Ah, luxurious Saturday. The day when we can sleep as long as we want without having to worry about when the next video conference is scheduled. The day we don our masks and go wait in the line at the supermarket so we can do what we always do on the weekends: grocery shop. Except now grocery shopping is the outing of the week and fraught with danger. There is even a police presence at the supermarket in the event someone decides they don’t need a face covering to enter and want to get into it with the rest of the shoppers and the employees (who, by the way, face the highest risk.)
We did a couple of firsts today, too. The first corona-haircut was performed in the backyard. My husband’s long-haired look was anything but hippie-cool, so he asked me if I would shave his head. I have been dying to shave somebody’s head! So we did it. Took out the electric razor, set it to 5 and went to town! Before the haircut he looked like somebody who needed to be institutionalized. After the haircut, he definitely looked like someone who was institutionalized. Okay, maybe not that bad, but it is a bad job. The back of his head looks like patchwork. And all I did was buzz it – but who knows if there is a finesse to this stuff? I think there is a reason you pay someone to buzz your head.
My younger son told me he had to have a badminton set for a school project, so I ordered a set from Target and we set it up this afternoon. Has he used it? Nope. We also discovered how BAD I am at badminton. I have zero hand-eye coordination. This could be why I was such a bad tennis player, too. My aunt was optimistic, but I fear I wasted her investment in my lessons. Now, our backyard has a badminton/volleyball net, just waiting to be used by the sedentary teens that live here. Let’s hope that they use it now that it’s set up. The good news is that the boy mowed the lawn before we set up the badminton net.
Despite the quarantine, there are some moments of joy. Steaks on the grill. Fresh, crisp salad. Wine sipped on the back porch, listening to the neighbors in their backyards. Coffee in the morning, listening to the birds and enjoying the spring breeze. But we are all tired of only seeing our friends on video – we all want to socialize in person. Not sure when that will be a reality, but we’re going to go slowly and carefully.
And virtual graduation is coming up. Not sure we’re ready.
Is any parent ever ready for the big milestones?
Stay safe and healthy!