Dear J,

I didn’t expect to feel energized after listening to Uncle Joe’s inauguration speech, but suddenly stuff languishing on my to do list seemed plausible. Vacuum and dust whole house? Tend to leaves shed by Cyril the Ficus Tree? Empty trash cans and litter box and take bags and recycling down the snowy alley to the bins? Done, done, done.

I’m getting ideas again (above my station?) about my new fiction thing. Feeling like I have a grip on two main characters -and- the villain. (One of my rules for a good villain is that they have to reflect or provide a counterpoint to the hero.) I’ve begun drafting some paragraphs, just to keep myself grounded while I’m thinking conceptually.

There’s a song by the band OK Go, called “All Together Now.” There’s a lyric from the song: “We’re all together now/ Alone in a chrysalis.” I love the idea that the world we occupy here in January 2021 is like a chrysalis, a necessary stasis that precedes what could be an amazing transformation. (I also appreciate how the phrase ‘all together now’ shifts in meaning between the first two lines, with the ghost of the Beatles track hovering in the background of both. “1,2,3,4… can I have a little more?”)

Appreciate you navigating the phonescape for vaccines for you and Mom. P’s stepmom and dad got their appointments for the vaccine, but they couldn’t land a date before the end of March.

I understand double masking is proving to be more effective than single? Paul and I are planning on switching from our beloved cloth masks to more high-tech models. A gaming company has promised a mask with a speaker and mic to boost the sound of your voice without you having to shout.

Flying cars are a no show, space travel has been off the menu since the 80s, but we’ve got communicators and tricorders a la Star Trek in our back pockets, and now commercially manufactured masks that make people sound like Darth Vader. The future is not at all as my younger self imagined it would be.

Anyway. I ramble. Thinking of you.

C/

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