The Mrs. Yoy Blog: The Quarantine Coronacles

Greetings from quarantine ground zero AKA East Cobb! I bet you thought I forgot about you. Well, unfortunately for you, I'm a Taurus and I am nothing if not the most stubborn human on the planet.  New since the last time I emailed into the abyss of the Cobb County School District email server... Cobb County issued a mask mandate for all government buildings. It's incredibly dire to protect our citizens right now! We must wear masks inside to slow the spread! We must keep our children...oh wait, who cares about them? They don't vote.  The mask rally held on Thursday night, in conjunction with the contentious board meeting, debunked my theory that y'all were on a Caribbean party cruise together and unable to respond to my many emails. I was really hanging my hat on that one. My kids bravely spoke their fears aloud all while old, angry men yelled in their faces about freedom. At least they got their civics lesson in.  Our kids holding up their signs, outside of the board m...

Good afternoon from East Cobb! I am following up on the multitude of emails I've sent you since the first day of school on August 2nd, to which I have received zero responses. Today, I gave you time for coffee and lunch, so let’s dive right in.  I was made aware that Mr. Banks was still responding to emails, but with a more subdued vibe. A little less Q Anon, a little more automated reply. I’m glad someone spoke to him about keeping the racism inside.  Anyhow, I’m still not 100% convinced that y’all aren’t on a party cruise in the Caribbean. You failed to make an appearance at our mask rally yesterday, which is a shame. We were eager to speak to you about your inability to make a decision based on the CDPH department’s COVID guidelines. You would have also enjoyed the gentleman that drove from Pickens county, with no skin in the game, to counterprotest. He seemed like your “people”.  New since the ...

Good morning from East Cobb! I am following up on the multitude of emails I've sent you since the first day of school on August 2nd, to which I have received zero responses. Today I was made aware that one of you, I'm looking at your Mr. Banks, HAS been responding to parent emails regarding their mask policy. All with the same message: Unfortunately for everyone involved, Mr. Banks' responses included a link to a video on www.bitchute.com which justified his viewpoint on the lack of mask mandates. I had not heard of this medical website, so I googled it. And this was at the top of the search: I actually gasped as the enormity of the situation hit me. The joke I had made in my earlier emails about not listening to your crazy uncle spewing conspiracy theories had missed the mark. David Banks doesn't have a crazy uncle, he IS the crazy uncle. Plot twist, I know. As I read more about this website, my blood pressure erupted. This website was for videos too extreme for YouTub...

Good morning from East Cobb! I am following up on the multitude of emails I've sent you since the first day of school on August 2nd, to which I have received zero responses.  Today, I've recruited a guest author, my amazing twelve year-old son, Big E. He really wants to share with you his thoughts regarding the situation within his school: "I went into school thinking this will probably be ok, I bet a lot of people will wear their masks. I WAS WRONG. Twenty percent of the kids are wearing masks. And I know that at least half the kids aren't vaccinated. I'm scared for them, my friends, and my little brother. Sometimes  it's very stressful and it affects my ability to concentrate and learn.  I hope you require that all individuals wear face coverings inside my school. Signed-Your voice from Middle School, Big E" New since the last time I emailed into the echo chamber of the Cobb County School District email server... Dr. Howard held a very informative FB...

Good morning from East Cobb! I am following up on the emails I've sent every morning since the first day of school on August 2nd, to which I have received zero responses. I see what you're doing here. You prefer more of a   dear diary   format. Where I send you my inner most thoughts regarding your mismanagement of Cobb County School District COVID policies and you voyeuristically read along. I daresay you look forward to my morning message.  As I was saying, as a long time resident, I am writing you this morning to plead with you to reconsider the mask policy for Cobb County schools this year. I’ve been speaking with many parents and we are stressed and saddened by the lack of consideration and communication from the board regarding the recent surge of Covid. New since yesterday . The Cobb and Douglas Public Health Department made a statement regarding our County's lack of mask mandate. To paraphrase:   "Certain members of the school board have gone r...

Good morning from East Cobb! I am following up on the emails I sent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning, to which I have received zero responses. I know y'all aren't dead because you had the time to loosen the COVID guidelines to which all students and employees must adhere to. Now the teachers came come to school, post close contact, with asymptomatic COVID and potentially spread it to all the unvaccinated children. This seems like a solid strategy based on a complete misunderstanding of the incubation period of Covid-19. As I was saying, as a long time resident, I am writing you this morning to plead with you to reconsider the mask policy for Cobb County schools this year. I’ve been speaking with many parents and we are stressed and saddened by the lack of consideration and communication from the board regarding the recent surge of Covid. In case you wanted to know, I can also see the future. And in two weeks when we are all at home, virtual again, with sic...

Good morning from East Cobb! I am following up on an email I sent Monday and Tuesday morning, to which I have received zero responses. I'm becoming very concerned that the school board's e-mail server is down. This could be the only logical reason that I haven't heard back from any one of you.  As I was saying, as a long time resident, I am writing you this morning to plead with you to reconsider the mask policy for Cobb County schools this year. I’ve been speaking with many parents and we are stressed and saddened by the lack of consideration and communication from the board regarding the recent surge of Covid. In case you wanted to know, I can also see the future. And in two weeks when we are all at home, virtual again, with sick kids, teachers, bus drivers and others in quarantine, I will be thinking of you and your total disregard for the health of our children and our families. Look, we all make judgment mistakes. We all have a crazy family m...

Good morning from East Cobb! I am following up on an email I sent yesterday morning, to which I received zero responses.  As a long time resident, I am writing you this morning to plead with you to reconsider the mask policy for Cobb County schools this year. I’ve been speaking with many parents and we are stressed and saddened by the lack of consideration and communication from the board regarding the recent surge of Covid. In case you wanted to know, I can also see the future. And in two weeks when we are all at home, virtual again, with sick kids, teachers, bus drivers and others in quarantine, I will be thinking of you and your total disregard for the health of our children and our families. Look, we all make judgment mistakes. We all have a crazy family member spreading conspiracy theories. But we don’t let these people and/or the internet comments section guide our work decisions. Gosh, I can’t imagine if I let my dad’s view of our inco...

Hi folks! A quick note from Mrs. Yoy as I know it's been awhile. For those that know me personally, you know that I've been very vocal in unsuccessfully convincing the Cobb County School board to change their COVID policies, which to this day, remain a steaming pile of sh*t. We follow zero health guidelines and figuring out the quarantine policy is akin to solving that math problem from Good Will Hunting. I will be publishing the letters I've sent to the board and Superintendent over the last 18 days of school. I've heard back from my representative, who is lovely, and my pediatric dentist who also serves on the board, but it's been crickets from the voting block of four and the Superintendent, Chris Ragsdale. Apparently, he's too busy pumping iron and self-tanning. Anyway, enjoy. HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! (E-mail sent on August 2, 2021) Good morning from East Cobb! As a long time resident, I am writing you this morning to plead with you to reconsider the mask ...

Day 65. I first want to say Happy Birthday to my best friend who would have been 44 today. I found a funny email exchange we had with each other back when we both first had our babies and had zero clue as to what we were doing.   DOES THIS THING COME WITH AN OWNER'S MANUAL? The buildup has been immense, but this was the actual last day of school here in Cobb. Big E had his final Zoom call with his class. His teacher put together a video of them with baby pictures mixed in with their current pictures and I stood over Big E's shoulder and watched and silently cried.  I left to grab a tissue and returned to watch the whole 5th grade video with photos of them starting as babies in Kindergarten and now as 5th graders. Again, I stood over Big E's shoulder and silently cried. He turned to look at me. I tried to play it cool. YOU CAN LEAVE NOW. Normally that would have hurt my feelings, but I'm so raw from everything, that I just numbly walked away to clean up ...

Day 64. Things have been spooky quiet around here. Mr. Yoy drove Little E to Orlando on Saturday to spend some quality time with his Grandpop. Big E went along for the drive. Do you know what this meant, folks? I HAD 36 HOURS ALONE IN MY HOUSE. I REPEAT. ALONE. IN. MY. HOUSE. It took this break for me to finally feel how tightly wound I've been. The stress, slowly seeping into my bones, my soul over the past eight (nine?) weeks briefly left my body. I took a bath. I went for a long walk with a friend. I had a driveway hang with some friends from my Israel trip. I ate what I wanted, when I wanted. I read UNTAMED by Glennon. I slept. Really slept. I thanked Mr. Yoy for giving me this gift. Because it was such a gift. Mr. Yoy and Big E arrived back on Sunday night. Halfway through their drive, they found a golden doodle breeder and tried to convince me that this was what our family needed. I took a look at our blind, deaf, toothless poodle and knew that a puppy would be the ki...

Day 59. We are at the digital learning finish line.  No one was murdered. But words were said and feelings were hurt and hopefully we can now go forward into the unknown of the nothingness of the upcoming summer, and forget all about the struggles of digital learning. Thursday was a good day in the Yoyser household. I logged onto a Zoom call about the Neflix show, Unorthodox, hosted by my friend and her cohorts at the AJFF. She interviewed on the of the actors and the director. I might need to rewatch the show now. If you haven't had a chance to read Deborah Feldman's book, Unorthodox, do it. Now. I came out of my zoom call to find all my buddies waiting for me on the counter: empty bags of food and empty wrappers. I'm going to miss these guys when my kids finally leave the house and move their trail of destruction elsewhere. Sometimes I think it's the same bag of goldfish that keeps showing up in different places... Big E finally decided to begin wor...

Day 58. Today was a big day. I had to go to the Yoyser's school to pick up their stuff that they left behind in March. Back when we were all complaining that they'd be out until after Spring Break. Oh. The horror. Back when we joked that if they weren't back in school by my birthday, I'd be disappointed. Oh. THE. HORROR. Back when if you'd have told me that I would spend the next 60 days straight with my children, without CycleBar, without my mani/pedis, without my bra, I would have laugh/cried. OH. THE. HORROR. We were allowed back in, in very small groups with strict instructions. Wear a mask. Grab their bagged items, their yearbooks, and get the heck out. Everything was one way. I did have a chance to see their Principal one last time, as she is being transferred to another school. I wanted to hug her and thank her for all she has done for my boys over the past five years, but that wasn't going to happen. So behind my masked face, I tried to pour all of m...

Day 57. We have entered our final week of digital learning. On one hand, I'm relieved. I will no longer have massive battles with my children over doing 20 minutes of Moby Max on a daily basis. I will miss all the cleaver, loving phrases they shout at me and all the amazing excuses as to why they are unable to do their work. Now. Or Ever. On the other hand, now we have the whole day wide open. Our new digital learning free schedule will be as follows: 9AM WAKE UP 9:01AM-10:00PM WATCH TV, PLAY NINTENDO SWITCH, PLAY COMPUTER GAMES** 10:00PM-11:00PM TOSS AND TURN DUE TO INABILITY TO FALL ASLEEP BECAUSE OF SCRAMBLED BRAIN 11:00PM-9AM HAVE NIGHTMARES ABOUT ANIMAL CROSSING AND SUPER MARIO BROTHERS 9AM REPEAT **SNACKING INTERSPERSED THROUGHOUT DAY. NO MEALS SERVED. ONLY CRACKERS Mr. Yoy has been working from home this week. Little E likes to work in the same room with him. There is a significant drop in back-talking when Mr. Yoy is around and this seems to be the only way I c...