Quarantine Connection

For the last few years, we’ve spent New Year’s Eve with friends having an annual game night, playing and laughing and enjoying friendship.

In 2019, my friend Lauren, who usually hosts, decided we should do this monthly because we enjoy it so much. I live about two hours away, so sometimes I’m able to join in the monthly fun and sometimes it doesn’t work out, so I’ve had four or five game nights since the tradition was expanded.


And now…quarantine.
We’ve had two game nights in the last month, connecting via Zoom and playing something called Jackbox.tv that a few of our friends have. It’s limited to eight players, but we’re actually connecting more often while social distancing.

While we were living in Chicago, we had regular weekly “wing night” with friends, gathering at one of our places–even in our tiny studio occasionally–to eat wings (or any substituted pub fare) and enjoy each other’s company.

I moved away nine and a half years ago. I got to see some of these friends when they road tripped to Nebraska for our wedding in 2012, and Facebook helps me track of their shenanigans. But now, we’re scheduled to meet up via Zoom on Saturday. I mean…friends I haven’t seen in years. We’ve also been doing some texting to check in.

And I’ve seen some other social media posts from friends who are connecting via Zoom to chat with friends from decades past who are now spread across the country, so it’s not just us.

There are quarantined areas of the world without these types of technology to allow this kind of connection and I cannot imagine what that isolation is like, but we do have the tech, and we’re using it. This feels somewhat miraculous.

There is so much darkness in this pandemic–heartbreak and hoarding and fear and death–but there is also light and good news. (John Krasinski’s Some Good News is a gift.)

We have the opportunity to decide for ourselves what is really important in the way we live our every day lives. We have the opportunity to come out on the other side of this storm deciding how we spend our time, what our work looks like, how we stay connected and with whom we connect.

Or we can “go back to normal.”

For me, there will be some changes made.
It turns out I don’t HAVE TO run errands every day.
It turns out I CAN stay MORE connected with friends hundreds of miles away.
It turns out I have more time than I think on most days. I want to use it better.

(Of course, when Baby Girl shows up in July, we’re going to have a full life make over anyway!)

Cheers to the brighter days!
Cheers to choosing change!