Sacramento, start your calendars. What I’m looking forward to doing after a haircut
I’m getting my haircut on Saturday, which are words I normally wouldn’t type for professional reasons. But this will be my first since Feb. 2, 2020.
The last time I attended a Kings game was March 3, 2020. The last time I went to the movies – at the stately Tower Theatre – was Feb. 22, 2020. My last work day at the office was March 13, 2020 and who could have known then that my colleagues and I would never return to our beloved old Bee building at 21st and Q streets?
On March 13, 2020 I went to my gym for the last time and that gym has since gone out of business. That was also the last day I had a meal inside of a full restaurant, the Sacramento institution of Frank Fat’s.
What I’ve missed most amid COVID-19 restrictions has been live baseball. My last time at the ballpark was for an Oakland A’s playoff game on Oct. 2, 2019. The A’s lost because that’s what they do in playoff games, but it was an otherwise glorious experience of laughing with old friends on the Amtrak and enjoying the warmth of a perfect autumn day.
I didn’t stop heading out into the community to do my job, from the George Floyd demonstrations last May to reporting on the state of downtown Sacramento now. Like many of my Bee colleagues and journalists everywhere, I found myself in close quarters with unmasked people more times than I care to remember before I was vaccinated.
By the grace of God, I never tested positive for COVID-19. But because of the risks of my profession, I had to let the discretionary activities go for a year because those were the guidelines and because I know people who dropped their guard and got sick while attending social events. I know people who died.
So I was left to express love and friendship via Zoom and it turned out that “discretionary” is the entirely wrong word to describe those moments of fellowship and love that I took for granted until they disappeared while I was sheltering in place. I haven’t hugged my brother in a year, haven’t seen my nephews, my cousins, aunts and uncles. I haven’t gone to Mass since Ash Wednesday of 2020 and haven’t seen the priest who baptized my children since January of 2020.
I’m vaccinated now and heading out into the world, with a mask on because that’s what we should do. We’re all about to head back into the world with vaccinations topping 20 million in California. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday we should hit 30 million by the end of the month, with the state reopening by mid-June.
Firing up the post-COVID to-do list
Do we shake hands anymore? I’m not going to shake for a while – if ever again – and that’s probably going to be awkward for some people. I apologize in advance.
For now, for me, I guess I’m looking forward to elbow bumps and friendly waves as Sacramento opens up again.
I’ve circled my calendar for May 20, which is the River Cats home opener. In fact, the former Raley Field – now known as Sutter Health Park – opened to the public for the first time since 2019 on Wednesday. The River Cats played a scrimmage game and can technically seat up to 33% of capacity, according to River Cats owner, Jeff Savage.
Sacramento’s baseball team deserves our support after shutting down for an entire year, and it’s loaded with some of the best prospects in the San Francisco Giants system.
“It’s such a relief and a joy to play baseball, host fans and start the process of getting back our normal lives,” Savage said. “Being able to connect with our fans and employees, for the first time since September of 2019, has been a long time coming, but it feels great.”
The Sacramento Kings games will likely be open to fans before the end of this season, perhaps as soon as April 20, but no official word yet. Golden 1 Center and the once vibrant Downtown Commons sadly have been utterly deserted in the last year.
Soccer, movies...how about Metallica, please?
According to the Tower Theatre website, it has one film showing this weekend. I can’t wait to see the Oscar-nominated film Judas and the Black Messiah, which has limited but scheduled show times at a few Sacramento-area theaters on Wednesday April 21 and Saturday April 24.
My favorite place to watch English soccer on the weekends is de Vere’s Irish Pub. I’ve watched every World Cup since 2010 there, sometimes with standing-room only crowds. The de Vere brothers are peerless hosts and don’t even tease me – much! – when Liverpool FC trounces Arsenal, my club. I used to go every weekend when it was possible to see games there, which can be done currently but only on its patio for now.
Frank Fat’s remains take-out only but I plan to eat there the first day it’s dining room opens. The same goes for Paragary’s, Mulvaney’s and so many other wonderful Sacramento restaurants.
When Newsom announced that the state was re-opening June 15, my first thought was : Metallica. The San Francisco super band was supposed to headline the Aftershock concert festival at Discovery Park last October but it was canceled for obvious reasons. The hope is that the band can play this October. Fingers crossed.
Visit Sacramento is planning the fall Farm to Fork Festival and Tower Bridge dinner hoping that both events, canceled last year, can go on this year.
Communal gathering outdoors is one of the joys of Sacramento. It’s what we dearly missed in the last year – our friends, our loved ones, our annual rituals. I’m going to be out there with a smile and, luckily for Sacramento at-large, a new haircut.
This story was originally published April 8, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
