Last year I posted a whole bunch of Covid-related pieces around the one-year anniversary of Covid becoming 'real' in America - known as the day Rudy Gobert tested positive and the NBA shut down. March 11th 2020. As many will tell you though, more Americans died in the 2nd year of Covid, even if at times we felt things went back to normal. Not at all times - March'21 through March'22 encompassed two tremendously painful, serious, deadly variants. But it also encompassed so many moments that pointed to the world going back to normal.
Those are what I want to highlight - not the terrible moments, but the ones that showed a light. My favorite memories - all positive memories that will stay with me. We aren't done with Covid yet - Asia is having a breakout (though its likely just their turn in line to deal with Omicron), but with the low case fatality rate of Omicron, and a lot of the world deciding, to some degree, to make this endemic, we are entering the end stage. So, in that vein, here are my favorite memories of the 2nd Covid Year.
My trip to India was perfectly timed, coming right as the country was passing its Delta variant peak, and lifting lockdown/curfew in both Mumbai and Bangalore. Things weren't normal (both had informal curfews around midnight) but it was a great trip back. It was also just great to visit family. So much of this pandemic was keeping people apart, extended families (and of course for some folks, close family) separated by the unseeable virus. For me this was true as well, and that first time meeting people directly who had such a different but still harrowing Covid experience was a beautiful moment.
9.) First night out in NYC with a vaccine pass
I'm not going to remember my first night out in NYC post-Covid, as that was during Summer 2020 in that brief low point prior to the variants kicking in. No, what I'll remember was that first time going out and having to show my vaccine card. I of course am so grateful to the brilliance of science that was the vaccine but it was sadly annoying to never really be asked to show said card. Well, that changed when NYC put its vaccine mandate into play (something I'm fully behind), and it was quite fun to show that card. Maybe it's because I've finally aged out of getting asked for an ID for drinks, getting asked for an ID again was kind of fun.
8.) First work trip (no, seriously)
I took my first flight post-Covid in April (well further up the list) but for work I remained (and remain) grounded. That changed for a quick few days back in November, getting to go to Denver for a offsite workshop our client was having. Traveling for work was an every week occurrence in the 15 months ahead of the lockdown, but then become a non-event for 20 months. When it finally ended, I honestly forgot some basic things - I had to hunt having enough work clothes at my disposal. I forgot about the liquid rule. But man was it incredible - even the process of filing my expenses was thrilling, as weird as that sounds. By the time I had my second client workshop in December in Fort Lauderdale and had to deal with a 90-minute flight delay, I was already over it but that first time was incredible.
7.) Trip to Spain & Portugal
The trip itself was great, 13 days through Spain, Portugal and Spain again, with amazing sights, incredible food and great times. I chronicled it in an A to Z after my return. The trip also marked my first time leaving the country and seeing how the rest of the world was dealing with Covid - and much to my surprise it was similar to how we were. Things were closing earlier than normal (mostly in Barcelona) but people were less masked than expected, more relaxed than expected, and it was still an amazing time. It helps that Spain and Portugal were heavily vaccinated in a still pre-Omicron world, but for thirteen days we were able to experience living in a covid world in another place alltogether, a nice reminder how joint this ordeal has been.
6.) Friend's Wedding in Phoenix
I few weddings happened in the intervening 20 months from March 2020 through to December 2021, but they were smaller affairs with a lingering "uh, are we sure we can do this?" in the air. Then in December 2021, my friend has his wedding in Phoenix which was an all out, standard wedding affair, with late nights, a lot of fun, a carefree attitude and ended with nary a hitch. He actually didn't have his wedding delayed at all (unlike my sister who has had to adjust hers like 5-6 times), but it was worth the wait to celebrate without a care in the world.
5.) Trip to Cape Town
I chronicled this trip a bit back. I made a rash of bookings in March and April 2020 when covid first struck and I needed to shift a bunch of work bookings. One of those was for Cape Town at a rock-bottom rate for Feb 2021. Of course, that was comically optimistic but somehow I was able to get a flight this Feb at a smilar cost. In the middle Omicron happened, breaking out first in South Africa, but the timing all worked, and it was an incredible trip. I went to Cape Town in Feb 2020, when Covid was real enough for us to be temperature checked. It was the last fling to some degree before covid changed the world. This was the first fling as we return back to normal hopefully.
4.) Thanksgiving with Family
Thanksgiving is more than a holiday in our extended family, it is The Holiday, and last year it was shuttered. Thanksgiving 2020 was maybe the most depressing holiday that year as it was so start to not be around our extended family. Well, by 2021 we were back in full. It was the first time many of us were meeting in over two years, a very long period in our family. It was a great weekend, specifically our Saturday Night dinner where all of us cousins prepared a multi course pot luck dinner - a new family Thansgiving tradition. It was quite a return for turkey day.
3.) Sports with Fans
I wrote about this at the time, specifically as attendance restrictions were lessened and then removed right as the NBA and NHL playoffs started last May. It was ecstasy in those opening rounds, finally getting fans in force. The best memories were that first playoff game in a sold out Madison Square Garden, or that incredible matchup between the Lightning and Panthers that ended 6-5. The return of fans continued throughout those playoffs with the massive fan rallies in Milwaukee and then the baseball playoffs with a packed Minute Maid Park (oh, what I wouldn't give for that right now if not for the owners unabashed, unending greed) and finally the NFL season. That period from July 2020 through April 2021 when we were basically fan-less was fun for a moment (just getting sports back was great) but we didn't know how important fans were until we got them back.
2.) First time taking a flight
I wrote a piece in my string of writing about the 1-year anniversary last year entitled 'The Year on the Ground', as it had been a year since March 13th, 2020, when I took my last flight back from Toronto to Newark. It was 13 months and 1 day later, April 14th, 2021, when I finally took a flight again on a trip to Arizona. This was the longest stretch without flying since college. It was such an emotional moment, really, for me that first time I heard the engines whirl and the first time I was taking off again. Flying is an incredible thing, other than maybe the internet the most significant invention in making the world a smaller place. The trip was great by itself, but that sense of taking off in one place and waking up five hours later in a desert was just incredible. I told myself then I didn't want my love and awe at the fact we can fly to go away, and it for sure won't.
1.) The first night in Winberie's, post-11pm
Look, don't take this ranking literally (I say as I literally rank these items). I don't want to come across like some sort of alcoholic here. Anyway, Winberies is the local pub/bar in Princeton that my friends and I have gone to probably 70 or so times between 2013 and 2020. Many times closing the place out very close to their listed 2am close. Well, when the place finally reopened in the fall of 2020, they did so closing at 10pm. Finally for Summer 2021 they went back to almost normal, moving last call to 1am. One of my hopes throughout this pandemic was that night when my friends and I could close that place out again with 3-4 IPAs - and man was it amazing. The world isn't back to normal, not at all - but sitting in the booth we had so many times, with the bartenders that we've known for so long, chilling and relaxing on a Friday or Saturday night was just about perfect. Here's to many more.
