Boy JenP, that's a lot of households coming together.

My parents have started stocking up on TP and other items assuming there will be another “shortage”. I have 16 rolls and plan to get more after work today. I have 2 gallons of disinfectant cleaner and have started re-stocking cans and non-perishables. I plan on either a TJs or ALDI run today.

We're not traveling or gathering as a group for any of the holidays this year, and we won't be having a party for my 50th birthday in January. This is going to be the first year I haven't flown at any point since 1988.

We've done just-the-three-of-us holidays before, though, when for whatever reason we couldn't or didn't want to make the long flight to Oklahoma or Alabama. What's going to be weird is to have the holiday season without the work Thanksgiving potluck or the office holiday party with its truly hokey games and ugly sweaters or the late Christmas Eve service with a crowded church singing ALL the carols and then crowding into the library for champagne and cookies or going to a single Messiah singalong, much less all three of the ones I'm a semi-regular at.

I'm trying to build in some extra home festivity, on top of our usual tree and stockings, to maybe make up some of the difference--an Advent wreath, an Advent calendar, some festive decorations for my home office desk, etc.--but it's going to be a strange Christmas.

So, y'all. I talk with Nilly today, and she has an idea. (She would have typed it here herself, but dear Lords, she's *so* busy. So, just imagine it in Nilly's voice and words, OK?).

Nilly is suggesting a gathering on Zoom, to say our goodbyes to DX. It'll have to be on Saturday, but not on Shabbat (it ends ~17:30 PM on Israel time on Sat, which translates to 10:30 AM on the East Coast). And she's volunteering her university Zoom's account. It will also be so good to see your lovely faces and say hello.

Nilly also sent me a few pictures of DX to share on Facebook. I don't have a FB account - who can I send it to?

And, if Amyth's up to it - there's also a suggestion for a Zoom gathering to say hi to her. But only if she feels like it and it's not too much.

What do you say?

That sounds great. If I can be there, I will.

(Have to work this Saturday afternoon, assuming the library is still open.)

BTW- Stacy Abrams: buffista? She writes romance novels, has opinions on BTVS & Angel, she watches Supernural. . .

I'm so worried about the impact Thanksgiving and other holiday gatherings this year are going to have on this pandemic. Lots of folks are going to be really careful, others are not. There are going to be people traveling home no matter what the lockdowns try to do. Even if the spreader events are less than 0.5% when do take into account the large number of people we are dealing with the math isn't good. Compared to the entire population of the U.S. the event in Sturgis this year was a tiny percentage, but it's been shown that it spurred Covid spread throughout a good portion of the country.

I've just been so worried about so many things for so long now. I'm so exhausted.

Fucking god damn it, one of Tim's co-workers tested positive for Covid. Their shifts overlap by about 2 hours, and they do work together, in the same department, though generally 6 feet (or more) apart. Tim always wears a mask at work, but the co-worker does not, MOTHERFUCKER.

I mean, Tim just got a Covid test last weekend (I said "Well, since your Covid test was negative, you know that you didn't give it to [co-worker]."), and he's going to have to get another one. Fucking god damn motherfucking dick-eating BULLSHIT.

My ability to cope snapped this morning even before Tim told me his co-worker tested positive, so you can imagine how much I've declined after hearing that.

Teppy that really sucks.

All of this sucks but that really sucks.

Tim was like, well, I probably don't need to get tested because we stay pretty far apart. After I stopped internally screaming, I said "Look, you need to get tested if for no other reason than it's your responsibility to your other co-workers, because if you test positive, *you* need to be off work and they need to know about it."

But you know, he also needs to get tested because he's got some high-risk factors and needs to know. And he needs to get tested so that *I* know if I need to get tested.

God damn cocksucking motherfucking BULLSHIT.

Steph, I'm wearing my "Literally Can't Even" t-shirt today, but I hereby cede the rights to "Can't Even" to you today, 'cuz boy howdy, you're gonna need them. That is some next level shit to cope with.