Category: Current Events
-
COVID-19 and American Memory

The last romantic comedy I read (Shipped by Angie Hockman…super fun, I recommend it!) was set in 2019. The publishing industry runs a couple years behind “real time,” so despite its 2021 release, the novel was likely written well before 2019. But it also felt like a very deliberate decision to set the book before the…
-
Saturday Six #22: Furlough Memories

Today is the one-year anniversary of my last day of work before “pandemic furlough.” Because the funding for my salary relies heavily on tourism, and because tourism shut down last spring, our entire department was placed on furlough. Initially, we were supposed to be off for two months, but as the pandemic stretched on, the…
-
Saturday Six #18: COVID Anniversary

I came across a hand-written list at work yesterday, compiled a little over a year ago when I was preparing to take a natural egg dyeing museum program to almost 40 local classrooms. Not a single one of those programs happened. The note felt like it had been written in another lifetime, by another person.…
-
Saturday Six #9: New in 2020

I’ve noticed a lot of optimism about moving into 2021, and I have to admit, I’m not really sold on it yet. I think 2021 is going to look a lot like 2020, at least for the first six months pandemic-wise. But a “good” year or a “bad” year doesn’t have to be governed by…
-
Someday Soon

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” really should be our anthem this holiday season. The song was written in 1943 for the film, Meet Me In St. Louis, and actress Judy Garland was the first to sing it. In the movie, she sings the song to her little sister on Christmas Eve because their family…
-
Person over Platform: A Rare Word on Politics

I don’t often publicly state my political views or alignment, and I’m not going to do so here, either. I’ve been called “apolitical” and “politically unplugged.” I don’t disagree with either. I pay enough attention to make decisions about voting, and that’s about it. On the rare occasion I do post something remotely political, I…
-
A New Kind of October

October is here, and it’s feeling pretty anticlimactic. October is the month I desperately look forward to each year. For more than a decade, Octobers have been a carefully planned and meticulously executed string of events, carrying us from one weekend to the next until suddenly, it’s All Saints Day. It’s a whirlwind of orange…
-
Professional Distancing
I read an article recently about the pandemic, and how because of our greatly increased bandwidth, employers everywhere have realized that it’s just not that important for employees to be in the office. Zoom and other virtual meeting platforms have taken the place of in-person meetings, and office buildings, especially in New York City, could…