Zoom

I had two sessions on Zoom, the video-conferencing app today. The first was with my book club group, which didn't enjoy immensely. Maybe because it was a largish group with a number of new people, and watching myself on screen with a bunch of white middle-class women made me feel even more out of place. The chat about the book was interesting, but the background small talk was a real drag. And neither did I like the suggestion that we read any book that we liked for next time and jsut talk about it. I can't think of anything worse. I really don't want to hear about random books that I haven't read.
I am fond of my regular book club group but wouldn't count any of them as friends. The advantage of that is I can disappear and reappear without explanation.
But, the good thing about video meetings is you can tune out and read something else while giving the impression that you  are paying rapt attention to the meeting.
The second session a nearly two-hour-long video chat with my friends from school and it really lifted my mood. It felt like take a hot bath after being out in the cold. Of course, there were moments when  I tuned out but all in all, it felt good to be just silly.