sunday, eighteen july: the hermit
The Hermit, again! As befits my total inability to engage with other human beings. The struggle right now is Declan's birthday, all of his friends are out of town (some for the whole summer, some for a week, but this is a popular time to skip town apparently) and I'm at a loss for how to make his birthday feel special.
The kid actually requested a Zoom birthday party. I mean. Kids are infinitely adaptable. In the first few months of the pandemic, they did a lot of Zoom playdates, and listening to the kids on Zoom was crazy. It felt like zoo animals exploring a new habitat. They tested all the filters and features, they made everyone in the meeting a co-host and took turns booting people out to the waiting room. Once, Dec was doing a Zoom playdate with three friends, and when he suddenly got very quiet I went in to see if everything was okay. It turned out that they'd set up individual breakout rooms and were hanging out, alone, in separate breakout rooms. So now he wants a Zoom birthday party, I think in part because his best friends aren't available for in-person birthday festivities, and in part because he's drunk on the power of being the meeting host.