That 2021

 I call him Mooch, his dad calls him Piglet, his name is Francisco.  Francisco is my 21 year old son. He is kind and thoughtful and funny. When he was younger we were inseparable but now he's an old guy.  Yesterday, he talked about a sandwich place,  La Panineria NYC, and we decided to take a walk.  I have'nt walked with him in a while. I jumped at the chance. 3 miles of walking and talking. No phones or TV.  At first, I thought it was a bit weird. He has the long legs and I was struggling to keep up.  "Slow down," I said.  I can't help it.  But he slowed down.  We walked some more, talked some more, ease-dropped on the people walking behind us.  We got to the shop and ordered our lunch. He treated me to lunch and paid for my salad.  Such a nice gesture.  I was smiling under my mask.  Then we zigzagged the streets of Manhattan back to our apartment.  We got home, plopped on the sofa and enjo...

I'm exhausted.  My eyeballs feel heavy.  The thought of zoom was hard.  And I'm not sure why today is different from other days.  I got up at the normal time. I had breakfast, blueberries and yogurt. Everything was the same except sunshine and warmth.  Today was sunny and warm, 70 degrees.  And I was inside: Monitoring zoom Answering calls  Staring at a screen  Teaching  Attending meetings  Listening  I took my book and sat in my balcony in-between calls.   The sun felt amazing for those 20 minutes.