Covid Vacation 2020 was a very strange year. A year of weirdness – Almost a pause. Whatever you want to call it. We decided to call it our covid vacation. We started the year running Game Knight at full steam. I was in school full time and driving to Woodstock for my classes and Tristan was working his full-time day job – and we were both raising our 3 kids. We were busy but happy. We had a routine and mastered our routine. We thrive when we are busy and it forces us to be organized and use our time efficiently. Then Covid hit in March and the world started to shut down. Tristan’s office closed, the school closed, and we were forced to close Game Knight. I still had to finish school online, but other than that, we went from 100 miles an hour to almost full stop! Was I upset? Hell to the no. I loved finishing school online. I mean, I hated the video call portion. I hate video calls. I hate anything that forces me to be in video calls. I feel weird about it and I can’t really explain why. We freaked out for a second because we didn’t know what the future held for us and we were in limbo. So we decided to just roll with it. We cleaned the house, worked on home improvement projects, baked bread, watched Netflix, and all the shows we didn’t have time for before. Tristan was living his best life by playing video games till 6 in the morning. We had no structure and life was great until the kids started online school. That was the death of me. I learned I was never meant to be a teacher. I lack patience with teaching even my own children. My son immediately dislikes anything that takes him away from video games. I love that boy but every day was a battle with him. It didn’t change much during the second lockdown with online learning but I will say that the second time was much better organized – both our daughters were able to navigate the online portion by themselves.
Tristan was laid off immediately when the first lockdown started. Then a couple of months later he was completely terminated. It hit him pretty hard. He kinda lost himself for a bit not knowing what would happen. It’s been a roller coaster of emotion but we got to spend time together and enjoy each other’s company. Now I know that I would definitely survive on a desert island with my husband and not murder him. I like him very much. Running a new business during the pandemic has been crazy but I really believe everything happens for a reason. So far we are surviving and hanging on (I will write about Game Knight soon). Hoping for the best. Hoping for the best is so freaking hard when everything is falling apart and you have to be positive all the time. But we embrace our emotions in this house. If something bad happens, we have one sad party in our house (that involves binge eating, laying around doing nothing and feeling sorry for ourselves, acknowledging our emotions, and feeling them). Then, we move on and hope for the best and fill our time. I find that’s the best way for us to process things in life – Pretending that a problem doesn’t exist and letting bad emotions build-up isn’t healthy for me, personally.
Anyways, the best part of the first lockdown was the documentary about Michael Jordan – The Last Dance- I jizzed all over that documentary. It was like eating all my favorite foods all at once. I got into fights with family members over who is the real GOAT between MJ and Lebron James and there were several periods of silent treatment after the arguments (We African people, and by “we”, I mean my family, have mastered ghosting in the name of pettiness). I love sports. I love to watch sports and I love to play sports. I don’t follow teams or players the way I used too but I will watch anything and everything that involves sports. Don’t come for me about my opinions because I will not change my mind.
Michael Jordan isn’t even someone that you put in the GOAT debate with all the other players because he belongs in his own category – Transcending the legacy of just a ‘player’. It’s not because he won six championships, technically Tom Brady just won 7. It’s the impact that he made in changing basketball into a global phenomenon in a time that social media didn’t exist and how he is still the one person that people compare the new athletes to. He is always the gold standard. He possesses that adorable arrogance that you still respect because he pushed himself and his teammates (some people miiiight call it bullying). He wasn’t pushing you around out of maliciousness, but to make you better. Would I succeed if Michael was my teammate? Probably! Don’t get me wrong, Lebron James is talented, but he hasn’t changed the game as Mike did. Garth Brooks sold more albums than Michael Jackson but Jackson still had a bigger impact in the world. There are those few, special superhumans that grace us with their presence and Michael Jeffrey Jordan is one of them. Fun fact, Michael Joseph Jackson and Michale Jeffrey Jordan both have the same initials. What in the gypsy magic is that all about?
By the way, I love Garth Brooks, and yes, I listen to everything. The Lebron James and the Tom Brady’s of our world never touch MJ. They are not that full package. Pure magic. Don’t say “Well he doesn’t do a lot of charity work!”. He isn’t obligated to tell us or broadcast what he does with his hard-earned money. I believe that he does contribute, privately. I love the mystery of MJ and that his life isn’t all over social media like new age celebrities. I also love his pettiness. Legendary.
Overall, I think the universe gave us covid to show us how fucked up we had become. It created an environment that emphasized our social and racial injustice, and forced us to slow down, and proved that we can’t control everything. I would call it a ‘cleansing’ but I don’t want to associate that word with people that actually died – I mean in a more philosophical and spiritual kind of way. I miss my extended families, my girlfriends, and people at Game Knight but I also have enjoyed this time and taking advantage of it to slow down and reinvent my fabulous self.
How are my goals going this week? Well, I’m proud of the consistency in my running ( I ran in -15 Celcius!). I complained in my head the whole time but I still went out and did it, so that’s progress! It’s becoming a habit! Definitely failed the social media goals and my reading goals are still in progress, but eating is going well. Overall I’m happy with my second week in this journey. See you next week