Joel Always one syllable, sometimes "@jayroh"

Hanukkah 2021

03 Dec 2021

In what has been an atypical, overwhelmingly busy, week, the highlight has been a very early Hanukkah. When my son was born I remembered thinking about how great it would be experiencing the holidays with him when he was just old enough to fully understand and appreciate the whole “deal”. As a 6½-year-old kid, I think he’s well crossed over into that threshold. After this week we are drowning in Pokemon cards, books, binders, Nintendo Switch games. If the object is to “catch them all” then this kid’s got his work cut out for him.

First night of Hanukkah

Return to the Office

Since the pandemic started some 20-odd months ago I had been back to the office once to pick up a box with all the random odds and ends sitting in and around my desk. At the time there were no vaccines, no … nothing. “Chernobyl’ish minus the deadly radiation” is how I would describe things at that time. This Wednesday I made my way into an office with more people, more construction (going down from 4 floors to 2), and more normalcy. I admit that it was quite nice, but couldn’t completely wrest myself from the discomfort of being around so many people while Covid numbers are going up. I managed. The main reason for my visit was to meet a colleague, a contractor who’d been working with my team for the past 6 months, face to face, while she was visiting Boston from Arizona. Depending on how this Omicron variant takes shape, we’ll see how much I can convince myself to do this more frequently.

But, no really - it was super great seeing so many great people in person, having those impromptu conversations here and there, and then at the end of the day being able to flip that mental “off switch”.

Misc Thoughts

  • Don’t get me wrong, I love everything about our new home, but the fireplace might be my favorite little “feature” mmmm fire
  • Close to a week of eating cleaner, doing some preliminary workouts at home, and not drinking have absolutely paid dividends when it comes to mental health. My next adventure: easing back into a meditation practice.