Catching Up During COVID

If that picture doesn’t tell a story, I don’t know what will.

This is what COVID looks like to the Kirkseys. Lots and lots of margaritas!

No, but seriously… things have been a little crazy. You would think that with all of the extra time I had, that I would take the time to blog more. On the contrary. If I really think about it, I’ve spent most of March – August just staring at the wall.

I was beginning to feel like 2020 was a bust. As I was sitting down to write a catch-up post, I decided to go back and seek out inspiration from photos. Maybe, just maybe, something happened that would be worth sharing.

What I found was certainly anything but a bust. This year hasn’t been half bad. I could explain, but I would rather show you:

For one thing – I turned 47. Who would have thunk it? (As they say!) There is no ifs, ands, or buts about it – I am middle aged. I was unsure how to celebrate my birthday, since we weren’t going anywhere for it. (Normally we travel, but I had some work travel coming up, so we opted to stay home.) I decided, sort of at the last minute, to gather at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants in Americus for queso & margaritas. I had just gotten a terrible cold and was trying to recover and this appeared to be the best alternative. I made a list of my favorite people in Americus and we met up for a late, Sunday afternoon happy hour! And boy did we have some laughs!

It started out fairly tame. In the picture above you see my co-worker Courtney, then Haley (works with me also,) and next to me is Nichole (she is the publish/editor of the Americus Times Recorder,) and across from her is Kim (VP with PharmaCentra,) and then RT (Pastor for Plains UMC.)

Then the laughs started. And we laughed….

And laughed….

And laughed some more! Maybe it was the two huge fishbowl margaritas or maybe it was just good company!

That’s Barry & Laura with the Mattie Stepanik Foundation. Jeni, Rachel,  Qaijuan & Michael were there also! We had a really good time just celebrating life. It felt good to be surrounded by fun people. (Which if you remember was one of my New Years Resolutions!)

The night before, Tim & I celebrated Valentine’s Day by attending a Billy Joel Tribute concert at Lake Blackshear Resort.

The concert tickets included a Prime Rib dinner. We had such a lovely time just relaxing with each other.

During this time, we heard about this “virus” over in China and were not overly concerned yet. Who knew how quickly I lives would change!

The very next weekend was the Women’s Wine & Chocolate Walk in Americus. My friend Kim & I decided to pal around together and enjoy the event. Basically you go to various businesses downtown, taste Georgia wines paired with chocolate and shop!

Needless to say, after a bazillion glasses of wine, a few sips of champagne, a bourbon drink, a few shots of tequila, and of course, a margarita – I was toasty!

What’s crazy is… this is last real event I attended in 2020. The last time we openly went out without masks. Who knew what was on the horizon? 2020 kicked off pretty darn okay.

The next week I headed to Valdosta for a work conference.

We got a little FAM tour of Valdosta – which included Wake boarding.

It is always a good time to see my tourism besties.

What is so crazy, is that I was so, so, so sick on this trip. I was suffering with some serious ear issues, but somehow, soldiered on.

I mean, there WAS a party bus involved.

And that was the end of normal.

Because the very NEXT weekend I had to head to Savannah for another work thing. And this is when we knew about outbreaks of COVID. I remember being afraid to touch anything.

Well… I wasn’t afraid of everything. 😉

At the function I had to attend, I met a wide cast of characters! Forest Gump.

A pirate

And Juliette Gordon Low among others.

I even ate at my favorite – Bernie’s twice! I ate all of the shrimp! We stayed at a gorgeous and super haunted Hotel – the 1790 Inn.

There is so much more about that trip, but honestly, it feels like a million years ago.

Because when we got back to Plains, schools were shut-down, locals began dying, and everyone went into a panic. The great toilet paper & lysol shortage of the century!

After a few weeks, even my job had us quarantined at home. It was the best of times… it was the worst of times.

I’ll share a little more of my journey over the next few days. I have to admit, it is refreshing to see that the year wasn’t a total bust. There was a little “normal.” Just a little.

And that little has made all the difference.