{"id":52364,"date":"2021-01-14T00:10:03","date_gmt":"2021-01-14T09:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/?p=52364"},"modified":"2021-01-23T19:36:13","modified_gmt":"2021-01-24T04:36:13","slug":"new-year-count-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/new-year-count-down\/","title":{"rendered":"New. Year. Count. Down."},"content":{"rendered":"

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I don\u2019t know about the rest of you<\/strong>, but I know exactly what I\u2019m wearing to the first celebratory anything I attend when this wretched pandemic ends.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”4.7.7″ text_text_color=”#494949″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_margin=”-23px||||false|false”]<\/p>\n

Hanging in my closet is my favorite purple dress and the funky wrap I bought more than a decade ago from my favorite Dallas shop. Both are wrinkle-free and ready to be worn.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

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I want, no, I need, to dress up and feel pretty. I want to go to a restaurant I\u2019ve never been to, the reopening of the symphony season or a fancy fundraiser.<\/span><\/p>\n

I mean it.<\/span><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s one thing to go braless and wear flip flops, jeans, and t-shirts to shop or see a movie, but it\u2019s another thing to live braless in jeans and t-shirts daily for months without end, stuck under what-the-hell-who-cares house arrest.
<\/span><\/p>\n

I will get a haircut, facial, manicure, pedicure. I will dredge up my sparse makeup kit and wear nice lipstick instead of Burt’s Bees chapstick. I will hug all the people I used to hug. I might even kiss a few.<\/p>\n

I tend to be unpredictable, so I might also hug a stranger or two, especially if I can finally do my own grocery shopping, some poor unsuspecting clerk restocking the frozen vegetable aisle. And when the store manager summons law enforcement because a crazy woman is randomly hugging employees, I might even hug the responding cop or firefighter for the unadulterated heck of it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure, but if confident lightning won\u2019t strike, there\u2019s an outside chance I\u2019ll even slip into somebody’s place of worship for a more quiet expression of gratitude for family members who were spared Covid\u2019s miserable reach. Maybe sit for a moment more to remember those whose families weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

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There aren\u2019t enough thanks in the world for hospital workers who slogged through the last 10 months and have continued to do so, even when they weren\u2019t doing it for anyone I know.<\/h4>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

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I know for sure I\u2019ll never be able to adequately tell friends how much it meant to get chatty phone calls from time to time \u2014 even those made too early in the morning or almost too late at night. I can\u2019t wait to cook for them again.<\/p>\n

I forgive my daughter for enlisting friends to spy and report on my well being (for heaven\u2019s sake, don’t let her know I know). All mothers should have daughters who care that much.<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ make_equal=”on” _builder_version=”4.7.7″ _module_preset=”default” min_height=”503px” custom_margin=”-3%|103px||auto|false|false” custom_padding=”|0px|0px|0px||”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default”][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.7.4″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/phone.jpg” title_text=”phone” show_bottom_space=”off” _builder_version=”4.7.7″ _module_preset=”default” width=”98.1%” custom_margin=”|0px||16px|false|false” custom_padding=”0px|9px|0px|0%|false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.7.7″ _module_preset=”default” text_text_color=”#ffffff” background_enable_color=”off” use_background_color_gradient=”on” background_color_gradient_start=”#e0c998″ background_color_gradient_end=”rgba(0,0,0,0.74)” background_color_gradient_direction=”67deg” background_color_gradient_start_position=”13%” background_color_gradient_end_position=”66%” background_color_gradient_overlays_image=”on” width=”100%” module_alignment=”left” custom_margin=”-112%|0px|-11%|14%|false|false” custom_padding=”5%|10%|5%|10%|false|true” hover_enabled=”0″ border_color_left=”#e09900″ border_width_left_tablet=”0px” border_width_left_phone=”” border_width_left_last_edited=”on|phone” sticky_enabled=”0″]Such random musings pretty much sum up 2020 from my tiny space in the universe. All things Trumptopian will soon be in the hands of jurisdictions from which there is no escape. I can\u2019t clutter my little pea brain with anymore thoughts of that man and his ilk.[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.7.7″ _module_preset=”default”]<\/p>\n

The countdown has begun.\u00a0 <\/span><\/h4>\n

The dress awaits.<\/span><\/h4>\n

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En garde<\/em>, 2021.<\/span><\/h4>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

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I don\u2019t know about the rest of you, but I know exactly what I\u2019m wearing to the first celebratory anything I attend when this wretched pandemic ends.\u00a0  Hanging in my closet is my favorite purple dress and the funky wrap I bought more than a decade ago from my favorite Dallas shop. Both are wrinkle-free […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":52449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[199,80,198,67],"class_list":["post-52364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theme-park","tag-199","tag-hugs","tag-new-year","tag-pandemic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}