I forgot it was St. Patrick’s Day, but the toddler and I wore green all the same. The morning felt normal due to a series of meetings. After Dot’s nap, however, we went back to our new home-away-from-home: the gravel parking lot.

For the past few days, we’ve stuck to exploring the parking lot, but today we wandered around Nat Bailey stadium and into Riley park. There’s still such a stark contrast between the stress of the news and this quiet Spring afternoon. Little flowers springing up, children playing, even a Little League baseball team practicing (why is a baseball team practicing when school got cancelled?) All the cherry blossoms are starting to bloom.

The toddler used a stick as a microphone, talked to a bird (“HI BIRDIE! WHERE YOU GOING? WHERE ARE YOU BIRDIE?”), and greeted all the plants in the community garden. Several times, we accidentally ruined the take of a car salesman filming a promotional video for a new car. It was so bizarre to be worried about mass death, pandemic, how to pay rent, etc, and here’s this dude in a suit talking about the parking assist feature on some new car. No one’s buying new cars in the middle of a pandemic, Norman! What about you stay at home and put on some sweatpants with the rest of us?

Towards the end of our stay, Dot noticed the playground. Kids aren’t allowed on playgrounds right now, and she didn’t understand why she couldn’t go on the swing. As I carried her away, she screamed, “A swing! Go on a swing! Mommy it’s a swing!” How long will it be until my daughter gets to go on a swing?

She calmed down by the time we returned to our gravel parking lot, and I found her crouching down in the dirt, humming to herself.

“What are you doing?” I asked her.

“Making medicine,” she said.

A toddler in a green sweatshirt has a traffic cone on her head. She thinks it's a "very silly hat."