hello from the void

The girl writing this has spit-up on her shoulder and funky creases under her eyes (they've been there since teenagehood, but they've gotten deeper in the last year).

The messy bun atop her head is always there now; the only thing variance is its position (a little to the left or right) and the color of scrunchie holding it together.

I guess we've been in quarantine...er...indoors for about a month now. When I say "quarantine" I just imagine Matt Damon sitting behind a glass wall for a few days in the movie Contagion (of course it is one of the top 10 movies on every streaming service right now).

After spending a few days (I'm guessing it was a couple of weeks, but the movie makes it seem faster) behind glass and making sad faces at his daughter on the other side, the doctors announce he's immune and can go home. But chaos still ensues everywhere else. People are looting grocery stores (that's kind of happening now?), his daughter's prom is canceled, an anti-vaxxer tries to sell people on an herbal remedy by faking sick, and people are getting buried in mass graves. About a year or so later, Jennifer Ehle (Elizabeth Bennett, of course!) figures out a vaccine, but to get it, people have to enter a lottery. Please let that not be what happens this time.

Anywho, all this virus talk bums me out. Just like you, I scroll through social media every day and hear more bad news about it. Of course, good deeds and hope shine through, but most of the time, the bad stuff seems to only leave a tiny sliver for that light to slip through.

If anything, this virus has reminded me of how important people are. Even though we don't live close to family, I still miss the possibility of being able to visit them. And I don't have many friends in Arizona, but the few I have, well, waving to them from far away just isn't the same.

This is the only droopy post I'm gonna write about the coronavirus. I'm all for keeping it real, but some days (most days) I need a respite. I need somewhere to forget about it for a while, and maybe you do, too. Just assume that everyone around you is a little scared right now and treat them with extra kindness and compassion. If there's anything we need more of right now, it's that. And toilet paper.