It’s 6:30 am. The darkness in my room begins to erode with the sound of my alar— wait. COIVD-19 has entered the chat. So, nevermind.

During the “typical” school year, I am awoken by my aggressively loud alarm that blasts Nicki Minaj raps on full volume. But now…oh…but now, the virus has handed us a silver platter with the lustful opportunity for extra sleep. With that being said, my “normal” quarantine day takes complete and utter advantage of this platter.

After I eventually wake up around 10 am, I strut down my steps with a fully rested face and scavenger around the kitchen for food. Usually, I am faced with both of my sisters sitting and eating their freshly cooked omelette. None for me, but it’s okay. So, I chef-it-up a bit and make myself either fried matzah (a must have) or cereal. Following the show that I perform while I devour my breakfast like my life depends on it, I prepare for the “school” day.

Quickly, I put my hair in a bun and walk down the steps of my basement (it reminds me of the C-wing stairwell). My basement, which typically reeks with sweat since it is now my family’s at-home Lifetime gym, is my new classroom. The school day consists of scrolling between Google Classroom classes and the typical 20 minute snack break. My mentality during this pandemic has been to push myself to bulldoze through the “school” day so I can chill for the rest of the day.

After the long, hard day of scrolling through my homework, my two older sisters and I convert the playroom in my basement into a La Belle Fit studio. We project an at-home workout video onto the computer and work for that summer body. We usually find our parents peeking in the back to check our form, as they are crazy workout-aholics.

Following the intense workout that my sisters and I just completed, we all go our separate ways and take our own essential long, music filled shower. At this point in the day, my sister has already asked me to make 58 different TikToks with her. Now, our family decides what themed-dinner we will be having tonight and we assign the roles to all five of us. My mom usually makes the food with the help of my dad, my oldest sister makes some weird concoction that she saw on Instagram, I make a side dish, and my other sister watches. One positive about this quarantine is the family dinners that can now occur since our schedules revolve around each other. Now, we all sit at the dinner table, talk, I typically stir up a little fight, continue to talk, and sometimes play Rummikub, which no one wants to play with me since I win everytime.

My family travels down into our now extremely used basement and warm up for our nightly Wii tournament. Sweat drips from our faces after the first tennis match. We are a very competitive family. The extreme sports that are available on Wii leave a rumbling void in our stomachs that only dessert can fill.

Pudding, whipped cream, and pieces of crushed graham cracker—a Quarantine s’more for rainy weather or when your entire family is mad at you. Let me just quickly explain how this special creation came about. I wanted a s’more, or two. And I, being the persistent person that I am, consistently asked all four of my family members to come and make s’more with me on the deck. Now guess what happens next. Yep, they all said no and did so all 23 times that I asked. Thus, the incredibly delicious creation was born.

Moving the party to my room around 10 pm leads to the unfortunate events that place me on a random episode, 7 seasons deep in my current binge. I don’t know if anyone else has this problem, but I can not sit in my bed at any time of the day and not fall asleep. Therefore, when I plop onto my tempurpedic bed, my body literally and figuratively sinks into the comfort of my lushous mattress. Though I am no longer sleep deprived, it takes me approximately an hour in the morning to find my place on my show that was lost after I left the TV playing while I watched the inside of my eyelids. Wow, this lifestyle is truly so difficult.

And the next day…I do the exact same things.