The boxing program that I have been with for the past 5 years has been experimenting with other types of activities for People with Parkinson’s. (PwP’s)The latest has been a writing circle with a professor of writing from NYU. StoPD, which is based in New York, is the brainchild of Alex Montaldo, an actor/boxer and his wife Roberta Marongiu , who is a Parkinson’s researcher. They offer boxing classes in Santa Monica, CA as well as various locations in NY. Alex has added acting classes in NY and now a writing circle, both of which aredesigned for PwP’s. Since it is on Zoom, I have been able to participate from my home in Los Angeles.

Last week, we were asked to write about the Pandemic with the prompt “On a scale of 1-10”. I would like to share mine with you this week.

“On a scale of 1-10.”

This past week was a 7.  Why, with the Pandemic raging around us, would I rate the week this high?  Without the Pandemic, it probably would have been a 9 or 10.  We broke the law over and over this past week.  And enjoyed every minute of it.

We celebrated our youngest granddaughter’s second birthday on Wednesday.  We were even allowed into my daughter’s house for 20 minutes and got hugs from both kids.  That rates a 15 in my book. 

Then on Saturday night, we broke the law again.  Yeah, yeah, we are criminals.  We had 6 friends to our house for dinner.  We set up the tables in a big square on our patio so that only 2 sat on each side.  No one touched or hugged anyone else.  And I even threw everyone out of my kitchen when it was time to clean up.  They were just too close.  But the night was gorgeous and we had a fabulous time.

And last night, we broke the law again!  Oh no!  Send out the pandemic police!

We met friends at the beach in Santa Monica to see the plankton do their bioluminescence thing.  Huh?  Bioluminescence, otherwise known as Red Tide, occurs when certain plankten show their true colors – red or brown during the day – glowing blue at night.  Walking past all of those signs that said BEACH CLOSED, we made our way to the shore.  Our friends went on Saturday night after I threw them out of my kitchen and saw the ocean lit up spectacularly, but the plankten just didn’t cooperate much on Sunday night.  The waves after dark were more of a phosphorescent white than usual, with some blue sparkles that disappeared so fast you couldn’t be sure if you really saw them.  After an hour watching the ocean as the temperature dropped, we gave up and went home. 

So the week was pretty good after all.