DIJA'S SECOND ACT

Dear Lorenzo, It's Mother's Day, 2020 and I'm alone in my room watching repeats of Happy Endings on Hulu and talking to you. Amira's in her room, "reading" (don't get excited, it's a Tik Tok series, not an actual book) and Butters is upstairs, eating as much of Aisha's steak dinner as she can get her paws on. Today was a good day. I woke up early, straightened up the house, worked out, washed and deep conditioned my hair, and did some laundry, before settling in with Netflix for the night. You may be wondering how I managed to get all of this done in one day but since Amira was up all night, partying with Aisha until 5:00 IN THE MORNING, she spent the majority of this Mother's Day snoring away in her bed, giving me the greatest gift of all, an entire day to myself.  You know, as tough as the stay at home order has been, I'm starting to get accustomed to our new normal. And I'm trying to make the best of it. First and for...

Dear Lorenzo, It's 5:55 p.m. and I'm sitting at the dining room table, watching this week's episode of Mixed-ish, drinking a cup of tea and sharing a handful of baby carrots with Butters. I'm supposed to be helping Amira with her homework right now but that's impossible to do since your daughter's ASLEEP. (Try as I might, I have NOT been able to get this kid back to her regular bedtime since the stay at home order began). It's been a relatively quiet day. Work was busy but not overwhelming and with Amira comfortable on her own attending her online classes, I didn't feel the pressure to juggle her work with my own. Or with my mother's. This year my mother will be 77 years old and it's beginning to show. Don't get me wrong, she's still the same woman who loves gossiping, watching 90 Day Fiance and complaining but...she's getting forgetful. Nothing major. She still knows who we are and where we live and what day of the week it is...

Dear Lorenzo, It's 4:07 p.m. and I'm exhausted. Eyes half-closed, jealous of my snoring dog, counting-down-the minutes-until-the-clock-strikes-5:00-p.m.-and-I can-logout-of-my-work-laptop-for-the-day, EXHAUSTED. We're in the midst of a pandemic that has brought to a halt the world as we know it. In the wake of an illness known as the Coronavirus (and why they named this lethal shit after my third favorite beer is beyond me), schools and businesses have shut down, and states across the country have issued stay-at-home orders in an effort to reduce the spread of this disease. I've been working full-time from home for the past several weeks now and while it's a blessing for which I am INCREDIBLY grateful, the combination of work and helping Amira with her eLearning has been brutal. Much to Amira's delight, what little cooking I did in the past has gone straight out the window and suffice it to say, I've done more than my fair share of keeping our lo...