Ah, Awkwardness. My only friend. I got your pics. It's good to see you've been putting yourself out there and broadening your horizons. I'd love to travel myself but... well... I'm still working up to the idea of being strapped into a seat beside a stranger for several hours. I'm just not ready for that yet but I'm working up to it. One day.

I've missed you this past year. When the pandemic was raging, we couldn't see each other much except for the occasional Zoom meeting or virtual family get-together. I was so glad you were able to make it for Thanksgiving, though! Really, it wouldn't have been the same without you.

Hopefully, with offices reopening and restaurants scaling up to full capacity, you'll once again become the primary driving force of my life, dictating every decision I make, however small, and limiting me in important, fundamental ways. I do miss your cold whisper in my ear when someone catches up the elevator despite my best attempts to see it closed or the way you can balloon into silence like an inflatable tube man filled with gaseous nightmares, so palpable I could almost scoop you out of the air.

Best,

Humanity