Remembering the Old Normal (Meme)

[darkemeralds]

Meme from misbegotten via yourlibrarian. Last time I did things we can't do anymore.

• Last time I traveled abroad: August 2019. Went to the UK and France. Writing retreat on a farm in the middle of nowhere around where Limousin melts into the Dorgogne region. Led by Una McCormack. It was glorious.
• Last time I slept in a hotel: Nashville, September 2019, for a Story Grid Live event.
• Last time I flew in an airplane: Coming home from the Story Grid Live event in Nashville, September 2019. It was notable for my increasingly critical disability, and having to have wheelchair assistance in airports.
• Last time I took a train: The Heathrow Express into London, September 2019.
• Last time I took public transit: Portland, Trimet, bus to physical therapy right after my hip replacement surgery in November 2019. Since then I've been back on my bike and have been able to avoid buses, crowded or otherwise, for which I'm immensely grateful. Trimet has just announced a 50% cutback in bus service. Hopefully they'll survive.
• Last time I had a houseguest: Early summer 2019, I think. A fellow Story Grid Certified Editor and co-host of my podcast came into town for an event.
• Last time I got my hair cut: February 2020, and let me tell you, Kim Rhodes's haircutting video today makes me really tempted to get an electric trimmer and just go to town. I <3 her.
• Last time I went to the movies: Sometime in November, as I recall. It was between surgeries, so one leg/hip was working and the other was still causing me to limp the several blocks between bus stop and cinema. My sister and I saw Fantastic Fungi, a documentary about the mycelium kingdom, including the magic mushroom branch. Have I mentioned that I've been experimenting with psilocybin microdosing? It's really interesting.
• Last time I went to the theater: I SAW HANNAH GADSBY LIVE in Portland in February! In a 200-seat theater space, incredibly intimate and wonderful. She was fantastic. "Douglas," her show was amazing.
• Last time I went to a concert: Does ballet count? I was privileged to see "Romeo and Juliette" at Sadler's Wells in London in August with ravurian and ruric and it was brilliant.
• Last time I went to an art museum: It's been a couple of years. Portland Art Museum.
• Last time I sat down in a restaurant: breakfast at the counter, Cadillac Cafe, probably about four weeks ago. I miss this kind of thing the most.
• Last time I went to a party: Sunday, February 16. A dinner party. I feel like I dodged a bullet there. Crowded room, shared meal. Didn't get sick.
• Last time I played a board game with more than two people: I...don't play board games.

I'm sure we're all thinking about what the world will be like when this is over. I'm beginning to realize that, for good and ill, it's not going back to "normal." Normal was awful in many ways, and we have a lot to learn from being forced out of it by this extreme, slow-rolling event.

Take care, everybody. Wash your hands a lot.

Comments

[tabaqui]

Interesting stuff! And yes - I think the new 'normal' is going to be a bit different than the old.

I would do this except that...we don't have public transit or trains and i don't do parties or get my hair cut and it would be pretty boring, really, for all my answers to be 'never' or '20 years ago', heh.

How about - last time I got tattooed? About a year ago, when I got my memorial tattoo for my dad. And my daughter is doing me a tattoo for my b-day in April. :D

[darkemeralds]

What's strange for me is that, apart from haircuts, I don't typically do most of those things either, but 2019 was an extraordinary year for me, so I did a lot of them...

including getting a second tattoo, which of course is another close-personal thing we won't be doing for awhile, and I hope my tattooist is able to survive.

A memorial tattoo for your dad sounds like a wonderful thing. Mine is Seshat, the Egyptian goddess of writing, with a ball of chaos over her head. Wanna see?

[tabaqui]

Yay for 2019, then! :D

I just live in a very small town (not always, but for a while), and don't like going out much and in general am a bit of a hippie, so....

My ex-SO is a tattoo artist here, and he and his brother own the shop. So far they're doing okay: appointments only, no walk ins, 10 or less in the shop, no dragging of family and kids and such. Missouri isn't on lockdown yet (Republican gov. and govnt.), but we are directly outside one of the biggest Army bases in the country, so that helps a lot.

I love your tattoo! Egyptian iconography/symbols are so very interesting and attractive.

So this is my memorial tattoo. The pictures are just after it was done, so it's a bit puffy.

https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/tabaqui/2954370/13527/13527_original.jpg

https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/tabaqui/2954370/13752/13752_original.jpg

https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/tabaqui/2954370/13886/13886_original.jpg

It's a WWI maneuver called the Immelmann Turn. Cat (artist) replaced the biplanes with a Beechcraft Staggerwing Biplane, which was my dad's favorite plane.

And this is my back: https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/tabaqui/2954370/16790/16790_original.jpg

Sorry for the huge reply! :D

[darkemeralds]

Your memorial tattoo is wonderful! Unique and personal and with a real story in it. I love the fine but solid line work.

And your back! Wow! That must've taken some time...and some discomfort. It's just beautiful.

I've thought about getting a tat somewhere where I can't actually ever see it, like the back of my neck, but IDK. I like looking at mine. And there's nobody in my life who would ever see one on my back below the neck, so it would be kind of sad.

[tabaqui]

Thank you! My dad wanted to join the Air Force in WWII and be a pilot, but he had a vision issue and they wouldn't take him. So he joined the Navy, instead. All of his brothers, too, except the oldest, who went in the Army. My dad built radio controlled planes and flew them most of his life, and that was his joy.

My back took about 30 hours all told. Would probably take him less time, now, since that was one of the first really big tattoos he ever did.

My daughter's going to tattoo the back of my neck, actually, for my birthday, and i think something on my wrist, as well. Can't wait!

I figure tattoos are for me, so even if nobody sees 'em (like the one on my abdomen), i still know it's there.

[kis]

I'm beginning to realize that, for good and ill, it's not going back to "normal."

No, it's really not. It would be nice to believe that we'll have learnt to appreciate each other - especially people who are generally taken for granted like cleaners and shopworkers, and there'll be a greater sense of community.

[darkemeralds]

That's my fondest hope in all this (I should say, second-fondest after hoping that the virus doesn't kill people I love, but there's no unselfish way of saying that).

I'm already looking back with a kind of horrified nostalgia at the one brief shining moment when I could think of a thing I wanted, find it on Amazon, and magically have it appear on my doorstep the next day. It was wonderful, but we always knew it was cursed, a monkey's paw. I'm sort of fascinated at how relieved I feel now that I can't do it anymore.

I expect Amazon will get back on track, but will China continue to supply us goods that seem virtually free compared to the prices and availability we grew up with? Did we need all that stuff? No.

I wish there were some way I could have these quiet streets and this clean air, while not condemning three-quarters of the population to unemployment, homelessness and starvation.

In other words, there's got to be a medium in here somewhere, and I hope we find it. Tax the rich or eat them.

[kis]

Blimey. If Amazon has shut down, it truly is the apocalypse.

[darkemeralds]

Not shut down, of course. Just no next-day delivery while they quite rightly focus on getting basic healthcare supplies out. My desire for a new gadget (or a book!--they are suspending shipment of physical books) goes on the back burner.

[kis]

:(

[twasadark]

A great update from one of my most favorite people! I may have to do it as well.

You don't like board games?! But they can be such fun! Perhaps one day I will convert you ... :-)

[darkemeralds]

Unlikely!

I'm glad to see you back here. It's been a balm to my soul the last week or so.