Today I treated myself to a lovely massage and while I try to turn off my monkey mind while being rolled into a rag doll, it’s not always possible. I thought I should do my part to dispel all the negativity in the world and talk about good things.

Pepper, my sweet little pandemic dog, came into our lives in February. While he’s clueless about what a pandemic is, he forced us to get outside every single day. There’s no moping around the house with a puppy. He’s happy and healthy and I love sloppy Pepper kisses.

My book club dove right in and figured out how to meet online. We’re not expert at online meeting and probably never will be but it’s so much fun just to see their smiling faces and hear their laughter once a month. It keeps us all reading and our minds off other things.

As corny as this my sound, I’m grateful for my Facebook friends. The other day I had a good laugh with my college sorority sisters over singing the Greek alphabet. I played the plunger in our hokey washboard band. So if I had told them I used the toilet plunger as an instrumental accompaniment, we would have laughed together even harder.

My work friends now live all over and most, like me, don’t work where we originally met. As co-workers became friends we found so many other things about our lives that we had in common. I love keeping in touch with their accomplishments.

I especially love my high school friends. I don’t know what else to call them since most of them I’ve known since first grade. This group loves the throw back stuff like the Beatles, long hair rolled on orange juice cans and Mickey Mantle. They share their kids and grandkids and various orthopedic surgeries.

I didn’t lose my human connections in 2020, I simply connected with lots of different people in a virtual way. The love and friendship we found in each other many years ago was reignited digitally in these uncertain times. When the mask can finally come off for good, I’ll be waiting with open arms to give everyone a hug and have a few more good hearty laughs with all of them.