dual personalities

Aside from the sheer relief of not working, the big news from my weekend was that one of my friends hosted a virtual baby shower for me on Zoom. It was intended to be in person, but the coronavirus took off just before invitations went out, so we adjusted. All of my friends still “attended” and sent gifts, and it was really quite a lovely afternoon, if truly surreal.

Here you can see that I put a lot of thought into arranging the laptop to set our own scene on-screen. I thought hooking up to the TV was a brilliant idea, but it turns out it is still very hard to focus on 11 separate squares of faces. There was a lot of adjusting throughout. And I was probably not using my inside voice.

DN and the host collaborated on party favors for the socially distant guests, so of course DN made a “mix-your-own-cocktail” box. We delivered a number of them on Friday, which was a welcome excuse to drive around town. I think my Subaru passenger seat might be the most comfortable chair we own, so there were no complaints from me.

As bizarre as it was to try to socialize from all of our separate couches, it was a nice opportunity for people to see each other. And actually, the Zoom setting allowed me to invite a few of my out-of-state friends, so that was nice. And in addition to sending registry gifts, a couple of friends also packed up large bins of hand-me-down equipment, clothes, and toys. I am beginning to feel — dare I say it — a lot closer to prepared!