No, not like Superman, saving the day. Or was that Mighty Mouse? “Here I come to save the day!” I found a clip in case you’re nostalgic for Mighty Mouse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJvM8eYcpL0
No,
not like in a Save the Day evite, either.
Oops,
that should be Save the Date, shouldn’t it?
So,
the one I want to talk about is kind of both. Save the Day and Save the Date. I
have an idea that’s helping me get through the isolation and loneliness of the
pandemic. I’m not completely isolated. I see doctors and people taking my money
at the grocery store and drug store. I even see some of my family, with masks
on and distancing. But I don’t see the ones who would have to travel to get
here. And I don’t see my writing friends at our writers’ groups, because we’re
not meeting. Another big blow is not going to conferences and relaxing at the
bar with my seldom-seen colleagues.
Colleagues
like these fine people, my fellow Sprint Club members. That’s a group organized
by Ramona DeFelice Long (on the right) to touch base once a day and post how
our writing is going. The photo was taken at Malice Domestic in 2018.
Or these fine people I did a short story panel with at Killer Nashville in 2014. See? It’s not all play, we work too!
I
don’t know any other group I could tour a forensic anthropology lab with. This
was at Mystery in the Midlands, 2019, in Columbia SC.
I
even miss those hot, sweaty tents on the parking lots, selling our books with
the local Authors’ Guild of TN.
What
I really, really miss, is traveling! I want to see my people in Sweden and
Italy again. I want to see my brother Don and his wife Donna. I NEED to see my
kids in Virginia and Austin.
I’ll
finish with a picture of me and Karen Maslowski closing up the bar after the
banquet at Magna Cum Murder in Indianapolis in 2018.
So I’m saving up those dates. I’m listing people I will see and places I will go, things I will do, when it’s feasible again.
What do you want to do, when you can? 2021, 2022, whenever that day comes.
Save the Date and luggage photos by
pixabay.com
I know it's not "real" travel, but I "went" to Midlands and Bloody Scotland this year via online attendance. While this isn't "real" travel either, I've visited friends and family via Zoom. It's not the same, but at least it helps keep the isolation feeling at bay.
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed for next year's travel plans.
Yes, Zoom is better than nothing. But nothing is better than the real thing, IMO.
DeleteI'd like to go to a movie in a real theater, but I'm afraid the theaters will be gone by the time this is over. Maybe they'll build some drive-ins. I'd like to go to a writing conference. I'd like to meet with my critique group in a coffeeshop. I'd like to go to Scotland. I'd like to go to Bastrop. I'd just like to bust outta here.
ReplyDeleteThere you have your list! I think I need to print mine out so I can gaze upon it.
Delete