“Behold, my brothers, the spring has come;
the earth has received the embraces of the sun and we shall soon see the results of that love!”
~~Sitting Bull

Hi all,

Welcome to Spring!  (At least in my hemisphere.)  I hope this newsletter finds you all doing well!

While the COVID pandemic is by no means over, I think it's important to celebrate progress.  And vaccines are definitely progress!  While the efficacy of the roll-out varies widely depending on where you are, at least here I actually know non-first responders who have begun to get vaccinated.  And I think that's great!  So I decided to write the following list.  To be clear, I firmly believe all the Friends would continue to take the advised precautions very seriously.  But I do think they would begin to return to their normal lives post-vaccination (and, yes, I think they would all get vaccinated because they don't believe in conspiracy theories and don't have any of the very few medical conditions that would preclude that... the angels excepted given that would just be redundant.)

So here goes!

God bless,
Jenni
Post-Vaccination Hopes/Plans for the Friends, Part I

1.  In general and as a group:
    - Gather!  I'm sure they'd wear masks and/or maintain social distance.  But I think once they're all vaccinated, they're likely to gather in the Fields of Gold for a picnic and some much needed in-person catching up.
    - Re-open St. G's!  Following whatever guidelines Broadway sets up, I think they'd get back to work on staging a show... likely Jesus Christ Superstar... pretty quickly.  This would probably mean having smaller audiences but more shows, hence the casting shake-ups alluded to elsewhere with many parts being split between two people so no one burns out.  Joshua would be the only one to appear in every performance because, well, he's God and he can do that.
    - Resume their weekly Bible studies.  Probably they'd do them outside more often but I think everyone's missed those and they'd want to start back as soon as they safely could.

2.  Andrew and JenniAnn- I think they'd head to the Omaha Zoo for a fun day with their kids.  No doubt they'd wear masks still (for the obvious reasons but also because that way they could bring Avi without people acting weird).  Then I think they'd head out, just the two of them, for a romantic dinner somewhere in either Omaha or NYC.  And, of course, they have their ceremony in El-Chanan to start seriously pulling together.

3.  Their kids- Even though little kids probably won't be vaccinated for a while, I think once all the adults and older kids are, Belle and Avi would be able to reunite with their cousins, the Al-Mitra children.  Which would be very loud and very cute.  Max and Rose would likely make up for lost time by bringing Landon and Amelia to children's museums and parks and all that good stuff.  Violeta would go back to in-person classes and probably very excitedly attend a picnic or such with her study group, including Ivy and Sy and her crush/squish/whatever, Miguel.  It might be a bit of a difficult time for Shelby who got used to having Violeta around all the time.  But I think they'll stay close, probably starting up a YouTube channel where they share their thoughts about the TV shows and movies they continue to binge during the pandemic.

4.  Owen and Graham- Augh.  They deserve a nice, long, romantic vacation...but given Graham is a doctor, I don't think they'll travel for a while yet.  But I do think they'll spend his days off eating out, exploring museums, and just plain relaxing. 

5.  Emma and Peter- The heavy lifting of getting St. G's back up and running will fall to them and I think they'll jump right into it.  Probably they'll look into carving out some space in the parking lot to have the post-show receptions outside as weather permits.  On a more personal level, they'll resuming trying for Baby #2. 

6.  Monica, Arthur, and Liam- Like Belle, Liam will enjoy reuniting with his cousins.  But, even more than that, he'll be happy to have his Dad home on a more regular basis.  Since Arthur works in a homeless shelter, he was seldom able to stay in Dyeland during the pandemic.  So he'll be making up for lost time with his son and anam cara.  He and Monica will be relishing the return of their morning coffee together.  Monica will go back to running her pay-as-you-can food truck, too, since she won't need to devote quite as much time to Liam.  I'm sure they'll also be looking forward to a return to potluck dinners with the Chandler-Darcy and McCallum families.

7.  The Al-Mitra family- While they're very happy to be reuniting with extended family for the sake of those bonds alone, Isra and Behnam will also welcome having some childcare options back again.  Given they used to host the Fordham study group before it went virtual, I think they've realized they both want more education.  So Behnam will begin studying for a library sciences degree so he can take over running the library when Stanley retires.  Isra is going to study midwifery.  And while they're doing that, Aiyla, Omar, and Aurora can enjoy romping around Dyeland and the Tunnels.  Salma will be able to freely go to and from El-Chanan so she won't have to choose between her family and her sisterhood. 

8.  Josef, Amber-Marie, and Daisy- Like Monica and Arthur, Josef and Amber-Marie had to spend a lot of time apart during the pandemic since she runs a shelter and Josef had to be the sole care-provider for Daisy most of the time.  So I can see a lot of romantic dinners and maybe a handful of socially distanced overnight trips in their future.  Daisy will be happy to be able to play in Dyeland again and reunite with her crush, Jacob, when she returns to school in the Tunnels.

9.  Reuel and the people of El-Chanan- I think everyone in El-Chanan is going to be very, very happy to come out of total lockdown and be able to resume traveling to Earth and Dyeland.  Reuel will do everything in his power to encourage the folks there to get vaccinated.  I think given COVID never raged in El-Chanan, the need might not seem as immediate for them.  But their access to news from Earth is pretty extensive so I think most everyone there would take it pretty seriously... also seems unlikely that anyone would question the intentions of someone who is their ancestor/guardian angel/pope all rolled into one. 

10.  Vincent, Catherine, Jacob, and the Tunnels- Given the population of the Tunnels includes a good deal of people over 60, I think they'd still somewhat limit unnecessary trips to Topside NYC even after every adult is vaccinated.  At least for a little while.  Dyeland and El-Chanan would be safer places to roam.  While Vincent seems to be immune to respiratory illnesses, I do think he'd get vaccinated just to see how he reacts so, down the road, Andrew and JenniAnn will have an idea of if vaccines are safe for Avi.  Because Vincent is a selfless guy and I think he'd want to do that for his grandson.  And he'll be totally fine.  Catherine will just be excited to see all of her grandchildren again!  Jacob's sorely missed getting to see his best friend/nephew (the weirdness is strong with this family), Liam, as frequently as usual so will enjoy palling around with him again whenever they want.  And I'm sure he'll welcome seeing Daisy again, too, even if her crush weirds him out a little.  Portia, as the Tunnels' primary physician, will welcome being able to relax a little... just a little.

And I'm gonna stop this right there for now and likely pick it back up later as I continue to plan for future stories!

While it's nice to think about the future, the reality is I've not been vaccinated and while I hope to be vaccinated sometime in May... well, like with all of this, that's not a guaranteed thing.  So I'm still mostly staying at home and still spending way too much time listening to podcasts and watching YouTube videos whilst doing jigsaw puzzles and so I present...
Yet More John Dye Jigsaw Puzzles Because I'm Still Here

preview99piece"Here I Am" Andrew

preview99piece"The Grudge" Trio

preview98piece"The Word" Andrew

This newsletter is dedicated to John Dye for the puzzles.  I think I already said that.  But I'm saying it again!
JABB Portal
JABB TOC
JABB 594
(Photo Credits: The photographs used on this page are from Touched by an Angel and owned by CBS Productions, Caroline Productions, and Moon Water Productions.  They are not being used to seek profit.)