Hoping for A Normal Year

We really need a normal year. Like everyone else, our world was significantly disrupted in spring of 2020. Our kids were out of school. Our jobs were chaotic (wife manages clinical trails, I work in the healthcare industry). We were terrified about what could happen if we had a coronavirus infection in our home. I was high risk after spending much of my adult life as a smoker, and my daughter was having crazy-high fevers every few days. We were worried her fevers might indicate some more serious underlying issue.¹

We isolated in our home, dutifully wore our masks, and practiced social distancing. We did everything we were supposed to. The problem is that a lot of people didn’t do those things. Even after a year or so, our kids were still secluded in their home, my son having been in virtual classes for all of his first grade year. Our neighbors had all grown complacent, my son could certainly hear the screaming and shrieking of the kids in adjacent yards playing. Our hearts regularly broke for our children through all of it.

And then there were vaccines. Finally.

We got vaccinated, and a short while later, so did our son. We’re still waiting on our daughter’s age group, but hopefully it’s not far off.

Before the omicron variant last year, we got a short taste of normalcy again. My wife had purchased tickets to Alanis Morissette as a Christmas gift in 2019. The concert, scheduled for June 2020, was postponed until this year. Unbeknownst to me, she had also snagged tickets to see Dave Matthews Band around that same time, and he too cancelled.² They both rescheduled for summer 2021.

Dave Matthews Band, July 23

This was actually their first stop when they resumed touring, which made the night a little more special. Being a drummer, I tend to get caught up watching Carter Beauford play and it’s just incredible to watch him. I swear he’s a robot. The show was great, as always. Even the songs you don’t know are just wonderful to listen to and the warm, breezy summer evening in Raleigh was perfect for a concert. Here are a few shots the band posted to their Facebook page after the night:

Alanis Morissette, August 22

We were worried about the heat in August and it turned out to be a lot less of an issue than we thought it might be. The summers here are brutal but we ended up with a good breeze as we were entering the Music Pavilion and looking for our seats. I first saw Alanis in January of 1996 at the University of North Florida campus. I actually delayed my travel to Dickinson College to start school by a day to see her perform before traveling north.

She has grown up over the past two and a half decades since I first saw her, but her voice is still just as amazing and she certainly has more energy on the stage than I would have these days. Another of my favorite bands, Garbage, opened for her, which made for a real treat. We had a great time seeing both bands.

These shows both made for a great year and my wife definitely outdid herself with the Alanis tickets as a Christmas gift. But I don’t need to see concerts to have a normal year. I just need my kids to be able to go play with their friends unfettered. Without having to constantly worry about whether they will bring home a virus that makes one of us or our parent sick.

1. It was nothing. She had periodic fever syndrome and it actually went away about a year later, just after we found a way to control the fevers. Go figure.
2. She eventually told me about the DMB tickets after I started price-shopping a set of my own and she panicked.