Chapter Eighteen: This is So Sad.
Dear Diary,
Am I sad? Maybe I am. Is everyone else feeling like me?
I was really happy before COVID and the shut down infected our lives, lifestyles and livelihoods. I literally used to drive around with a silly stupid smile on my face. True. Even in a mini-van.
Chapter Seventeen: Co-Parenting During Covid
Dear Diary,
My friend Chiara recently called me as she was driving to the Canadian border. “I don’t blame you for trying to get out, but I thought the border was closed,” I joked as I pictured her for a split second trying to make a break for it. Turns out she was headed to a border patrol office somewhere near Vancouver in order to exchange her 11 year-old daughter with her ex-husband, a Canadian national, for summer vacation per their standard custodial schedule. Normally, this is a much simpler matter of arranging a few flights and other travel arrangements. This year, after consulting with an attorney and exhausting every other possible option, this was literally the only way that they could legally effectuate the handoff.
Chapter Thirteen: Summer Plans
Dear Diary,
There are exactly 8,685 minutes remaining until school is out for the summer. In case you were wondering, I was able to calculate this figure in my head in mere seconds thanks to all of the common core math exercises I have been doing as of late.
As you may recall, my reverie over the imminent culmination of my governess duties was recently interrupted by Hubby who gently reminded me that we soon faced three months of no school with no camps lined up.
Chapter Eleven: Bursting our Bubbles
Dear Diary,
Friends and family often ask me how the children are holding up and, up until this last week, my standard response was always, “remarkably well.”
Chapter Ten: Time Slowly Moves Fast
Dear Diary,
Prior to the Quarantine, Mondays weren’t entirely all bad. After a long weekend of family togetherness, there was a modicum of relief to be derived from successfully depositing the children at school and leaving them to be safely ensconced in their studies for the next eight hours. Now that I’ve become a governess, Mondays no longer offer any such reprieve.
Chapter Nine: Wigging Out
Dear Diary,
We’ve been at this for nine weeks now and just like it takes 21 days to break a bad habit, it also takes exactly 21 days past the time one would normally get a hair cut for one to take drastic action. While others petition the Supreme Court, my first inclination was to take a DIY approach.
Chapter Eight: Silver Linings
Dear Diary,
As someone who is easily moved to tears during the best of circumstances, I am finding myself even more emotionally charged during this pandemic. I feel a lump in my throat when I see signs posted in windows thanking essential workers, I get choked up when I hear people clapping for frontline workers at night; I was practically gutted by that letter from a retired farmer in Kansas enclosing a N-95 mask to Governor Cuomo the other day. I tear up so often, I have taken to continuously chopping onions so as to not alarm the children.
Chapter Seven: Searching for Meaning
Dear Diary,
Today I awoke to the most curious sound. It was as though someone was rapping on our bedroom window, except that our window is on the second-story and completely inaccessible from the outside.
Chapter Six: Pandemic Shopping
Dear Diary,
Today marks the children’s first day of Spring Break so thankfully my governess duties are on respite. In a confounding turn of events, this does not translate to my having more free time, but rather, more time to devote to my second…
Chapter Five: Perhaps this isn’t the worst thing?
Dear Diary,
It is progressively harder to keep track, but today marks a full month of quarantine. My governess duties are more and more manageable and I am very happy to report that my French is improving dramatically by the day! .
Chapter Four: Everything is Cancelled
Dear Diary,
It is a strange feeling to awake on a day, which you had anticipated for the greater part of a year, and for it to look nothing like you had planned.
Chapter Three: To Hydroxychloroquine, Or Not?
Dear Diary,
Another week draws to a close. There seems to be some progress in my governess duties as mistress Olivia has finally accepted that online learning is not optional and that she will indeed need to “do school.”
Chapter Two: My Kingdom for a Roll of Toilet Paper
Dear Diary,
I opened my front door this morning to find the most unexpected treasure! It was a sight more giddy-inducing than even the first bloom of our neighborhood’s Jacaranda trees. What was this surprise, you ask?
Chapter One: Quarantine Begins
Dear Diary,
A fortnight has passed since I became a Governess, Short-Order Cook and Scullery Maid in the blink of an eye…