We live in unprecedented times- you keep asking me why we can't go outside and play, and I keep telling you it's because everyone is sick. That's not 100% true; the truth is that everyone could get sick and some elderly people could get very sick.
Today is day 4 of homeschooling, day 4 of my "spring break," day 4 of you being very sick with something. The doctor thought it might be the flu, but we don't know for sure because we went to the doctor on the computer...like we talk to Grammy or Nagyi. So the doctor said you were sick but, because you had a fever and a bad cough, we had to take you to get tested for COVID.
So here's the second white lie I told you (why are they "white" lies anyway? Would a bad lie be a "black" lie?): I told you we were going to a costume event, and that the doctors would be dressed like astronauts. You wore a mermaid shirt and a mermaid tail, and I pretended to be a scary lion. We picked up some food from the drive through, since you cannot go into restaurants any more, and had a picnic on the grass right in front of the tent city where MUSC is doing their testing for COVID, a new virus they do not have a cure for.
Then, we got in our car, and we approached the first stop sign, where they asked for our name and gave us a bag for your "personal belongings," which they put on our window (you can see it to the side of the picture). We went through about three more stop signs, going through a maze of cones like this:
Finally, we got to the swabbing station. I think the consensus was that you won the costume competition, but they came pretty close. They looked like this:
So yeah...that was a little scary, but you were amazing, a trooper. You didn't even flinch and kept on grooving with your mermaid-y self.
So far, day 4 has been the worst: you're now nauseous and tired and have diarrhea, and you've been begging to rest. We are all praying that you get better soon, Jules, and then I can start teaching you from home, which should be interesting. I will be teaching my students from home as well, so you might see them on the computer...this is the world we are living in today.
It's a scary world, sometimes (like in CVS when people yelled at us for being in the way) an inhumane world, but these things also bring people together. Just now, a friend dropped off gluten-free brownies and some toys for you; people have brought me coffee (thank God); and your teacher even physically dropped off your materials for school. People are checking on the elderly, making sure they are okay, and I think everyone just wants to get through this thing and get back to some semblance of normalcy. It's funny how little things--political views, personal annoyances--matter so little in this climate of survival. It's funny how survival brings out the worst but, paradoxically, also the best in us.
One thing is for sure: this incident has reminded me that you and our family are the most important things in the world to me. I'm worried about my students, too, but somehow the annoyances of the semester have receded into the distance. Again, it's all about perspective. For possibly the first time ever, I agree with President Trump that this feels like war. It's a scary war against an enemy we can't see, but that's why we need now, more than ever, to acknowledge one another's humanity.
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