January was the unexpected fostering of a greyhound who is now a permanent member of our household.
In February an ice storm knocked out our power for 4 days, forcing us to relocate into a hotel - it was our first overnight away from home since the the pandemic began. Being face to face and down the hall from strangers was terrifying.
Working a vaccination event in March meant I got my first COVID vaccine - a wild Pfizer appears! Even so, I ran straight to the shower after talking to 200+ people at the event so that I wouldn't bring anything home to my unvaccinated partner.
Then a second dose in April turned into a brunch with actual human friends in person.
We were both fully vaccinated in May and immediately went to visit family for the first time since 2019. It was a heady time before terms like variant dominated headlines. I hugged my grandparents.
In June we jumped at a last minute plan to visit my sister in Virginia, venturing into public in ways that now feel foolhardy. We made fused glass soap dishes, went to a baseball game.
My partner started a new job right as July began. We saw a movie in a movie theater (rented out by a friend). Kelly got to meet other greyhounds at a playdate and hound wash. We went camping and I got pretty sick, resetting my radar for social gathering back down to a dull discomfort.
August was quiet, although we still ventured to yoga classes and my partner's parents stayed the night. My sister told me she was pregnant.
Then leading into September, we went back to California, for the week we had planned to get married. No big party, but we still signed the paperwork and celebrated with parents and my grandparents. My oldest friend's entire household caught delta and we waved through the window.
October and delta almost derailed our plans but we all made it safely to the Oregon coast to spend a week at a rented beach house. It wasn't perfect, but it was family time we hadn't had in almost two years. We hiked, we made a lot of food and played a lot of games. It was hard to say goodbye.
I begin to lose the thread of when things happened, but November felt like a personal attack. We began really worrying for my sister and baby's health as both remained small. Uncles with heart problems and cancer diagnoses. My cousin almost brought COVID home for Thanksgiving and we stayed home instead of traveling.
In December my sister was hospitalized and I drove to California so my mom could fly to DC to be with her. Just one day after she showed up, vital signs dropped and an emergency c-section gave us Lina, my niece, weighing in at under 2 lbs and very early. My mother is newly diagnosed with diabetes and has a cpap. Christmas was strange without half of the nuclear family of my childhood. But almost everyone else from my dad's side of the family was there. It was a mixture of so familiar with clouds of uncertainty. My father worked a lot as an emergency dept physician throughout the month and my cousin had an emergency appendectomy.
I'm not sure I have all the months exactly right, and I know a lot more happened. But here is a little bit to remember a year that I do not want to repeat.
