Is anyone out there?

We are on day 4 of no school/self-quarantine here. Life as we know it has halted with no encouraging signs of normalcy resuming in the foreseeable future. While we do the right thing and adhere to governmental and common-sense behavioral guidelines and recommendations during these unchartered times, we find ourselves even this early on wondering what it’s like out there, if there is any truth to the rumors, and if people who share the same DNA blueprint as us are really choosing to hoard toilet paper as their go-to apocalyptic item of choice. The outside world while removed so recently from us suddenly seems so distant and foreign.

Meanwhile, inside these walls, we are scrambling for foolproof methods to successfully co-exist in the same space for an indefinite period of time without breaks and/or recruiting other people. To that point, Day 1 was a total failure. Difficult conversations and self-reflection behind closed doors ensued. As a result, immediate adjustments were implemented in a frantic attempt to prevent the collapse of social order within the confines of our own home. It appears that the inability to fill time with familiar structure and predictable events has paralyzed some here while liberating others, thus creating a certain level of familial discord (i.e. No one can be nice.). As a result, on Day 2, temporary in-house social distancing went from highly recommended to strictly enforced with verbal references to the “the golden rule” repeatedly provided to guide behavior during any unexpected bathroom visit run-ins. So long as there are rooms with walls, doors to open and slam shut, stairs to climb and descend, and pillows to throw and scream into, I am almost confident that we will for sure maybe make it for at least another 4 days, maybe even 5 or 6, I don’t know.  

The kids have been such troopers, handling the sudden interruption to their daily lives like a bunch of chimps, I mean champs. Getting dressed became optional very early on and appears to directly correlate with level of motivation and overall desire to really care much about anything anymore. At this point it’s safe to assume that brushing one’s teeth has been moved to the optional category of activities of daily living tasks, but I haven’t had the courage to ask.  “What can I do now, Mom,” is asked just about every 6 minutes, immediately followed by “I already did that,” and “That’s so boring,” and finally, “Can I play Madden?” The answer is always no to the latter, until it’s not. Feelings of shame and silent promises to be stronger tomorrow, or the next day, follow suit. 

Every predicament has a silver lining though and luckily ours is that Daddy gets to stay home now too. Gone are the days of having to say goodbye in the morning and wait for him to get home in the evening to give big “I miss you” hugs. Nope, he’s here and he has some opinions with regard to things like wake-up time (the early bird gets the worm), when it’s okay to throw out old chicken (never I guess), and work flow as it applies to current day to day home operations (my way or the highway folks). That said, I’m excited to have him onboard.  We’ve actually talked more than we have in a long time in the past few days and the reconnection has been genuinely nice (i.e. weird). While setting up his makeshift office in the dining room (a.k.a. Grand Central Station) might sound like a slightly inconsiderate thing to do given the circumstances, I for one really enjoy being “shushed” for the millionth important phone call of the day while being given a front row seat to observe a genius’s mind at work in real time. He really is on a whole different level of smart, to the point it makes me feel really fucking stupid sometimes, but whatever, it’s really nice he’s home. On a super positive note, today he changed his sweatpants from the stained black ones he’s had on for 3 straight days to fresh heather gray ones, so who knows what that might lead to in the bedroom later. What can I say, dude can rock some heather gray.  

Well, Day 4 has come and almost gone now and if there is a take home message it is that we remain cautiously hopeful that there is continued intelligent life outside these walls, despite newsfeed to the contrary, and I am personally thankful for wine.

As I come to a close and type the last paragraph in this entry, 37 emails from the school district have popped up in the corner of my screen instructing me on what to do next to support and further my children’s learning in the days ahead. What I learned about myself today is that I completely forgot what a rhombus is and immediately lost all respect from my 3^rd grade son as result. Thanks coronavirus.