DO YOU REMEMBER THE DAYS OF THE OLD SCHOOLYARD? March 12-March 15, 2020
Updated: Mar 29, 2020
I mean are they really going to cancel college and grad school? Who the hell does that? I spoke to both of kids the last few days, seemingly daily. They are both in Boston, confused, maybe a little scared but clearly feeling the effects of the daily onslaught of corona virus news that seems to get worse and worse with each passing day. Being in Boston they are at what is now the epicenter of the east coast even more so now than before. People really seem to be dying on a regular basis. Seattle is a mess or at least becoming one. A whole nursing home is basically dead or dying, which is starting to freak out the news. New York, where I just was, is starting to shut down, literally. Broadway is at first begging people to come, I mean fifty dollar play tickets? I almost want to go back, but that just seems stupid. Here in Michigan where I live, in the Detroit north suburbs, we don't seem to care. There are a few oddities, I mean toilet paper is in short supply, but not sold out, people seem to have that same feeling of uncertainty which is not even fear just sort of that feeling like an impending snow storm. It may happen, it may not, if it does it will be fun, then not, then over. We can all survive that.
But as the week goes on, it's just weird. Things on the coast are getting bad, my youngest who is a junior at Emerson College tells me what I already know: classes are moving on line, same as Brandeis. It's just too dangerous to be with other people so they can't have class anymore. At some point things go from just being sort of odd to being scary. When someone says classes are cancelled for the rest of the year and they will be on line, you get a sense of something being really wrong. As the week goes on I can hear a sense of growing fear in my youngest, who is 21. It has gone from cool classes are online I will plan some trips with friends, to a group meeting about who is staying, to finally a call that says "get me home". So I rebook a flight from bed at 11:00 pm.
I don't hear a lot of fear from my kids generally, not that they are not afraid, but they are young adults and who want to show their parents that they are afraid? Even if they are. I can hear the fear in Mari's voice growing day by day, from I think I should come home to get me the hell out of here. I booked her a flight for Sunday, I got a call friday night "please get me home" So I did, happily. Seeing her get off the plane on Saturday night I just saw a sense of relief, and she described Boston as "in lockdown". My friend's dinner party got cancelled, I think her sister said something like " are you kidding of course you are canceling it"
No kid should have to come home from college to live with her dad. But I'm happy she is home; watching the news just gets scarrier and scarier, More people dying, more people getting sick, predictions of thousands or even more and more people dying and hundreds of thousand of people getting sick. I went to the mall, like three times. Ok in hindsight maybe not the best idea, but seemed ok at the time.....but it really wan't. I guess I just needed to shop.
I'm slowly becoming a total basket case. Well partial