Birthday drive-bys and cat appointments. Enjoy the sixth round of journal entries from our very own staff, giving a closer look into the life of a self-isolated teenager.
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Oscar
When you’re best friend turns 18 during a quarantine you have to get creative. It’s not as easy as surprising with a few cupcakes in Ms. Lee’s room during lunch anymore. So for Miguel’s birthday, Edgar and I devised a plan, and yes it has phases.
Phase 1:
Make a video of his friends saying happy birthday. Miguel is one of the most social I know so being cooped up in quarantine might make him forget how much his friends mean to him. So a list was written of a few of his friends. And of course, they had to be mutual friends because I’m not asking strangers. The way we present it to him is very important because it must be the highest quality he can get. So I sent the video to his father, who’s a man after my own heart in terms of surprises. Then we showed it to him during a zoom call with his family that shattered all my senses. And we knew it was mission accomplished when Miguel shed some tears.
Phase 2:
I’ve gotten used to threats from Edgar about doing a drive-by on my house, although I KNOW I would win even with his superior sibling power. In any case, it gave us an idea. Edgar loaded up squirt guns while I filled water balloons up. Within an hour we loaded and ready to go. We caravaned to his house and had a plan to lure him outside. I brought homemade cookies that we laid on the sidewalk and beckoned him to come to pick them up. With our code phrase "Enjoy the cookies" We raided him. Edgar's siblings sprung out of the car faces painted, locked, and loaded. I raided water balloons on him, however, I was quite terrible at aiming. One of my throws sailed to the left to his front garden, sending potted plants knocking down to the sidewalk. However, we still bombarded him until we were out of ammo. Miguel was soaked, but laughing hysterically. Only weren't done, Edgar's father, of course, came rushing in with a giant bucket filled with gallons of water. Poor Miguel. While it may seem birthdays might be not as special in this quarantine, we definitely won't forget this one.
My day wasn't over yet, then it was off to the blood donation center. Yes, I gave blood in a pandemic. This is something I had to think a lot about. I knew it was a risk, but after research and looking at the news, I saw that the already essential blood donor numbers were dropping because of COVID. There are others suffering immensely from non-COVID conditions and I thought if treated very cautiously, it would be worth it. I was surprised, however. What really made it worth it was being able to thank a health team in person. Seeing professionals risk their lives with my own eyes was the most inspired I've felt in a long time. I would highly recommend giving your time and your blood to the local donation center. Only if you treat it carefully, however.
This was probably the best day I've ever had in quarantine. And not only do I love this memory but with everything going on, I kind of need it.
Thanks for listening,
Oscar
Pearl
It’s getting harder to write these because there isn’t really anything new or novel to be writing about, I guess. I do work. In my free time, I watch TV. My week has been characterized by an abnormal for normal times but normal for abnormal times amount of stress. All my teachers disabled the chat feature on Zoom, so I don’t even get to mess around in class. I just have to pay attention to it. For the full hour and a half. I’ve never paid attention to anything for more than twenty minutes before.
And like, what is quarantine for if not a dumb amount of introspection. I’m not self-centered enough to actually want to think about myself 24/7 but at this point pretty much the only conversationalist I have is myself, so I have to tell myself jokes or do weird internal monologues about the passing of time and how we perceive things, but it’s not fun or interesting because I know exactly what I’m going to say/think before I say it, because, and I reiterate, I’m talking to myself. Might I go mad by the end of quarantine? When it ends will I even know how to talk to a human being? What if I can only communicate via a series of metaphors based on household items that I have come to know as if they were my children? What if I’ve watched so much Eric Andre that I have to break every desk I see, regardless of location? Have I watched so many Pete Davidson interviews that I would then feel the need to go on a post-quarantine spongebob themed shopping spree? Have I been interacting with my cat so much that when I see real people, I feel the urge to pick them up in the air like they’re Simba from Lion King and tell them they have stinky fish breath?
“Aww, come here! You have such stinky fish breath!” I say to my friends, while they stare at me with a mild look of horror upon their faces.
That’s what I assume will happen, anyways.
More than all that, I guess I’m just kind of melancholy (or whatever) that the school year is drawing to an end. Not because I’m particularly disappointed the workload will stop. Obviously. I am drowning in a sea of analyses and my little floatation device may or may not be a deadly pufferfish. I’m sad because I’ll miss my friends who are graduating, and they’ll be gone before I even have the chance to say a proper goodbye. It didn’t even occur to me that the Friday school ended would be the last time I would really see them before they left.
I’m mostly talking about Oscar. I’m going to miss him a lot.
I’ve been occupying myself to distract from the tedium. I give makeovers to sims, although it’s a little weird to me that I spend so much time in sims also inside the house. I’m very invested in one particular sim’s supervillain career (as well as her love life). I spend too much time on their outfits. Also, tonight I’m going to watch a play version of Frankenstein starring Benedict Cumberbatch, accompanied by the music of Massive Attack, one of my favorite bands. I guess that’s exciting.
“I guess that’s exciting” is a good descriptor for anything that happens during the quarantine, I think.
Anyways, I have to go. I have an appointment with my cat where I tell him he’s cute but he has dreadful stinky fish breath, aww you’re so cute with your cute little nose and your little paws, but so stinky. Bye!
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