The hands-down most interesting person in my immediate family is the great-grandfather who divorced my great-grandmother: trained as a veterinarian, turned chicken farmer, later on a mortician. Had a drinking problem (at least according to my seriously dragonish and controlling g'grandmother) so tracking down what happened to him and the second family that he supposedly had would be interesting

(This is in the 1910s/20s, so enough time has passed that all this is more 'interesting anecdote' than 'family tragedy' that it was at the time.)

Glad you did that for Connie, amyparker.

I can't remember the last time I touched another human. My sister and I didn't even hug the last time she was here, three weeks ago.

I'm conflicted. On one hand, I would really like for life to get back to normal. I want to go to the movies and dinner and hang out with my friends. I want to go to the salon and go see my physical therapist again. But the more I learn about COVID-19, the more certain I am that I'll die if I get it, and the more nervous I am about going to places where other humans are. I'm totally willing to stay home until they make a vaccine. I just hope that I can.

I'm totally willing to stay home until they make a vaccine.

That's what I'm looking at, too. Other than seeing family at a relatively safe distance locally. And my brother the ID doc says we're at least a year out from a safe vaccine.

... I may need to find a new hobby...

Theo, somehow I misread as "trained as a ventriloquist" which sent me off on a wild tangent. Veterinarian makes sense.

Yes, my best friend since toddlerhood's adoptive mom developed early Alzheimers and sent her scurrying to find out everything she possibly could about her own birth family. For her, knowing was desperately important, and for various reasons it is important to a lot of adoptees.

Basically? I just don't care. And there may be a touch of resentment there: Throw me away? Fine. Eff you too. My surviving kid has my deets, and if he wants to search, he has my blessing to do so. Ditto the grandson.

I went out to dinner! With my mother, to a patio, with dividers between the tables. It was divine, I'm not going to lie.

I got a haircut, and then I went out to dinner! I was the only one on the patio. Other customers only started arriving as I was leaving.

Yes! Let's start paying other people for shit!

I'm totally willing to stay home until they make a vaccine.

That's what I'm looking at, too.

I can and will maintain my hermit-y lifestyle indefinitely.

Okay, honestly, for all my jokes about being a hermit, YES, I do miss seeing people and doing shit. I miss eating at restaurants. I miss going to the movies. I miss getting coffee with my friends. But. Being a hermit seems like the only way through this (and I recognize that I'm lucky that I WFH and can be a hermit.)

Honestly, the only missing thing that really bothers me is not being able to hug my mom or take her out to eat in a restaurant.

• I'm in touch with other family and my friends via phone, text, and internet, and with a good practical reason for not meeting in person any concern I'd ordinarily feel about going so long without face-to-face contact evaporates.
• I normally eat by myself about 95% of the time, so going to a take-out-only model doesn't bother me at all (and not buying beverages in restaurants makes tipping for to-go orders a wash monetarily).
• Lack of going to the movies isn't going to really bother me until I burn through my Netflix and Amazon Prime backlog, so that becomes a problem in 2025 or so.
• I'd been unable to get schedules to align for taking my current crush out on a date and he just moved away to a neighboring state last weekend, so the pandemic isn't actually having an adverse effect on my love life.

I'm very glad I'm living with two cuddlesome cats, to be sure. But aside from massages, haircuts, and pedis, I don't really touch others much anyway. Family, sure, and friends I haven't seen for a few months, they get hugs. But that's hardly an every day thing. I expect I'll be ok until June 2021.