Day Twenty-Four

It's easy to focus on all of the things we're missing out on right now, but I'm doing what I can to focus on the other side. There's a whole lot happening that wouldn't be in any other situation - and a some of it is good. Therefore, I bring you a list of things that have been better because of COVID-19.

1. Mario Kart. DON'T JUDGE ME, Y'ALL. Mario Kart is the poison of choice around this house right now, which means the girls and I have been playing a lot. A lot lot. We wouldn't be doing that if things were "normal" so I wouldn't know how Mila cannot stop talking while driving EVER and she's a terrible loser. The worst, even. Seeing a tiny little blond girl losing her mind because she's losing at driving in circles is HILARIOUS.

2. Daily walks. While I am a proper office lady who gets her steps in no matter what, now the girls go for walks with me just about every day. They had no interest whatsoever before they spent their days trapped in the house, so it's kind of great.

3. Virtual dates. Whether it's Mila having lunch with friends over Zoom, Alexis Facetiming her crew, or me having a virtual happy hour with cool people, there's a lot of fun being had on virtual dates.

4. These two. In every way.

Alexis and Mila have never been closer than they are right now and every second of it is amazing and fantastic and magical. They are each others entertainment, cheerleaders, and support. It's everything.

5. Virtual karaoke. I was supposed to be in Nashville a few weeks ago for a global sales conference, which is basically an annual event where I present to a 150-person sales team for three straight days. It's A LOT, and yet somehow we have managed to adapt and are running the event virtually via Zoom over the course of several weeks. Because I'm me, I've been playing with my backgrounds. My current trend is sets from favorite old TV shows. I spent the morning in Luke's Diner, for example, and then I spent the late-night session somewhere completely different. (We run each session multiple times to accommodate different time zones. This one was for Asia and Australia/New Zealand. Thus, it started first thing in the morning for them, but at 10:00 at night for me.) I wanted my different to be some place that maybe a few people would recognize, so I went with the living room from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. I used to watch it when I lived in Spain, so I figured it was a safe assumption that it aired in other countries.

It totally did.

The moment one person recognized the background, he broke into the theme song, with his perfect British accent and all. Which, that alone was FANTASTIC, but then others joined in. I ended up causing a few minutes of loud, obnoxious karoake with six different people from six different countries singing the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song.

Seriously, it was amazing. I'm looking forward to a reenactment next year when we're all in the same place, but for now, that most definitely ranks as a fantastic thing that wouldn't have happened if all had gone according to plan.

Day Twenty-Three

Some people wake up to gentle music carefully selected to gradually pull them to consciousness. Other people start their day with a jarring BEEP BEEP BEEP because they need that jolt to get their heart going. I personally am a gentle music over and over and over again because hi. Hi, my name is Michelle and I like to hit the snooze button. Because I like to hit the snooze button, I have no less than 3 alarms set every single morning. There is always a decent chance that I'll accidentally turn off an alarm when I mean to hit snooze, so I have to trick myself into waking up.

I know it doesn't seem possible to trick yourself, but I definitely can, at least early in the day. Mornings are not my best, to say the least.

Today, though, today I woke up very quickly and I was WIDE awake the second I needed to be. It was because my alarm was a text instead of my usual Shawn Mendes I don't even know what song because I can't think early in the day. Normally I would breathe fire and shoot daggers out of my eyes because someone texted me at 6:30 am, but not today. No, that text was exciting. Genuinely, truly exciting.

So ... let the record show, I am at the age where a text telling me that Target stocked toilet paper overnight is something to get excited about.

Seriously.

I know you're jealous. It's fine. Now that I have acquired a month's supply of toilet paper, I'm willing to share my knowledge with others. I got a text telling me that a Target not terribly far away had allllll of the toilet paper, so I showed up at opening (the second opening - not the one for high-risk individuals because I am not a jerk) to buy my one allowed package, albeit the largest package available.

And I was VERY excited. Like, I told people about it all day.

I'm even blogging about it.

TOILET PAPER. I'm blogging about the fact that I bought TOILET PAPER.

If ever there was a string of sentences that perfectly sum up what 2020 has been all about, that's it up there. That's the story.

Not to brag or anything, but I bought bread and antibacterial soap as well. Big things happened on Day Twenty-Three!

Day Twenty-Two

I would like to take a moment and thank Pittsburgh for being REALLY terrible at crossing bridges. It's a very well known fact that Pittsburghers don't wander far beyond their own neighborhoods, to the point that I know plenty of grown adults who have never once stepped foot in downtown Pittsburgh despite the fact that it's 20 minutes away. People think it's weird that I will go to Ross Park Mall, Robinson, and South Hills Village all in one day.

It's not weird.

Pittsburgh is weird.

I mean, I used to drive from Minot, ND to Bismark, ND -- 100 miles -- to go shopping because what else was I going to do? There were limited choices in Minot. The next nearest place for choices was Bismarck. Heck, it was frequently impossible to get groceries without driving at least 15 miles when I lived there. Distance is relative, and such.

But don't change, Pittsburgh. I like that you think five miles is too far to travel because it's making it easy for me to find empty trails for hikes with the girls.

That is the rule, by the way. We can hike, but only if there is absolutely nobody around. We've been largely successful in this quest simply because I'll drive a bit to get to a good trail. So far we have explored 4 new-to-us trails and returned to 3 that we already knew. We have decided that our rules are that there can't be any people, but also that there is some sort of body of water.

Because Mila. And her frog boots.

Hiking shoes have to stay in my car because RULES, PEOPLE. I LIKE THEM. That means the frog boots are always available for Mila when we pull up to a trail. It's a good thing, too, because the kid is stomping through the water. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

I knew this, of course, because we've always hiked. It used to be the girls' reward for having the kitchen clean when I got home on Fridays in the summer. Now it's an almost everyday sort of thing, but they still seem to be connecting hikes to an award. So, yay? Please don't tell them that it's as much for me as it is for them.

Because Mila stomping around in silly frog boots will never be anything other than one of my favorite things.