Does this whole quarantine situation have you feeling a bit overwhelmed? If you answered yes, you’re in good company with the rest of us. Since this is a situation we have never been in or lived through, the experience of everything is emotionally taxing. Not only are the dynamics of the workplace changing, but those working from home are now tasked with teaching their children. Okay, maybe we’re not teaching our children, but we’re trying to manage their schoolwork, project, odd and even day schedule and Zoom meetings.

Honestly, it’s a lot. In the couple of weeks, I’ve noticed people starting to buckle under the pressure of this virus. For example, our neighborhood Facebook group has always been a source of entertainment. People liked to complain about driver’s inability to navigate the round about properly or the snow birds driving 20 miles under the speed limit. Most of the time, the quarrels on there were mostly benign.

However, the virus has brought out the crazy. To be honest, it started pretty early on when a guy from our sister neighborhood came through ours and saw kids playing basketball on our courts. (Our neighborhood kept its courts open.) This particular neighbor felt that it was totally cool to take pictures of the 12 year old boys playing basketball, so he could post them to the group and shame them. Moreover, his approach was probably the most pathetic aspect of his post. Why a grown man would post on Facebook that he didn’t know how to explain to his son why they kids could play basketball and he couldn’t is beyond me. I don’t know dad, but grow a pair and tell him you’re not comfortable with him playing basketball right now.

Flash forward to the last couple of weeks and things have really gotten unhinged. Perhaps the funniest is the lady that took to Facebook to complain about a man that spit into the grass while he was walking. Now said lady wasn’t on the path or near him, she just witnessed the act. I’m guessing she’s not a runner or she would know people have done a lot worse on the path. Logically, I can see how she’d be upset if she was planning to lick the grass or roll around it. Otherwise, I don’t get the need to complain on Facebook about it.

Oh but this week brought in sheer Facebook gold. First, someone distributed a letter about the tribulation and the rapture anonymously via mailboxes. While I agree that this person was wrong to use mailboxes in the distribution of this letter, believing in the rapture and end times does not make you a religious zealot or mental health patient. Nonetheless, this poor kid has been compared to the criminal that mailed anthrax to people post 9-11 and school shooters. Clearly none of these people have spoken to my grandma. I guess believing and sharing tenets of the Christian faith in this manner is terroristic. Fortunately, they’ve called the police and the postmaster general. I’m sure both officials will be anxious to throw the book at this perp for sharing their religious beliefs.

But perhaps the most egregious and offensive post came at the expensive of a mom and her child at the local grocery store. This resident was horrified that this child felt the need to touch things in the laundry aisle and wasn’t within an acceptable distance of their parent. Now it’s okay to have your opinion, but to publicly post it to shame the other mom is awful. What if the child had sensory issues or special needs?! What if the mom was feeling completely overwhelmed and let her kid have space? Why the judgment?

This pandemic sucks, undoubtedly, but we have a choice in how we respond. We can choose to be a light and extend people grace. We can choose to support our friends, neighbors and small businesses. Moreover, we can choose to take this time to make our lives better by improving connections and improving upon ourselves. Or we can choose to be assholes. I don’t know about you, but I choose to be kind, positive, the best virtual teacher I can be and to give people grace during these difficult times. And most importantly, as you may have guessed from all the memes I’ve posted, I choose to laugh.  Rant over!

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*Reading Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and loving it!

*Cleaner Anakin’s cage after he experience some nighttime, explosive diarrhea. 

*Completed BBG day 5 week 8 – full body workout 

*Took Anakin, Maya and Athena on multiple walks

*Picked up dinner from J. Alexanders 

*Pulled my hair out (again) managing my teenagers virtual schooling.

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