Ten.One Thousand, One Hundred & Forty-Two

1. What time is it? Exactly the right time to get up.

2. I sit quietly waiting for the children to wake up so we can order food and coffee. I need coffee.

3. Grumbling stomach. Grateful we can eat.

4. A lot of messages. Too many to respond to.

5. Hazy sky. Pretty colors. Pollution.

6. Each one doing zoom-school: one on the cot, one on the sofa, one at the table. Everyone asking everyone else to quiet down so they can hear.

7. Hard to get started when you feel so behind on everything.

8. He keeps asking me how I’m doing. I realize that the expressionless face is probably just a function of fatigue and shock.

9. The thing is that I’m not meeting my own expectations. Making silly mistakes because of…well, everything.

10. There are a lot of people out but maybe they are not people just out for the heck of it. Maybe they are people like us, people who had to leave and are just doing what they have to do, which is be out and eating out.

11. Yeah. It just isn’t the right fit and that’s okay. That’s going to happen. The thing is, what’s next?

12. I get it though. I get the need for something that feels more normal.

13. It will be cold.

14. I feel like I don’t know where I am even though I’m not that far from home.