I’m a little short on delights this week because I spent the majority of the last week isolating in my house due to a major COVID exposure. I worked from home because I have that luxury and figured it was best for me and work if I did. My husband and I chose to spend most of our time in separate rooms and masked in common spaces in case one of us got it and the other didn’t. There’s only so much delight I can experience from within the walls of my bedroom all by myself.

• Obviously my first and biggest delight is that neither of us actually got COVID. I was going to say somehow at the end of that sentence, but I don’t actually think that’s the case. Yes this disease as somewhat capricious, and there are certainly people I know who have been exposed and not come down with it despite doing none of things I’m about to mention, so I know there is a certain amount of luck involved and we both certainly could have got it despite our precautions. However, I do firmly believe that we put ourselves in the best position to not actually get it by doing literally all of the things they say to do to keep yourself COVID free. We are both double boosted as per the CDC guidelines for our age and health conditions. Knowing we were in a higher risk setting with traveling and in the large crowds of a music festival, we tested every morning and thus caught my friend’s positive case right away and immediately all put N95 masks on and didn’t take them off again until we were home. Even though we spent 7 and half hours in a car together driving home we as I said all kept our masks on and drove with the windows partway down to maximize fresh air ventilation. It was long and hot, but we got home COVID free, so worth it in the end. Fingers crossed we repeat none of this next week in our beach trip with friends.
• Our get out of jail free day happened to coincide with free scoop day at The Charmery for WYPR members. For some reason my husband and I have separate memberships instead of donating the same amount once as a family, so we both got a free scoop. I guess it pays to be disorganized and donate to the same organization separately instead of jointly.
• Really the best part of going to get the free ice cream was the life size cardboard cutout of Kai Ryssdal, host of Marketplace and co-host of the Make Me Smart podcast, which is my favorite. He has mentioned on the podcast previously that these cardboard cutouts exist in various NPR stations across the country as they were some promotional thing he did for Marketplace years ago and that every once in awhile people run into one visiting a station and comment on it to him. I snapped a photo and sent it to him on Twitter, and he retweeted it with some commentary. It made me very happy, and I very much enjoyed reading everyone’s comments on it.

No, Kai, they said. This will be great for marketing and for your brand. It definitely won’t haunt and mock you on the internet down through the ages. https://t.co/V5zP2wc2Fz

— Kai Ryssdal (@kairyssdal) July 27, 2022

• Speaking of podcast co-hosts, NPR’s Code Switch podcast recently announced B.A. Parker as their new co-host. This week’s episode was a short introductory episode to who she is. Gene Demby gave a little intro to her work and then played a song to introduce her like walk up music. It was John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy”. I immediately thought she must be from Baltimore or is at least an Orioles fan. I was totally right. She is from Baltimore and an O’s fan. For those of you not in the know “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” is the 7th inning stretch music at Orioles games. Here’s an explanation for everyone wondering why the heck that song is played at every O’s game. I was very excited to be right, and did that thing I talked about before where I excitedly point at my phone while everyone near me must think I’m insane.
• For your musical delight this week I have a song from the Footloose soundtrack. I recently snagged a cheap, used copy of it on vinyl and finally had the opportunity to listen to it for the first time this weekend. It’s one of my favorite movies, and I love the soundtrack. We had it on cassette when I was a kid, but I haven’t listened to it in years. I still love it. This is the first time I have ever watched the actual music video for this song. It’s so ingrained in my head with the footage from the movie that it was kind of weird as I was totally expecting there to be movie footage in the video. Instead it’s a whole little mini-movie in and of itself. I do have to say *chef’s kiss* for having the characters in the video walk past a cinema with Footloose up on the marquee though.