Busy days feel good. Today is May 29.
I woke up at 9:15 a.m. confused and mildly disoriented from an odd dream involving the characters from Netflix’s The Witcher performing either William Shakespeare’s Hamlet or Macbeth, or potentially a combination of the two plays. I’m not sure where the template for the dream came from, but it was quite entertaining and largely involved stunts that required ropes and people flying across streets. Once I gathered my senses, I made my way downstairs to sit with my mom while she watched the final teacher Zoom meeting for the year.
Yesterday for my top secret project, I’d gathered together photos of my mom and sent them to an RBHS teacher, Melissa Coil, upon Coil’s request. My mom had recently announced publicly that she will be retiring at the end of this year after 35 years of teaching. She is leaving behind a spectacular legacy, and I couldn’t be prouder of her. She is truly one of the strongest, smartest, most hard working and tenacious people I’ve ever met. I love, respect and admire her so much. While the Zoom meeting went on, I kept listening for her name and retirement slide to come up. She was the last person who RBHS Principal Jacob Sirna mentioned, and I know what her close friend studies teacher Debra Perry said touched her.
After I hugged her and she got a bit misty eyed for a minute, I headed upstairs to make myself a bowl of oatmeal with honey and peanut butter. A little before noon, my mom headed out to go to RBHS to pick up her free lunch and say goodbye to some of her peers. Soon after she’d left, I took a shower and created a small sign for Sirna to thank him for all he’s done this year. It said, “Principal Sirna We Love + Appreciate Everything You do! You Are the Rock of RBHS #Rockbridgerocks Because of you!” I was in a rush when I wrote it, so my capitalization and punctuation was all over the place. When I got to the school, I pulled into the North parking lot and taped the papers in the correct order on the passenger side windows so that when I drove through the circle drive he could see them. I thought I’d missed the student thank you, but my mom told me only a few people showed up at all. I did get to see a friend of mine, though, so that was a treat.
I hung around the school with my mom for a while. I ended up talking with Sirna about my plans for next year and speaking to a few of my former teachers, which I enjoyed. After a while, I decided to head home. I fought through traffic and frustrating, rude drivers but eventually made it back to my house. When I got there, I changed shirts into a nice blouse and got back in the car. I’d planned on renewing my driver’s license today, but apparently waiting until lunch time on the last day of the month wasn’t my smartest idea because when I got to the building I saw a line of 15 people standing outside waiting. Because I still have another month or so to renew my license, I turned around and headed back home instead of risking exposure to COVID-19 by being around that many people while I waited.
A few minutes after I was back in my house, my aunt texted me and asked if she could call so we could catch up. I said sure, and for the next 45 minutes she, my uncle and I chatted about our lives, my school plans, graduation, the pandemic and a number of other topics. I enjoyed speaking with them, but in all honesty I was feeling a little sleepy from being out in the sun with my mom and then driving to renew my license, so I don’t think I was the best company.
When we hung up, I started watching TV for a bit before my mom texted me telling me to walk outside to see a large raccoon in our backyard. I sat on the deck with her and watched as the raccoon picked up its baby and carefully flopped it across our yard and into the woods. It was an absolutely beautiful day, and I spent a while outside with her simply watching the “snow” fall from our cottonwood tree and the clouds float by.
In the evening after dinner, my parents, brother and I played Toss-It outside in teams then sat on our porch and soaked in the sunlight as it slipped behind our trees. We ended up going to Andy’s Frozen Custard to pick up a sweet treat. We enjoyed our custard at Stephens Lake Park then drove home to play Spades. I’m glad summer is officially starting, regardless of whatever new form it will take. I can’t wait to spend time outside walking, sitting on our porch or even simply hanging out inside with the windows wide open. There’s a certain beauty in the changing of the seasons, and Missouri does it oh so well.
“It’s summer and time for wandering.” ― Kellie Elmore[TS_VCSC_Lightbox_Gallery content_images=”331131,331132,331133,331134,331136″ content_images_size=”full” content_images_titledata=”caption” content_title=”A glimpse into Bailey Stover’s 73rd day of social distancing” data_grid_preloader=”-1″ lightbox_title=”caption” lightbox_effect=”simpleSwitch”][/TS_VCSC_Lightbox_Gallery][penci_text_block block_title_align=”style-title-left”]How did you spend your 73rd day of social distancing? Let us know in the comments below.[/penci_text_block]
