Love in the time of coronavirus

One of the oddest effects of COVID is that despite all of the changes the virus has brought to how we have to operate day to day life still goes on. We experience both the bad and the good on a regular basis. Loss, gains, and milestones happen, but it’s challenging to figure out how to process or celebrate these moments.

Lou and I recently had our first anniversary. We had to get creative with how we would mark the occasion. The weekend before our actual anniversary, Lou and I had our first outdoor dining adventure at my favorite restaurant Cafe Fiorello. Our actual anniversary was on a weekday so we planned celebrating around Lou’s work schedule since he commutes to a physical location.

Lou broke out a bottle of Game of Thrones themed wine for our anniversary.

We had dinner at home. On our first date, we had burgers at a pub in the Village, The Slaughtered Lamb. We recreated the evening at home with burgers, beer, and tots. For first anniversaries the traditional gift is paper. I embraced tradition with a modern twist by giving Lou gifts of books, artwork, and personalized coupons. Lou went the paper route too by giving me celebrity cookbooks to add to my collection. He also gave me a necklace that is not made out of paper but was wrapped in paper so it counts.

We had burgers for dinner since that was what we ate on our first date.

We may not be able to celebrate milestones in the way we would have wanted to because of how we need to socially distance because of coronavirus, but we still can find ways to make these moments special. Share in the comments if you have celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, or other milestones in a creative way during the past few months.

Since first anniversaries are traditionally marked with paper gifts I gave Lou a print from one of my favorite artists Genevieve Santos.