Hello, friends

[chanaleh]

Not a day goes by that I don't think of how I would write up a particular experience in my LJ/DW, but the truth is, I haven't even been reading in a couple of years. Meanwhile, I waste at least an hour a day reading Facebook, usually from 4:30-5:30 in the morning - between the time I unwillingly wake up and the time I actually get out of bed. Somehow LJ never felt like a waste, even when I used to spend that much time on it.

Anyway, but as it's now 2020, here is a top-10 snapshot of my current life.

1. By some mysterious alchemy, we now have a 5yo kindergartener. Due to COVID, kindergarten so far has been entirely in "virtual" mode, but they are now announcing plans to reopen in-person school for the second trimester, starting November 16, possibly even sooner for the kindergarten classes. Parents can opt out, but we will send her if they have it. However, I'm skeptical that it will even last more than a few weeks before they have to shut it down again.

2. OK, well, COVID, obviously. Also the election. I cast my ballot early last weekend so I could stop thinking about getting to the polls.

3. Two years ago (literally, I think Monday was my 2-year anniversary) I took a job as Director of Communications & Programming for our local Jewish Federation. It's been both good and bad and really deserves its own post, if I ever get that far. It does mean I've continued to work in-person in the office this entire year, because we are considered essential human services, even though most of my functions could theoretically be done from home.

4. My Etsy shop has continued to grow steadily, to the point where I generally see 1-3 orders a week. I had 111 orders in all of 2019 and have seen 134 already this year in just 10 months. It's not rent money, but it's gratifying.

5. Mr. Y (on bass) has gotten involved with a Grateful Dead cover band, which isn't his first choice of music but is shockingly marketable around here for some reason, so they are playing out a few times a month, even now.

6. I'm still active in my synagogue, the only Conservative place in the area. I've been leading their Friday night services for years now - formerly they only took place every one or two months, but since COVID, they've decided to hold an abridged Zoom service every week, so I do that. Also, I started leading High Holiday Shacharit in fall 2018, and now they've finally talked me into taking on the rest of the High Holiday davening for 2021 (ritual committee meeting this Thursday night to discuss further, but pretty sure it's a done deal). Also also, the rabbi who came shortly before we did is now retiring when his contract ends next July, so I'm also going to sit on the rabbi search committee. If you know anyone good, send them my way.

7, I've had horrible insomnia for the last, I don't know, few years? Usually I fall asleep when Aria does (around 9pm), get up and move to my own bed, go back to sleep, then wake up at 3am (still exhausted) and try for 2 hours to go back to sleep, until I give up. It's getting to where waking up at 4:30 is a good-case scenario, because I've gotten 6+ solid (if not continuous) hours and can consider getting up and doing something useful.

8. In spring of 2019 we lost 1 cat and 1 dog, both elderly, so since then we have been down to a 1-dog household. Mr. Y talks idly about getting a puppy but Aria is lobbying for a kitten, so negotiations are at an impasse thus far.

9. The house is still standing, although it's a nearer thing than it used to be. We seem to have finally sorted out the last paperwork pertaining to the transfer from the late Mom Y (only three years later), so that's a relief.

10. Still driving the 2004 Aveo I bought in fall 2014. Mr. Y is still driving the 2005 Focus he drove new off the lot, so there's that. My daily commute is a 30-min drive each way, which gives me a lot of time to look longingly at other people's cars, but fortunately the ones we have are perfectly serviceable for now.

How are you?

Comments

[filkerdave]

Wow. Is she *5* already?

I got into the Grateful Dead as the result of my partner being an old-time Deadhead and I've actually really come to appreciate the musicianship of it all. If concerts are ever a thing again, I do recommend going to see a Dead & Company show.

[lillibet]

You catch me at one of my own periodic "I should look at Dreamwidth" moments. It's good to have an update from you.

We're doing just fine. Alice is loving online school. She'd like to see her friends more often, but they are doing watch parties and actually managed an in-person party for her best friend's 14th birthday--masked and distanced to watch movies in her backyard.

Jason's life is largely unchanged. He's still working from home, walking the dog, and rehearsing T@F's next show.

I'm busy busy. The Boston theatre scene has taken steps toward creating a more robust community between and among groups, so I'm involved in that in various ways. T@F has been plunging into anti-racist change and improving our policies and practices across the board, in hopes of coming back better, whenever that's possible. I've also just started another term as Worship Associate (lay worship leader) for our congregation after a five year break. We've just hired a second minister and are all learning how a two-minister team works for us.

Jo has joined our bubble, which is lovely. She's living at her place, but coming to dinner most nights. Backie bought a new condo in Woburn in September and she and Neil seem to be enjoying exploring the shops & restaurants up there as they settle in. Our other sister and her partner have kept even more isolated than we are and maintain a steady diet of Zoom exercise classes to keep themselves fit and busy.

That's the basic gist of things for us. Glad to hear that things are generally ok on your end, too!

[nacht_musik]

Hiya! I'm still here, I read a few times a week but mostly don't post. I'm glad to hear that things for you and your family are chugging along.

[desireearmfeldt]

*waves* Hi there! Good to hear from you!

I got an actual education research job two years ago, but it ended up being so frustrating from a workplace point of view that I left at the end of the summer. So now I'm theoretically job hunting, which I am currently not very inspired to do.

Other than the pervasive terribleness of the world being on fire, my life is pretty good and more or less the same as it's been for a good long while. Lots of online LARPing going on at the moment and I'm involved in a couple of LARP writing projects. Writing fiction has been pretty fallow for a while; I'm trying to climb back on that train.

Also (in an amusing reference to this user icon), I have been growing out my hair in the pandemic, and it's gotten to "can just about pin up/put back with combs) length. Slightly longer than the icon at this point (and quite a lot greyer...).

[laurion]

Suffering the slings and arrows of a 3rd grader with ADHD trying to do remote learning while I am working from home. It means I've had to move out of my office and to the dining room table.

5 already? Serious reminder that time keeps progressing linearly at a steady pace no matter what else is going on.

I pump DW out via RSS so I'll see anything you write whenever you choose to write it.

[goljerp]

Wow, great to hear from you!

I've been posting a couple of times a month recently, which I guess is a lot for me? :-)

It's so amazing your kid is 5! (I can hardly believe mine is 14, doing remote high school).

Re: Rabbis -- I still live very close to JTS, but due to Covid, I'm not seeing people in person so much. I don't know that I really know any of the current students there, although we do get JTS interns at my shul on a regular basis (I guess since we're so close, and it feels like half the faculty go there). I can't imagine doing a search without seeing the candidates in person, but I guess that's the times we're living in.

Voting: Joy voted yesterday; I'm planning on going this afternoon. She only had to wait an hour to vote; I'm hoping the lines will be shorter when I go (although that may be a delusion).

[bluepapercup]

A big update! So nice to hear from you. I check DW every day as part of my social media rounds so whatever you post I will see and comment on in a timely fashion! I do still post here, and have been meaning to move some of my longer FB rants/posts over here too.

For me - well, I saw you all in February and a lot has happened since then. I got a new job at AWWA in Denver and we are now in the middle of a move. I am just today back in MA to finish things up, Stuart and I were apart for eight weeks while I secured housing in CO and assured HR that I was alive (I have been working remotely from MA). We are putting the condo on the market in mid-December (do you know anyone who wants to move to a lovely edge-of-rural area in Acton?) and will be upping sticks and completing the Denver move at that point.

My sister got married in May (courthouse due to the full wedding being canceled by the pandemic) and I had an at-home graduation from my MS program the same month. We've had multiple (non-COVID) deaths in our family/friend circle and have not been able to attend funerals or memorial services. Difficult.

Jewish life is in flux right now, I attended HHD services virtually at a small reform shul in Denver that reminded me very much of our small reform shul in Lowell, and also ping-ponged back and forth between the virtual offerings from the several much larger reform temples as well. We will be joining *somewhere* in greater Denver but not sure yet where. Was invited to join an online Jewish community that's been a source of much joy and sustenance, and I am deeply thankful for my queer chevruta.

Overall though life is difficult and emotionally challenging right now, but I am grateful for all my human connections. <3

[bex77]

So wonderful to read your update! I am doing quite well, which seems somewhat improper to say for someone mostly in isolation, but it is true. I try not to take the pandemic personally for taking away almost everything I enjoyed doing - theater, eating out, seeing family, day trips around New England - and enjoy my new home in Woburn. I revel in helping to keep the theater rolling - the folks are so creative in finding ways to use online resources! I enjoy finding new places for take-out and ways to order things online to avoid shopping in person. I am so happy I retired last year, so I don't have to balance work and home, and had time to buy a new condo, and renovate and sell the old one! I hope next year will be even better for all of us! -B

[gingicat]

Happy to see you, and anxious about much the same things.

In less than two months *both* of my children will be teenagers.

[gilana]

Glad to hear you're all doing relatively well! I'm still working at CJP, and we've all been working at home since March 13, and expect to continue that at least through the end of the year and probably beyond that. Honestly, working from home is pretty awesome for me. It means I get a lot more time with Aaron (who is going slightly stir-crazy since of course theatre work is not a thing right now) and I can sit on the couch in a t-shirt and sweats and play Animal Crossing or play on our new Oculus Quest VR headset between tasks. My family has been having a zoom call every Sunday, which means I get to talk to them more than I usually do, although I'd really love to be able to see and hug my parents, I haven't seen them since last Pesach. I read here pretty regularly, although apparently I haven't posted since my Hawaii trip. Man, I am so grateful that we were able to get that trip in -- we got back just before everything started to shut down. Really wish we could be planning another trip somewhere now, but oh well, someday.

[hatam_soferet]

Hallo!

I came back to DW recently after getting fed up with being the product on facebook. We have a very-nearly-threenager, we are on our last day of a two-week covid-exposure quarantine, so back to daycare tomorrow, I am writing up a PhD on strange letters in Torah scrolls, temperatures in Montreal have gone below freezing this week so brrrrr brrrr brrrrrrr, we carry on.

[debka_notion]

I am definitely more tired and busier than I was pre-pandemic, but even before that, I was back on Dreamwidth at sporadic intervals to do longer or more honest writing than facebook invites. I both gave up on the hand-written kid-journal, and also started to find that I needed a place to write honestly for myself again. But there's no reliability to my writing non-schedule. Still a stay-at-home-parent, doing a good bit of home education, though my 1st grader is also in public school.

[bram]

Good to hear from you. We weren't that close, we met once in real life. But... I too spend a lot of time on Facebook, and in my case I stopped posting to LiveJournal when the Russians took it over. I got on tenure-track in 2011 and it was strongly hinted I should put most of my LiveJournal into friends-only mode, and I did. However I post a HUGE amount to DreamWidth now, friends-only. You were one of the few who also transitioned from LJ to DW, but I'd started to get into personal stuff and without any indiction your account was still in use, I stopped access... I've had a WILD last 3 years, as people say about 2020 not the kind of thing one can imagine script-writers coming up with. Although I got tenure, I quit my job last year... I can add you back if you're interested--and DW and LJ have that advantage over FB of favoring more honest self-revelation, longer-form explorations, and one's feed isn't curated by an algorithm. I hear FB censors links to LJ and DW! Maybe that's why I can't get my friends to join me here!

[chanaleh]

I do remember meeting you. :-) I'd be interested to read the tenure backstory if you want to add me again. I have certainly seen friends post LJ/DW entry links on Facebook, but I also wouldn't doubt that they get deprecated in the rankings.

[vettecat]

Nice to hear from you! I haven't been posting but try to check DW a couple times a week. Also miss LJ, FB is superficial in comparison. I wish there were a way to focus more on people's actual updates and less on shares/memes.

Amazing that A is 5 already! H is 10 and in 5th grade (!). School reopened in person with a remote option, we are doing remote because we're nervous - there seems to be so much about the virus that we still don't know.

Have you seen a doctor about the insomnia? A couple years ago I was having a lot of trouble sleeping, went for a sleep test with no result, then got a blood test and it turned out I was low on B12. Started taking a supplement and it made a huge difference. Worth talking to someone in case there turns out to be an underlying problem.

[jethrien]

Hello! It's good to see you guys are hanging in there. Oof, this year...

[magid]

I totally hear you on thinking about posting far more than actually posting.....