Lola
DAILY QUARANTINERARY
Week four. Day unknown.
11 AM. WAKE UP.
Feel guilty about sleeping so late… again.
11:02 AM. WANDER INTO LIVING ROOM IN A TIZZY.
Say good morning to your parents. They will comment that you look distraught. Respond with a half-grunt and wander back to bed.
11:15 AM. CRY. YOU FOOL, YOU DID NOTHING BUT WATCH TV YESTERDAY.
To be fair, they knew what they were doing when they put “Community” on Netflix. It’s only partially your fault.
11:30 AM. TRY TO CONVINCE YOURSELF THAT THE DAY IS STILL SALVAGEABLE.
Drag yourself out of bed and into the kitchen, where you promise yourself, as usual, to eat healthier today.
11:31-11:45 AM. COFFEE, FACEMASK, BREAKFAST.
It’s the little morning rituals that keep you going.
11:46 AM. SWEET MOTHER OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, IT’S TIME FOR YOUR FIRST SHOWER IN… A WHILE.
This also includes brushing your teeth, doing your hair, etc., not because you’re going anywhere, but because you need to feel a little more human and a little less corpse-y today.
12:00-12:30 PM. REWARD YOURSELF FOR SHOWERING… WITH MORE EPISODES OF COMMUNITY.
One step forward, two steps backward.
12:40-1:15 PM. PUTZ AROUND THE HOUSE AIMLESSLY, SEARCHING FOR PURPOSE.
1:15 PM. SETTLE ON CLEANING THE KITCHEN TO THE SWEET TUNES OF MARIAH CAREY.
This will be the highlight of your day. Why? You can hear your dad singing along in the other room. He knows every. Single. Song. Inside and out.
1:15-2:30 PM. “TIME MELT.”
Blink and realize an hour has passed. Oops.
2:30-5:30 PM. LOSE YOUR EVER-LOVING MIND WHILST WORKING ON YOUR IB PORTFOLIO.
Truth be told, you’ll work hard, but you also tend to spend three hours on one assignment. And in quarantine, there is no one to stop you. Hooray!
5:00 PM. MAKE DINNER.
Side note: In the Selby household, we call stir-fry dinners “musco,” because everything that goes into the stir-fry “must go”: stale vegetables, leftover rice, anything that takes up too much room in the fridge.
6:40 PM. TAKE A QUICK WALK, AFTER REALIZING YOU HAVEN’T BEEN OUTSIDE TODAY.
Realize this is a poor choice. It’s 20 minutes until sundown, it’s raining, and you chose to wear flip-flops.
7:00 PM. ARRIVE HOME. SPEND SEVEN MOONS HUNTING DOWN CHARGERS FOR VARIOUS DEVICES.
First, you scrounge for the laptop charger so you can work on French, because the iPad is dead. Next, get the iPad on a charger and then find a separate charger (and toggle) for the Apple Stylus so you can work on the iPad when it is charged. Consider smashing every electronic device you own with a sledgehammer.
7:20-8:30 PM. TIME FOR DUOLINGO!
Gleefully butcher the language in pursuit of learning, and satiating the waking nightmare that is the Duolingo owl… for now.
8:30-9:40-ish PM. FAMILY ZOOM CALL.
Screaming children, great-uncles holding the camera two inches from their face, the sight of Grandma’s Greasy Shirtless Boyfriend™, aunts drinking giggle juice. I wouldn’t trade my family for the world.
9:40 PM. GET READY FOR BED. VALIANTLY ATTEMPT TO SLEEP.
10:30 PM. FORCE YOURSELF THROUGH A FEW CHAPTERS OF DOSTOEVSKY’S “THE IDIOT.” If a Russian novel can’t knock you out, nothing can. Especially since he refers to the characters by their title, first name, middle name, and last name every single time they are mentioned.
11:30 PM. REALIZE YOU ARE STILL NOWHERE NEAR TIRED.
Look at the news on your phone instead. Resist the urge to cry. Side note: I recently read an article that claimed the rats of Manhattan have gone cannibalistic in their hunt for food, and form rat armies to conquer land and other rat armies. This gave me a brief existential crisis as I considered the possibility of Mrs. Frisby on trial for rat war crimes.
11:45 PM. LIGHTS OUT… AGAIN. Try to sleep.
12:00 PM. SURPRISE, SURPRISE! Cabin-fever-cluster-crazy works better than five-hour energy, coffee, and an ice bath combined. Better luck tomorrow… that is to say, today.
Mireille
Quarantine is weird! Everything about life feels so odd and out of place like this isn’t really happening. But the longer we’re stuck in our homes, the more I realize that this is our reality. It’s a sobering thought and some days it gets the best of me. I miss my family and my friends and going out and being at school. Of all things, I miss school!
It’s funny because all students ever want is to get out and now through some twisted fate, we’re home, realizing that in a strange way school gave our lives vigor and purpose. I’ve come to understand we take a lot of simple things for granted.
Though it may seem hard to find, there is a bright side. I’ve gotten to spend more time with my sister, brother, and dog, Bella and do the leisurely things I love. I’ve been reading and writing for fun, which is not only the perfect distraction but something that truly makes me happy. I’ve read 6 books and submitted a short story to a website - it really filled me with a sense of accomplishment and productivity that had been otherwise lacking during our corona-cation.
This year was my 16th birthday and my mom surprised me with a trip to London. I’ve been wanting to go to London forever - drink tea, listen to the adorable British accents and sight-see. Unfortunately, that got canceled and I spent my birthday just hanging out with my parents and siblings. It gave me perspective though because even without all the extravaganza, I still felt loved and celebrated. Sometimes removing all the “fluff” reveals that you’re just as happy without it.
My favorite part of quarantine so far though, is that it encouraged my dad to start the tedious project of copying all my baby videos onto a hard drive. As they downloaded, we’d gather around and watch little Mireille (by the way my face hasn’t changed a bit, which is so unfair) be born, learn to walk, dance with her dad and meet her little sister for the first time. Besides my immense cuteness, it was the perfect reminder that without the bad times, you wouldn’t appreciate the good and that soon we’ll get to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Oscar
The Spring Marathon
It’s not Spring Break until there’s some 10 marathon of something. Last year it was the MCU (the important ones for Endgame). The year before that, it was all three director’s cuts of Lord of the Rings (Seriously something I’ll never forget). I know it’s a little bit different this year since perhaps the last month has felt like one gigantic Spring Break, but the show must go on. It came at a price, however. Currently, I’m quite unhealthily Game of Thrones. “Please don’t tell me you’re going to become one of those annoying Game of Thrones people.” some people (Pearl) tell me, but I regret to admit that it’s become quite difficult to not include at least 15 GOT quotes into my daily vocabulary. Halfway through season 2, I can happily report that Robb is my true king and I have a much (much) larger appreciation for Emelia Clark. When you play the Game of Thrones you win or you die
Easter
This Easter was the most relaxing I’ve ever had. Tea, live church quickly followed by a zoom call of ridiculous proportions with extended family. I saw and chatted with family members I haven’t seen in years or even met before, this quarantine proving furthermore that self-isolation encourages new unexpected connections. Then I took my first walk of the quarantine. Listening to Bloom by The Paper Kites in the sprinkling rain really does wonders to clear the head. It’s hard to not be confused on a normal basis at this point. It’s really important to take the small victories when you can. Finally getting out of bed, texting someone you’ve been missing, remembering to hydrate are small but reminds us that there are things we can control in a time that feels out of control. So when my mom invited 50+ people to share the word of God, games, and to see the faces of loved ones on a rainy self-isolated Easter, I was truly moved.