One Year On

A year ago tonight, New Jersey went into lockdown, with 1,327 COVID-19 cases and 16 coronavirus-related deaths. One year on, the state is seeing more than that many new cases a day, and as of this writing we're at 762,407 cases, and 24,134 deaths. (I wrote this 'blog post the next day; that reminds me, I never did finish writing "Unexpected Pandemic Blues...")

A year ago last Thursday, I did my first "working from home" post. Those posts had lost their charm, at least for me, long before I hit day 100 and stopped (the posts, not working from home). These days, I head to the office two days a week, but it's not the same.

A year ago April 7th, I took my Philips Norelco OneBlade to my scalp; I knew I wasn't going to be getting my longish hair cut at Astor Place in the Village anytime soon. (I finally did get a professional cut three weeks ago at Prestige Barber Shop in Lyndhurst.) Speaking of the Village...

A year ago March 7th, my friend Dawn and I took a trip in to NYC. I had no idea it was going to be my last for over a year, but we did notice that there were fewer people out and about on a relatively warm Saturday afternoon than normal. I do miss Mamoun's and Washington Square Park and Barcade and the Lower East Side and just being able to go to New York whenever I had the time and the inclination. I've never been more reluctant to get on a bus or train.

2021 held a few major hiccups for me at the start, but my girlfriend and I got to relax with an amazing couples massage and an incredible spa day not long ago.

What else? Oh, I'm still not making a lot of money off my music, but for some reason I've received more in royalties so far this year (this month, even) than over the past four years combined. Seems I'm getting streamed a lot in Canada? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Got Shazamed a time or two, too. (Yes, it was good for me, thanks for asking.) It's not enough to pay for another spa day yet, but if people are listening, that's good enough for me... and it appears that they are.

Speaking of money, I've decided to get my feet wet with cryptocurrency, and so I'm now the proud owner of over 69 quadrillion wei! ("No wei!") Sounds much more impressive than 0.06931 Ether. I've seen it drop as much as 26% from what I paid (which was admittedly not much), but it's recovered and has been doing all right for the past week or two. Not getting a spa day out of this anytime soon, either, but I'd been wanting to see what all the fuss was about, and I guess I'm beginning to.

It has undoubtedly been a hell of a year... but adversity builds character. Or something. Not like I wasn't a character already. I've had some wonderful moments over the past twelve months, though, and hopefully you have, too. Let's work together to make the next twelve better.