The downside of the upside of these times

Which one, you might ask. To be sure, there are lots of things that pesky virus has made worse, impossible etc. which I won’t start to list here. You know what they are, in general and for you specifically.

But there are also quite a few positive effects of the pandemic, one of them being the opportunity to participate in meetings and events you would have never though of attending before because of the traveling involved. Now they are taking place online and are super accessible.

All you have to do is sign up and log in at the appointed time et violá – you can see and talk with people from all over the place from the comfort of your home or office. No traveling required (except maybe to the kitchen and back to refill your snack or drink).

So what downside am I talking about?

Lots of live and in-person things have been cancelled, so I have all these free evenings on which to participate in all kinds of wonderful meetings.

Except when there are four (4!) meetings I would like to attend all taking place at the exact same time?!

And only one of them is being recorded (and although that’s better than nothing, it’s still not the same as attending live and being able to take an active part).

And the other three are all group meetings of BDÜ Landesverband Bayern who really could have coordinated their schedules better, in my opinion.

I could theoretically log into the three meetings that are not being recorded on three different devices, but really, how well could I participate? Not to mention whether that would even work to any satisfying degree out here in the boonies in the evening when all the neighbors are starting to stream their favorite shows….

So here I am, having to choose…