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I haven’t mentioned COVID-19 on here in 2 months. While March felt like it lasted forever, April and May have flown by. I think that’s a sign that quarantine life has become normal.

The monotony of daily life is still there. The Zoom activities have helped. I started watching Drag Race weekly with people from Out in Tech. I’ve been streaming on Twitch more and that’s been a lot of fun.

People are starting to relax. The county I live in is entering Phase 1 of reopening in 2 days. The county that encompasses most of Portland will follow in a couple of weeks. Most of the state and many parts of the country have already reopened. I actually went to a park in the city yesterday. I was nice to be outside for an extended period of time.

This past week has been tough and intense. Another black male killed by police officers. The President’s bad leadership made the situation worse. Protesting and riots are happening all across the country. There’s been protesting here in Portland the past couple of days and even longer in other cities. Police are often using force to break up crowds. It feels like we could be on the brink of some major here. It is promising to see the entire country so fed up with racism. Whatever happens, I hope Trump loses in November and we can start to heal as a nation.

I’ve been hearing a lot of talking about this week’s episode of Black-ish, which from what I hear dealt with police brutality and institutionalized racism. I haven’t watched the show since early in the first season. I wish I had kept up with show. Maybe I’ll get caught up one day.

I luckily haven’t had any major incidents with police. I did get stopped while walking my dog one time because I supposedly looked like somebody they were after. It was embarrassing, but there was no physical harm done. Most of the overt racism I experience is getting called names online.

Over the past few days I’ve seen several black friends on Facebook admit that they had similar feelings to what was expressed in this episode on the night President Obama was elected in 2008. It’s like everyone’s been keeping that inside for over 7 years and now it’s safe to admit it. Personally, I don’t remember being especially afraid for Obama’s safety before election day. I talked to my sister that night after he won. There were fireworks going off where I was in Mississippi. She and her husband were having a celebratory glass of wine in Georgia. She said that she hoped he could be kept safe from the crazies and would be able to carry out his term. Wow! I hadn’t thought of that. I don’t think about that all the time now, but even after 7 years there are still people who hate that he’s president simply because he’s black. I’m friends with some of them on Facebook. I hope he’s able to finish out his term and lives a long, happy life after he leaves office.