Oh hey, what’s up with you? Me, I’m fine. I turned 53 last week in my basement, alone, chilly, with covid and two kittens, one who went into heat, her spaying derailed by Calvin and my cases of covid. I’m so tired I can’t even capitalize it.

Calvin got covid because he loves the Mets. I got it from him because we shared a bedroom during the pre-positive part of the disease, before the Time of the Basement began. Then Daisy came home from college and got it from me, and I almost gave it to my mother right after an epic fight over family disinformation (for the record, I am strongly against family disinformation).

Then our covid twilight began, made more hellish by our intense hubris over never having got covid. Yes, the night before Calvin tested positive, Calvin, Wyatt and I were on the landing doing a little dance and chanting, ‘never getting covid, never getting covid,’ and laughing our fool heads off. Then bam! covid the very next day.

It was not bad. It was just a shock to the system, I had to work really hard through it every day, and I missed my own birthday because of it. Also I had to run a Zoom PTA meeting while sweating through covid fevers.

But I made it through so why am I so blue?

Because nothing happens in my life. I stare at my phone and listen to an audiobook about why the British Empire was very, very bad. Everyone should read it or listen to it. Babel, although in the audiobook the man says Bay-bel, which I am now going to do when I say that word aloud, accidentally but uncontrollably.

The PTA ladies send text and I respond, more and more slowly with less and less information. I abdicated from mothering in the last three days and that really ticked Daisy off but I am so sorry there was no mothering left in the jar.

Yesterday I did laundry and lay around and mid way through the giant pile of laundry the more fragile kitten, Cleo, peed on my bed, like right under my pillow. The other kitten showed it to me very helpfully. Cleo is a hider and she’s in heat so she’s a mess. A total mess. Venus, the tattletail, is a delight but is so jumpy and bitey that it’s hard to relax with her yet. They are both banned for the day, possibly multi-days

I’m sorry Cleo has issue with maturity and control. I’m sorry Venus is unfairly banned because of her sister’s issues. I’m sorry Daisy’s first college break sucked donkey balls. I’m sorry Calvin isn’t getting the quality family meal time he desperately wants and deserves (he does deserve those meals! We all do! But he keeps forgetting one of us has active covid and one of us is not infected–no family dinner configuration can make that work). I’m sorry my work-work is riddled with errors. I’m sorry, PTA friend, that sending one email is exhausting and I cannot follow up right now. I did, and continue doing, the best I can and it is enough.

Got that off my chest

The things that do happen in my life are things you may know about. Matthew Perry has a new book coming out and I respect him for not using a ghostwriter. Totally going to read that book. Just to clarify: Mathhew Perry’s book coming out is something I think about as happening in my life. That, and the scary dreams I can’t remember, are the events of “my life.” It’s that quiet!

Here’s some Maggie news, but even it is barely worth reporting or very, very important. I don’t know. My life narrative is out of whack right now.

So her house was on the market and it was normal house selling, like we toured it with the broker. Yes, it was weird and we had the agent over and helpfully explained that if Maggie mentioned someone beating her with a bat it was us but it hadn’t happened in our dimension. Calvin yelled at me later for being too flippant but fuck him.

Then Maggie moved back in and wouldn’t let the broker show the house. Then she took the house off the market so I texted that info to the husband. I try not to contact the husband too often because I think communication with him is finite and I don’t want to use it up, because I might really need it. The husband then texted me last week to say that he was now involved in the sale of the house and would let me know when it was really on the market and he wants to sell ASAP.

So I think that is good news for our cause.

Also I watch hours of TikTok and have a lot of theories about how boring people are, except sometimes they are totally interesting.