Day 12 of Governor Newsom’s “Blueprint for a Safer America”

Stressed about tomorrow’s class…

Tuesday. 9/8/20

10:00 – 11:30 - I get a late start at B.’s because the dog isn’t here and I don’t have to get up.  B. leaves for Starbucks and I take a shower. He returns with McDonald’s pancakes and sausage (gross) for himself and I eat the apple I brought from home with my coffee.

11:30 – 3:30 - B. buys Rebuilding Paradise, the documentary by Ron Howard, per my request - a nice gesture. It’s way overpriced - $15.99 – but an excellent movie, although very sad.

After, B. suggests The Killing of Breonna Taylor and we watch that, too. Another excellent movie.

3:30-5:00 - I leave and return home.  I have the last of the Minestrone soup and read I’m Just Happy.

L. leaves to do four hours of Door Dash.  I take down all of her pertinent information in case she goes missing.

5:30-8:30 – I go to work (enter my home office) and field emails from College No. 2.  I have to prepare an email advising my highschoolers how to set up a MyECC account, so they can access Canvas, so they can sign onto the Discussion Board tomorrow morning, so they can download the course content, so they can basically do everything for the rest of the semester.  This means I have to follow my own instructions and steps, as if I was a student myself, until it’s seamless.  Then, I have to write the directions as simplistically as possible so they don’t feel overwhelmed. 

The fact that we’re moving to another platform – from email to Canvas – when the students finally know exactly what they’re supposed to do with the emailed Audio lectures is exhausting and depressing.  Now, they have to learn something new all over again because this is how long it took College No. 2 to add the students to the Canvas shell. I carefully craft the email with the appropriate directions and send an email blast to the students.  I’m left, yet again, anxiously thinking, “I hope this works.  Will they be able to log onto Canvas tomorrow morning?”

I’m done with work for today.

8:30-9:00 – I take the dog for a walk and drink water along the way.

9:00-12:00 – Food prep.  I clean and chop the celery for snacks, then dice several stalks and half an onion to add to a turkey “meatball” mixture that I’m preparing simultaneously. I prepare a salad for my lunch tomorrow – spinach, tomatoes, zucchini, celery, cheese, EVOO; overnight oats; and coffee. I add spices and tomato sauce to the ground turkey, then mold everything into golf-sized balls and bake them. While the turkey is baking, I spiralize yellow squash into pasta to have with the turkey meat balls – L. and I can eat this for dinner, with marinara sauce, over the next few days.

The kitchen is a disaster and it takes forever to clean it.

I do a load of laundry in the midst of everything.

12:30 – 1:30 – L. and I listen to Radio Rental.

1:30-2:15 – Night time routine. Bed.