I know what you’re probably thinking. It’s been a LONG TIME since there has been a dinosaur comic. What the hell have you been doing with your time, MISS COMIC CREATOR?
TL;DR – I’m exhausted.
Like everyone, we’ve experienced a whirlwind in the past several months. For those who may not know, Wayne and I are magicians, balloon artists, and we teach STEAM through specialty enrichment programs. We own our own business doing things that make people smile and bring communities together. On the day that we received stay-at-home orders, we lost $9000 in jobs over a period of 3 hours. From that point on, it’s been a scramble.
We pivoted our education contracts so that we could continue teaching robotics and STEAM online. We helped other teachers set up their online classrooms. Performers needed help setting up social media and video chat services to keep in touch with their audiences. And, since we could no longer perform in person, we launched a new service to teach magic to kids (and any interested adults) through Zoom. Plus, Alice couldn’t go back to daycare, we bought a foam cannon, my step-grandfather passed away, my brother needed help returning to the United States after living for ten years in Canada, the non-profit I volunteer with needed to set up a whole giant fundraising campaign, and I — stupidly — thought that I could take this time to slow down and care for myself and my family.
But then I caught Lyme disease … twice.
First off, Lyme is terrible. I couldn’t move. It’s not that you have a lack of energy, it’s that you have zero energy. Fatigue is an understatement. I needed to sleep but I couldn’t sleep because it felt like I had whiplash in every single joint in my body. Pain killers? They didn’t do squat. Brains? What brains? When you have Lyme, your brains get dissolved in acid and float out of your ears into the heavy fog that is pushing your body down. If I had to associate my Lyme experience with anything, it was like the deepest depression I have ever felt, without the depression. The physical symptoms alone are debilitating.
My second bout of Lyme was diagnosed maybe five weeks after I finished antibiotics from the first round? I don’t know. It’s hard to remember. I’ve spent at least 80 days of this stay-at-home period in an unmanageable amount of pain. After months of being unable to move, my body is still recovering and my mind isn’t fully operational yet.
Meanwhile, a lot of things around us are opening up. New Hampshire has much lower numbers than other states. Wayne and I even started talking about how we might begin performing again and then quickly shoved those thoughts out the window. Why, you may ask? Because a friend of ours already did that. He performed twice in person, outside, with strict social distancing rules. And then he got COVID. Hearing about his experience was the kick in the pants we needed to nope right on out of the possibility of performing this year.
Then there is the haze of stress that coats everything and everyone. We’re all feeling it. I bet you’re feeling it too.
I’m thankful for a lot of things today. Wayne did his best to hold our business and family together while I was ridiculously sick and I am grateful for his strength and love. We had savings to get us through the worst of the pandemic and are able to find ways to make enough money to stay on top of our bills. Our magician friend is out of the ICU and now back at home. My brother is safely in the United States and quarantining himself for two weeks. And even though Alice is climbing up my back to sit on my shoulders and whining about wanting a mint (we don’t have any) while I try to finish typing this, I’m thankful for the time I get to spend with her.
Oh, and Alice made you this. I hope you like it.
