Quarantine Birthday Part 2; 12:00 and Beyond

 Sally and Cally said it was time for me to come out of my room. The outside was beautiful!!

Rainbow streamers draped the hallway, and I was not prepared for what was in the living room.  A large banner read "Happy Birthday." Yellow balloons with smiley faces were scattered around the floor. And three helium balloons were next to the cushioned chair. My mom's laptop was sitting at the center table with my relatives online. It was nine o'clock in the morning for them since they were in India. Finally, as the clock struck 12; I blew out some candles and cut the purple pound cake that was iced with delicious icing. There was a special candle holder that hummed the tune of Happy Birthday.  After the cake cutting, I witnessed the most amazing video of my life. There was a youtube video created by my parents, where everyone from my grandparents to friends in India and different parts of the USA and my teachers wished me Happy 10th birthday via video. Each of the videos was about 20 seconds to 1 minute long. It was out of the world to listen to all the wishes. It was a  25-minutes long video.  I am so happy to see that everyone loves me so much.

In the morning, I found out that my parents had done something fun with my presents. They lined the presents up in a row and on each of them she placed a clue that led to another clue which you had to solve to find out what the present was, and then I could open the present and enjoy my gift. So, there were 10 presents with 20 clues, that took my whole day. Later, in the evening  I had a zoom birthday party with my friends at 5:00 in the evening. I cut an ice cream sandwich cake which I enjoyed for a week because it was so good. My birthday turned out to be a blast even during the COVID lockdown.

When I fell asleep that night, I finished my 10 rounds around the earth ready to live many more!!

Quarantine birthday part 1

June had always been special to me because it is my birthday month. In 2020, I had a quarantine birthday. Usually, I would study for about 1 hour each day. But on my birthday week, I had 1 and a half weeks off from studying! However, things seem to twist around on the weekend before my birthday...

My friend, Sally, stayed with us on  Friday just a few days before my birthday. My other very close friend, Amy, was coming to Gainesville with her family from Lousiana they were supposed to come tonight. I was already planning how much I would play, and teach how to make friendship bracelets to Amy. In other words, I couldn't WAIT. When Sally's mom came to pick up Sally, she got a text, that would change my life forever....

Okay, I know what you are thinking, I am just a tad too overdramatic. Anyways, what that text said is that the babysitter that had to sit for Sally had tested positive for COVID 19. My mom read an article that said that people with COVID start spreading the virus 2 days before they get their symptoms. Sally's babysitter got symptoms on Wednesday and sat for Sally two days before....

 

Then my mom made some calls. First, she called our neighbor who specialized in COVID. He said that it was very unlikely that we caught the virus since we were third in the chain. 

Then my mom called Amy's family. Her family had just left New Orleans three hours ago. My mom called her and said that "this-this-this" had happened and it was quite unlikely that we caught COVID and so she would leave it up to them if they still wished to come here. Finally, the grown-ups decided it was safer for Amy's family to turn back and head back to New Orleans. I cried a little bit because I was really looking forward to them coming. I thought that everything was ruined and we had COVID and all those bad things. Then  3 days later my mom tested negative for COVID. And it was hard not to be excited even though Amy was not coming. I mean come on, it's my tenth birthday, DOUBLE DIGITS!!! 

The day after my mom got her test results back, It was my birthday eve. Sally and her sister, Cally were having a sleepover with us. Cally was doing my hair and Sally was helping my parents make the "surprise" party. Every half an hour or so, they would switch places and someone would accompany me while I was locked in my bedroom. After my hair was done, we would just watch 5-minute craft videos on my bed. Finally, it was 11: 50, 10 minutes until my birthday. I walked outside of my bedroom. It blew me away....