One and Done Empty Nesters

  I had an epiphany today about wearing a mask, when a young man was strangely attentive to me: The mask hides the biggest tipoff of my middle age - my jowls! How have I not realized this before today? How have I not seen a Facebook ad using this angle among the hundreds of anti-aging ads in my feed (you click on one lousy ad and the industry descends on you)? We should have been appealing to people's vanity all along about masking up. Have we not learned anything from Instagram? Since I hardly go out anymore, I was a little excited to put on makeup before running my errand. I even put on lip color and blush, completely forgetting there was no need since I'd be wearing a mask.  I won't say the young man was flirting with me. I just felt more seen than usual. Enough so that I noticed it. Women of a certain age know what I mean. I realized this young man was talking to me like I'm a woman, not his mom. What was happening? I got back in my car and that's when I caught

  Starting college in 2020 has been odd for our daughter, Mia, and thousands of other freshmen. Only two of her classes met in person, yet that was more than any of my friends' kids had, with most of their classes online. Masks were required everywhere on campus, inside and out. She never even met her dorm RA in person - they were only allowed to do Zoom meetings. No social gatherings in the dorm. However, Mia made the most of her first college semester. In addition to earning all A's, participating in an online play and being cast in a Spring play, she and her three roommates went out often to socially distanced, masked-up outdoor events on campus like football games, concerts and shows. She went to Universal Studios five times with them or her theatre friends, learned to grocery shop, participated in honors college events, did two Secret Santa swaps and enjoyed a potluck Friendsgiving. Because most of her fun was on campus or at other places that required masks, she managed t