From Darkness comes Light - Sharing the Good things on Good Friday

- I lost absolutely no one. No family members, no friends, no co-workers, and none of my clients (I'm a public defender and it seems like a small miracle that none of my in-custody clients died. At one point the local jail was 80%+ covid positive). 

- Realized I was in a loveless marriage. I was barely holding on for years because of our kids, but that realization and letting go has made me a much, much happier person. I hate it for my kids, but I'm a better father now happy and in a new loving relationship with the love of my life. 

- I had a stroke, at the ripe old age of 36. Had no idea it was happening. If I had still been married I probably would have died. Time it happened is when the ex would do some additional work in her office and as you'll see below I had no idea it was happening.

I had just finished dinner with my girlfriend and got a call. I silenced it and joked that since it was from my old Atlanta area code it must be about my car's extended warranty. GF looked at me strange, I asked what was wrong and why I was slurring my words, and then she asked me to give her a big smile. I felt a bit light headed and something "pop" in my head and realized what she might be getting at, so I smiled at her and immediately turned around to look at the mirror and saw nothing wrong with my smile. Thought, phew, that's good and then my GF asked me to raise both my arms above my head. I did and did the same turn around and look at myself in the mirror. Everything looked OK to me. GF then said I'm taking you to the ER right now, because the hospital was literally across the street and faster than calling 911. 5 minutes later the front desk was calling it a possible stroke and I was being jabbed for 2 IVs and rushed for a CT scan. 

It's terrifying to look back at and realize that without my GF I would have thought everything was fine. I don't understand how I saw things perfectly fine when half my face was drooping and my I couldn't keep my left arm above my head.

My GF was supposed to have been gone when this all happened. We just ran late cooking dinner. I even said, while cuddling watching a movie, that we needed to go downstairs and cook, and she insisted on cuddling for another hour. I'm not a spiritual or religious man, but that felt like some sort of intervention. My GF is, also, trans and a nurse misgendered her and I apparently yelled "ITS HER NOT HE" mid-stroke. We've been inseparable since that day 2/20/22. 

Long post but I've not told anyone this whole story since it happened. Also, if you have a problem with my GF and that she's trans, please keep it to yourself you sad sack of shit. 

Thanks for the perspective on this topic.  My dad’s cousin died early in the pandemic.  As a nurse in metro Detroit there were concerns of the lack of PPE at her workplace.  She returned to work after retirement to help her kids pay off their school loans.  She was always a kind woman and is missed.  
 

I made money off of a house in Macomb twp that we moved to in 2012.  The lack of natural areas/clearing trees for new subs and general tension from the congestion there was too crazy.  We moved to Oakland twp in December to a much smaller home/bigger lot with better scenery and 1/4 mile from a trail and are surrounded by real parks and lakes.  Next door neighbor is a bit of a dick but you can’t have it all.  
 

The pandemic helped to clarify what’s important and not important.  Cleared out some of the toxic relationships. Proved that less is definitely more.  And that we still have a long way to go to be good stewards of this planet and good to each other.  
 

My daughter told me she was positive for Covid yesterday.  She tested earlier in the week when she felt crappy and was negative.  Just a reminder that it’s still going around and though it’s nice to have some normalcy to remain vigilant and there are people still at high risk 

Well said XM!

Another joyous part of Passover is we celebrate MSU as a regional football program and their incredible ability to get passed over during bowl season by lower ranked teams. 

There's so much to be thankful for, despite the fact that COVID had significant impact on my life.  With that, the happenings of the past couple years have shed some light into cutting out toxic/negative/judgemental/political people in my life.  This includes family members.  It took some time and some doubt on my end, but once I let these people go (and telling them why I'm letting them go), I felt a lot better.

My wife and four kids moved out of the UAE and are now living our dream in Slovenia. We are free from employment, surrounded by insanely beautiful nature and loving every minute so far. Also, we are technically closer to Michigan so it is easier to have family visit or visit them. 

Oddly enough, the pandemic gave us time to test the waters with the kids, get to know the neighborhood better, learn more of the language and travel locally.  We already had this planned out many years ago, but the pace and freedom let us take the final step with full confidence. SLOwing down did us well and I'm glad to hear the same from many other posters.

It always feels weird to be cheery when others have every reason not to be. We all made it through 2001, 2008, 2020, and hopefully we can keep our collective demeanors every year going forward, no matter what happens to our neighboring countries or the world. At least I hope so. 

I finally did make it out to California. 

As I think I shared here, I was in Denver Colorado on March 11, 2020 and on that afternoon I accepted a job for an LA-based company.  I was excited for both (1) the opportunity and (2) a SoCal adventure, somewhere I had never lived but always wanted to live.

But ........... March 11, 2020.  The day that everything changed.  The day America started turning out the lights.  I remained in Colorado, I felt alone, a couple good friends took their lives in CY 2020 (lockdown depression, which was so seriously underrated as a thing by too many IMO), I myself was seriously depressed for a period of months.

I flew out to SoCal for visits a handful of times in the 23 months following but that was it.

I did eventually move this past February (switching jobs along the way).  In a way, I had MORE of a friend base on arrival than I would have, because of the relationships I formed at the first company.  I'm making new friends by the week here, but I had a solid base even from Day 1.

In the long run, it has worked out.  :-)

As a clinical psychologist it was great that insurance companies were forced to cover telehealth and lots of folks (especially those working from home) had more flexibility to seek therapy. I also feel like lots of people who never tried or considered therapy before were seeking it, reducing stigma overall and was good for business (I don't even have a website and had a 2-3 month long wait list throughout the pandemic). 

Unfortunately insurance companies still suck and have not raised rates at all (some actually lowered them) despite the increased demand and inflation, and there's talk that some of them may try to get rid of telehealth benefits in the future. More and more therapists are shifting to cash pay only, which sucks for people who aren't rich and work hard to have benefits through their employers. 

I work in a warehouse that sells gym equipment to schools around the country. While we sell to individuals, schools buying our stuff is what keeps the doors open. When everything shut down we didn't know what would happen.

Turns out that when the gyms that people go to and with kids home all the time nobody has anything at home so they came to us. I never lost a paycheck or hours working.

I'm single with no kids(yeah!!!!) so I picked up the guitar again. I am still just as bad as I was before but it's something to do and putting puzzles together.

Now, work is even crazier then ever and I'm back going to games and concerts.

Hi. Good things during the pandemic? I lost no one close to me, thankfully. First big positive! Yep.

I think the most fortunate, secondary things for me were the seemingly perfectly timed tasks that "The Keeper" and I wrapped up by the end of February 2020.

Evacuated younger son from midtown Manhattan and moved him back home with us until his second vaccination 16 months later, at which point we returned him to Zoo York. Confirmed, in great detail, that he's still a great kid, and that we like him, and are proud of him. 

Simultaneously, just prior to lockdown, moved older son out of a fire trap apartment into a local condo we had *just* finished gut-renovating in order to let him start (and finish) his graduate degree to launch into his third career. Yes, third, but this version actually, hooray, pays well, regularly, with benefits, and a 401k. We love this boy dearly, and it was, for me, emotionally challenging watching him suffer with his first two career choices. I get a Patient Dad award with this one. 

Oddly enough? My business boomed through a happy confluence of events that we wrapped up by December 2019, which events continue to carry us 30 months later. Niiiice! 

Finally. The Keeper continues to be someone I want to keep. Yes, she has been known to run red lights and drive on the sidewalk to bypass traffic en route to the ER, but only when my life is at stake --- so she gets a pass for that, lol. She apparently and reportedly wants to "Keep" me too. So that's really kinda perfect.

And tonight I celebrate emancipation...

Love you and the positivity you always bring to the board XM.

I've learned some stuff that has turned my life upside down over the last few months. Completely changing who I am. I've been building houses with Habitat for Humanity, which has been easily the most rewarding and least lucrative thing I've done in my life. I've learned that money is stupid and that treasures here where moth and rust destroy are worthless. Life is too damn short to worry about stupid things.

Had a condo in Chicago for rent because we couldn’t sell it after we moved out in 2011. The association president was a pos and any problem was hell to deal with him. For whatever reason the market went up during summer last year, so we were finally able to sell that place for not a huge loss. Bought it at the absolute worse time in late 2007. So thankful to be rid of it. My wife and I were stressed anytime anything happened with that place. I’m still triggered by 708 phone numbers. 

What do you say when you are sitting next to your wife who is home under hospice care and you have no family around. It is great reading so many good things but this is the worst time of my life. She is more and more confused and weaker and man is it tough. 100% bed bound as well with all that entails. BPONE is fully going here. 

We found out we were pregnant with our first baby on Valentine’s Day 2020. Now we’ve got two Irish twins, aged 2 months and 18 months.
Plus we beat OSU and I got to watch our guys win the Big Ten in person with my best friends I hadn’t seen since Covid began. 
I didn’t lose any close friends or family to Covid but obviously a lot of people did. Very fortunate and thankful to make it through those uncertain times. 

A case of Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne arrived today 

A month into COVID, I lost my father, not to COVID, but to the ailments that occur when you're 98. It was hard because we couldn't visit him in his assisted living place after COVID began and were limited to one facetime visit a day.

Since then life's been pretty good. First grandchild was born to my younger daughter in Nov. 2020 and another is on the way now. Still working from home and wondering what I'll do with my office when the lease runs out. 

Thankfully, I lost no relatives or friends from COVID. My older daughter got a 2-year post-doc from Mich but because the campus was closed, she had to do most of it remotely. (She won an award for her Zoom teaching!) Now with the campus open, she's there. And in the fall she'll take a faculty position at the liberal arts school in New England where her boy friend (she calls him her "partner") is already on the faculty. I  feel great for both of them.

Got a "pandemic puppy" but lost our older dog. And after 37 years in our home, we put in a "pandemic pool." (Demand was so high, it took us over a year to get it done.) Now can't wait till we open it in May.