Here we are.... 3 weeks in quarantine... and I have yet to cut my own hair. I am have contemplated it, actually, but I have resisted.
My brother finally came out of his dark cave that is his room at around 3 pm today. He ate some scrambled eggs, and then went back in. I was working on a study guide for a test that I have to take tomorrow, and he came waltzing into my room. He asked if I had any soccer cones left, or if I took them all when I went to college. I didn’t know, actually, if I did or not, so we went exploring in the shed and in the attic of our barn. All we found in the dark barn-- jokes on us, we forgot to take a flashlight with us-- was a yearbook of when I was in 8th grade, and J was in 3rd grade. After cringing at the hair style I had, we decided to throw a tiny ball around, much to the dismay of our 2 dogs because they wanted to play catch. My dad came out of the house to see what we were doing, and then proceeded to find us 2 really tiny and really old baseball gloves. We traded the tiny ball in for a softball that I keep in my car, and we moved to the front yard to continue playing catch. Somewhere along the way, we got a football, and an old wooden bat that my brother keeps in his car. I can’t remember the last time that my brother and I played outside together, and I really enjoyed it. We goofed around, laughed until I cried, and took some trips into the ditches because my brother can’t throw a softball to save his life. This made me miss softball and I am still shredded that my senior season ended so early. But, because of my goofy brother, I was able to forget that for a minute, and it was nice to take a break from studying my butt off for this test. We stayed outside until we could barely see the fluorescent yellow of the ball, and we headed into the house. J immediately went back into his dark cave, and I went back to staring at my computer screen. That hour of fresh air really gave me the motivation I needed to finish my study guide, and I know it gave my brother a chance to get out of the house. My brother is one of my favorite people on this planet, and I truly miss him when I am up north for university. And even though he grumbles about it, I know he misses me too; the memes he randomly sends me say so. I highly doubt he will ever find this-- he thinks Tumblr is for “nerds”--, I want to say thank you to him. J, you get on my nerves like no one else can, but you can sense when I am down and need a break from everything. Thank you for making me laugh until I shoot milk out of my nose, and for doing random, mundane things with me. I know you just can’t wait until you move out and go to college, but please stop growing up. You are going to miss these days when you can stay up all night playing games and have no worries except that you have to go to your grocery store job 3x a week. I surely am going to miss doing stupid things with you when we both leave, but I know that you will always be down for an ice cream run. Staying home all day with us sucks, I know, but sometimes....being outside helps.