plllog, that's a great list and I can relate to much of it. I'm sure the powers-that-be at TJ's would appreciate it. :-) I was just there this morning and know I would miss it like crazy!

I've missed time with our grandkids, especially our granddaughter who was born last June. Seems like we barely know her and she's only 5 miles away. However, DH and I are fully vaccinated, and the rest of our family's well on their way. Looking forward to more family time!

Well said, Pllog. You have said most eloquently all that I would have said.

Kate

I MISS TRAVEL!! Like crazy. We structured our life around it to some extent and haven't been able to do any for over a year!! Killing me.

I miss hugging my parents. And I am not a hugger.

I miss the local events - the Clam Chowder Cookoff at the Fesitval of Whales. The California Wine Festival. Lobsterfest. So many.

I miss sitting at the bar at local restaurants and chatting with the bartenders.

I miss feeling comfortable out in public.

I miss my favorite restaurant in Laguna Beach that closed permanently (Watermarc).

I know I will miss the buffet meals/breakfasts/brunches that clearly will not be back for quite some time.

I miss close range happy hours with our neighbors. We have done social distancing versions but they are not quite the same.

To make this a bit more positive, what I am grateful for that is new:

I am grateful for working from home and spending almost 24/7 with my hubby. Turns our being together during retirement when it happens won't be an issue!

I am grateful for our adorable kitty that we adopted in August. Such a blessing!

I am grateful for having a stable job which I know many don't have.

I am grateful for technology that enables me to stay connected both via Zoom and boards like this.

Honestly there is so much. . .

In our day-to-day existence, DH & I both miss lunches out. We would go for leisurely lunches about 3 times/week. I miss the camaraderie with friends/other diners, restaurant owners, waitstaff and bartenders. It was our primary social activity.

Also food/cooking related - I miss leisurely browsing in grocery stores, without a hard and fast list. Devising a meal or two out of what looked good, what sang to us. We used to pick up groceries here and there about 4 times/week - another form of entertainment for this retired couple who cook together.

I miss concerts and travel. I miss browsing in galleries and second-hand stores. I miss my dear mother. She is 89. I have not been able to visit with her since December of 2019.

seagrass

We've not been to the farmers' markets in the past year, and so I miss that.

We very seldom go to restaurants, but when we do, we generally get Ethiopian or Lebanese, and I miss that a bit, but not excessively. I have made some Berbere spice mix for Ethiopian dishes that I can make myself, but I have not mastered injera, and so I miss that. I can also make all the Lebanese food that I like, but I do like to get kabobs in restaurants. There is a Belgian restaurant in Palm Springs that I like, but we don't go there often enough for me to miss it that much. OTOH, there is another restaurant in Palm Springs (Elmer's) that I like to go to for Cobb Salad and for breakfast. I guess I do miss having the option to go to restaurants even though I am quite content not to go to them. I think I like going out for brunch more than for any other meal, since we can usually sit outdoors at brunch and enjoy nice views. I am not a fan of dimly lit restaurants - I like to see my food.

We buy sushi at markets instead of restaurants, and so that has not changed.

ETA: There is a lot more that I miss from 15 or 20 years ago than what I miss from the past year.

Seeing my kids and grandkids

Other than sushi, I miss very little. We've been traveling, although the annoyance of wearing a mask added a new dimension to the rigors of air travel. Because we live Colorado, we have ample opportunity to get out of the house and exercise. And because I'm a writer, I spend a lot of time at home anyhow, so isolation hasn't been unusual.

What I do miss is my daughter. I surprised her last February for her 40th birthday with a visit and haven't seen her since. Both her and her boyfriend had Covid last year and won't extend their bubble until they get vaccinated. Missing people, especially family, is far more agonizing than missing food.

I miss eating lunch with friends and co-workers at a few favorite restaurants near my downtown office. I went into the office on Wednesday and planned to get takeout lunch at my favorite Chinese place. After calling them twice without an answer I googled them and found that they recently closed permanently. I knew they had already let all of their staff go and only the owning couple were working there. I made a point to order from there every time I ventured into the office (maybe 10 times in the last year) and always tipped about 50%. Sad that they made it almost a year and there was light at the end of the tunnel.

Really my life hasn't changed that much other than WFH. I still hang out with the same small circle of friends that I did pre-covid and we do pretty much the same things as before.

I do miss going to the lake cabin but that will soon end now that winter is pretty much over. We are going down next weekend for the first time since December. We went more than ever last summer.

I miss going in our local natural foods/bulk stores. They don't do curbside pickup or delivery and many customers are not masked. I miss so many of the things I used to be able to get in the bulk dept.s like seeds, grains and herbs/spices.

I did start back at going to Trader Joe's months ago. I figured out that if I go after 8 pm - NOT on a Fri. or Sat. - there are very few people around and everyone wears a mask and keeps their distance.

IMO, there's no point in going early because that's what everybody else does.

We are just a stones throw, a couple miles, from a 50,000 acre state park. No lack of hikes and fresh air. 5, 10, 15 miles north of the city....hiking trails and cross country skiing. 2 hours gets you into the mountains.

We have had more contact with our families than ever before. Phone, texting, sharing pics, and food...We are spread out in many states.

A year and a half ago we were planning, early stages, a reunion. Looked into a big beach home rental for a week. Near my parents. Thanksgiving 2020.. Looks very possible for 2021. Right on the beach. (need a beach walk for family annoyances....take a walk, 😂)

Obviously I meant food related, but off-topic is fine.

I'm not a TJ shopper but surprised they did not offer any way to avoid lines for those that use the market and love it. Friends that put up with the lines are fed up still. A separate warehouse plan might have been best?

Food related - we are having corned beef and cabbage when we go down to the lake next weekend. Been missing that going on 360 days now :-)

LOL, Jack, you know that you CAN eat corned beef on days other than St. Pat's? (grin)

My life is also pretty much the same. We're retired, so no working from home or office changes. We never really traveled much, I really dislike flying and Elery doesn't like to drive. And never the twain shall meet, LOL. My girls are both really careful, so we have a little bubble of my girls and their kids, 10 of us all together. I have a little less than 100 acres and so I can take a walk, talk to the cows, there is always something that needs doing on the farm so we do it. Fix fence, fill tanks, expand the chicken run, process some meat chickens, prune apple trees, set hay, work in the garden. We're busy enough and of course, there is the Township work as Clerk.

I do miss Elery's family, although one son is in California and his daughter is in Ohio and we normally only see them once a year, sometimes not that much. His brother and sister both live in Tennessee. We do call and talk, his daughter calls from Ohio nearly every day and his son in California "face times". His sister calls him more than once a day sometimes! His middle son is coming with his family the end of the month, we haven't seen them in 10 months. Now that both Elery and I and my Mother have all gotten the Pfizer vaccine, I feel more comfortable and so do they, although I'm still extremely careful.

I also miss the big holiday dinners we had with our families, my Mother, various friends, and it looks like maybe that will happen this fall, hopefully by Thanksgiving. Well, hopefully before that, because The Princess is graduating from High School and she has a party planned in August, right before she starts college. Hopefully it will be much safer then

I haven't been to TJs since the pandemic started, and I miss it, but I'm 60 miles from the nearest one and so it's not realistic to go very early or very late, and it's packed pretty much all the rest of the time. I also miss the Mediterranean Market, our local Horrock's, the Asian market, but we're still not going to the "big city" for a while yet.

Instead I'll just plant my garden starts, do all the spring farm chores, get that cataract surgery in my other eye, and wait. The situation seems to be getting better pretty steadily, and that's encouraging.

Annie

I really miss international travel, and all the great meals that come with it. I also really miss catching up with friends for lunch out. I've learned a lot about cooking in the last year, and that is a good thing. My little family of three has become much closer, and that is a good thing too.

Shopping...picking out my meat....choosing my own head of lettuce, seeing something I didn't know they had and thinking "that looks good" and planning a meal around it. Buying things I KNOW are there but they can't find...like anchovie paste.
Cooking for others, having others cook for me....eating food I didn't cook...or pick up at the drive up window.
My cleaning lady!!!! a painter inside, going to the dentist....getting a mani-pedi.

So much of the above. It's left so many people I know so sad. Can't wait for a vaccination.

Edit to say my identity has been stolen! It's Islay, not that series of numbers and letters!

Clear vision. I was scheduled for cataract surgery when everything shut down. We're in a high-risk group so I haven't rescheduled yet.

Choosing my own food. Other people. Any people; just being among people, in a market or on the street. And lately I find I miss things. Any things. Seeing physical objects that are not in my house.

We're very lucky that we've been able to visit our daughter and grandchildren a few times, since they are quarantining too.

I live in southeastern PA which for some reason is a vaccine desert right now. But I'm hoping to be able to choose my own plants this spring.

jc

I'll meet you at TJs ... then there is this little Asian market I like ... hope it survived

I miss seeing people in person. Parties, beers, coffee, lunches, even (some) meetings.

I miss being able to belly up to a bar or sit down at a restaurant table to eat.

I miss being able to go about my daily life without the Covid anxiety and the Covid dance - the elaborate distancing maneuvers between persons passing in a hall or on a sidewalk.

I miss my favorite ramen place, fish chips shop, Japanese deli, and all the other local businesses that didn’t survive, including those whose disappearance I don’t even know about yet but will discover when I go to find them.

The Covid year did bring me some good things.

DD stayed home all year, instead of leaving for New York or Los Angeles or wherever she would have gone. I’m going to lose her soon, but I got one last year.

My business has done better than feared. From starting with zero revenue and zero clients in February 2020, at the start of a global pandemic, I’ve more than replaced my prior income and am looking forward to more progress.

This end of Covid year is going to bring us all some great things.

A giant drawn-out sigh of relief, friends and families coming together, parties and more parties, people getting jobs and opening businesses, sports and dances and art and theater, travel and . . . if VE-Day had lasted for months, it’ll be kind of like what we’re headed for.

On the food end of things (Since this is the Cooking Forum).

I MISS good sushi and sashimi out, especially the varieties of fish I can't find and make myself (ie Yellowtail/Hamachi). I miss being able to sit at the sushi bar and banter with the sushi chef, who really knew what I enjoyed eating.

I MISS being able to drive down to CT to avail myself of the best seafood shops - Stew Leonard's and ShopRite have excellent seafood counters. Western MA has slim pickings (I could go towards Boston, but I LOATHE the traffic patterns there).

I MISS my jaunts down to the Korean H-Mart supermarket chain.

If I drive outside of MA right now, I trigger a choice upon return, even if I am only gone for part of a day: COVID test and wait at home 3 days to get the results back, OR forgo the test and wait 10 days to leave my house (actually I could be in my yard, which would make my chickens happy, as they'd still need to be watered and fed.)

I miss the olive bar. I liked doing my own mixing and matching, and I never want a full container.

I MISS relaxing at restaurants with friends.

Beyond the food....

I MISS getting together with friends, any where. I do occasionally meet with one friend who is single like myself. But that's once a month, if that. I miss physical contact with other humans. Until October, when Obi-Wan had to be put to sleep, I did have affectionate contact with one of my cats, who was a lap-buddy. The surviving cat is not really affectionate. She prefers to sleep at the foot of my bed, but away from my feet. I just want some good hugs. And good face to face conversations.

I MISS get togethers and gatherings. Last June my brother and other immediate family were supposed to get together with me, drive to Maine, and place Dad's ashes with Mother's, in Penobscot Bay. We hope we can do that this summer.

We never went to restaurants much because most don't have food that I can't make at home a lot better and cheaper. But there are a handful that I mìss that we have been going to for 34 years, like our favorite Greek one. I hope they are still there and will be one of the first we go to when restrictions are lifted. The make the best Greek style ribs.

I miss a lot but I have also discovered a lot. Really missed our usual three months in Florida but discovered how much there is to enjoy at our cottage in the winter. So beautiful, peaceful and soul soothing. Also DH and I have found new interests to share.......but thank God for his man cave garage!

We don't eat out much but I miss our local pub and the camaraderie there. Other than that I really miss casual, none rushed grocery shopping and really miss entertaining.

Mostly I miss having my family with me for our family celebrations....then again not having to cook for 15-20 has got me to thinking maybe it's the girls turn to takeover.....I miss the getting together, the cooking not so much.

But the best of the best......covid boredom and working from home brought me two new grands last week! Both my daughter and my DIL delivered babies within 15 hours of each other last week. My daughter a boy and my daughter in law a girl......our only girl. A little too much drama for Nana but everyone is healthy and we will soon be able to reconnect as a complete family.

The year had gone fast in retrospect, we will soon have our vaccines and I think the summer will see a return to "normal"......but it will be a new normal.

Haven't missed much in a while. Since moving out to the boonies a decade ago we didn't really go out much for dining anyway. A few times a year, maybe a little more with occasional lunches with MIL. Part due to frugality, part to I like to cook and am really good at it. Big change from when we lived in Chicago and ordered or went out a few to several times a month. So missing pangs went away long ago.

It was only in 2019 that we really started going out a bit and checking out places we hadn't hit yet. Trying some fish fry Fridays- one of the few things I really don't like making at home, lol. I was getting cooking blahs then too, and was wanting to try other folks food. Then autumn hit, and a series of injury and illnesses rolled fall through winter into spring- so didn't really want to go out through all that. Then shutdowns started and couldn't go out anyway.

It helped that late in 2019 due to blahs and then not going out I wanted to get inspired at home again. Was introduced to Rancho Gordo here, and re-introduced to micro greens here too before the new year. And lucked out Amigo Foods to help me get good at areas of cooking I wasn't proficient at yet. And that rolled through 2020 of trying boxed dinner services (try new menus), produce service, bulk spices ordering, refining pantry on the Asian stuff and cooking techniques...

I do miss going out for a random day of farmers market and stands, so I hope there will be some good things going on this summer for that.

I haven't seen my daughter for 18 months and am about to crack!

Islay

How far is your daughter? We've heard that there's a new surge in Europe. There will be here, too, if people continue to act badly. Any hope of being able to see her soon?

Yikes Islay, what is your local vaccination protocol?. . my parents had a heck of a time at 92/91 yrs old...but that was lack of computer coherent confusion. They now have been vaccinated. I even went so far to e-mail and text the White House , Joe, help our elderly confused that have computer issues...

I'll get mine next week and we just opened to 16yrs old plus. Yet still cautious. Red states resistant. DH gets his second next week...

We have been OSHA protocol from the get-go.

I tried to get my family to go lock-down for the last holidays...no way, they cheat. I offered to pay for a big 5 bedroom covid beach house rental...nearby. Enjoy a beach house and walks on a deserted winter beach...gorgeous. If we locked down together, no issues.

Dad cheats. He refused to go full lock-down. 🙄, then has complained non-stop that we have not visited. Pre-coved complained that we visited too often. Disruptive to their daily lives. 🙄.

At this time last year a tornado hit my house, an F3 and 1/2 mile wide, and I am still very much dealing with the damage.

Covid has always been on the back burner with literally hundreds of people from various groups coming to the house to cleanup downed trees although throughout the year I did wear masks out, use hand sanitizer and take general precautions but nothing major.