The 2Summers 2021 Support Group: Post #2 (Purplish)

Welcome to my second 2Summers 2021 Support Group Post. Here are some updates, both good and bad, since my first support group post:

1) Good: January 2021 is over.

2) Bad: It’s still raining in Joburg, for the 13th (feels like 130th) straight day.

3) Good: I started knitting again. I was super into knitting early in the pandemic, then lost the habit when summer hit. A couple of weeks ago I realized I needed to get back into knitting to calm my brain down, and it totally worked.

I’m so grateful to my friend Fiver for her extremely patient virtual knitting lessons. She’s a great teacher and never judges me for my ineptitude.

4) Good: South Africa’s daily covid case numbers have decreased significantly, suggesting we’ve passed the peak of our second wave.

The other day my mom was telling me about the media frenzy in the United States surrounding the South African variant of covid-19. She said the American media makes it sound like every single person in South Africa is dying of covid.

While things have certainly been rough over here – as in many parts of the world – I’d like to announce we’re still very much alive and kicking in SA. We’re just living our lives as best we can, sanitizing and socially distancing and wearing our masks, and most of us are still perfectly healthy. Just sayin’. Also we’re allowed to buy alcohol again.

5) Good: I’ve started working on my memoir again, for real. I’ve set myself a strict rule of writing for at least one hour and 500 words per day. It’s a modest goal, to be sure, but in the past five days I’ve written 3801 words. For the first time in a while, I feel truly confident in my ability to complete this book.

If you’d like to read bits and pieces of the manuscript as I go along, please join my Patreon community.

6) Bad: Thorsten and I finished watching Bridgerton last night. This is bad because: A) Watching that show was a good way to pass the time in the evenings; and B) We found the final episode disappointingly dull. Where was all this racy sex we were promised? There were a few good moments in episodes 4 through 6, and yes, Lord Hastings is the hottest man on television. But overall I’d say Bridgerton was pretty tame and it ended with a bit of a whimper. I’m not all that excited for season 2. Who’s with me?

I’m open to suggestions on new Netflix series to watch/complain about. (I’ve already seen Emily in Paris – don’t even get me started.)

Please feel free to share your own good and bad news with the support group, and to share any purplish (or other colored) photos with the hashtag #2Summers2021SupportGroup.