Warm Anticipatory Feelings
I feel less angsty about my full calendar and am starting to look forward to some of the exciting things up ahead. This has been a BANNER year for performances: Mitski! Olivia Rodrigo! SIMONE BILES!!!!
And on Sunday, TAYLOR SWIFT. Am I a lifelong Swifty? Maybe! I remember singing VERY LOUDLY to “Our Song” after it came out and wondering how I could possibly be into a country artist (younger me was biased against this genre and it was a mistake).
I was never sad to hear a TS song on the radio, no matter how many times I had already heard it, but like MANYYYYY others, the pandemic solidified my love for her music. Folklore and Evermore are seared into my brain, playing on the little Bose stereo we had set up in the main room where the kids played and did (totally ineffectual) virtual Kindergarten and all of the pandemic life things. We played songs from those albums talking walks around the neighborhood, and TS was the balm I (and so many others) desperately needed during that crazy time.
(PS: I feel like people are now coming out with fond memories of the pandemic, but I do not feel that way of all. I absolutely DID try to make the best of things . . . and it still mostly sucked.)
So yeah, I’m starting to get really really excited about Sunday!!! I am going with A and I very much hope she will approve a pic of us for the occasion. We are still working on our outfits. So far I have this skirt (can you tell I bought it for $22 at Spirit Halloween? Pretend the answer is no).
We ordered “22” shirts (I am 22 x 2, A is 22 – 10) from amazon but they turned to be GINORMOUS (in size XS?!) and a different color than advertised, so I am returning them. Hopefully we can find shirts at Target or something (or hey, I can go back to the Halloween store . . .).
Note: if I am lucky, I will round out my 2024 performance calendar with Ben Folds — old throwback fave from the ’90s/00s — and Kacey Musgraves (she’s going to be like 3 miles from my house, how can I NOT go!?!). Seeing this all together, it is kind of ridiculous and it’s also awesome.
16 Comments
I remember wondering during the pandemic if I would ever see live music again! And all I say on the “fond memories” of the pandemic is that those people were not in a dual-career household with small children.
That skirt is so cute! You look great! I am envious you are seeing TS. I would love to see her in concert someday but I couldn’t get tickets and could not stomach the ridiculous price on the secondary market. For now watching her concert on Disney+ has to suffice. My boys also love her and will request songs. Paul like Albatross and Taco likes Prophecy – kind of odd since they are not songs you’d think young kids would like! My husband tolerates her… she is not a fit for him.
I am not nostalgic for the pandemic. My 2nd pregnancy happened during the pandemic and it was extra stressful. But I will say having a baby and 2-3yo during the pandemic wasn’t bad. I think it was way better than having an early elementary school kid. Or an upper HS kid who missed hit landmark events like prom or having a graduation party. Our daycare never closed although we did keep our 2yo home for 6 weeks at the start of the pandemic. But besides that we had childcare so that made the pandemic not so bad. But I would not want to relive it and have no nostalgia for it.
I loooooooiove Albatross. Paul has amazing taste!
I have absolutely ZERO find memories of the pandemic. I do have very fond memories of the first day my kindergartener went to school without a mask…
So excited for you! I saw Taylor with my then almost 11yo in Philly on Mother’s Day 2023. Core memories for sure. And yes, wear the sneakers!
I have a some fond memories of moments that happened during the pandemic but in general I remember being overwhelmed, stressed and really worried about my kids. With good reason, too. One kid lost a really important year plus of therapy and suffered a lot as a result. My other kid had a delayed diagnosis on a medical issue and we’ll never really know how badly, but I definitely know that it was detrimental to him. Masks and the constant quarantines were really hard on my kids too. I will forever be angry with our school district for how they handled this period of time. I was willing to mask and isolate myself but pretending it was all fine for kids is BS.
As someone who goes to a lot of shows, yes, wear the sneakers!
You look so cute! And definitely wear sneakers! One of my daughter’s friends has problems with her feet, and she wore silver sparkly sneakers to homecoming- she looked good!
So fun that you’re going to this with A. And, since you ask, no- I don’t have fond memories of the pandemic. I’ll probably never stop talking about how it ruined my son’s senior year of high school. Sigh.
I am so excited for you and A! I saw her in Minneapolis with my then 12 yo and it was 100% worth it and exceeded expectations. Absolute core memory that I am so happy we have. And I’d highly recommend comfy shoes bc standing and dancing for 3+ hours, my feet hurt. I can’t even imagine how Taylor does it.
Raises hand — I miss many aspects of the pandemic. There was less frenetic running around to after school activities and less travel, which I consistently find stressful and only borderline worth it. I miss being able to let my daughter out my front door to play with the neighbors. Literally *the second* things opened again, the friends were sucked back into activities, unstructured free time essentially evaporated into nothing, and nobody was every available again. Those were also the years where my daughter got really good at reading and math. We never had any help from family members though, so the childcare situation was more or less what we were used to, except I and my husband were both home more, which was nicer than life is now in almost every single way. I never really cared for live music or in person sporting events much anyway.
(Dual career family ~120h per week of work, combined, but only one kid — she was 8 at the time and we moved regions of the country midway through. I know, I’m not a “real” mom.)
PS — Rude comments from your readers about this topic specifically was why I stopped visiting your blog for a few years back there. Cheers.
I do miss the fact that my husband and I were both home more. I already worked from home and he was working from home for the first time in his life, so we spent a lot of time together. (We didn’t have kids yet, so my experience was very different from most people in these comments in that way!) I told my friend that if she could survive COVID lockdown with her boyfriend, she should marry him, and a few years later, she did just that.
That is such a sweet story!
Thinking on in, I had also just finished (highly toxic) residency/fellowship, and because we had no family help to speak of, we had the childcare situation kind of on lockdown, which I am sure made feel it waaaaayyyyyyy easier. Almost everything is easier than residency with a toddler! Our au pair at the time was a second year who had spent her first year working for another doctor family… an experience I think which made her realize how easy our gig was comparatively (lol) and we got along really well which was nice too and definitely doesn’t always happen!
I have fond memories of the pandemic too. This is all so highly individual! My husband was at home, and I was in grad school / not working at the time, and we had 2 kids aged 5 and 8 (I got pregnant that summer) and in many ways, our life together was able to be very small and contained and simple, and there were a lot of really nice things about that. Our experience was unique, but I’m certainly not going to apologize for it. I loved having that much time with my family.
Totally reasonable to have fond feelings. I didn’t mean to come off as judgmental – but I see how I might have, I should have worded it differently! 100% valid to have positive memories from that time. (I think valid either way!). I feel like for me the bigger stressors at the time were my younger kids and the GME part of my job which felt like one crisis after another. If we had a pandemic today I am sure the impact would be felt in different ways (some probably better and some worse!). Def very individual. I hope (and think?) maybe people are less reactive in comment sections now, for the most part.
Oooohhh please go to Kacey Musgraves! I was supposed to see her in early September but my grandfather passed away and the wake was the same night. Obviously being with family was more important but it was a bummer. My best friend was able to go (and got another friend to buy my ticket, which was lucky!) and the photos and videos she sent looked great—very theatrical, like some of your Olivia Rodrigo pictures. So I think it would be a great show. I don’t go to a ton of concerts but it seems like that is what musicians are doing now and that is fun!
Also have so much fun at TS—would love to see her in person someday. A local amusement park has a TS impersonator this summer and that was fun to see but obviously not the same! I have enjoyed her music for a long time but I’ve gotten even more into her as my six-year-old has—it is really fun to share it with my kid.
TAYLOR SWIFT! I saw her in March 2023 and it was honestly one of the best nights of my life. She’s incredible. I hope it’s such a fun experience for you and A!