the fruitcake enterprises social review — spring 2020

In the spring of 2020, I engaged in in-person* social interaction with the following people on the indicated number of days:

[*Includes extended FaceTime or Skype, due to of COVID-19]

1. Alexia—12

2. Shobhit—8

3. Laney—6

4. Karen—6

5. Danielle—5

6. Dad—4

7. Sherri—4

8. Gabriel—3

9. Gina—3

10. Beth—3

11. Tristen—3

12. Christopher—3

13. David—2

14. Nikki—2

15. Angel—2

16. Lea—2

17. TJ—2

17. Cheyanna—2

18. Jennifer—1

19. Lynn—1

20. Beth—1

21. Claudia—1

22. Sara—1

23. Shauna—1

24. Zephyr—1

25. Becca—1

26. Janine—1

27. Mandy—1

28. Hayley—1

29. Thayer—1

30. Dylan—1

31. Ricky—1

32. Rachael—1

33. Jackie—1

34. David—1

35. Garret—1

36. Marcus—1

37. Darren—1

38. Josh—1

39. Hope—1

40. Chase—1

41. Ian—1

42. Matthew—1

Total days in the winter with in-person social interaction: 40 (43.5%, a +0.6 percentage point change from winter)

It's truly an odd one, this time around. Shobhit is knocked out of the #1 spot for the first time in over a decade; I don't think that's happened since Barbara lived here, and she moved back to Virginia in 2010. Hell, I'm not sure Shobhit has had this low a number of points (8!) since the very first Social Review he appeared on back in 2004, and that was only because I met him so close to the end of spring that year.

So why so few points for him now? Well, there's a few reasons. First, he typically got a lot of his points by simply socializing with other people through me. But, since with the exception of my walks with Alexia my socializing has been almost exclusively virtual in the past three months, and Shobhit rarely participates in my socializing via FaceTime or Skype—and he's rarely even around to have the opportunity to, due to his work schedule—he's not getting those points like he used to.

Now, there are certain ways Shobhit could have gotten more points, but he just chose not to. I asked him more than once just to go for a walk with me, and he never did. He also would have gotten at least three more points has the trip we're leaving for today been scheduled for our anniversary last weekend, but it got postponed a week, and therefore bumped into what will be the Summmer Social Review.

Other oddities this time around: people getting lots of points they never would have gotten otherwise, such as family on three different family Zoom calls. Or of course, my neighbor Alexia, who started taking walks with me, more often than not to my office and back which I have to do twice a week, within this Spring time frame.

Interestingly, the number of people ranked this time around has actually grown since the Winter Social Review, from 36 to 42, mostly because of virtual birthday parties: Sherri's; Gabriel's; mine. There's also a lot more family on this list than usual, also because of the frequency of virtual get-togethers—which, incidentally, seem to be history already: even before Thurston County moved into Phase Two, family in Olympia evidently tired of it.

It will be interesting to see how this evolves over the summer this year. Even King County is in "Modified Phase One," and people are getting out more. Laney's and my July Happy Hour is likely to be meeting at the park, weather depending. Slowly but surely, even I will be getting together with people in person again. None of the photos will show us with our arms around each other thanks to continued social distancing, but at least that time the photos won't have to be so many Zoom, Skype and FaceTime screen shots.

Now without further ado, let's get to the who did what with whom where and when!

Thursday, March 26: with Karen, lunch over FaceTime

Thursday, March 26: with Gabriel, Netflix Party (Big Mouth, Marc Maron: End Times Fun)

Wednesday, April 1: with Shobhit, Dad, Sherri, Angel, Gina, Beth, Christopher, Tristen, David, Ricky, Rachael and Raiden, Family Zoom Meetup, Week 1

Sunday, April 5: with Danielle and Shobhit, Netflix Party (As Good As It Gets) with ~1-hour chat break with Shobhit

Wednesday, April 8: with Shobhit, Dad, Sherri, Angel, Gina, Beth, David, Jackie, Christopher, Tristen, Nikki, TJ and Cheyanna: Family Zoom Meetup, Week 2

Thursday, April 9: with Karen, lunch over FaceTime

Friday, April 10: with Laney, Virtual Happy Hour on Skype

Monday, April 13: with Danielle, hanging out on FaceTime

Saturday, April 18: with Gabriel, Lea, Janine, Mandy, David, Garret, Marcus, Darren, Josh and more, Gabriel's Zoom birthday party

Tuesday, April 21: with Alexia, walking to my office and back

Thursday, April 23: with Karen, lunch over FaceTime

Friday, April 24: with Laney, Birth Week Virtual Quarantini #1

Saturday, April 25: with Jennifer, Hope, Chase, Ian and Matthew, Birth Week Virtual Quarantini #2

Sunday, April 26: with Gabriel and Lea, Birth Week Virtual Quarantini #3

Monday, April 27: with Danielle and Shobhit, Birth Week Virtual Quarantini #4

Tuesday, April 28: with Dad and Sherri, Birth Week Virtual Quarantini #5

Wednesday, April 29: with Lynn, Zephyr and Shobhit, Birth Week Virtual Quarantini #6