364 days ago

[#UnleashSean]

I was leaving the office doubting that Marquette was going to play later that day. When another employee said "I'll see you on Monday". I stated that, I highly doubt you'll see me for a couple of weeks.

What most of us assumed would last a few weeks had now encompassed an entire year. I think it's time to reflect on this past year and see how wrong/right we all were on our predictions.

[wadesworld]

My ignorant thinking at the time was, "Why are we cancelling the Tournament?  Just pause it for two weeks and this will have blown over."  Oops.

[#UnleashSean]

My ignorant thinking at the time was, "Why are we cancelling the Tournament?  Just pause it for two weeks and this will have blown over."  Oops.

Never in my mind did I think the ncaa tournament wouldn't be played. Paused till April or June?  Sure, but downright canceled no way.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

My wife was scheduled to fly into White Plains, where they were calling in the National Guard for the first domestic quarantine.

She made it to Detroit, then hopped on the flight back to Madison.

Hasn't been on a plane since.

[Hards Alumni]

I was just checking my text messages to my mom, and I started warning her about going on their zombie cruise on Feb 24th.

Lost all contact with her from 3/5 until 3/14... Really bad nine days where I didn't know if I'd see my parents again.

It's wild to go back through those messages.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

My last flight was late February to MKE for the Senior Day game.

Man, it sucks have to conduct 99% of business through Zoom.

[Warriors4ever]

We were supposed to fly to NYC for the Big East tourney. Cancelled the night before our flight. Never thought it would be a year.
I have a friend who was supposed to celebrate his golden jubilee of ordination last May. It got postponed to October, then to May of this year, and now it’s postponed to October again.

[tower912]

It has been a fascinating study of human nature.

[wadesworld]

I was sitting in a jam packed Fiserv Forum for the Lumineers concert.  Got in the building between the final opening act and the Lumineers, so for the first 20ish minutes all I was doing was sitting on my phone as the texts from friends went from "Rudy Gobert is being held out due to illness.  Couldn't be covid?" to "The NBA is shut down."  Sitting in the Bucks' home arena as things moved that quickly, that was one of the more surreal experiences of my life.

[MUfan12]

Tomorrow will be one year since my last pickup basketball run. Miss it like crazy.

I was very wrong about this as well. I remember thinking the NBA would take a month and resume with no fans for the playoffs.

It's hard to remember those days, when things seemed to be changing so quickly it was hard to keep up. But I wonder how many of our early thoughts on this were colored by the "two weeks to flatten the curve" messaging.

[StillAWarrior]

One year ago today I had one daughter (and her boyfriend) at my house for spring break. My other daughter was scheduled to come home (with a friend) on the 13th (the friend ended up cancelling her visit). Within a week my son who lives in SLC was working remotely from home and we had moved both of our daughters (and the boyfriend!) out of their dorms. They did not return until the fall (the boyfriend with us for about six weeks).

[JWags85]

On this day last year, I flew to NYC. I had been debating flying the weekend before to see MU-SJU and then staying, but elected to fly later and try to catch a game or two at the Garden for the BET.  My GF and I had been quarreling cause she’s a germaphobe and I’m not and she was worried I wouldn’t wear gloves when going out or that I wasn’t fastidious enough with hand washing (in normal times she’d freak out if I grabbed the subway pole). I had a flight home the following Monday morning...I never took that flight was in NYC till June.  She went WFH the following week and hasn’t been to the office since and has been living with me in WI since June.  One of my closest friends had a wedding scheduled in the Denver in late May that I’m standing up in that went from “I wonder if some people might not go” to postponed for a year in what felt like a week.

The most surreal thing for me...as many know, I’m in international business. Have averaged 125K miles flown a year since 2016.  Plus was in a long distance relationship with a GF in NY where much of my domestic business is, which was a frequent trip.  I checked, in the back half of 2019 alone, I flew to HK/China in Sept, a trip to Singapore and Indonesia in August, a fall trip to Belgium, and then India in December for work and a wedding.  Plus a trip to Seattle, a trip to LA, and 7 round trip flights to NYC.  In the last 365 days, I got on a single one way flight from ORD to NYC in the fall to move my GF out of her apartment realizing she would be in the Midwest indefinitely.   It’s absolutely CRAZY to me.

Late Feb 2020 was a planned trip to HK for a trade show that ended up being cancelled/rescheduled due to concerns over the protests and unrest with China there. It was annoying but I never thought i wouldn’t be back for a year or more (and maybe ever for business given how things are going)

[tower912]

New Zealand just had their first full capacity concert in a year.   Appropriately, Crowded House.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

New Zealand just had their first full capacity concert in a year.   Appropriately, Crowded House.

So can we dream it's over?

[tower912]

Well played.

[Hards Alumni]

So can we dream it's over?

Don't

[StillAWarrior]

In the last 365 days, I got on a single one way flight from ORD to NYC...

I've flown to/from Phoenix twice. I'm guessing this is the only year I'll log more air miles than you.

[StillAWarrior]

Don't

Hey now!

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

New Zealand just had their first full capacity concert in a year.   Appropriately, Crowded House.

That must have been Something So Strong of a concert.

[Galway Eagle]

Had a such a massive 2020 planned with wedding in Malaysia, trips to Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia a bachelor party in New Orleans, Denver and Ireland.

that all turned into house, engagement, and living with then girlfriend now fiancé.

What a wildly different year it's been than what was expected.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

I snuck in the last possible timeframe for a business trip in 2020.  Flew to Milwaukee on Feb 28, daughter #2 toured Marquette on Leap Day then we went to MU's final home game and then I made customer visits on a drive from Milwaukee Monday morning to Cincinnati.  My stop in Chicago got me to see the disastrous Marquette-DePaul game.  Flew home with daughter #1 on Friday for her Spring Break and then that was that.  We were going to go to the Big East Tournament on her break.  Nope.
Haven't flown since and not really traveled although I did spend a long weekend in Cincinnati & Pittsburgh taking the kid back to school and a beautiful weekend in NYC the weekend after the election. 

[tower912]

On March 8 2020, my wife and I took our then 13 year old to his first all ages concert.  Gaelic Storm in a bar.   Great show.   Then the bottom dropped out.

[Galway Eagle]

On March 8 2020, my wife and I took our then 13 year old to his first all ages concert.  Gaelic Storm in a bar.   Great show.   Then the bottom dropped out.

Fun first concert to have

[Goose]

I took my first airplane trip in February and it sure felt good. Have done a couple of car trips for work over past 6-7 months and hoping to get back to real business this summer.

[Marquette Fan]

My Facebook memories from today showed my last long run before my next planned Marathon at the end of March.  I posted then that I had a feeling the race was going to be canceled though which it was soon after that.  That canceled our family trip to St. Louis for spring break too.  And I was supposed to run another marathon 5 weeks later in Lincoln, Nebraska that was canceled also of course.  I'm trying to run marathons in all 50 states and was trying to get in marathons in 4 states last year and got zero states done last year.  I now haven't run a marathon since November 2019 actually.

A year ago tomorrow was my last day in the office.  I was off the next next day and volunteered at each of my girls' schools with no idea that it would be the last time I'd be allowed in their school buildings for a long time (we're not allowed inside the schools this year).  I'm just so glad on my first day I started working from home that I thought to go into work to pick up stuff I needed for working from home.  They closed our office down about a week later and haven't let most of us back in there to get anything to this day.

It's hard to believe I've been working from home for a year now and I don't think I'll be back in the office for at least another 6 months - we will see...

[rocket surgeon]

I was just checking my text messages to my mom, and I started warning her about going on their zombie cruise on Feb 24th.

Lost all contact with her from 3/5 until 3/14... Really bad nine days where I didn't know if I'd see my parents again.

It's wild to go back through those messages.

  hards-this one honestly made my heart sink and pause- all of our disagreements aside, really glad to know this is a memory that didn't end as you feared

[GooooMarquette]

  hards-this one honestly made my heart sink and pause- all of our disagreements aside, really glad to know this is a memory that didn't end as you feared

Totally agree doc. I vividly remember Hards’ posts about his parents, and was incredibly relieved when they got home safely. Something like that puts peoples’ everyday disagreements in perspective.

[Hards Alumni]

Thanks guys.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Totally agree doc. I vividly remember Hards’ posts about his parents, and was incredibly relieved when they got home safely. Something like that puts peoples’ everyday disagreements in perspective.

Amen.

I think the Old Man Hards and Granny Hards' adventures on the Covid Seas really provided a much different perspective than "2 weeks to flatten the curve" did, and in a helpful way.

[Mutaman]

I remember a year ago the Commander In chief saying "It’ll start getting better in 11 months and 29 days, at least if you replace me with somebody competent . In the meantime ,I don’t take any responsibility at all"

11-29

[Goose]

I agree that Hard's parents journey provided a truly hands on perspective. I might disagree with 99.9% of what Hards post, but I definitely paid close attention and sent my prayers out his way. It was a crazy year and we all handled it differently and I am fine with that. Hopefully we can focus on MU ball moving forward.

[rocky_warrior]

Hopefully we can focus on MU ball moving forward.

Still plenty to discuss in the near future, but I'm looking forward to closing this board soon.  It's been a wild ride.

[injuryBug]

my son and his team had just advanced to the sectional finals with a great chance of going to state when the word came down that it was canceled.

[pbiflyer]

Our office close a year ago. Still closed and WFH through July. I have always either worked from home or been on the road.
I can’t wait to get back on the road.  But likely won’t be til fall.

[forgetful]

Feb. 13th of last year. Last time I gave an in person talk at a University. Met with some colleagues that are experts in modeling. They were doing some contract work for the CDC/NIH modeling possible COVID scenarios, and how it will effect both healthcare and society.

No joke, they said to stock up on toilet paper now (I laughed at them), and outlined what the numbers would be on how it progressed in the next 90 days. They were spot on. I at the time thought there was no way we could mishandle it that badly. That there was no way we could be that in the dark regarding testing. We did, and we were.

1 year ago, my class was about to go on spring break. At that point a lot of the prediction my colleagues had made were falling in line. I told them it was unlikely we would see each other in person the rest of the school year. They thought I was over-reacting. They figured at most they'd get a free extra week of spring break.

What a crazy year.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

my son and his team had just advanced to the sectional finals with a great chance of going to state when the word came down that it was canceled.

Yup, my youngest's team was ranked 1st in the state and on a collusion course to play the 2nd ranked and also undefeated team in the finals when everything shut down. Suckitude.

[rocky_warrior]

on a collusion course

Sounds like they didn't deserve to win with that kind of impropriety 

[GooooMarquette]

Sounds like they didn't deserve to win with that kind of impropriety 

There was no quid pro quo!!!

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Sounds like they didn't deserve to win with that kind of impropriety 

"You let us win this year, we'll return the favor next year".

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

So after a decade of going to the gym up to five mornings a week, a year ago today was the last time I stepped foot in one.  The good news is that I have used the money I saved to build up a gym at home, and have much more time in the mornings than I did before.