Welcome To The Jungle

Overall, I think I've been pretty positive during this pandemic. I mean I absolutely miss seeing my friends and family. As I mentioned a few months ago, we're not comfortable traveling, so we didn't go on a family trip to Hilton Head and we haven't visited my mom in Florida. I guess I'm distracting myself by keeping really busy. Even though I'm working from home, I just realized that I haven't taken a day off (except for Memorial Day and July 4th) since I got home from my dad's funeral right when everything started shutting down in March. I find that I'm doing work or checking work email at all hours of the day and even on weekends. Part of this is because I'm not working a traditional 9:00-5:00, so there are many days where I feel like I didn't get enough done. That's when I end up opening my computer after the kids go to bed.

That first paragraph didn't sound very positive, so let's go with this. I am definitely spending more time with my kids than I have before. We play outside  or in our basement every day, and it's nice having three meals together. (Now if they would eat more!)

Over the last few months, I've become accustomed to knowing things would be cancelled or postponed. I was disappointed that Celebrate Fairfax didn't occur in June, but I expected it. I think we all knew that in-person school wouldn't happen for the kids this fall too. I was supposed to see Green Day, Weezer, and Fall Out Boy on Saturday night, but that was postponed until 2021 weeks ago. 

So between being busy with work and family and expecting things to be cancelled, I've tried to remain positive. I feel like that's important for the kids and my own personal sanity. Yet, considering everything, it was this that made me sad:

This is Herr Metal, a cover band of 80s hair metal (hence the name) who play hits from groups like Guns 'n' Roses, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Poison, and more. They put on great shows, and I've probably seen them 6-7 times over the last few years (including at last year's Celebrate Fairfax). The link to the video above is from a livestream concert put on by Herndon's Friday Night Live. It sort of hit me the other night that I really miss going to live concerts. A staple of our summers has been attending various free concerts and performances organized by local government agencies and shopping centers. It's something that I really enjoy doing with my kids. My oldest has outgrown some of the kids performers, but I think now he'd enjoy some of the more all ages concerts. That's obviously not happening this summer, and I really miss not going to these shows with them and/or my friends.