Everyday Susa

    April 12th, 2021. That was the day England's shops and outdoor dining opened up. The day that I could once again take my child to swim lessons. The day we could once again stay somewhere overnight - not a hotel or someone's house, but anywhere self-catering.  Confusing, American readers? Welcome to my life.   People like to tell me they can tell this has been hard on me as if this is radically new information and they're providing deep insight into my life. Truthfully, a Euro-style lockdown is hard on any healthy person. The struggle to survive a brutal lockdown is more indicative of a person living a full life than anything else. Sprinkle that with negative commentary from US dwellers who think a lockdown is an optional event, and it makes for a nearly unbearable, dark winter.  But we survived. All of us. Infection numbers are down, down, down. Vaccination numbers are up, up, up, and the adults in our household are the unusual fully vaccinated non-medical worker thir

 It started out demurely, this year.  I had low expectations, or so I thought.  We survive the winter and the sunshine will blaze once more.  I bought a planner, still sprouting vestiges of hope that is more on-brand for 2019 than The Year That Shall Not Be Named. And then, on the fourth day of January, 12 hours before my children were supposed to go back to school and preschool, the Great Pivot hit. Lockdown 3.0 for England. Now I stare at the calendar darkly, laughing at the Susie who hoped and prayed that she would at least have six remaining months in 2021 free to explore.  OCONUS  tours are supposed to be difficult. They are supposed to be stressful, chaotic, exciting, new, rife with homesickness and cultural shock, and filled to the brim with adventure and exploration. I was ready for that - in 2019, 2020, and 2021, after being taken aback in 2017 and falling in love with the experience in 2018.  This was not the experience we expected. This quiet sitting at home, a home I did n