There is a web comic I've started reading that I really enjoy. It's called Real Life Comics (all three words mashed together is the Twitter handle), by Mae Dean. I came into it recently, like maybe three months ago, so I've missed a lot of the story arc, but it is about a trans woman who is relatively early in her transition. Her girlfriend, who I gather has been with her long-term, is both her partner and her guide through womanhood. She is growing out her hair, starting hormone therapy, and has just recently updated the way she dresses to a more feminine style. Today's comic was, as the cool kids say, "meta." It was the protagonist, also called Mae, arguing with the comic author (as an off-page voice) about how hard it is to write an exciting story line when we do absolutely nothing because of the pandemic. I felt this one in my soul.
My mother had a cute joke to share with me and my daughter (based on the cute pirate onesie that the baby was wearing yesterday) and she wrote a DM to both of us to share it. I cannot imagine what this pandemic would have been like if we had not had such quick and easy ways to keep in touch. What would we have done if the tech for zoom and group chats had not been ready to handle the heavy load? It would have been even more soul-crushingly lonely than it already is. We used to watch the Walking Dead, back before the series went too far off the rails, and the lack of mass communication in their world is probably the detail that makes me second most upset to imagine--yes, more than the idea of zombies and roaming armed marauders, and up there with no electricity and running water. (Whenever I think about the solar panels we are about to get, I feel this tiny, silly sigh of relief that I won't be left without electricity in the zombie apocalypse.)
While I was chatting with my mother and daughter, I asked for suggestions about what to write. Apparently since the baby was our primary topic of conversation, that was the first thing on my daughter's mind. She said write something about how much this baby loves bath time. It is guaranteed to keep her entertained for at least half an hour when she is here, and she likes it so much at home she is known to just take off from a diaper change toward the bathroom, and she crawls in the shower stall on her own initiative when her parents are getting ready to clean themselves. (She gets to shower too, now that they've moved into the basement apartment part of the house, with no tub.) I know there are cautions for brand-new parents that sometimes newborns dislike being naked, especially in a bath. I am not sure this child ever experienced the slightest negative reaction to water or being unclothed. I wonder whether it will carry over to summer, when she is old enough to get one of those baby pools outside. (Naturally, I do not have a specific photo to go with this description, for obvious reasons. So I tried to get the next best thing.)
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