The beginning of the lockdowns was a very significant historical event. Can you remember where you were the first time you heard about another significant event in US history, like 9/11, the moon landing, or JFK's assassination? 9/11, I do remember where I was at when 9/11 [happened].  I was working for an Allergy Center in Okemos and my husband -- my ex-husband who was my husband then, we had just actually moved out of our house in Lansing and we were waiting for our house to be finished in Owasso. We had a two month, about a two month time gap and we had to live with my parents. We had two little kids, my daughter was like four or five and my son was not even a year old and I was at work.  I was working at The Allergy Center in Okemos, and I remember some -- oh, one of the girls called, her husband called and she came up front and told us that a plane had struck the towers and I remember thinking in my head. Oh my gosh. Somebody is so going to get fired for this. This is bad. They hired somebody that was drunk or that was stoned or something and he flew into the building. Oh my gosh, I thought for sure. I was like, oh, this is horrible. You know, I mean I had no idea it was going to get that bad. So I just, that was my first thought and then when it kept going and going and going. I remember we had a patient in the room and she ran out in tears, one of her family members, I want to say maybe it was her brother or her brother in law or something worked in the Trade Center. And when the Trade Center went down, she ran out crying. Oh my gosh. It was awful. I remember watching it. All of us girls staff were in the doctor's office watching it on his TV and I remember thinking you know, what is going on here. So, I don't know it was just scary. It was super scary and it'll be something I remember forever where I was and what I was thinking and everything when it happened. So yeah, that was horrible.

What role, if any does music play in my life? Music has always been a big part of my life. My mother's side of the family specifically is very musical. They played a lot of instruments, got together and sang, and did all sorts of things back in the day. So, music holds a special place for me.  Sometimes it'll inspire you, sometimes it'll bring you to tears, sometimes, you know, a lot of times, you'll hear a song and it will immediately take you to that moment in time when you first heard it or was something special particularly important about that particular song. I've got a song. Every time I hear of Carly Simon sing "You're So Vain", it was playing on every radio I could hear when I was in the Marine Corps boot camp back in the 1973. So every time I hear that song, for many years I was immediately transported back in my mind to boot camp. It still holds a special place in my heart for me because of that.

I'm a veteran firefighter, volunteer firefighter and a UP Volunteer Firefighters Association has held an annual firefighters tournament since 1894, I think it was. It was canceled this year, postponed I should say until next year because obviously there's no way to social distance at this thing. So instead of my normal vacation, which I would take for the firefighters tournament, I had some friends from up in the Keweenaw who we always see at the firefighters tournament every year, they went camping this year. So I stopped in to see them, social distancing, we kept our six feet apart and wore masks even then outside. They are good friends and we just kind of - that was our quote-unquote tournament experience. We've been going together for the tournament reading at the tournament for more than 20 years, and I've been a firefighter, volunteer firefighter since 1982.

It's really difficult being alone and being isolated in these times. I have taken to working out. I used to work out only in my room, but I decided to go out every morning for a quick run. Well, I mostly walk, but then I run for maybe ten minutes and then I returned to my apartment and have breakfast and then work on my proposal.  It's been very interesting to see how people have reacted to this. When you go outside and someone is walking towards you and they instantly you have to, you know, keep away. Inwardly, you feel weird, like okay, I don't have the disease, but understand this is for precaution because you never know who has it and you never know how you're going to get it, if you ever do. So, all this extra care, having to wear the nose mask, having to wash your hands. Well washing hands are sanitary, we should always wash our hands whether it’s COVID or not. But I feel like human beings have been forced to adopt certain behaviors that they ordinarily wouldn't, and it's very interesting to see. I am very excited about how people use social media these days to stay connected. Instagram and Facebook are the two I use the most. I recently discovered Tik-Tok and when I have some free time, I like to create all these videos and send them back home just so my family knows what I’ve been up to.

So for the past couple weeks, there's two things that I've been very grateful for. The first is that my fiancé recently had surgery which was a much more not scary but I guess anxious process to have that happen during the pandemic, but everything went fine. The recovery has been just as planned, as far as surgeries go it's been a good one. There's been no problems or complications. Another thing that I'm grateful for is that we are still going to get married this year, the plans of that have changed. There is no longer any big ceremony or reception, but we still plan on having something very small with a safe amount of the people who are closest to us get together and then once it is safe to do so to have a bigger sort of celebration with more extended family and friends that are -- are good friends, but not our very very close friends. I'm grateful that we still get to do something and that our plans haven't necessarily been cancelled for good, just that we've had to reschedule them and move them. That's something that's been difficult, is trying to arrange those changes and also just get ready for the upcoming rest of the year.

The other question I wanted to answer today was about nature, you know, I adopted the dog a couple of weeks ago, our second dog. It has just been--I felt that adopting my first dog was just value add, complete value add, just by virtue of her being with us. The value add though that comes with the second dog is that you really have to have a little bit more structure. I mean, also they entertain each other and you know, that's nice too, but it's been really important to me that we all take walks together. It's been an excuse to have my son move his body a little bit cause we definitely have days where we're just kind of lounging all day, you know, we'll eat meals together but other than that, we're sort of on our screen some days. So just taking walks and -- and being together as a little pack and -- and of course, walks are good for you cause you get to be outside. I definitely have become more appreciative of nature. My son and I have a plan to get into foraging. He went out of town for two weeks with his Dad, but when we get back, we're going to start learning about the plants in our backyard and what's edible and what's medicinal and what not. So, yeah, I think that because going outside is like a safe option, or safer option, and also one of the only options, you have no choice but to try it out. And I think I wouldn't be surprised if most people found that it did them some good and that they appreciated it more. It's certainly been what I found.