By Living Room Realty, September 2, 2020
I live in the heart of the Pearl District. I have for quite some time. I love people watching, being a regular at all of the bars, restaurants, coffee shops and specialty stores. My daughter knows nothing about living outside of the city, as she was born here and is now 5. It’s been an adjustment getting used to the new normal around here. All of our favorite activities were stripped from us when the pandemic hit. Riding the streetcar “for fun” was off limits. Park play structures were taped off. Restaurants and coffee shops closed. My daughter and I would look out onto the empty streets from our balcony and whimper at the thought of our vibrant city turning into the zombie apocalypse. It was, and still is, heartbreaking.
By now, we’ve seen more businesses come to life, of course, and we’ve been taking full advantage. Keeping these small businesses IN business is my goal and every week I try to spread the love. I know I’ll always need items from Pearl Ace Hardware, so I bought gift cards to use down the road. Gift cards for coffee shops are always good to give out to my clients, so I stocked up on those too. Then Piazza Italia opened back up so I started buying my wine there, and now my daughter and I can actually sit outside there and enjoy our pasta again! Woohoo! We are starting to see the light, even though I know there will be so many businesses that won’t reopen again. And I mourn that. But I also look forward to new beginnings and want to share this new space I cannot WAIT to visit. The park isn’t reopened yet, but my daughter and I can stare at it from this new business, ha ha! Cooperativa
Instead of fantasizing about dumping this condo and buying a house with a backyard so my little one can run and play to her hearts content, maybe I’ll still buy that house, but hang on to this condo. Nothing lasts forever. This too shall pass. And, for now, I’m climbing out of the fog and am finding new ways to find joy in this crazy world.
