Day 18 - Governor Newsom rescinds restrictions. Outdoor dining reinstated!

Zoom meetings and webinars today [not my actual colleagues…but might as well be]

2/11/21. Thursday.

9:30 – 10:00 - I’m awake but I lie in bed, listen to The Daily, and drink water from my Hydro. I pull down my suitcase from the laundry room shelf and bring it into my room so I can start packing for my upcoming trip.

10:30 – 11:00 – Downstairs and I say good  morning to the dog.  We go outside and I see that she pooped on the patio.  I clean it up while she goes potty and we return inside – old chicken for her and coffee for me. I take out a pkg. of ground turkey for thawing.

11:00-12:30 – Blog post.  I throw a few items in the suitcase.

12:30-1:30 – I make a spinach salad with tomatoes and boiled egg and read Dead Wake. More items in the suitcase.

1:30 – 2:30 - I need to Zoom into a Dual Enrollment meeting at 2:30 and I still need to get a shower in so I hurriedly take a shower and wash my hair. Lotion. Covid-19 uniform.

2:30 – 2:45 - I planned on braiding my hair but there is no time because I have to Zoom into this meeting. My hair is still wet, but I run downstairs and log on…only to find out that the meeting is actually scheduled for 5:00.  This is not a mistake on my part – the Dual Enrollment coordinator logged it incorrectly into my Outlook Calendar.

2:45-3:15 –I check email at College No. 2 since I’m already in Outlook and I receive an EMAIL FROM A SECOND HIGH SCHOOL LIAISON ASKING ME ABOUT THE CLASS THAT RUNS ON 2/13/21 !!!! I’m sure there must be some mistake.  I have a regular online college class at College No. 2 and ONE high school class through the Dual Enrollment program. I’ve already been in contact with that high school liaison so I am shocked to receive an email from a NEW, SECOND high school liaison.  Could it be that I have yet another high school class for Spring Semester?

I email M., the liaison, and say that I’m pretty sure someone else has this placement – I’m already assigned to a high school.  BUT, M. returns my email immediately and says she spoke to the Dual Enrollment coordinator who confirmed that I have this high school, too!  Was anybody going to tell me?

M. and I end up speaking on the phone and I play the game and pretend that none of this is a problem – I just need the students’ email addresses because they are still not registered in my Canvas shell.  In actuality, it really isn’t a problem because the class is ready to go no matter who’s enrolled.  Yesterday, I worked until the wee hours of the morning to ensure that the Canvas shell was ready and published.  I don’t care who is in it, but it would have been nice to know my high school assignments in advance, not TWO days before the semester starts.

3:15-4:15 – My hair is dry but I still need to braid it.  I run upstairs and braid my hair in multiple sections, dampening each section as I go. More packing. I read Dead Wake as I braid.

4:15-5:00 – I lock the dog inside the house and water all of my plants.

5:00 –I now have two Zoom meetings at 5:00 as a result of the Dual Enrollment 2:30 snafu.  My colleague, J., signed me up as a panelist for a seminar addressing vaccination at College No. 1.  What the hell does a panelist do?  At the same time, I’m supposed to attend the Zoom meeting for Dual Enrollment.

5:00-6:00 -  I phone into the vaccination seminar and do nothing. I Zoom into my Dual Enrollment seminar and just show my black screen.  The question du jour: I just learned I’m teaching at TWO high schools, but there is no Canvas shell for one of them.  What do I do?  Spring Semester starts in two days! The Dual Enrollment Coordinator tells me to talk to my Dean and my Dean’s secretary.

-I immediately send an email to both.

-While both seminars/trainings are ongoing, I check my DE Class to see the next assignment. Oh no.  I have to record a video of myself and post it to Canvas.  How am I going to do that?  Before I can submit the assignment, I have to read through all of the tutorials in Module #7 so I get started.

-The vaccination seminar ends promptly at 6:00 with me having learned nothing about the Covid-19 vaccine.  Why is a political scientist the guest speaker on a medical topic?

-The Dual Enrollment seminar ends around 6:15. 

-6:15-7:00 – More packing.  I’m basically done.  I’m on track for going to bed early tonight.  I can’t quite believe it.

-I’m so glad I took this day off.  No 6:00-9:00 class tonight.  Yay!

7:00-8:00 –The Canvas shell for my regular Core Class is ready to go at College No. 2.  I send a “Welcome” email to the students and launch the class.

-8:00-10:00 – I’m trying out a new recipe – Turkey Burger Salad – so I brown the ground turkey and make the salad and dressing. It came out better than expected and is fairly easy to make.  I think I’ll add it to my rotation of meals. Kitchen duty and I clean out the refrigerator as I’m going out of town for a couple of days. I pack a few snacks for my lunch bag.

10:00-11:00 – I eat dinner and read Dead Wake.

11:30 – 3:00 - L. comes into my room and we talk about her life, future, how her classes are going, her past boyfriends, some politics, etc. She shows me several funny memes on Tik Tok. I may have mentioned this in a previous blog, but L. will be receiving TWO AA Degrees after having gone to school for just 8 months: 1) AA Degree in Humanities; 2) AA Degree in Art. I’m so proud of her and I refer to the chaos that is our current educational system as a “Covid perk.”

3:00-4:00 – Night time routine. Light final packing. Bed.