Day 53- May 4, 2020

Day 53- May 4, 2020

Because of the "May the Fourth" thing, today is also known as "Star Wars Day" in nerd circles (which I consider myself a part of).  The girls and I watched Buddy Vs. Duff, a show about two outstanding cake decorators and their equally brilliant teams of artists. In honor of today, the teams had to create their finale cakes in the style of Star Wars, honoring the new Star Wars themed sections at Disney World and Disneyland.  Duff's team won the battle- they crafted a spot-on X Wing Fighter, and a Yoda that looked so much like the real deal that if you put them next to each other, you'd have a tough time distinguishing which one was cake.  But Buddy's group pulled out the season victory by a narrow one and a half points.  R. and I quickly figured out that if Duff hadn't been penalized for going over on time for the aquarium challenge, he would have won (in other words, his cakes beat Buddy's, but his time management cost him the series).

So May the Fourth Be With You.  Literally.  The governor declared schools are closed for the rest of the school year, and we can all use the force right now.  When I gently broke the news to the girls, E. got very excited initially, saying "you mean no more school work?!" as a grin climbed across her face.  I quickly shut that down with "No, sorry honey, it means we keep doing work from home.  We just don't go back to school until probably September".  At this point, she put on her best soap opera reenactment, bending over backwards wailing "Nooooo!"  If she'd been wearing an evening gown and fallen on a fainting couch, it couldn't have been more dramatic.

On the plus side, E. is more excited about her latest project than I've seen her be about any other school work since we've been home.  She is officially working on a slide show about Manatees.  She shared several facts she found out with me- like that they are related to elephants, swim in warm ocean water, and have no real natural predators.  She has also changed the font on her slides so that each heading has each letter highlighted by a different color- I wish her teacher good luck deciphering them.

I was sadder than I expected when I heard that schools were closed, and teared up a little.  It's strange, because I'd been preparing for this, knowing that realistically, there was no way schools could safely reopen (and frankly, also knowing that June is a month of huge school gatherings, like proms, concerts, and graduations, so if they did reopen, we were truly offering the perfect circumstances for the spread of illness).  For myself, I'm okay- I know I can continue to work from home, aid my colleagues and students through technological offerings like websites, curated resources, and grants that I'm applying for.  But for the students- that's where my heart breaks a little.

The younger ones will be fine- yes, they may miss field trips and "move up day".  But the seniors- oh wow, to miss this much of your senior year.  As a teen, a week can feel like a year, and relationships, friendships, and what is most important can change quickly and deeply.  Delaying celebrations or events will be something that robs these people of something irreplaceable- and while it's necessary for safety and health, and I do agree with the decision, I also know how important those last months of high school are.

For sports, my life would be different if I hadn't had my final season playing soccer.  That year saw my team go 26-0, win the league, county, and state titles, and end the year ranked #1 in the entire country by USA Today. To have to give up a senior season of a sport you've spent your life playing, your final shot with your friends for those elusive titles?  It's a lot for an 18-year-old to process.

Or the last play of high school, or yearbook signing, or graduation night.  At my school, graduation was spectacular- after walking, and throwing our caps in the air, there was a cruise around the New York City harbor, and then an all-night, chaperoned party at the school, which parents had spent all day decorating in a surprise theme.  My year, it was the 1980's- giant video games, cardboard cut outs of Star Wars characters, Garbage Pail Kids cards, and movie posters.  There was a DJ who played all night, and people danced literally until dawn, when our parents picked us up (personally, I went home, slept for an hour, went to soccer practice because we had regionals the next week, and then napped for about six hours).  These are priceless memories, and it's hard to ask a child to wrap their heads around giving them up.  I'm hopeful that towns and schools will find a way to make it up to the students, but I don't know if that is possible.

Trying not to blow away

After the shock of no more school set it, the girls needed to get out some energy, so I sent them outside.  It was incredibly windy, and while the air was warm, the trees were bending and bowing all over the place.  R. and E. kept going with their umbrella games from yesterday, running and leaping across the yard with their umbrellas trailing above them.  While they were occupied, I helped Jeff certify for unemployment benefits (spoiler alert: the system still is saying $0 as the amount, meaning independent contractors like him aren't fully processed yet, and there's no indication of when that will be).  Jeff went back to painting (he's getting a ton done- the house is starting to look more like an HGTV "after"), and I worked with the girls on figuring out what to make for dinner.

We settled on leftover veggie latkes from last night, plus Annie's Mac and Cheese, and watched Food Network Go, which has become our favorite station as of late.  With the Buddy Vs. Duff saga over, we jumped into the new Martha Stewart led Bakeaway Camp, where a group of contestants sleep in tents (I think- there were tents in the yard), cook outside, and the winner of mini-challenges gets one on one mentorship opportunities with Martha herself.  After watching a S'mores challenge that made us rather hungry, we then watched an old episode of Spring Baking Championship featuring my children's favorite challenge: imposter desserts.  This is when you take a savory dish (in this case, backyard barbecue food) and instead make a dessert designed to look like that dish, but taste like dessert.  The winner of the challenge was a woman who made brownie "ribs" and fondant covered rice cereal treats that were shaped like corn on the cob.  Genius.

The girls played a little chess on the floor while I cleaned up the kitchen, and then we called Grammy to read a bedtime story to E. Reading is a staple of getting the girls ready for dreamland, and R. and I have moved on to Peter and The Starcatcher- a take off of Peter Pan by Dave Barry, who is my favorite columnist.  If you've never read his work, it was syndicated on Sundays for years out of the Miami Herald, and I can remember laughing out loud at breakfast reading his work.  I would then cut out the columns, and put them (along with comic strips from the paper) on the back of my bedroom door.  It was a work of collage art that I loved- and became the bane of my mom's existence when I eventually moved out and she had to deal with all the tape and paint peeling that went along with removing it.

I'm trying to keep up with the daily traditions my kids have come to enjoy, like the bedtime stories.  The normalcy of it, the promise of another day, another chapter, is something concrete for them to hold onto- and for me too.  It's all we can do.