1. The Joy of the Return
At the end of 2021, I was fortunate to be able to see a Broadway show I was gifted in 2020. Though there wasn’t any direct mention of it, the joy of Broadway’s return was palpable. I got teary eyed as the curtains opened and the play began. A few months later, I watched Annie Live! At one point, Daddy Warbucks (better known as Harry Connick Jr.) makes a statement about being glad that Broadway is back. Some reviewers who think too highly of themselves might’ve found this line corny, but I got choked up, remembering my similar feeling in the theater a few months earlier.
I felt this same way at Jon’s first swim meet when the announcer mentioned that this was their return to competing after a two-year break due to COVID.
For a lot of us, the past two years have compressed into nothingness. We think of things which happened four years ago as happening two years ago because 2020 and 2021 were so limited for us. I think it’s only human to feel that swell of emotion as we start to return to things as they were, while still knowing we cannot forget the things that have been.
2. Weird Walks
Every day Hubby and I walk Stitch in the morning. Then, somewhere in the afternoon, I walk him again. Recently, on said walks, he has been stopping every six feet or so to snack—on sticks.
It’s gotten to such an extreme point I’ll sometimes walk him in the middle of the road where there’s no debris and no chance of his constant snagging of random sticks.
We feed him. He gets treats. So why on earth does he eat sticks on walks like he is being starved?
Send help.
3. Birthdays
My SIL, Sam, had a birthday last week and we got to celebrate at The Melting Pot which, if you can believe, I’ve never been to. Somehow, in my mind, I imagined a fondue restaurant meant I wouldn’t eat a lot because I’d be daintily dipping small bites into a pot and, after a short period of time, tire with the activity and be finished.
Not so. In fact, ‘dainty’ is definitely not the word to describe how I ate that night.
There was a cheese fondue, the table’s favorite: the spinach artichoke cheese, which I could have eaten alone as my meal and gone home happy. But no. Following this, we received a salad of our choice—just so we could say we had something healthy? I don’t know. But it was also delicious.
Then, came the entrée fondue which was such fun to partake in with family. Each of us picked our own meat platter and shared two different cooking styles (Coq au Vin and Mojo were our selections).
And, naturally, we had dessert fondue: Dark chocolate and Bananas Foster. Bananas Foster was, to my surprise, my favorite.
I also may or may not have enjoyed a divine Ying and Yang martini with the woman of the hour*.
*We overheard the table behind us moving onto what I believe was their third Ying and Yang and when I learned ice cream was one of its ingredients, I was sold.
4. House hunting
The positive part of house hunting is that I get to explore food in the different areas we travel to in and around Jersey. Sometimes I think I pick houses that I know are losers but still attend the open house to get a trip out to that city.
Grabbing coffee and a treat from Booskerdoo after seeing a house in Long Branch
I’m trying not to feel anxious about finding a house. I know one day I’ll be in my home and think back on this time as such a brief time, forgetting the worries which attempted to creep upon me at every turn. It’s strange, because in order to maintain this positive mindset I have to balance letting my mind remain in the present, and all the good which is still at hand, and hoping in the future, and all the good which is still to come.
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