Coffee Talk: Staying Afloat

It’s day #unknown of quarantine. I miss my friends terribly.

I do miss them terribly and though we stay in touch, it’s not the same. I miss our weekly dinners and being able to hug them. I didn’t realize how little I took those dinners for granted.

Nothing prepared me to know that the last time I saw K and M at Chan Chan’s would be the last time I’d be able to hug them for a long time. If I had known I would have suggested that we get dessert or head to Spectrum and window shop. Anything to spend a few extra moments with them.

With the majority of us being summer babies, I’d had hoped that quarantine would be over by now. The closer it draws to June, the less hopeful I am that I’ll be able to celebrate M and mine’s birthday with them like I’d become accustomed to. It sucks, but now I’m just hoping that we’ll be able to celebrate K’s birthday in July. If this can all just be over in July that would be grand. We’d still have to celebrate K and August to celebrate A. We’d have two months left of summer to enjoy in the sun together. I just need to hope for the best.

Day #unknown of quarantine. I miss my friends terribly, but I’m also adjusting to this new norm of life decently well.

At first it seemed crazy, but I’ve come to find peace with this current situation. The days have started to blur together, but now that the weather is warming it’s begun to make me reminiscent of my teenage years.

As a teen it was school, marching band practice, or part-time jobs. Now it’s a Monday-Friday 8:00am-5:00pm day and lazy weekends spent lounging in bed slipping in and out of slumber. Then it was going to the mall, the Quads house or their mom’s shop. Now it’s watching movies or Target trips with M and D. The people and places may have changed, but the vibe is the same – calm, carefree, content.

I spent all of yesterday afternoon rearranging the furniture in my room with the help of M. I’ve thrown my bed flush against the window wall. Now the sunlight filters in and over my entire bed – much like it did in my room in Hawaii. I awoke this morning and for a moment I thought I was home. It was the same as when I was teen girl. The warmth of the sun on my skin. The sounds of the wind coming through my open wind and the plants swaying in time. The only difference was the lack of salt air to be smelled. The only thing I smelled this morning was my clean comforter drying on the rack a few steps away. It’s the same nonetheless and I hung onto that feeling – that memory.

I think at the end of the day it’s going to be these little moments and memories, like the one I had this morning, that is going to keep me going during these uncertain times. It’s what going to keep me afloat and sane if June turns to July turns to August or worse, 2021, and we’re still locked in this quarantine.