There's a pizza place up the hill from us I've
been going to for ten years now. Red Boy Pizza. I used to go up there and order
a small pizza, usually pepperoni, sausage and green bell peppers, and have a
Trummer Pils at the bar while I waited for them to make the pizza I'd take home.
Sitting at that little bar having a beer with other Gen-X dudes, who most likely
had kids they were foraging for and taking a break from the chaos was a thing. A
break to hang and watch the Warriors or whatever other sports ball was on the
TV.
The pandemic hit and the place was shutdown for months, then it opened and
was pickup at the door with all the masks and hand sanitizer and signs, then
they added all these benches outside where people could eat, so in 2021 I'd go
up there and order then drink my beers outside and wait for my pizza. I kind of
became used to sitting outside, so tonight I went up, ordered my pizza and drank
my beer out at the outside tables. It was cold. I finished the first one, then
went in and they said, "Four more minutes" so I said, hmm, I'll have another
beer, and I sat at the inside bar and there was some hockey award thing on the
TV. The girl who took my order pulled my beer, gave it to me and it was warm at
the bar so I stayed. I've been all over the country this year and I know the
worst of the pandemic is rearview.
I was just used to the outside here, but that
moment made me take pause and once again, like so many other times before,
realize that we went through something worldwide, species wide serious.
We lived
through a pandemic that shut the world down. It could have been worse but it was
pretty bad. The death and the division, watching how something that could have
brought our species together instead divided us (at least in the US). There
might be another one in the wings, but I believe we just had our 1918-1919
moment and fuck all, we had that. People, American's especially, tend to move
forward and not give themselves a break, some don't take a breath and
acknowledge trauma and uncertainty, and just let it be "ok". Or they make up
alternative realities to deal so it isn't as scary.
We went through something
massively natural that's been going on since life existed. And those of us who
made it, made it. Life is for the living. What a thing to have in our brief time
in this life to have as part of our memory.
After the girl gave me my beer I
asked, "How much is the beer?" and she said, "It's been years since I've seen
you at this bar", and she smiled then said, "This is on us.
"
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