Drive By Birthdays

I talked to friends today. In real life. Not on Zoom.  I saw people (more than six feet in front of me) and it was invigorating.

Even though it’s 29 degrees out and I knew I would be wearing a hat, face mask for COVID protection, and talking through my car window, I pretended it was a regular pre-pandemic Saturday. I did my hair and makeup (which I do every day, to be honest) and thought about which bag I would use to pack up the kids’ stuff for the 20-minute ride to our friend’s house for their son’s drive-by birthday. I literally don’t go anywhere in the car anymore unless I have to go to a doctor’s appointment. It can be months in between my outings, so this was a welcome adventure. Even in the blistering cold.

I stayed in the car to talk because my son, Luca, was sleeping in the backseat. My husband, Frank, and daughter, Genevieve, got out in person for socially-distanced gift giving. Even though she was shy and didn’t talk behind her mask, I know G was bursting with happiness because I let her get out of the car and she was able to interact with humans besides her family. She needed this.

I needed this.

I’ve been really good about not getting cabin fever, but a year into this pandemic and even I— the biggest homebody I know—want to get back into the world.

But for now, I’m savoring drive-by birthday parties as I sip my iced decaf Americana from Starbucks and have car-based conversations.

We talked about:

• Working from home with kids and how Christine Derengowski’s post about virtual schooling her first-grader made me cry because I have hard days, too but instead of telling my daughter she’s a superhero like Christine did with her son, my daughter and I have tantrums. We’re working on that. I literally wrote a book, Princess Genevieve: The Hero with Girl Power, about my daughter being a hero, but now I am telling her that she is making history with her friends by learning at home.
• Haircuts –who can’t wait to book a salon appointment, who let her husband cut her hair, and how I slashed my finger cutting my own hair with professional scissors I bought online
• The Iceman, Wim Hof, and how taking an ice-cold shower for 35 seconds really has been boosting my friend’s energy and immune system. (I’m going to start!)

And then, Grace said something that really resonated with me. “If we’ve learned one thing from all this, it’s that health is wealth.”  Nothing else matters, it’s true.

This random blog comes to you as I sit at the table and wait for my kids to finish watching videos while they eat dinner: pizza, broccoli, and pasta with extra butter. Mom of the year. We all are. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.