Things I miss, an incomplete list

1. Singing harmony with friends
2. The bar with friendly staff and fancy cocktails that does not seem to have survived the pandemic
3. Seeing students' entire faces
4. Popping over to a restaurant at lunchtime
5. The days in which the RNC did not appear to regard smearing feces on the walls of the Capitol as "legitimate political discourse"
6. My friend David, who died in March 2020, when it was still shocking for a healthy 51-year-old to die suddenly of respiratory illness
7. Playing flute at Mass
8. Carefree winter parties
9. Our local sing-along Messiah
10. The conviction that most Americans would want to pull together to protect the vulnerable

For more than 5 weeks our local case counts have spent every single day above the record set during the very worst part of November 2020 -- sometimes way, way above that record. It was bad, you guys. Today, for the first time since December, we're finally down below that line. In our hospitals, as of today, 11% of the beds are free -- after weeks in which it was usually 1-2%. Feels like progress.

I think I will feel more cheerful when we are a little less hunkered down. And I know I will feel better when the admissions committee work is over. It's like an exhausting part-time job on top of my full-time job.