduled to fly out, which was a blessing.
Who went through this with you? Despite the doom and gloom, we did a lot of cocooning and isolating as a family. It brought my son home from university for a few chunks at a time. I was working from home, a job that I had secured as 100% remote the fall before. My husband was keeping busy after just achieving lifetime permanent status with our national airline (irony – now that he couldn’t go anywhere). Thank goodness he was at home – he had done a work stint in China a year earlier.
My daughter took her high school classes online – from her bed. Thank goodness for the internet, I was able to keep up with my Mom, in her 80s and amazingly agile on her iPhone.
Where did you go through this event? At home and no where else. Except to the grocery store – when we were allowed with “social distancing” (a new term).
We had family and friends’ meetings on line though. Several family Zoom reunions, with some family we had never met in person. A couple of high school reunions. Some girlfriend Zoom social hangs.
We did rent a cottage for a week’s summer vacation – it was outrageously expensive at the time.
How did you feel then? I felt somewhat in a bubble. I immersed myself in work. I had the option to go to head office as much as I wanted before Covid. I did try to go a couple times during, but with testing requirements and timing, it didn’t work out. But I felt so productive. We worked so well together internally. We also collaborated effectively with our external colleagues to accomplish amazing things.
I worried for my daughter. A lot . Life can be tough enough when you’re 15 without a global pandemic. We had just found a solution to help her deal with anxiety about going to school . And then this.
What changed in your world? I lost my part tine gig teaching at the gym. The gym! It has been my mainstay over the last 20 years. I did get the Les Mills app, I did manage to workout at home. But group fitness was not sustainable during the pandemic. I missed my fellow dance instructors and most importantly the great people who came to my classes. We lost a lot of instructors and the class has not recovered unfortunately.
Our travel was cut down, and we have not travelled as a family unit since before the pandemic. But it is also life. Family vacations are harder to keep up when your kids have their own schedules and friends.
What changed in YOU? I became more outgoing, less filtered, more the “real me” with people. Perhaps it was working on Zoom and freeing my inhibitions. I lost some of my imposter syndrome. Isolated in my office tucked in the corner of my house, working solo in person but with hundreds of folks online– I hit major high points in my career. More open to change than I ever was before.
I became more family focussed, and nostalgic. I don’t think I was alone in that. I’m trying to do more with my siblings, and taking advantage of more time to spend with my mom on a regular basis. I hope I’m being nicer to my husband but you’d have to ask him if that’s working.
How do you feel about the pandemic NOW – it feels like it was a dream. Except for the fact that I still have several boxes full of masks (see above, ie. me being obsessive…) life has normalized. I feel it brought out the best but also the absolute worst. Memories can be so short. It was just five years ago that we were slammed with this global crisis. The virus spread like wildfire because we are so interconnected. It brought out some awful divisiveness. Good people around the world also worked together to get us back to new normalcy. I wish people would remember that.
I can’t believe we’re in March already. I’ve since been to LA and back. So much for daily blogging of my trip! Got some catching up to do. This was the post I wrote at the start of the trip. It’s the only post I wrote on the trip. The pace was unbelievable. We had stuff to do everyday. We hit at least 15000 steps a day.
We got off to an early start – the sun comes up early, LA is a morning person town. The sun goes down very quickly so it makes sense to get in as much sun and the day as possible.
First stop, Tartine for breakfast. I decided to let my son pay for breakfast and wow, whopping over $80. US dollars. Thank goodness he is getting paid in USD. Most delish potatoes, egg sandwiches!
Tartine breakfast
Then onto Santa Monica. First third street market – lovely display of fruits, flowers, and a person pushing a stroller with the fattest bunny I have ever seen. I wish I got a snap of that!
Third street market
Next up a walk to the Santa Monica Pier – touristy destination but a must do. Iconic, not too crowded. We took some necessary pictures on the pier, and looking at the ocean it was beautiful. But the backdrop of the pacific palisades, the burnt out hills, was sobering.
Walked along the beach where my son got some exercise on pull up bars and hanging ring action – one thing was confirmed, lots of athleisure and dogs in LA.
We then stopped for coffee at Dog Town Coffee in Ocean park for a leisurely stop, enjoying the sun with live music in the back patio. And some cute dogs. This was South Santa Monica.
After coffee, headed back toward the town via Santa Monica City Hall, closed down auditorium, passing by a closed vintage Sears, and the Chains monument, and anti-nuclear installation. It was a bit eerily quiet on that walk back, likely as it’s more of a government area on a weekend.
Chains
We then had a lovely lunch at Elephante – what a vibe for a restaurant on the beach.
Pasta yummmWhipped eggplant
After lunch we headed to Venice to check out the market and shopping area. Parking was almost impossible, had to give credit to my boy for his patience in finding a spot. Picked up a coffee at Blue Bottle, it was worth the line up. My daughter was in search of much needed sunglasses, she wanted to get a new pair here in LA. It was fun to check out the market but I felt like I was looking at my old wardrobe I had donated 15 – 20 years ago. Ed Hardy, Paul Frank, low rise denim, slip dresses.
From the market we walked along the street which had most of the usual brands that we have up in Canada. Reminded me of our Toronto Beach neighbourhood in its heyday, but on a bigger scale.
We then found our way over to the Canals neighborhood of Venice. I didn’t know of this area, some unique and pricey homes lining several canals. Several ducks roamed the walkways and swam along the water as neighbours. Not sure I would like that so much as we noted other tourists walking through, gawking at the houses.
Canals
From the Canals we walked toward the beach – Venice beach, which was quite different than Santa Monica. There were the paddle tennis courts, the muscle beach, the very touristy carny atmosphere. And then the ultimate destination – the skate park. Witnessing the speed and athleticism of the skateboarders, some younger kids and an older fellow that you see here – in person at close range – very cool.
Skateboard park Venice Beach
Rather than going to dinner at a resto my son had pre booked, we were pretty tired and still a bit full from lunch. We decided to have dinner in – so headed back to the car and to Trader Joe’s.
Trader Joe’s, another unique experience for us. The groceries cost about what they do back home even with the conversion. I think our eggs are definitely cheaper (they had a one dozen limit due to the egg crisis here right now.)
Cooked for me!
My son and his partner (girlfriend I guess, but they’re so much more serious!) made us dinner – what a treat! I have never had fried capers before. Trader Joe’s Salmon seasoning with a green salad, home made croutons and fried capers.
After almost 20,000 steps, what a great way to end Day 1.
I’ll put up other posts of our activities, but still catching my breath as we were there for 8 days!
Are you patriotic? What does being patriotic mean to you?
Never more proud of being Canadian than right now.
I’ve always been a proud Canadian -my parents immigrated here and as first gen born here I grew up during a time when assimilation was what I thought was key to survival. But what I realized as I got older, and especially after I had kids of my own, is that the gift that being in Canada allows me, is the gift of being allowed to celebrate our differences. Celebrate differences and appreciate them, while living in a democratic country that, more often than not (I’m not totally naive, I know we have our challenges…).embraces them.
This is flag day in Canada. Ironically I am not home to celebrate that, but if I were home I would wave that flag proudly, amongst all the Canadian snow that has just blanketed my fellow Canadians. I also watched some of the 4 nations hockey tournament today, and watched Team Canada and Team USA play.
3 fights in the first 9 seconds. And while I don’t condone violence, I have to admit that I did relish our Canadian guys pounding on the US players. Just for a tiny instant before I gave my head a shake. Ultimately Team USA won the game – but I was still proud of our boys.
I don’t like that the current environment brought us to this point. I hate that, as I have always considered Americans friends, and I still do. But the jokes and threats on our sovereignty have brought out a fierce patriotism – one that has always been there but now out in full force.
We’re bracing for a major snowstorm. Most of Southern Canada will get walloped with up to 40 cm of snow. The snow is expected to start tonight and continue into early Thursday morning. I’ve been watching for weather alerts, watching the news (in between all the Trump trade war news – I can’t even go there, it pains me so much what he is doing. An attack on your best trading partner, a partnership founded on so much history, friendship and solidarity. Not to mention how it will severely impact Americans as well as Canadians…)
Sorry, back to the weather.
All non-essential travel is discouraged. Pearson Airport has already canceled some flights. Some universities are even contemplating closing, hardy universities that seldom close. I remember making my kids go to school when they canceled school buses – schools were kept open. They weren’t eligible to take buses when they were older as school was a walkable distance. So I told my son he could walk to high school. Imagine that. He whined and pleaded, but I still made him go. He got to class and Facetimed me.
No one, not even the teacher, made it to class. Yes, I’m a hardcore Tiger Mom. But I did let him come home.
I mean, when I was in school we never had snow days. Although I’m ancient – like “Little House on the Prairie” era ancient – anyone else wear Holly Hobbie shirts back in the day? Well, I jest. but I did find out that Little House IS getting a reboot by the way. Another post on that later.
Thank goodness my husband finally bought a snowblower last year. For the first time in the 24 years we’ve lived in this house. He’s used it a total of two times. Once last year. And the second time a few weeks ago. Then it broke down.
Great timing. Good thing it’s covered under warranty. It’s a bit too big to fit in my car to be taken for repair. (He thinks – hasn’t tried yet). So it will sit so usefully in our garage as we get that 40 cm accumulation later tonight.
Let’s get out those shovels.
Sigh.
So in honour of the snow, I put on what I call my snowflake sweater:
And yes, that is a new zit that I am sporting on my chin. What is UP with menopause acne.
I belong to a Facebook group for parents of students at my daughter’s university. Although we had already gone through this post-high school stage with our son, we hadn’t been as involved. Being the firstborn and having so many different social groups, his transition was pretty seamless. Sure, he needed our support first year (and during later years, unscrupulous landlord, advice, all that…). But it was helpful that a bunch of his friends attended the same university. Even the same program, and we were very good friends with the parents.
Both hubs and I had instilled the idea of going away to university in both the kids. I had stayed home. I saved some money, but I didn’t feel a part of the university as a commuter kid. I often feel that I had missed out. I remember it being a very stressful time even though I was living at home. My parents stressed me out, but that’s a story for another day.
After doing her online research and going on a campus tour, she made her choice. She knew no one in her program. She didn’t know anyone going to the same school before or with her. She has always been independent that way. Didn’t matter where her friends were going – she wasn’t even sure where they were when we asked! So peer pressure not so much of a thing. She made this decision. This was after spending a couple of years in virtual high school from her bedroom during COVID. There’s a whole cohort of kids affected by these unusual pandemic circumstances.
We leaned in to be on alert and mindful of her mental health (and that of both our kids). University life is stressful. And coming at a time with changing bodies, increased societal expectations and the weight of impending adulthood. It is a lot.
Many other parents are together with us in this group, trying to navigate this world together from afar. We received a lot of great advice and support beyond the first year. I still get notifications from the group and offer advice when I can. We are thankful that she has settled in well. She has made some very good friends and she loves her roommates. She is naturally introverted and a homebody, but learning to advocate for herself and enjoying her studies.
This past weekend some parents posted about students in a certain residence receiving emails about happenings. About seeing medical personnel in the vicinity. Very concerning emails.
I woke up this morning to a post linked to a notice on the university website. A heartbreaking update, about the passing of a student in that residence. The university is mourning and has made counseling services available for students. She was likely in first year, as residence is typically only available for those first years away from home. I was brought to tears when I read about it. It’s a parent’s worst nightmare, I can’t imagine how awful this is for her parents, family, and friends. And how awful it must have been for her.
I texted my daughter about it this morning. I’d just brought her to the bus yesterday for her trip back to school. She’d been talking about the news with her roommates – news must have spread very quickly on campus. I needed to check in on her. I wanted to make sure she knows that she is loved. We are here for her about anything and everything. Being here for her . And I can’t wait to give her a huge hug and kiss again.
Dawn is a 58-year-old divorced mother of two adult sons, living in London, trying to settle into a nice middle aged life. She is a native of Trinidad with roots and family still back home. Both of her kids have grown and flown with their careers. She has a decent relationship with her ex-husband. Dawn has a job that she doesn’t love, but it pays the bills. One would imagine she is indeed well set for a good future on her own.
However, Dawn has a secret. She’d made a pact with her parents to not speak about an event that happened 42 years ago. A traumatic time for Dawn and her family, particularly given the close-knit and small island community.
At the age of 16, Dawn had given birth to a baby girl. And given it up for adoption. Dawn had been the baby of the family, a studious young girl, from a well to do, respected family. An uncharacteristically careless decision made during island carnival set her on this unexpected path. Over 40 years later, she has an emptiness in her, a longing to find her long lost daughter. She has been trying to track down the baby that she gave away so many years ago. She is haunted by the memories of that time, and this need to connect with her long-lost daughter.
I loved this story. Dawn is a super-relatable character. The descriptions of her daily life and her thoughts are detailed well. I empathized with how she deals with her co-workers, her kids, her family, and her reflections on life. I empathized with her on so many levels. Perhaps it’s because I am a middle aged woman. I find myself at a similar time of life, looking at the future ahead and considering all those life aspects. I appreciated the first-person perspective, written like a memoir. There was so much groundedness in the description of her daily life. When she described the interactions with her family and complex relationships with siblings and her parents – I understood. The island life also sounded so vivid, and the author writes of it, and about the characters, with affection.
When she describes the events from her time at 16 years of age, the novel reaches a heartbreaking level. Her later search for her daughter, who would now be in her early 40s, further elevates the story. The last passages were especially poignant and brought me to tears.
I love Claire Adam’s style of writing and have already set my sights on reading her first novel Golden Child (which apparently, I put on my to-read list about 6 years ago and totally forgot about.)
Thank you to Random House and the author for an advanced reader copy for an honest review.
This past week went by very quickly -and yet I feel like I’m stuck and not moving. Which is practically the case. Because of the reno’s, Hubs and I are limited to three rooms in our house- bedroom, kitchen and bath. We are mostly empty nesters. We have become accustomed to each having our own side of the house. It has been helpful to have our own space, healthy even. I think so anyway.
We have been in close quarters for two weeks now. We are isolating with our 16 year old blind, deaf, and stinky but precious little Cody. Cody typically has the run of the whole first floor. All of his usual markers are gone. We have to keep very close tabs on him for his bathroom breaks. I won’t elaborate, but suffice it to say we cannot leave him alone with all the noise and disruption. He’s had more than his usual number of accidents.
Thank goodness we can tag team so we can get out for gym workouts. Sitting around eating cookies, chips is not so healthy nor helpful.
Monday
I took G shopping for groceries. We went to T & T, the Asian grocery store to get some favourites for the next couple of weeks. They don’t have a great selection of Asian stores at her school. The plan was to drive her back after my workout. She usually takes the bus. I offered to drive her back because it is faster. I enjoy spending more time with her.
Got my Bodypump workout in, but it got windy and snowy. She decided to go back to school the next day – so the three of us plus Cody watched TV in the bedroom. Cozy times.
Tuesday
Drove back to university town – a much better drive in the day. So many trucks on the highway, but at least it was light and not snowing. It’s very interesting to see how clean my daughter is compared to her roommates. They’re great girls, but my daughter announced that they should put up a cleaning calendar. The fridge was packed with expired goods that she went through, most of which were not hers. I couldn’t stand the unidentifiable orange crusty goop that seemed to be the source of the unidentifiable smell. It lined the bottom underneath the crisper drawers. I cleaned it up before heading home. I did this just like a mom would. I’m not a typical mom, so that’s saying a lot!
That evening I went to my regular book club with the neighbourhood ladies. I’d missed the last one before Christmas! It was hosted by my friend who has just moved out of our neighbourhood into her newly built house. What a showcase home, absolutely stunning.
We didn’t really discuss the book pick – “Thursday Murder Club”by Richard Osman. It was a fun read, lots of characters, reminiscent of the TV series “Only Murders in the Building”.
Wednesday
Chinese Lunar new year! I stayed home the whole day. The guys were doing the floors, so I couldn’t really do any writing. I couldn’t do any thinking either. I did, however, watch a couple Netflix movies:
The Storied life of AJ Firky . Quite well done, I enjoyed the cast in it, quirky but effective casting and acting was subtle. And a story with a twist. I was pleasantly surprised by David Arquette’s performance as a sweet character in this. Based on a book by Gabrielle Zevin who also authored of Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow, which I loved. I may have to read the book.
Babes – what a laugh riot! It covered a lot of topics around motherhood, parenting, girlfriends, family. A lot of things they don’t tell you when you’re expecting, and what really happens after you have the baby. There were some gross out and laugh out loud moments for me. I love movies where the comedy goes so quickly it hits you seconds after you digest it. Dialogue and chemistry was amazing – you could tell the main actors are comedians.
And Stephan James, Toronto actor, was on there much too briefly.
Thursday
Had a coaching session on zoom. Always nice to meet new people.
I then took Mom to Walmart. She wanted to use her new Walmart Mastercard. I tried to talk her out of getting a new credit card it, but she wanted that $15 cashback. They have a new hot Chinese food counter there. She treated me to takeout lunch and dinner. There was so much food for the both of us and then for me and Hubs for dinner. You can’t beat Walmart for affordability, I have to say.
I am glad to have the time to spend with Mom. She will turn 88 this year. She is still going strong. She still has it in her to get annoyed with my Dad and how he wasn’t the perfect husband. He’s been gone 16 years and she has a long and near perfect memory. I am trying to capture her stories for memoir purposes, but she ends up complaining most of the time. At least she’s still feisty about it all. And truth be told, my Dad did have shortcomings.
Thursday evening I got to the gym again – Bodyjam 110. Not too impressed with this release. I’ve done it three times, hopeful that it would grow on me. The choreography is quite boring. The arm movements are a little silly. It’s slow, so it’s not much of a workout. But it was fun to dance with the class, more of a social thing. I may skip and do Combat on Saturday instead.
Friday
Just came back from an impromptu dinner out at Turtle Jacks before a concert. Last day of January – which was not quite dry for me, more of a Damp January. I snuck in a glass of wine on Tuesday night, and a nice cold Coors Light on tap tonight.
And the concert – 54-40, an Alt Canadian band from Vancouver. They can still rock after being together since 1981 – wow!
I have homework this weekend – need to write a scene. That’s on my agenda.
At a time 
5th Anniversary of Covid
I’m trying to be more forward-thinking. The pace of change reflected in the daily news these days, provides a lack of predictability on several levels. It’s like whiplash. I’m typically a planner. I am in a good position to have options and have the benefit of going with the flow. There was no better evidence of needing to do that, than the pandemic experience.
Daria posted about her experiences with some thoughtful questions. I am taking inspiration from her. Here we go:
What do you remember most? I remember the anti-Asian sentiment and feeling targetted for being Chinese. I remember being obsessed about toilet paper, hand sanitizer, Lysol spray, gloves, and masks
I became crafty (hats anyone?) Who knew?
I went on to make enough to cover the heads of my immediate family. My mother got 2. My aunt also got 2. I made them for my siblings and all of their spouses and kids. Yes, I am a bit obsessive.
How did we get here? I was getting ready for a work trip on January 19, my second visit since October. I had heard rumblings of this wave of sickness making its way across the globe. And thinking it would be good if I could get a mask, maybe at the airport. While at the airport I couldn’t find any, but I didn’t worry much.
As I sat in my seat waiting for take-off, I got a text from my son:
“Mom, did I hear right from Dad? Are you flying to Seattle?
“Yup, just finished boarding”
“You do realize, they just identified the first case of this virus in the US. In Washington. What the … ?!”
It’s true. It had been confirmed in Everett—about a 20-minute drive from my company’s head office. I was flying into the unknown. That was January. It was only going to get worse.
We were monitoring the situation closely. My daughter was scheduled to go on her first trip abroad with school. She was going to Portugal and Spain for March break, how exciting at 15. I had gone out and bought a box of KN95 masks for her to take with her. We had already got some Euros for her to bring for tipping. We were hoping for the best. We were proud of her for wanting to do something adventurous. The pandemic hit Spain and Portugal first and several students could not return home to their countries because of it. Our school trip was cancelled just days before they were scheduled to fly out, which was a blessing.
Who went through this with you? Despite the doom and gloom, we did a lot of cocooning and isolating as a family. It brought my son home from university for a few chunks at a time. I was working from home, a job that I had secured as 100% remote the fall before. My husband was keeping busy after just achieving lifetime permanent status with our national airline (irony – now that he couldn’t go anywhere). Thank goodness he was at home – he had done a work stint in China a year earlier.
My daughter took her high school classes online – from her bed. Thank goodness for the internet, I was able to keep up with my Mom, in her 80s and amazingly agile on her iPhone.
Where did you go through this event? At home and no where else. Except to the grocery store – when we were allowed with “social distancing” (a new term).
We had family and friends’ meetings on line though. Several family Zoom reunions, with some family we had never met in person. A couple of high school reunions. Some girlfriend Zoom social hangs.
We did rent a cottage for a week’s summer vacation – it was outrageously expensive at the time.
How did you feel then? I felt somewhat in a bubble. I immersed myself in work. I had the option to go to head office as much as I wanted before Covid. I did try to go a couple times during, but with testing requirements and timing, it didn’t work out. But I felt so productive. We worked so well together internally. We also collaborated effectively with our external colleagues to accomplish amazing things.
I worried for my daughter. A lot . Life can be tough enough when you’re 15 without a global pandemic. We had just found a solution to help her deal with anxiety about going to school . And then this.
What changed in your world? I lost my part tine gig teaching at the gym. The gym! It has been my mainstay over the last 20 years. I did get the Les Mills app, I did manage to workout at home. But group fitness was not sustainable during the pandemic. I missed my fellow dance instructors and most importantly the great people who came to my classes. We lost a lot of instructors and the class has not recovered unfortunately.
Our travel was cut down, and we have not travelled as a family unit since before the pandemic. But it is also life. Family vacations are harder to keep up when your kids have their own schedules and friends.
What changed in YOU? I became more outgoing, less filtered, more the “real me” with people. Perhaps it was working on Zoom and freeing my inhibitions. I lost some of my imposter syndrome. Isolated in my office tucked in the corner of my house, working solo in person but with hundreds of folks online– I hit major high points in my career. More open to change than I ever was before.
I became more family focussed, and nostalgic. I don’t think I was alone in that. I’m trying to do more with my siblings, and taking advantage of more time to spend with my mom on a regular basis. I hope I’m being nicer to my husband but you’d have to ask him if that’s working.
How do you feel about the pandemic NOW – it feels like it was a dream. Except for the fact that I still have several boxes full of masks (see above, ie. me being obsessive…) life has normalized. I feel it brought out the best but also the absolute worst. Memories can be so short. It was just five years ago that we were slammed with this global crisis. The virus spread like wildfire because we are so interconnected. It brought out some awful divisiveness. Good people around the world also worked together to get us back to new normalcy. I wish people would remember that.