I can't believe Thanksgiving, and my birthday, are here already. November has gotten away from me, and definitely not in a fun way, at least where work is concerned.

Last week, like the rest of the month, was frustrating from a work perspective. Ever since COVID first started really impacting our area, I've been dreading the end of the year. November and December are always slower, but add in all the uncertainty and its been glacial. And with the way the holiday falls this year (late) I've lost about half a week.

Alexis is out of school all this week, which will make the few days I do work more difficult. Five year olds are very hands on.

We don't have big Thanksgiving plans. It's our first without my grandfather, so that's pretty significant. He passed in February but it's really started to sink in now that we're getting into the main family holidays. We'll eat lunch with close family, and then come home to celebrate my birthday.

Speaking of my birthday, my mom and I changed our yearly tradition. Neither of us is comfortable going to a movie theater yet. But I had planned on getting helix piercings and convinced her to get hers done as well. We got them done over the weekend, along with a nice breakfast and a little shopping. It almost felt normal, except for the masks.