What a time to be alive - eh?
I have so, so, so, so much to say, but am finding myself reluctantly having to face the music of tasks that need doing.
We were supposed to be on spring break, visiting San Diego and Yuma (AZ) for the first times. Feeling sun on our faces, sand and surf on our toes, adventuring with new flavors and experiences.
Instead, we've been confined to our 1240 square foot home, with 4 full-size people, 1 tween, two dogs and two cats.
It's like we're on top of each other all the damn time and we're gonna bust the seams of the house much like the little coat before long.
If I hear one more whiny argument about Xbox time distributions - on the only common tv/sitting area in the house - not being fair, one more frustrated "You're such a dick*!", or have to ask one more time for a basic chore to get done, this perimenopausal, PMSing, COVID-19 at-risk-group** mama is gonna lose her crap in an epic way.
I digress though - what I was trying to say was that thru yesterday, we were doing pretty well. We were social-distancing ok by getting outdoors and enoying some activity/Vitamin D, and mostly making lemonade with this big old pile of mouth-puckering suck that Mother Nature has handed us in spades.
Because we were all off work/school for Spring Break. We have been together and that's all that matters, really, in the end.
But, reality looms.
Kelsey has had a shitty start to 2020.
First her bike got stolen while she was at work.
Shortly after that her manager quit scheduling her at work with no communication. She would check each week for the schedule only to find she wasn't on it. For four weeks she was constantly asking what was going on, when finally the vapid 20-year-old with a smidge of seniority over her informed her via text that she'd seen some things she didn't like in Kelsey and couldn't have on her management team (Kelsey was a shift lead) thus she had been terminated. Nothing like getting fired via text with no real explanation and after FOUR WEEKS. Anyway....Kelsey is a hard worker and anytime I've met any of her co-workers in public they have sang her praises, so this was a blow.
In the midst of all that, Kels was informed that she was not selected to be an RA at CSU next year which has really cranked up her anxiety about getting her education with as minimal debt as possible, gaining valuable leadership experience, etc.
Then - the first real vacay we'd ever planned as a family got canceled. Her boyfriend has been quarantined. He never got a COVID-19 test, but was told by doctors to isolate like he had it. Don't get me started on the craptastic-ness of that response.
And now, CSU is having all on-campus students who can leave come and move their things out this week.
As you can imagine - this threw my transition-averse, rigid-thinking, over-planning, self-described autistic young lady into a sense of overwhelm and we had full-blown meltdowns Wednesday and Thursday as a result.
Not to be outdone, my boys can't leave each other the fuck alone. One of them is always stirring shit up, whether it's a balled-up sock pelted across the room - hitting the other in the face - fart wars, snide comments, antagonistic measures ad nauseam, there's always a cry of injustice and cruel words getting hurled at each other.
I can only imagine what this will be like next week when I return to work, albeit remotely from home. In theory, my kids are too old to require child-care, but that doesn't mean they are going to self-manage while I'm trying to Do The Things.
Also? It freaking snowed yesterday and is now cold and wet and no one wants to go out in it.
In short - I need your prayers, friends. And this is just me asking for my daily bread. Some people are carrying so much more.
We have friends/families whose husbands are recovering from strokes/bypass surgeries (one of each) in the midst of this weird and difficult time.
I saw on Facebook that a former co-worker's uncle was a COVID-19 casualty.
Another friend's parents live in Italy and were both ill, though they are now recovering.
I love several peeps who work in healthcare, corrections, and other remote-work-not-optional fields who are trying to manage all of what I've shared plus the stress of their occupational hazards of having contact with the world.
My heart hurts for them all.
I'm feeling stretched already and I'm in a bit of a sheltered circumstance right now.
But now, I gotta figure out how to make "office space" for me, Kelsey, and the boys to continue my work/their schooling for the remainder of the semester.
I may be making good on the offer U-Haul has made to displaced college students to make that happen.
Hang in there folks - we're all in this together.
* The official Sweary Magdalene™ policy on swearing in casa del Meyer is that curse/coarse words may be used to express strong feelings, describe things, but ARE NOT to be used to denigrate people, so this is not okay with me...
** Thank you Pneumogedden for making me permanently susceptible to respiratory illnesses.
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