One really funny moment during the party was when Klara and another kid hid so well that six adults and four kids were running up and down the stairs looking for them and falling to find them for a full 20 minutes.

Turns out they somehow squeezed under a bed underneath which nobody thought it was possible to fit two whole human beings.

Another fun thing was that a grandma showed me – a few years too late but still – how to tie a baby to your back. Turns out, you have to bend at 90 degrees and put the baby on your back like on a table. After that it’s very easy.

We had a house party today, and I knew there was something that I really enjoyed but I couldn’t figure out what it was.

But then I knew. Nobody had mentioned or thought of COVID all day.

I have the best friends.

Here’s the reason why people who gather with friends or organize children’s parties are persecuted.

Living a life that’s unaffected by COVID is now a status symbol. Regular people can’t go to the kid’s gym here in town. But if you can shell out $150 for an hour of play, you can bring your kids and a bunch of their friends, and they can play.

It’s the same with a million other activities. Art classes, music classes, sports, play spaces.

And, of course, it’s the same with schools. $1,200 a month gets you in-person teaching and summer camp and kids’ theater and gym and a music teacher and a tennis instructor.

COVID, schmovid. Those who can pay send their kids to a real school. In the midst of the worst lockdowns, you can buy access to any public space you want with any number of maskless people if you have enough money. Museums, performing arts. It’s all open. Just not for me and you.

When you organize a kid’s birthday party or hold a barbecue at your place, you rob these people of their status symbol. If anybody can have a party, theirs becomes just one of many.

I know for an absolute fact (because I heard people say it quite openly) that this is how this works. A kid who says “I had a birthday party” is signaling to other kids that she’s part of the wealthy minority.

Normal life has been turned into a luxury product. And now the rich are purchasing normalcy for themselves and their kids. The whole point of a luxury good is that only a few can have it. The enjoyment that can be derived from the feelings of “I’m a good parent / superior human being because I can give all this to my kid” is intense. Why would the people who can now afford to buy normalcy give this privilege away? Why would they share it with you? Why would they give up the gigantic competitive advantage that having a normal childhood brings?

The next step will be to demand QR codes that attest to your ideological purity. It will be done under the guise of anti-terrorist measures. Your entire digital footprint will be scanned and analyzed to diagnose you as ideologically healthy or diseased. Your access to public spaces will depend on the degree of the ideological compliance your digital footprint will reveal.

Absolutely will happen.

So Canada’s Trudeau said that he isn’t planning to use proof of vaccination as a basis for admission to restaurants or other public events.

Immediately, the self-righteous, the outraged, and the terrified (which are the majority) started wailing and begging for vaccination passports.

I’m telling you, folks, elites schmelites. It’s impossible to introduce a serious change and sustain it without an enthusiastic consent from the majority.

We had an anonymous survey on my campus. A bunch of people responded that they are loving the current situation because their schedules were too busy before COVID, and now it feels like a vacation. These are the honest folks who put into words the feelings of most lockdowners.

I thought I was the only person who made a wish when a clock hit 11:11. But now it turns out that many people are doing it.

It’s kind of upsetting to have to share your neurosis. I thought it was only mine.