We’ve been in lockdown since December. Everything’s closed. So much for doing something every weekend, huh? There’s nowhere to go. We could rent a car and drive somewhere, but there’s no restaurants or hotels or museums or shops and it’s winter so the weather is crappy and we’re not really outdoorsy people anyway.

I haven’t left the house in a week.

People ask me if I’ve adjusted to life here yet. I guess so? Hard to say. Haven’t been able to practice much German besides the meat counter at the supermarket.

Work is fine. I like my team. But I’ve just hit five months in my new role, which means I’m due to hit the wall. It’s a common thing at AWS. You start, and everything is hectic and exciting while you do your onboarding, and then at some point you’re like, “WTF have I gotten myself into??” 😂 That’s probably contributing to my mood. I know I just need to push through and the cycle will restart. I’ve got two open roles I’m recruiting, and a bunch of new goals for the year, and training to complete, and certifications to get, and requests for mentoring and conference talks and projects and and…

We’ve watched all the Jeopardy on Netflix. I liked season two of The Mandalorian, but I’m not fully au fait with the Filoni-verse yet. WandaVision is REALLY good. I loved Guillermo’s arc on What We Do in the Shadows. We also watched the BBC adaptation of Bleak House, because some Buzzfeed articles said it was like Bridgerton, but it is NOT. (It’s still good, but there’s no sex and did Dickens really use spontaneous combustion as a plot point??) I binged season 2 of Blown Away in one day, and I’m still convinced A) I’d like to try glass blowing someday, and B) I will burn myself badly when I do. I still have a couple eps of Bojack Horseman left, but frankly, I don’t think I can handle it right now. Instead I watched Bling Empire and now I follow a bunch of hot Koreans on Instagram. (IT’S MY HERITAGE YOU GUYS.)

My knitting Twitch experiment is still going, and it’s pretty fun. I recently got “raided” by another (more popular) knitting stream and suddenly had 40 people all chatting. That was amazing; felt like being at a Guild meeting again. If I start early enough on Sundays, I can catch some of my Aussie friends too.

We had snow last week and that was pretty. I cracked myself up falling down on the way to the grocery store. Then the snow all melted. Now it’s just gray and damp.

Me: The park looks so pretty! I know; I’ll make a video. So peaceful… and tranquil… and—STACKED IT. TWICE.

(Non-Aussies: That means I fell on my ass. I’m fine. 😂) pic.twitter.com/I1mTO0gJQz

— Kris Howard 💃 (@web_goddess) January 26, 2021

My grandmas in the US have managed to get vaccinated, as have some friends and family members who are health care workers and teachers. I love seeing people share it on FB. Sadly, I’ve had lots of US family members come down with Covid, and so far one extended family member has died from it. Germany is vaccinating, but not as fast as they’d like. Now they’re investigating the Russian vaccine. Maybe we’ll end up getting that one?

i really am gonna end up getting the russian shot aren’t i https://t.co/H42ubciAnO

— Charles “Super Nice” Vestal (@charlesv) February 2, 2021

My attention span is so shot. I haven’t finished a book in ages, but I’ve literally read hundreds of Aziraphale/Crowley fanfics on Ao3. (Protip: the “pining” tags are the best. Skip the AUs.) Hermione/George is now 100% headcanon too.

We have a reservation at Osteria Francescana in two months, but at this point, it looks unlikely we will go. Even if the restaurant and the border are open, we might have to quarantine and do I really want to be those people who risk life and limb for an expensive meal? I’d be too ashamed to share it on social media, and then what’s the point??

Kidding.

(Not really.)

I miss my friends back in Sydney. I didn’t think moving would make much of a difference, what with texting and Hangouts and everything, and the fact that we were in lockdown for months anyway. But it turns out the real problem isn’t solved by technology – it’s time zones. I’ve become crepuscular, feeling happiest in the morning and late at night when I can actually talk to people back home.

I’m annoying myself here. Is there anything more boring than someone privileged whining about a situation they voluntarily entered into?

I’ll be fine, I swear.