Me and a Short Intro to my Covid-19 Life

Hi! My name is Elaine Morisset, I’m currently 18 and a freshman at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. I’m a Biology major with a focus on Pre-Med and I hope to one day become a psychiatrist with a focus on children and adolescents. I was born and raised in Mission Viejo, California. I’m from your average white picket fence, middle-class family. I’m the oldest of three kids; my two younger siblings, Rachel and Clayton, are 16 years old (twins) and juniors in high school. I have two dogs, both Pomeranians, a teacup named Dixie and a standard size named Bella. I also have a cat, she’s a calico white and her name is Maggie.

For me life at home didn’t really change much once Covid started and other than when school closed the middle of my senior year, my situation hasn’t been anything special. My friend Bri and I spent a lot of time, before and during the pandemic, driving around because we didn’t have anything better to do. We frequented Pacific Coast Highway, Los Angeles, the Ortega Highway, San Diego, and a variety of other places. With corona being present, and for other various safety reasons, we never really got out of the car, just looked out the window and enjoyed the sights. I always drove because I like to drive and it helps my anxiety which was perfect because she loves being in the passenger seat and just enjoying the ride.

My Mom is 63 and my Dad is 64 and they both worked when corona basically exploded. My Mom, who retired years earlier but went back to work a couple days a week for fun, was an audiologist at the Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, California. For the first 5 months of Covid my Mom kept working but it eventually became too much of a health hazard for her to stay so she “retired” again. My Dad, who has yet to retire, is a mechanical engineer for the SoCal Gas Company and nothing about his job has changed in any dramatic way. The only thing that was different for him was that he’s now required to work from home to ensure that he stays healthy. Most of the younger people he worked with were still able to go to the base and work from there which drove him mad because he enjoyed the company of the people he worked with. He did understand why he was required to be home which was partly due to his age and the fact that only half of his heart works as a result of a massive heart attack from years ago.

The closest Covid has ever come to me was through my Mom’s job where, at one point, they had over 100 confirmed cases of the virus. Before each shift all workers had to get tested for the virus before walking into the building and then, once confirmed negative, had to put on specific medical gowns, gloves and two layers of face masks. Thankfully my Mom never got the coronavirus but she did come in contact with some of her patients who ended up having the virus on multiple different occasions. After the fourth scare with her patients she decided that she couldn’t go to work anymore with everything going on because it only put her and my Dad at unnecessary risk. 

Here are a few pictures of me, my family and my pets with a little information about each!(:

This is a picture of me and Bri after “graduating.” Because of corona we didn’t get to have an actual graduation but we didn’t mind because we got to decorate our caps together and go take pictures together by the beach (even though it was super hot and we were exhausted and miserable).

This is my cat, Maggie. When we rescued her her name was Lainie, which is my nickname, so we had to change it and since she’s technically my brothers cat he decided Maggie would be perfect for her. When we first got her I was honestly slightly afraid of her because she looks like a cat we had when I was a child who scratched all the skin off my knee and shin when I was 6. Now, though, her and I have a mutual respect for one another in the sense that we pet/bump into each other for a couple seconds when we want a little love and other than that we just leave each other alone. She’s 8 years old and she swings wildly between never shutting up while doing everything she can to get in your way and completely ignoring your existence or napping all day.

This is my sweet girl, Bella. She’s basically my Mom’s entire world because after my Mom had her total knee replacement it was this angel who kept her company when everyone was at school or work. She’s considered a standard size Pomeranian and she looks like it too. Bella is 13 years old but she’s always been very calm and she’s always more than ready to take a nap or chill next to you while you work. She does, however, have a nasty habit of booty bumping your head off your pillow while you sleep so she can have it.

This is my beautiful girl Dixie, but most of the time everyone calls her Bug (I tend to call her my little pumpkin seed). She’s technically a teacup Pomeranian, she’s just a very cute, very plump teacup. This little one is 4 years old and she’s absolutely crazy. She’s always got a ridiculous amount of energy and all but demands attention 100% of the time and will, without fail, smack you in the face repeatedly if you don’t pet her.

And lastly here’s a picture of the whole family (Bri’s been adopted by the fam in every way except legally). In this picture we were celebrating my Mom’s 63rd birthday and also kind of celebrating my Dad’s 64th which was the following week (Halloween).

The tall goblin looking one in the green shirt is my brother Clayton. In the back with the purple shirt looking not excited to have his picture taken is my dad Kevin. Next to my Dad in the pink tank top looking super stoked about her birthday is my mom Denise. In the white shirt, in the midst of laughing, is me. The little head in the front there, the one forcing us all to take a million and two pictures is my sister Rachel. Then, last but certainly not least, the one in the jacket is Bri, my best friend of roughly 7 years.

I feel that as you follow with me through my Covid journey you should know the nicknames of them all in case I use those instead of their names when talking about them.

Claytons nickname is Slender-man. I gave him that nickname because he’s 6’2” and extremely skinny because his metabolism moves at the speed of light. He doesn’t take offense to it but if he did that’s fine because he may be taller than me but I’m still the older sister and my job is to bully him a bit.

Rachels nickname is Goliath. She got that one because, like her twin brother, she’s tall, 5’10” (she’ll say 5’9” but the Doctors said no). Mostly though she got it because I’m jealous of her height and she hates it so as the big sister it is my duty to make fun of her. She knows I’m just messing with her because at the end of the day she’s my built in best friend (don’t worry we hated each other up until two years ago).

Moms nickname is just Mama (or ma’am) because she would smack me upside the head with a broom or wooden spoon if I called her anything else. 

Dads nickname 90% of the time is Pops and sometimes, when he’s being his usual chaotic/funny self, it’s psychopath or weirdo.

Bris nickname is Bee or Bee Marie for the family, and occasionally I call her that as well. I tend to call her Princess or Babe for the sole reason we like to mess with people. Back home her and I spent literally every single day together and people were convinced we were a couple, even though nothing we did was even remotely “couple-y.”