When does summer actually start? Today is May 20.
I woke up in a panic this morning from a dream, which I think involved scrambled eggs. I had accidentally overslept my alarm and was supposed to have woken up at 9 a.m. to deal with a plumbing repairman who was coming by our house. My dad had a Zoom meeting for his work starting around 9:30 a.m., and my mom was up at my grandpa’s house helping him chop wood, so I was in charge of dealing with the worker whenever he arrived.
To start off my day, I made myself a filling bowl of oatmeal with walnuts and honey. I had meant to add peanut butter but ended up forgetting. I’m trying to get better about not leaving my dishes in the sink for my mom to clean because I know she gets tired of picking up after me all the time, so I washed my dishes and the other ones that were in the sink from the night before. I also went ahead and put away the clean dishes from the dishwasher and drain board so none of my other family members had to deal with them later in the day.
I skipped around among various shows on Netflix, eventually deciding to rewatch The Umbrella Academy because I’d seen an announcement that the show will have a second season. I wasn’t a huge fan of the series the first time I watched it, so I skipped some of the less interesting scenes as I went through the episodes. After a while I got bored with simply sitting around and decided to workout for a bit.
I didn’t want to disturb my dad’s Zoom call, so I kept my music down and elected to do weight lifting instead of a more cardio-intensive workout to minimize how much noise I’d make. I like to exercise for at least half an hour because then I feel like I’ve accomplished something, so I figured out how many repetitions and sets of each lift I needed to do to fit into my time frame. By the end of my workout my arms were feeling tired and I was sweating. Since I was already a little gross, I went outside to refill our bird feeders. I love having them, and so do the birds. Sometimes my mom and I will sit in our living room and just watch which birds come and feed throughout the day. I kept my eyes out for foxes, but I didn’t end up seeing any today.
Once I’d finished I came back inside to cool off and rest. I thought I had slept too late and missed the worker because I hadn’t seen anyone arrive in the time I’d been up. After my dad finished his Zoom call, however, he informed me the plumber simply hadn’t shown up in the originally allotted time frame, which alleviated my guilt. Because it was about lunch time, he offered to make egg sandwiches for everyone. My brother had come upstairs and my mom had recently gotten home.
My mom and I had planned to make a Tiramisu cake today, so we started soon after she finished eating. We’d originally thought the recipe would be easy because the instructions said in all it would take 20 minutes to make and two hours to chill, but apparently that didn’t factor in how long baking the angel food cake would take and the time the cake would need to cool. The cake itself ended up taking 46 minutes to bake and about 80 minutes to cool, but once that part of the recipe was done, the rest was relatively straightforward. We had to cut the cake into three layers, make filling for the layers, restack the cake and then ice the entire creation. The final product looked like a food-based replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but we had a great time making it together. Each of the individual parts of the recipe tasted great when I was taste-testing as we went along, so I’m simply hoping my family is forgiving of its looks when they try it.
When my brother and dad got home from playing tennis, they brought in our mail, which included three letters for me. I had two from my younger cousins and one from their parents (my aunt and uncle) wishing me a happy graduation. I was so touched they would take the time to write nice letters and send them to me, and it meant the world to hear from them. I am so thankful to have such a loving and supportive family, and I hope I can make them all proud with how I live my life. I ended up creating a Google Spreadsheet to keep track of who has sent me a card since I’ve already gotten five, and I’m planning on writing them thank-you notes later this week after I finish my nice notes for journalism.
In the evening my parents, brother and I watched the second to last episode of Slings & Arrows while we enjoyed a delicious dinner of chicken with broccoli, cauliflower and rice my mom had made. My brother left to visit a friend (potentially a girlfriend) after we finished, at which point my parents and I decided to spend the evening watching Chuck.
I don’t really approve of my brother going to hang out with other people during this pandemic because of the health risk it creates and the ways in which he could possibly be endangering our family, but there isn’t anything I can say or do that will change his mind. All I can really do is hope everything works out for the best and take precautions to keep myself healthy. Tomorrow I’m going to RBHS to return my textbooks, laptop and other checked-out items, so I’ll be sure to wear a mask and gloves, and I’ll probably end up showering when I get home. One of my greatest fears during this pandemic is that I will be the reason someone else gets sick, so I’m doing everything in my power to prevent that from happening.
“Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful.” ― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein[TS_VCSC_Lightbox_Gallery content_images=”331054,331055,331056,331057,331058,331059″ content_images_size=”full” content_images_titledata=”caption” content_title=”Steps in making a Tiramisu cake” data_grid_preloader=”-1″ lightbox_title=”caption” lightbox_effect=”simpleSwitch”][/TS_VCSC_Lightbox_Gallery]How did you spend your 64th day of social distancing? Let us know in the comments below.
