Monday, March 23, second week of SPRING BREAK!!!!

11:02 a.m.I wake up, check the time, and decide I should probably get up. Slept in to that time where I don’t even feel well-rested, just groggy. Perfect start to the day!

11:09 a.m.I walk downstairs and greet my mom and brothers, all of whom are lazing about in our little living room. I grab some cereal for breakfast and plop onto the couch next to them. Some travel show is on the television.

11:52 a.m.Carmen facetimes me. We chat for 25 minutes before her online class starts.

12:18 p.m.I take a shower and brush my teeth. My 16-year-old dog Daisy scratches incessantly at the bathroom door. According to my dad, she is “slightly senile” these days.

12:41 p.m.My mum wants to go hiking since it’s her day off. She’s an RN, so she has to go into work five days a week despite the virus. My brothers and I, feeling all too tired of each other and our house, are enthusiastic proponents of this idea.

1:02 p.m.My mom says it’s time to go.

1:25 p.m. We finally go. We listen to Vampire Weekend’s Father of the Bride album on the drive. We pass beautiful stone homes on farms, and I think about what it would be like to live in one.

2:08 p.m.We arrive at Riveredge Nature Center and feel disoriented looking at a poorly marked trail map. Decide to take the “Adventure Loop” around the park.

2:16 p.m.We pass two families on the trail. They stay six feet away.

3:03 p.m.We stroll through pine forests on muddy ground. Rustling in the foliage makes my mom jump, and we see five white-tailed deer prance deeper into the woods.

3:21 p.m.We see an otter swimming in the Milwaukee River. I am absolutely thrilled to see that lil’ boy scurrying and scampering all over branches in the water!

3:46 p.m.We stumble upon the most beautiful bluish fungus!

4:05 p.m.We get back to the car. Mud is caked all over my hiking boots, but I am feeling refreshed and rejuvenated! I decide I need to get out of the house more often to stay sane.

4:19 p.m. We stop at a bog on the way home. Jonah spews some facts about the bog that I don’t remember. Elliot and I throw fuzz from cattails into the air. People like to diss Wisconsin, but this state honestly slaps. If you need to be convinced of this further, please email [agpoonha], [binzleym], [meuleman] or [dohertym].

4:52 p.m. Spot a red-tailed hawk on the drive home. So many things to see when outside of my house!

5:20 p.m. We get back home, with my dad returning from work right after us. He builds software for medical equipment and is thus considered “essential.”

5:36 p.m. My dad tells me about [Governor of Wisconsin] Tony Evers’ “Safer at Home” policy, going into effect tomorrow. I read about that and coronavirus updates on my phone.

6:10 p.m. I help my mum make dinner.

6:25 p.m. We have a nice family meal on the couch! We watch Kiki’s Delivery Service, which makes me nostalgic.

8:17 p.m. I Houseparty Alice, Allison and Ingrid. We have quite a lovely chat, but Alice keeps starting the virtual games on the app, which is a big distraction. The rest of us complain but play anyway.

9:15 p.m. At this point, our Houseparty has morphed into a large group of my friends talking over each other. Ian tells us he is stuck in New Zealand because the country has closed its borders. My WiFi is pretty bad, so I can’t see any of them and only hear disjointed fragments of conversation. Can’t wait for many more group video chats!

9:52 p.m. I finally leave Houseparty because I am craving candy. I remember we have cookie ingredients (literally a Betty Crocker mix, we are not fancy enough to make cookies from scratch). I head downstairs to make them, only to find that Elliot has already made them incorrectlyyyy. He added butter AND oil when you are only supposed to add one of the two. I feel slightly upset but eat the weirdly flat and buttery cookies anyway. They are alright.

10:00 p.m. I play a game of Parcheesi with my mom and brothers. Honestly, this board game slaps. I always play as the water buffalo. I come in third.

10:42 p.m. I get a reminder on my phone to call some random number. This reminder is NOT mine, and I know that Ingrid has once again put a personal reminder on the reminder sheet our friends share. I text Ingrid that she has to stop putting her reminders on the group reminder sheet. She tells me she “doesn’t have access to that list,” but I KNOW these reminders are from her!

10:44 p.m. I get bored after about 3 minutes of having nothing to do and try to think of things to do.

10:54 p.m. I go to my room and start working on a belated birthday card for my dear friend Clare Roarty (happy 20 Clare!) and get paint on my bed. I listen to Karen Dalton’s In My Own Time.

11:30 p.m. I miss Abraham, so I shoot him a text and ask about his day. We have a nice nighttime chat, like we often did in our dorm.

11:44 p.m. I text Brodie goodnight. He has already started online classes and does not make me excited for actual work to ensue.

12:46 a.m. I start to get tired but do nothing about it. Still painting in bed.

1:52 a.m. I decide I should probably just go to sleep. This sleep schedule is terrible.

2:02 a.m. I sleep!