Uh, now what?

March 17: Where do we even start.

I look out my window, everything looks normal: it’s a nice spring day. Kids are on the trampoline. People are biking by, walking their dogs. Just an average day.

But it isn’t, really.

I think back to this day, one week ago, and it was all systems (mostly) go: kids were planning their trip for March break, I was still going on mine (though wondering if we pull the plug, given that the US seemed, well, yeah). Work was normal, but I was making contingency plans. We celebrated Will’s 14th birthday with a terrific family dinner. Oblivious.

Business as usual.

But it wasn’t, really.

If you’d asked me, what would a week later look like, there’s absolutely no way I could have predicted this. NO WAY.

Cue the global pandemic. And the endless Covid-19 memes.

And the giant “?” floating over all of our heads. I mean, COME ON.

So, explaining this to the kids is interesting. Their little bubble of bliss hasn’t changed all that much, expect that they can’t ski. Oh my word. What a hardship. I don’t know how many more times I can say “wash your hands”. I encourage them to go outside and to stop eating my supply of snacks. I need someone to hack Fortnite and Tiktok, stat.

I try to explain that no, I don’t know what the fuck is going on, I have not lived through something like this. The closest thing I can relate it to is 9/11… and even that had us on a plane “business as usual” about a week after those planes flew into the towers.

This feels different. However, the need to be near people, to be close to those important to me, feels very much the same.

Buzzword of 2020: “social distancing”. How quickly we’ve adopted it into our vernacular.

I’m freaking tired. I’d like to think I’m handling this well, but the constant, minute-to-minute change is rough (this isn’t me whining. This is fact.) Anxiety is pretty high. I want to keep my routine but that seems selfish, somehow? Staying off social media and reading too much news helps. Going outside helps. Seeking normalcy helps. Squeezing my people helps. WINE HELPS.

Today, we found out that school is closed indefinitely. Kids were all stoked until they realized… I’m the new homeroom teacher.

Welcome to the new normal.

(To be continued.)