From Go-Go-Go to Stay-in-Place

In the olden days, everyone rushed outside the house, spellbound by the alarm clock, the cellphone, the cat or dog scratching to get outside. A rush to the bathroom fogging up the mirrors with calls to be first one in the shower or stinking up the place with a 10-minute session on the throne, hair dryers whining louder than a leaf blower reverberating inside a one-bedroom apartment, ample underarm protection, sniff-testing for a clean pair of something to wear that wasn’t either wrinkled or dirty. Breakfast served on the outtake–be it coffee, herbal tea because the kids said it was healthier to drink tea and who should know better; Pop-Tarts that were always stocked in at least two flavors—strawberry and blueberry—and after the gathering and distribution of lunches and the sorting through of backpacks with water bottles, everyone piled into the car hoping to beat the commute traffic, while an argument ensued on the car’s back seat about who farted. 

After work/school everything happens in reverse like a funny ha-ha commercial. A slog through commute traffic or public transportation, take your pick, collecting the kids from the sitter’s or soccer, basketball practice, saxophone lessons, math tutoring, you name it, sitting down to a lasagna that you cooked over the weekend in between doing the wash, and making sure that the kids finish their homework and call grandma to wish her happy birthday; oh, and then before you forget, make appointments for the dentist and reservations for your friend’s shower. A quick run to the grocery store is necessary because it’s an evening perfect for a cold beer and you sit on the couch after the kids go to sleep, hypnotized etherized by evening news. 

The pandemic has slowed everything down from go-go-go to stay-in-place. Forget about forgetting to set the alarm. You discover that homeschooling is not just the province of Libertarians, Mormons, and those who have given up on the system. You remember tic-tac-toe, Bingo, Hangman. This is your living room. But you don’t have answers, and when it’s safe enough to walk on the streets again, and for the kids to have play dates with their friends, and for you and your girlfriends to eat at the same table without having to sit six feet away and so many people underground, when you do go back to work and things get back to what once seemed normal, and what now seems crazy, you want to reset that dial to another planetary measurement of life with hopes for one love.