Everyday Lunasea

Well, hello there!

It's been a minute, eh?

A. is now 17 years old, believe it or not. He's a senior in high school, has applied to something like 17 universities and so far has been admitted to all of them. He's also gotten some amazing scholarships and aid. But he wants to go to the one place that's not going to give him any aid....England. He was admitted to King's College in London and that's where he wants to go. It's fine, really, it's fine that he's turning down all this money.

via GIPHY

Anyway, now we're wondering if he's even going to go because of this COVID-19 pandemic. Both boys are in virtual classrooms, and prom is probably cancelled, maybe even graduation. I feel badly for him, but on the other hand, he can tell his grandchildren, "Yes, I lived through the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. It was awful...I had to eat my sandwiches on wheat bread because my mom couldn't find white bread anywhere. I decided I hated wheat bread around the age of 15, after eating it all my life. Then I had to eat it again, so you can imagine what that did to my sense of individuating self."

Ben, remember him? The super-moody baby turned into the sweetest kid you can imagine. He's also a total heartbreaker with his blue eyes and long eyelashes, although he doesn't see it. He is now a freshman in high school.

So this pandemic, huh? Today at work, it started out that we were to work as normal, see in person any student who wanted to be seen in person, and hold all our groups as normal. (I work at a counseling center at a state university - the same place I worked in 2004, in fact, when I was writing this blog. Great job, great staff, great students).  Then the shelter-in-place order came out at 1pm, and we were all wondering if that would change anything. By 5pm, the word finally came down and we are now working remotely.

Just last weekend, we were celebrating Ben's birthday at Rock City on Mt. Diablo, his favorite place on earth, and we went out for pizza afterwards. It was very crowded, especially the bar part. We had the boys wash their hands really well, but otherwise didn't think of it much. A week later we weren't even getting take-out anymore. I went to Costco just the last Saturday, used hand sanitizer but otherwise didn't think of it much, and by the next day I was nervous going to the grocery store. It's crazy how fast things are going.

Tonight I'm relieved that I'll be able to work from home, but I wonder how long that will last. How long until I want to choke my family? I predict 5 hours in, I will want to go for a drive by myself just to get some time.