Surprise, no music post today!

But it’s Monday, you say, and I always have music on Mondays. 

Without getting into a longwinded story, last week was extremely trying for my blog. Regular commenters were showing up as Anonymous—the result of a WordPress/Jetpack bug that had infected numerous sites. Concurrently, my server was being migrated to a new security platform. The result? My blog was up and down, mostly down, for over 48 hours. From Tuesday onward, I was on multiple forums trying to resolve the problems. Several bloggers, including my friend, Paul from THE LIFE IN MY YEARS helped spread the news of the issue. You can find out what he wrote by hitting the image below.

I’m no Luddite, and I consider myself moderately savvy with technology, but by Thursday night, I was mentally fried. I knew I wouldn’t be able to schedule this post for the next day when I planned for it to go live. 

As it turns out, the down time allowed me to re-evaluate the traffic stats on my site. I’ve written a weekly music post ever since the start of my blog, so Mondays have always been consistently good. Add to that a fiction short story every couple of weeks, and that’s the format I’ve maintained for sometime now. Given this, I’ve decided to intersperse my music posts with something new called Monday Musings. It’s a catch-all for any writing that isn’t fiction, limited to a Monday publication date. 

This will be the first post of its kind. If all is well, I’m hoping my blog is back up, and you’re able to read and comment properly now.

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When you can’t start a story at the beginning, the next best place to start is after it’s ended. 

If you recall, I posted several music blogs by Italian singers starting July 4th. Zucchero led it off and Elisa ended it—all in all, four posts over four weeks, created as teasers to a bigger story with a specific trajectory. Something will be revealed shortly, I wrote! 

The best laid plans … in my case, a series of blogs intended for August.

Before publishing the third Italian music post, the landscape had changed. Problem was, I’d already alluded to some kind of reveal. I decided to go through with this post knowing it’d be a huge departure from what was originally planned. Some of you had already guessed the reason I was listening to Italian music, and it didn’t involve leaving my husband for an Italian man, though that’s great motivation for learning a language!  

Instead, it had to do with travel.

Back in May 2022, my girlfriend pitched the idea for us to go to Venice. She’d been there before. I’d never travelled to Italy but had it on my bucket list—Venice was at the top of Italy’s destinations. I had some idea of its unique environment, history, and architecture from friends who’d been there, many who were thrilled for me to finally make the trip. 

“You’ll love it, so much to see!” 

“Great food, art, wine and so much more.”

“From Venice, you must also go to Padua, Florence, Verona …” And the list went on.

I had no doubt Venice would provide much needed inspiration after two years of isolation, even more so as the reason for our trip was to attend the Biennale. My girlfriend went in 2019 and loved it. It’s an international art exhibition that’s taken place since 1895. The Art Biennale, so-called because it’s held bi-annually (in odd-numbered years) alternates every second year between art and architecture. With the pandemic, neither took place, so it was returning this year as a joint exhibit. 

Was I seriously going to Italy? 

The thought of air travel in the depths of a pandemic seemed daunting. Europe had not been on my radar for some years even before Covid, and now I was deliberating if I should fly into one of the original Covid hotspots. I’d been careful from the start of the pandemic, getting my vaccines as soon as they were available, ordering groceries for delivery, avoiding crowds. I didn’t want to catch Covid, but by the time May rolled around, I also knew the virus was unlikely to kill me. I’d had two shots and my first booster. At the time, the fourth dose was unavailable for my age group. It was summer, and based on what we’d learned from the previous year, Covid was less contagious in the hot months. The city had opened up again. Festivals returned, restaurant patios littered the streets, and people flooded outdoors into the heat.

Whether it was true or not, everyone seemed to be over the pandemic.

I wanted to be as well. 

Several friends I knew had already traveled abroad—a few of them, multiple times once the initial restrictions lifted. They were neither anti-vaxxers nor careless people. They were just willing to endure the difficult travel with extra security checks, ridiculously long line-ups, and random testing. For them, it was all worth it to get away. 

It’s hard to fathom now, but there was a time when I could arrive at an airport an hour before a domestic flight, and no more than two hours before an international one. I kept my shoes on while going through security—a simple metal detector.

The journey used to be joyful, but the years post 9/11 have changed all that. 

Now, check-in could run an hour or longer. Requirements to remove shoes, empty pockets, and take out laptops are still enforced. And let’s not forget liquids, creams, or gels that exceed 100 ml, they can’t go in carry-on luggage. I learned this the hard way. 

Several years ago, I purchased an expensive body cream while in New York and forgot to put it in my check-in. The bottle was sealed and shrink wrapped in plastic, but that didn’t matter. At security, I was given a choice to return to the check-in counter and arrange for the item to be mailed to me or have it confiscated.

The first option was unrealistic, and I thought it a shame to waste a great product. I even offered it to the female security officer, but she said she couldn’t take it. $75 went into the garbage bin behind her. I never made that mistake again! Still … it irked me.

No doubt, an already stressed airport system could only be exacerbated by travel in Covid times. With fewer and fewer in-flight amenities, nuisance fees, and the general feeling of being herded like cattle through winding line-ups, why would I even consider it?

Simple answer: Because I can’t experience faraway places if I don’t. 

If Scotty could beam up in a transporter, I’d gladly skip the line-ups, customs formalities, and flight. For me, it’s been all about the destination, not the journey for a very long time now! 

Like my friends who had traveled, I wanted to feel the optimism of getting back to some kind of normal. Even though flying seemed counterintuitive to my cautious nature, it felt right when I made the decision to go. It was time, I rationalized, to get back into the world. I would continue to be careful, not foolish, but I also needed something to look forward to. 

Our flight was set to leave August 9th for a two-week holiday. With the understanding that if Covid cases started to climb, if the airport situation worsened, if the war in Ukraine escalated, or if either of us felt we couldn’t go for any reason, then we’d cancel. When we purchased our airline tickets, accommodation, and a day at the Prosecco Hills, the trip was still three months away. We hoped things would only improve. Moments after we booked, I felt a huge weight lifted off me. It was as if I’d been sitting on the fence for so long, and the decision to finally go was unquestionably the right choice.

So … what happened?

I hope you’re still following this meandering journey because here’s where we take a turn. 

For me, it was the convergence of several things. Each incident on its own might not have made me change my mind about Venice, but together, they seemed a warning sign. When I called my girlfriend with my concerns, she said she’d been feeling the same way too.

In the end, we both decided it was best to cancel. 

The trip to Venice was over before it began. 

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Did you cancel any trips due to the pandemic? Feel free to share and have a great week!

~eden

** Travel in the Time of Covid continues with Part 2 next Monday. **