This time of year, when the days are growing longer and warmer, my omnipresent-but-oft-latent wanderlust awakens and blooms with the dandelions. Unlike the rebirth of that yellow scourge, I’ve embraced the urge to travel, especially since Caitlin and I got married in May of 2014. This will be the first year that we’ve not taken an anniversary trip because we, like everyone else, are stuck at home, practicing social distancing and waiting out a pandemic that feels like it might never end.
But it will.
I need to remind myself of that, often and with sincerity. Because it’s true. COVID-19 has indelibly changed the world—things will never be exactly as they were before all of this because how could they be? But this state that we’re currently in—of isolation, fear and exhaustion—this part will end. There will be a better tomorrow.
And so I hunker down with fond memories of those travels past, like when we listened to Hamilton on loop during our road trip to Virginia Beach, the amazing fried chicken we ate at The Eagle in Louisville or the multiple trips to Portland when we drank at Deschutes and ate at Mother’s and shopped at Powell’s. That world is still out there and in time we’ll see it again. For now, though, I’ll stay here at home, enjoying Zoom parties with friends and making my way through the wondrously surreal experience that is Final Fantasy VII Remake. It’s no week-long vacation but it’ll do. For now it has to.
Songs & Stories 