It is Sunday, March 22, 2020. I started my day with a fast paced run, and then I walked a couple of miles to take in the sunrise and the cool morning breeze. Hot weather is on its way here, so cool morning breezes are coming to an end soon.
As I turned a corner on my walk, I the breeze picked up and felt amazing. I pulled out my phone to see what my monthly mile count is on my running, and I found an alert from Facebook. The alert was a Facebook memory of a post from this day last year. Little Chirp is pictured smiling ear to ear, with a cannon ball, one of his favorite desserts at Steamboat Steakhouse, in front of him. The words on the post were “The week of Kyle has begun!!!!!! 11 in 5 days. 💕”
We have a tradition in our family that everyone gets a whole week when it is their birthday. When it is your week, you get to decide what we make for dinner or where we go and what we order, what board games we play, what we watch on tv, etc. The week of Little Chirp is always the best week of the year.
The memory made me cry. Not because things are bad for us. Things are so much worse for so many people all the world. We are embracing our “New Normal”. I cried because I am realizing that I have been completely taking my life for granted. I have rushed from one thing to the next without taking the time to appreciate it all. I mentioned in my last post that it is as if God has sent us all to our rooms for a time out. I openly admit that I was in need of this time out.
What is new in today’s news: I started today with Fox News on mute, and Alexa playing music, just as I did yesterday. Today’s music selection is by the artist Savage Garden. Why Savage Garden? I have no idea; this was just what I was in the mood for, and they are one of my favorites artists of all time. The song Like Animals is playing right now. “I want to live like animals, careless and free.” Don’t we all right now?
I skipped right to the music this morning, but I did not miss the headlines. New York state has been declared a major disaster. So far, New York is the hardest hit state, with the concentration of those infected in New York City. There are those words again, “so far.”
From a world perspective, the number of reported cases has double in a week. Italy remains the hardest hit, with Spain now having a significant spike in both reported cases and deaths.
Five states have now issued stay at home orders. I know that it is not a popular idea, but I wish that Texas would do the same. I was raised by a Marine, freedom is our American way of life, and I am a proud American. However, I also have a great deal of experience with data analytics, and the data suggests that this will all be over much sooner and many lives will be saved if we all simply stay at home.
Challenges with present situation: The biggest challenge with the present situation remains the economy. I made one last trip to the grocery store yesterday, so I could get some special things for Little Chirp’s birthday week. I saw so many worried faces. People are spending more money than they have on groceries, and then they are likely to lose their jobs. Then what? Small businesses everywhere are in a state of peril.
For me today, I am finding challenge in the realization that I was taking my life for granted. What I would not do to sit down at Sportin’ Woody’s, my favorite bar right now to have a drink with my friends. But, this time to take a deep breath, take the time to appreciate everyone around me. I could really use a hug. Hugs are one thing that I am truly missing.
Update on the Birds: Tomorrow will be the first day of the week of Little Chirp; he will turn 12 on Friday. I plan to make this the best ever week of Little Chirp. Steaks and lobster ravioli await, but more importantly quality time awaits him. The most significant thing that I will do to today is to brave the garage, and find the boxes of board games, which I will have all unpacked and organized for Little Chirp when he returns from his dad’s house today.
We will begin home school tomorrow. I have his school schedule all planned out, and I will be spending the day organizing his classroom. I want him to look back on this time as a quality learning experience.
I have given our school a name and a mascot. We are The Storey School of STEM, Literature and Arts Learning – Home of the Lovable House Cats. Their entire school district is split into to parts, one goes to Tomball High and the other to Tomball Memorial High. Both schools have a form a cats as their mascot, and the elementary, middle school and junior highs all have the cat mascot for the high school that they ultimately filter into. In short, the entire district has a cat mascot. Tomball High’s color is red, and Tomball Memorial is Navy, so folks refer to the two branches of schools as “the red” and “the blue”. I decided that our colors will be red, white and blue, and that we too will have a cat mascot.
I am looking forward to having the boys return home from their dad’s house. I always miss them when they are gone; this weekend, I have missed them terribly.
Things I am grateful for: I was out of my mind thrilled to find a huge package of lobster ravioli for about seven dollars at Costco yesterday. I really need to watch my budget, and lobster ravioli is a Little Chirp favorite. This will be a nice surprise. I noticed that all the luxury items were marked way down, and all the staples were marked up. It is a strange time.
I am grateful for all of the time that I will have with my birds these next few weeks.
I am grateful for all of the friends that have reached out to me this past week.
Shout out to a friend: I have two dear friends in New York City – Kristi and Stephanie. Both moved from Texas to New York not that long ago. I had been planning to visit New York and introduce the two of them. They are both career driven, wine connoisseurs and dog lovers. Those are drivers for a great friendship!
Kristi has been all over the world, but came from a small town life, making her easy to connect with. Kristi has friends from all walks of life because she cares about a person’s heart, not their social status. I can spend an entire evening dining and drinking wine with Kristi she has so many interesting stories and ideas. She knows her way around a wine list. What I love is that she is the master at ordering a really good wine without a high price point.
Kristi is a friend and confident that offers meaningful advise, even when it is not what a person wants to hear. There has been more than one occasion when I was furious with a situation at work with my previous employer, and Kristi was there to talk me through it. She does not take sides, she just presents facts. She is never an echo chamber; she is the one that explained to me the concept of an echo chamber.
I loved having Kristi as a coworker. She was a coworker that I had absolute 100% trust in, and she was fun to work with.
Kristi is a dog lover, rescuing her beloved fur kids. Harvey came to her during the storm, which we thought was the worst thing that we would ever face in Houston.
Stephanie is also a dog lover. We know each other because we grew up in the same little Texas town; we even road the same school bus. Stephanie is about five years younger than I am. Her older sister was in my class. My earliest memory of Stephanie is of her older sister telling me how intelligent and driven Stephanie is. Stephanie was in the first grade at the time, and this is the way that she has been her whole life.
Somewhere along the way, we all became adults, and Stephanie married a man that her sister and I had grown up with. A guy that Stephanie’s sister and I once fought over, Chris. Stephanie’s sister won Chris’ heart, but he became one of my closest friends. Chris was one of my first true friends in the middle school years, which were hell for us all in different ways.
I love my hometown, but we were not surrounded by opportunities for formal education and careers. Instead, we were instilled with values, and it was up to us to find our own paths to education and careers. This is not an easy path, but I would not have it any other way. I am beyond proud of all that Stephanie has accomplished, and she is just getting started.
Stephanie took amazing care of Chris through years of terminal illness. She has stayed strong through incredibly difficult times. Chris left us to be with our Lord in August of 2018. Stephanie’s entire family was there for Chris from day one until the end. That is the way they roll.
Stephanie and Kristi are both close and appreciative of their parents. I love seeing their Facebook posts of travels and adventures with their parents.
These two ladies are amazing people. The City of New York is lucky to have strong, intelligent women like Kristi and Stephanie.
Hugs to you both!
Positives with present situation: I am taking time to hit the “reset button”. I am reflecting on life, rethinking my priorities and refocusing my attention on the things that truly matter.
The week of Little Chirp is going to be amazing.
It is the little things in life…