Like a stealth ninja, I turned off the bathroom light and slunk down the stairs with my shoes in hand.
I felt my way down the hallway and turned on the kitchen light. Leaning forward, I moved the prepared coffee pot towards the outlet with my free fingertips, plugged the machine in, and turned it on.
I turned around and with a start, dropped my shoes to the floor.
“Declan!” I said in surprise. “What are you doing up? It’s 5AM!”
Declan shrugged and leaned in for a hug.
“I’m going to my gym class,” I told Declan as I leaned back to look him in the eye. Seeing a little bottom lip start to quiver, I offered, “Do you want to come with me? The class is in the park. You can sit and watch your device.”
Declan nodded, wiped the beginning of a stray tear from his face, and went to collect his things.
When our area went into the yellow phase, my gym started offering classes outside at a local park. Class sizes are limited, and members are to stand at a cone that is positioned over 6 feet away from their neighbor. All we have to do is bring our own kettlebell (or one on loan from the gym) and mat. The classes are great.
Over how many days, weeks, months that we have been locked in our houses my gym offered classes on Zoom. The Zoom classes were great for a workout and to see familiar faces. There wasn’t a ton of conversation, but there was enough to get out of my limited “house world.”
“And,” I joked with the trainer at the park who critiqued my push-up negatives, “On Zoom you had no idea what I was doing depending on how I positioned the camera. Anytime the call was for push-ups I could have just been laying on the ground out of view!”
We all laughed, and as the conversation continued, we all realized we could agree on one thing.
“I liked quarantine.”
For all the same reasons.
“I had more time with my family.”
“We talked more.”
“We weren’t running all over the place.”
“I got to work from home every day.”
“I had more ME time.”
“Everything slowed down.”
We all professed to be introverts. None of us had that need for other people or to get out and go places. We were living the dream.
As the conversation continued, we all realized we were living the dream at the loss of something else.
“My family was supposed to be in North Carolina now.”
“We were supposed to go to Mexico in two weeks.”
“My family had to cancel our trip to the shore.”
I nodded and added, “We were supposed to go to a lake in New York.”
Every year I make a special calendar of all of our special photos throughout the year.
July is dedicated to Declan as it is his, and the country’s, special birthday month.
September is all about back to school and fall sports.
December is all about Santa and family.
And June is all about vacation.
We’ve varied our vacation over the years. Traveling with an autistic child is complicated, if not hard, and we are always trying to fine-tune our trips to make sure they are successful, relaxing, and fun for all of us. As much as I would have liked to get away to a new destination, I’m okay missing it.
We class members all shrugged. Quarantine brought us a lot of things we look for in a vacation. More relaxed time with family. Quarantine allowed us to get away and take a vacation from our busy lives.
The class ended, and I collected Declan and his things. After dropping my bell and his stuff in the car, we took a nice Declan paced walk, talking about video games and gaming consoles. We wondered if Sonic the Hedgehog enjoyed his birthday party we held yesterday. We talked about Mario saving the princess.
We slowly walked and talked. We had the time. It was nice.
Your calendars are wonderful! And Declan’s Atari tee-shirt is SO COOL.
Thank you!!
I did a calendar like that years and years ago. I had to send pictures (actual photos from developed film😯) away to a company and they sent the pictures and the calendars (I had 2 made, one for my ex’s mother) back.
I guess it’s probably a lot easier now, huh🤦♀️ and here I am, waiting for the freebie calendars from the Corner Market every year😂😂
So sweet to give Sonic his shoes. Does Sonic need shoes? Do a lot of running? I’m not familiar with Mr Hedgehog😁
Sorry you weren’t able to sneak away, but I’m glad you had a little social interaction (look at you!!👏👍) and a good workout!🌻🥰
Oh wow! Those calendars must be really cool to see. They are easy to do now – they’re $20 at Shutterfly. I make a yearbook too. I stopped filling photo books with every photo I took which has its ups and downs. The kids did enjoy looking at them but they took up so much space. These high level books seem to do the trick. And I already figured I would do a quarantine book – there’s a lot to remember about this special time!
I think there is some reference to Sonic’s need for shoes somewhere, but I don’t know what it is. In the movie he gets new shoes, so maybe that is where it comes from? I guess I could ask and find out, but who knows where that rabbit hole will end 🙂
Thanks! I like the gym classes because the focus isn’t on socializing. I didn’t know anyone there today except for the trainer – but it was nice to see a familiar face and joke a bit! 🙂
A quarantine book! Such a good idea 👍🏼
Thank you!
Those calendar photos are just the best. Brought a smile. Thank you.
Thank you! They are fun to make too 🙂
I love those customized calendars! A few years ago, I used to make them every year, but then it became too much clutter as I hesitated to discard them or shred them. After seeing yours, I can’t wait to start the tradition again.
Knowing your gym classes and zoom classes say so much about how social we are, right? Though we all liked the sudden freeze of our life, we crave to get out and get involved in chuckles and pep talks.
Thank you so much! The calendars are fun to make and we seem to enjoy looking back through old ones just like photo books. It is great to see some familiar faces again. I had seen them through my computer screen for months and it was good to see them in person again!
A lot of people have been saying similar things over here, Robyn. There have been some benefits to the lockdown, including spending time with family and having to slow the pace of life from frantic to stop. And it’s been great for the environment, we’ve seen much more wildlife out and about and that’s been lovely. We’re also having to miss out on our holiday this year, and we were only going up to Northumberland, but there it is. We’ll make up for it somehow. And I love your customized calendars, a great idea. 🙂
Thank you, Alli! We have been wondering if we will be able to find something to do to get away later in the year. Bob hasn’t stopped working through all of this and I know he could use a break, But trying to find the right time and place and to make sure it is safe – there are just so many factors to consider now. The calendars are such a fun way to look back through a year – especially since it is the next year we are reliving the previous years memories and putting new similar ones in their place. They are a lot of fun to make too! 🙂
It’s a really lovely idea, Robyn, and it must help to mark the passing of time and with putting events into a chronological perspective of the years too. I hope you do manage to sort out some kind of break, it sounds as though you all need it. We’re hoping to get away for a few weekends in September and October to make up for being stuck at home all year. Fingers crossed for us all! 🙂
I think I’m liking quarantine too much… I look at it as a stress reboot…
I loved everything about the lock down. I see positive permanent changes that happened from it. Shame everything had to fall apart for us to get time- time at home, time with our families. Their’s a bad news / good news lining to this though. My prediction is that we’ll be locking down again in 3 to 4 weeks. And then intermittently into the future until people figure out that yes, masks really are necessary.
I can’t even imagine what they are planning for the schools. I already have another post started about my kids coughing on each other in jest. I’m sure once they go to school that will be the “in” joke. And I am sure some kid will take his mask off to cough on someone to really make his joke stick. I feel like it is all I write about now, so I tried to change it up. It’s definitely on my mind a lot though.
I agree, being home with my family more has been really nice. We had to reschedule a Disney vacation, but having everything slow down has been worth the trade.
I agree – it was a little hard on the day we were supposed to leave and the day seemed kind of bland, but in the big picture, it has been wonderful to have all this quality time with the family!
Having a child wake up at 5 am is like my nightmare. You made it into a wonderful experience by taking him to your workout. How nice it must be to be working out in a live group setting again!
Your calendars are wonderful! Such great memories and the summer vacation pictures look so idyllic. I’ve been doing the same with T for the last four years and I always look forward to putting them together in December for the following year. It’s so nice to look at them and think back to the previous year of memories and to look ahead to new ones!
It is! I agree! I love turning the calendar page to the next month because even I forget what I put there and it is always fun to see what memories are in store. And I agree, they are so fun to make 🙂
I worried about the cause of Declan’s tear. It can’t have been much as you didn’t mention it again, so I was very relieved!
Gwen.