Day 1 - Governor Newsom rescinds restrictions - Outdoor dining reinstated!

L’s 3D project… all of these shapes were created from cardboard…

The recall effort for Governor Newsom is chugging along.  This means drastic measures must be taken so what does the Governor do?  The “shelter-in-place” order is rescinded and restaurants are open for outdoor dining. Nail and hair salons are also open.  There!  That should do it!  The Governor forecasts that Covid-19 cases will continue to steadily drop so, hey, we can open up now.  Never mind that Southern California hospitals are at 0% capacity and some of the hospitals had to convert their gift shops to ICU rooms.  Additionally, all but three counties in California are in “purple” tier, which means “widespread” when you check California’s “Blueprint for a Safer Economy.”

There was an outcry among health care workers regarding the Governor’s decision to open restaurants and some Californians are demanding to see the data that Governor Newsom is relying upon to make his decisions. Spoiler Alert:  there is no data.  The Governor has political aspirations that involve a stint in the White House and he can’t afford a recall – otherwise, he might never be President. He had no choice but to open restaurants and “self-care” facilities in order to appease the Chamber of Commerce, small business owners, and the Republican minority in the Golden state. It may be too late, even though his public approval rating was 60% last month. Expect it to start dropping rapidly this month.

Monday. 1/25/21

9:30 – 10:00 - Up and I stay in bed and listen to The Daily. Then, downstairs so I can say good morning to the animal. She’s awake and wagging her tail, waiting for me.  Outside and I see she pooped on the patio.  I clean it up, she goes potty, then back inside for her treat.  I heat up my coffee and return to my bedroom.

10:00-11:30 – I finish The Pregnancy Project, a referral from L.

I’m not sure how I feel about this experiment. The author is 17 who decides to fake a teen pregnancy for her senior project. She lives in Toppenish, Washington and goes to a high school where Latina teen pregnancies are all too common.  Gaby was born when her mother was 35-years-old.  Before Gaby was born, her mother had, years before, given birth to seven children: three girls and four boys:

At age 14, Gaby’s mother became pregnant with her first child and dropped out of school, eventually marrying the father.  She proceeded to have 6 more children, and almost all of them either got knocked up or knocked a girl up while still in high school. The oldest daughter was 17 when she got pregnant and dropped out of high school. Gaby’s brother was 17 when his teenage girlfriend became pregnant; then, he had two more children with another girlfriend. Gaby’s youngest brother impregnated his girlfriend in high school and they went on to have three more children, but at least they’re still together. Her second oldest sister dropped out of high school and married at age 19 – two weeks later she discovered she was pregnant.  Jessica, the baby of the family (age 16), ran away to Mexico with her boyfriend, but came back alone and pregnant. Genaro, yet another brother, while not involved in a teen pregnancy, became an alcoholic and rolled over on his 28-day-old daughter in a drunken slumber, thereby smothering her.

Gaby is born after the above train wreck, when her mother is 35.  She was seeing Gaby’s father for a couple of months, when he decided to end the relationship.  He didn’t find out she was pregnant until a year after Gaby was born and has had almost no relationship with her since..

It is in the wake of these teen pregnancies and tragedies that Gaby decides to fake a pregnancy with her boyfriend, Jorge, for her high school senior project. Only the principal and a member of the Senior Project Committee at her high school knew about the deception.  Gaby also told her mother and one older sister – Jorge wasn’t allowed to tell anyone the truth and was verbally pummeled by his parents and friends for (allegedly) knocking Gaby up.

The ruse lasts 4 months and throughout most of it Gaby is treated like a pariah by her brothers, sisters, and friends.  The teachers, to their credit, are concerned and try to be supportive.  The “reveal” occurs at a school assembly and everyone is shocked; several students feel deceived.  Meanwhile, 5 pregnant teens are supposedly in the audience, but there is not much said about how Gaby’s experiment affected them or how they felt after Gaby admits her entire pregnancy was a lie.  Gaby’s main ‘take away’ seems to be shock at all the shit-talking that went on behind her back when she was “pregnant.” 

Lukewarm recommendation.  This is a YA memoir and reads like it’s written by a 17-year-old [which is fine], although a ghost writer was also involved.

11:30-1:00 –Blog post.  I have one “Do-Si-Do” Girl Scout cookie.

1:15 -2:00 – Shower. Blow dry hair. Lotion. Covid-19 uniform.

2:00 – 2:30 - I go to work.  Last Monday was MLK Day and school didn’t run so today is actually the second day of class for the Spring Semester.  Some of my students are still a little confused and I field emails.

2:30-5:35 – Core Class starts.  I have rice and a ‘bean bun’ from L.’s dim sum leftovers.

-One student emails me in real time complaining that my voice is muffled in the PSA and she can barely hear me even though the volume on her computer is as high as it goes.  Yes, for whatever reason, during a 10-minute PSA, my voice is muffled at minutes 8 and 9.  Out of 40 students in the class, she is the only student to complain.  I reply, “Yes, throughout the semester there will be issues with the audio.  This is due to the fact that I don’t have professional recording equipment.  A few suggestions: 1) Try earphones; 2) Try air pods; 3) Try ear buds.  Students have reported great success with these alternatives.” I never hear from her again.

-I get about 3 emails the entire class period.  After a year of virtual education, the students are acclimated to distance learning and have no questions.  This is what I envisioned when I started recording my lectures so many months ago. I’ve finally ‘arrived.’

-I take the time to work on my Distance Education class that I’m taking through College No. 2.  My adjunct salary is actually tied to my lecture hours – this is when I actually earn my money – so it stands to reason that I would perform a separate activity and “double-dip” during the hours I’m “lecturing.”

Regarding the DE course, in order to move onto Module 4, I have to create a “class matrix” for 11 chapters or ‘modules.’ It’s as difficult as it sounds and I am not going to get my DE certificate anytime soon, unfortunately. Creating the matrix is a laborious process, but I would like to submit the assignment today so I can get out of Module 3.

-3:30 – Upstairs and I finish blow drying my hair.  N. arrives to help L. with a huge project that is due by midnight in her 3D Foundation class.  She has to create multiple shapes out of cardboard and then decorate them. OMG.

3:45 –4:10 -  I take the dog for a short walk.  It’s been raining off and on and there is nothing to do in the yard today. L. has still not forwarded me the Google slides for tonight’s 6:00 class even though I gave her the itinerary and due dates 2 weeks ago.  She takes a break from her project to prepare the slides. I’ve asked that the slides be delivered to me on Sunday night, in preparation for my Monday 6:00 p.m. class, but she is preparing them now, at the 11th hour.  I know L. is super busy this semester…

4:10-5:35 – Back to my DE course and I continue working on the matrix.

-Core Class ends.

-I check on N. and L. and it looks like a cardboard bomb went off in the kitchen.  They’ve made several squares and triangles and now they’re working on the largest project – a soccer ball-like thing comprised of several small hexagons. I find some wallpaper remnants from a project I was working on several years ago and give them to L. – maybe she can wrap the shapes with some of the wallpaper pieces?

5:35 – 6:00 – I update attendance and post the Canvas shell for Specialty Class 1A.  The census is due so I submit that, too. I review the slides L. created and request a few tweaks – she makes the changes and I post just in time.

6:00-9:05 – Specialty Class 1A starts.

-I’ve had almost all of these students before and they know what to do.  Sometimes adjunct instructors actually have “groupies”, similar to the “Deadheads” fan base for the Grateful Dead rock group. There are no emails from the students so I continue working on the matrix from my DE class.

In the middle of class, a student whom I know and like, corrects me on an error I made during the pre-recorded lecture.  I don’t like the fact that I made a mistake, but the correction is gentle and he complements the class format and podcast – he also likes my audio/music clips.  I send an email blast to the students (there are 19 in this class) with the course correction and the student emails again, this time recommending a book that he recently read about the issue at hand.  The book sounds interesting so I go to my library website and order it – I find a ‘large print’ copy which I’m really happy about [I’m old]. It’ll arrive in a couple of days.

-Continue working on the matrix in my DE class.

-Specialty Class 1A ends and a student emails me after it’s over, telling me how much she enjoyed the format, saying that it helped her stay engaged and interested in the course content.  It was a really nice email and I like hearing the feedback, especially if it’s positive.

-L. and N. leave to pick up food from Solitas. L. buys N. dinner to repay him for his help.

9:00-9:30 – I update the attendance. N. leaves. L. continues working on the 3D project.

9:30-11:30 – I continue working on my matrix.

11:30 – 12:00 – I check on L.’s progress and the cardboard shapes look great!  She painted the “soccer ball” object black and wrapped some of the other shapes in the wallpaper remnants. Then, she made a triangle and square out of colored construction paper and painted black designs on it. I pulled a white fluffy throw and helped L. arrange all the objects on the blanket and lifted the other part as a backdrop so the objects appeared to be surrounded by a white background, just like the old Sears photo studios did when people used to schedule photos for their kids. I felt like an artist’s assistant!

12:00-2:00 – I finish the matrix and submit! I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I have some noodles from L.’s left over dim sum.

2:00-2:45 – Kitchen duty. I prepare lunch and breakfast for tomorrow and ready my “bike bag.”

2:45-3:30 – I lay out my clothes for tomorrow.  Night time routine. Bed.