So, it has officially begun: the most disappointing Birth Week in its history, right from the start, well into a year that must be more disappointing to more people than there has ever been in the world in a century. Or okay, maybe seventy years, if you want to include World War II. That's fair. This is nowhere near as awful to as many people as World War II was. Seventy years, then!

I mean, I don't want to get too into the weeds on this. Most of us are just being asked to stay home . . . indefiitely. 200,000 deaths worldwide—53,000 of those in the U.S. alone—still massively pales in comparison to, say, the total 1.5 million deaths combined on all sides in the Vietnam War, let alone the estimated 70-85 million total dead in World War II. The point is, we should all be counting our blessings.

That said, there were still also plenty of people, even during the Vietnam War, who had a great year. On an individual basis, comparatively few are going through the same severity of horrors as those past events—but far more people are having to put their lives on hold. And that's what is the reason for my total overhaul of this year's Birth Week plans, because I am no exception to that. I mean, who is? Nobody, that's who!

It's not like I'm the only one having to spend most of my time at home during periods I had radically different plans. Every person I spend video chatting with during this Birth Week will be in the very same position I am: quarantining, self-isolating, social distancing, whatever you want to call it, however "inaccurate" the term might technically be. Staying home as much as possible. I can't go to their places, they can't come over to mine. We certainly can't go to State Parks together as had long been my plan for 2020. That plan is now shifted to 2021, and at this point I can only hope it's possible to stick with that plan even then.

As things are, we simply make the most of what we have to work with. And that's what I'm doing going into this week's Birth Week. As I often do, I did my first "event" on the Friday that kicks it off; and as is also often the case, I kicked it off with Laney. Via Skype.

Jessica came into frame with Laney for the "toast" picture, as you can see in the photo above. Laney and I scheduled my first "Birth Week Virtual Quarantini" for 5:30 last night, and I set my iPad onto the bookshelf for the shot so I could still do the same kind of selfie shot I often do, even though they weren't literally in the room with me. And I thought a books backdrop was appropriate, just because Laney is a voracious reader.

I've decided I'll try to make a different cocktail every night. To stay in line with the "quarantini" idea, no matter what the drink is, I'm having it in a martini glass. So, last night I had a "Moscow Muletini." I often don't make these quite well-proportioned, but this one was unusually refreshing for one I made myself.

Also, Laney did something that delighted me and made for a perfect kockoff to my Birth Week: she hung a wipe-away board behind her so I could see it, which read, Happy Birthday Week Matthew!, complete with a Rah! on one side and a Yay! on the other. I laughed out loud at that, and it really boosted my spirits.

I took several screenshots, as you can imagine. Between photos and screenshots taken during the call, I took 11 shots. I kept a screenshot of her smiling to take a 12th photo with her, a selfie after dark out on my balcony.

As always, I am irrationally obsessed with padding out my photo albums on Flickr—especially for something like my Birth Week, which is typically far more photogenic than this year's an even possibly be. To this first Birth Week photo album, I added four shots of the delightful birthday card I received from Gina and Beth earlier in the week; a screenshot of the Thursday FaceTime lunch with Karen; two photos of the cats; a comically apropos meme; and a shot of the parathas Shobhit and I made for dinner. That took the photo album up to 21 shots.

Today's "Quarantini" will be with Jennifer, and I won't have any photos from previous days to fill out the day's photo album. I do need to go in to the office to swap out paperwork, so we'll see what kind of pictures that might yield. She also has like five cats, so maybe I can get her to pose with each one for me? Being outside for a bit is likely to help; it certainly did for the Easter photo album in which I added all the street art pictures I took when I went for a walk.

In any case, even though I already told you none of this year's photo albums are going to be all that photogenic or exciting, you can see yesterday's 21-photo album here. And, for now, I move on, same as everyone, trying to make the best of a bad situation.

[posted 11:30 am]