Betsy's Blog

  Hey, guess what? I was on TV today...for my 15 minutes of fame. What was I doing? Clapping in a virtual audience for Drew Barrymore who I have followed since ET. Why not? Are you impressed yet? Do you want to know how you can be on TV from the comfort of your own home? Well…here’s the scoop!  It started last year when my teacher friend Jamy auditioned to be in TV studio audiences. Jamy would wait in long lines just to be in a show audience. She made new friends who were like-minded and shared audition tips. Jamy was a true fan! Pre-COVID, she sat in crowded auditoriums on rickety chairs just to be in a live talk show audience. Now Jamy attends TV shows from the comfort of her own couch. Her colleagues told her about the 1iota.com website that offers a wide variety of TV studio tickets for virtual audiences. I applied for one of my favorite shows, “The Voice”, but it was during my workday. They were sold out for the later performances. My teacher friend got a ticket to “The V...

           Election day has turned into a season instead. It seems like months ago that my husband and I delivered our absentee ballots in person to an official U.S. Post Office. It was reassuring to know that our ballots were in a secure room waiting to be opened. After being overseas for many past elections, it was satisfying to fill outour ballots and physically drop them off. We voted early and made our voice known. No one can mess with our ballots, or so we thought. Now its t hree days after the Election and ballots are still being counted across the nation. Election Day was a school holiday, so we made popcorn and settled in to watch the results on TV. It slowly turned into a bad movie with scenes of long lines of unmasked voters and pickets outside the polls. There were makeshift voting tents in parking lots with long lines of people waiting to vote in our city. Then I saw on the Nightly News piles of absentee ballots sitting in our local Pos...

I’m not sure about my new decision. I am now an official member of a local gym. Why? I have been overeating, watching too much TV, and sitting around the house too much, Why are my clothes getting smaller? I think I know the answer. Why am I hungry all the time? I think I know the answer. What should I do? Well, I could do more fitness videos at home and take more hikes in local parks. I could also monitor my food intake more closely. My husband needs the routine of going to a gym. I like it too and joined the gym which only costs $10 extra monthly. I spend more than that on coffee. So I went to his gym yesterday for the first time. How did it go? Very smoothly. We followed the rules of wearing masks at all times and wiping down machines after use with provided disinfectant bottles and paper towels. We used the socially distanced treadmills with signs covering every other one. Going early in the morning really helped because there were only three other people in the huge space. The...

  After waiting three months for our Department of Motor Vehicles appointment, the big day finally arrived. Due to the pandemic, everything takes a little longer and is a little bit more difficult. My husband and I prepared for this appointment as if we were going into a battle zone. We had a bag full of every possible document, food, drinks, and a wrench to remove our license plate in the parking lot. Eager for the ordeal, we arrived 45 minutes early and got a front row parking space. We were ready for the DMV or the VMD as I call it, the Vehicle Mania Bureaucracy. Upon arrival, the appointments were already an hour behind. Masks were required as we stood in a line six feet apart according to our appointment times. The line didn’t work because no one wanted to move back a step to let new people in. So the DMV employees had to walk up and down the line every fifteen minutes calling out the next appointment time to enter. Having a loud voice helped! People watching made the...

  I can’t believe that it has been three weeks since I last visited my local CVS. No, this is not an ad for my pharmacy. Google Maps informs me when I last visited places. I must be in some kind of pandemic time warp. I do enjoy shopping for anti-bacterial soap, vitamins, and antiseptic wipes with my mask on. Can you relate to my COVID shopping list with so many products to choose from? I was even tempted to buy a new face mask, but already have more than I need. I am tempted to order a dress online with a matching facemask. What is the world coming to? We are daily survivors with a positive mindset mixed with waves of anxiety. During this time, we have discovered that family and friends are more important than ever. The diversion of the three N’s: News, Netflix, and NFL are giving us a sense of Normalcy. Whoops, that makes four N’s. Live theater is taking place in a parking lot in our new city. A parking lot has been turned into an outdoor theatre. The audience sits in socially di...

                                               Have you noticed the lack of touch during the pandemic? I thought about this at my local touch-free car wash. Now our daily life is full of touch free experiences such as online grocery shopping, virtual doctor appointments, and online classes for every interest and topic. During this unique time, we all have to limit our physical touch. We are learning to show our gratitude in touchless ways. We give virtual hugs to our family and friends in person and over the Internet. In stores and restaurants, we smile with our eyes and keep our hands to ourselves. Humans thrive on touch, but during this time in history, we have to stay away from germs. A hotel in Las Vegas is being renovated for a touch-free visit. Will it still attract guests after the pandemic? This unique hotel offers a germ free experience. Guests have access t...

       Back to School! Labor Day! It was a unique weekend marking the end of summer in our new world. The three day weekend went by in a blur of facemasks, hand gel, corn on the cob, and hamburgers in the backyard. In the news, crowds of people showed up in public places around the country and got into trouble. Too many people went out in boats and got into accidents. Too many people drank and drove too fast. Some chose to sit in traffic and watch the motorcycles whiz by. Most people stayed home and watched the world go by on TV. Wherever you were, this holiday marked the end of summer on our yearly calendar. During the pandemic, it marked the beginning of school for students in a variety of new ways. Online learning continues in many school districts. Some students attend classes ‘old school’ style, and some have a hybrid. Schools have also chosen a mixture of ways to monitor students and staff for COVID 19. Some schools take student temperatures as they enter sch...