You're listening to the Girl Next Door podcast. I'm Kelsey. And I'm Erica. We're two former

next door neighbors and good friends who love a good chat and a good laugh. We're inviting you to

come on in, have a drink, and stay a while. Hey friends. Hey friend. Today we're having a conversation

we're calling COVID time capsule. So it's been about

three years since the COVID lockdown started here in the United States. And I've just found

myself really wanting to reflect on that time and everything that's come since and process that

with you. Yeah. So we're far enough out from that period of complete lockdown that I think we can talk about it with some perspective, but it's also close enough that we can still remember it well.

So we thought this would be a good time for this.

And we do want to say that although we're looking back at a certain time of the COVID pandemic, we know that some people might still feel very much in lockdown for a variety of reasons like compromised immune

systems. In this conversation, we'll be sharing our personal experiences, and for us, we have found

new normals with our families. We've returned to the daily activities we were doing before the

pandemic began, although, as we'll talk about, we do them knowing that COVID is something we will

continue to live with. So I think we're going to have a lot to talk about. So do them knowing that COVID is something we will continue to live with.

So I think we're going to have a lot to talk about. So we're going to skip our neighborhood updates this week and let's dive right in. Okay. So let's start with sharing our memories of how

we each first became aware of COVID, what was happening in our lives at the time and what it felt like

realizing that COVID would affect us personally. Okay, so my kids were in first and second grade

in public school at the time. And I think, you know, around the beginning of that year,

January, February, we had started to hear about it in China, mostly.

And then spreading, but also so little was known.

And there was some kind of scary stories.

But it felt to me at that time like a lot of other things that you hear about, but don't end up hitting very close to home.

Fortunately, we're in a very privileged position.

...