It's the End of the World as We Know It. I'm Not Fine.
A few years ago my family started renting houses in various locations for Christmas in order to accommodate the growing number of humans in our family. In December of 2019 we rented a house in Pennsylvania on the Youghiogheny River about an hour north of where my mom lives in West Virginia. I was looking forward to a week with family, but my body had other plans. I ended up with the worst virus I've had in years. At this point COVID was a headline from the other side of the world, but I had all the symptoms: violent cough, fever, chills, exhaustion. I still made a turkey on Christmas Eve and got up with my son in the wee hours of the morning when he wanted to see if Santa had come. I went to urgent care a few days after Christmas, and upon walking in they handed me a mask. It felt so weird to have it on. They diagnosed me with bronchitis and gave me a breathing treatment. The same day we took our son to a different urgent care where he was diagnosed with strep throat. We entered 20