Looking forward to ‘epic’ celebration when dry spell is over
I was fairly irritable at the beginning of 2020— I felt fat, and party invites were stacking on each other. My reaction to our first shelter-in-place order was probably different than yours: I felt relieved. No more small talk and peacocking for awhile, or generally obsessing about what to wear or wine bottle to bring. I planned to spend some overdue time with family and to work on every overdue and neglected project I could find, from cleaning out my closets to making fabulous jumpsuits. The silence and isolation became my friend for a long while. The first few months of quarantine and social distance felt like detox from what had become an excessive list of distractions. I do actually remember the last time in life I had this much creative focus: I was in undergrad and generally friendless, and living alone. I filled many free hours practicing violin and starting new student publications. Likewise, today, I’ve made literally thousands of masks and other garments. I launched an online store and personal website, and I began collaborations with more than a dozen artists, along with a new seamstress, mentor, pattern maker and production partnership with a Castro boutique. I’ve also written a lot. This column approaches nearly 30 of them since I began writing for The Examiner 12 months ago. “Social distance” and quiet, however, are no longer apt descriptors for the seismic shift in my personal community.
