Tailor your virtual socializing to fit your family and friends
The covid-19 pandemic has forced people everywhere to learn ways to be social while maintaining social distance.
From Slack chats to Zoom meetings to Facebook Live cooking clubs, there’s a way for just about everyone to find respite from the day-to-day boredom and isolation of quarantine.
Game nights, happy hours, exercise classes, parties for special occasions — if it happens in normal life, someone is finding a new way to do it now.
We talked to a few area residents who are putting their own stamp on virtual time with family and friends.
‘Bridge Club‘
Kate and Fred Dawson of Murrysville meet at least once a week with friends for a Zoom happy hour. Zoom happy hours are pretty common these days, but Kate added a special twist.
For the first one, she prepared cocktails and sealed them in Mason jars with a note that said, “Meet us for a drink on Zoom.” She dropped the jars off at the front doors of three other couples, rang the doorbell and scooted.
“I didn’t think it would go anywhere,” Kate says, but it became a regular thing.
Because the friends are fans of the craft beers at Yellow Bridge Brewing in Delmont, one couple now is tasked with picking up brews and doing the doorstep delivery prior to each session.
“We call ourselves the Bridge Club, she says.
Members are now finding salads, baked goods and other treats delivered along with the drinks.
‘Baby Pics for $100, Alex’
Stef Opalinski is used to finding ways to engage with people via her job in marketing and recruiting, and she’s turned that skill into a way to connect with high school and college friends.
The Penn Township native, who now lives in Mt. Washington, developed a “Quarantine Jeopardy” game that is friend group-specific.
Using PowerPoint, she worked up six categories pertaining to their shared history — such as, “Hit Me Baby One More Time,” in which they had to identify each other’s baby pictures. Another category was devoted to their confirmation names.
“It was a way to keep my friends laughing and spirits high,” she says. “I don’t know anyone else who’s doing this.”
She’s also working on personalized versions of “Family Feud,” “The Price is Right” and “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”
Memory lane
Don and Joanie Orlando of Mt. Pleasant are learning more about family history through thrice-weekly Zoom calls with Don’s brother Larry and his wife Marge and his cousin Marian Cadwallader and her husband, Dr. Dale Cadwallader.
At the beginning of each session, each couple poses three trivia questions about the Prestias, the maternal side of Don’s family.
“A benefit is that we all learn things we didn’t know or forgot,” Don says. “Luckily, we have no skeletons in our family closet.”
Sample questions: What was the name of the ship Don’s grandfather sailed on from Italy to the U.S.? (SS Königin Luise) What was the name of Uncle Michael’s dog? (Sport)
Hunt it down
Jennifer Sizemore of Murrysville has regular Zoom parties with sorority sisters from Phi Sigma Sigma at Clarion University. Their group includes alumnae from the late 1980s to the early 2000s.
For a recent gathering, the hostess organized a scavenger hunt of 25 items participants could find in their own homes that also would have meaning to group members.
“There was drinking involved, just like there is in person,” Sizemore says.
One item was “something yellow,” with bonus points awarded to anyone who came back with their yellow sorority jacket.
For a DVD, Sizemore says, “Almost everyone brought back an ’80s movie — ‘Footloose,’ ‘Dirty Dancing,’ ‘Back to the Future.’ We gravitated to those classics and that shared memory.”
Warm welcome
Friends and family treated Amber Hendrick to a Facebook Live baby shower on March 21. The Youngwood resident and her boyfriend, Luke Miller, are expecting a baby girl on May 18.
“It definitely wasn’t the shower we had planned, but it definitely was a day to remember, anyway,” Hendrick says.
On party day, Hendrick gathered with the baby’s expectant grandmothers and two aunts, along with her best friend, while about 30 well-wishers participated online.
Guests had dropped gifts off earlier and were given game packets at that time. The group played games remotely, watched Hendrick open gifts and were given a view of the party decorations and treats.
Those who won prizes will get them at a later date, Hendrick says — possibly at a meet-and-greet party for the baby that will take place when it’s safe to do so.
Food for thought
Not everyone is partying during the pandemic — some are delving deeper into the meaning of things. Bridget Fulmer is one of those.
The Greensburg resident and Seton Hill University alumna is taking an online Yale University course called, “The Science of Well Being,” along with several friends she met on her first day at the Greensburg campus.
They started in March and are midway through the 10-week course. The timing was coincidental to the pandemic — “a very happy accident,” Fulmer says.
The study involves a weekly video, followed by discussion time via Google Duo video call. They’ve delved into things that make people happy and things that don’t. They’ve been encouraged to savor special moments, keep a gratitude journal and make time for adequate exercise and sleep.
They did a happiness assessment prior to the course and will take another at the end — hoping, of course, that by then they can share their insights in person.
Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Shirley by email at smcmarlin@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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