Day 2 - Governor Newsom imposes new restrictions

Not my patio, but you get the general idea…

Tuesday. 11/17/20.

7:30 - My alarm goes off. Another day. Just one class this morning and the Discussion Prompt is easy so I’m not rushed. Downstairs and I wake up the dog. We go outside and she pooped on the patio. I clean it up, while she does her business. Inside and bacon for her - I have the Peppermint Hot Chocolate that R. brought me from Starbucks last night. What a treat! A better day today.

I need to wash a throw pillow and some towels so start a load of laundry.

8:15 - 10:30 - I go to work. Once I post the prompt, I discover that L. finished the Chapter 9 slides with a mere 24-hour notice! Now I’m in a time crunch…how to post them without waking her up this early in a panic?!! I go to Google Drive and somehow am able to figure out how to post them to Canvas for my 8-week class, with 5 minutes to spare. Great! This will be a nice accompaniment to a rather long, boring lecture.

Today is straight lecture and I think the students basically signed in and then went back to bed. I don’t get any emails from them this morning, which is nice. After signing into the Discussion Board, and with no in-class assignments due, I have no way of knowing if they are even listening. These lectures contain “Midterm/Final Easter eggs”, but maybe they don’t care since I issue a Midterm/Final review sheet the week prior anyway.

I make a cup of coffee and do more work on my “intersectionality” lecture for Specialty Class No. 2. It’s starting to come together, but I’ve really got to get the slides done so L. can re-format them in time for my 2:30 class tomorrow. It’s not fair to dump on her last minute. Unfortunately, I can’t do the slides until the script is written and I’m still writing the script and selecting podcasts to embed into lecture. I’m a little stressed about this one.

I catch up on my blog posts during class time.

10:30-12:30 - I finish my blog posts. All caught up.

12:30-1:30 - I have my yogurt with diced apples and nuts for “brunch” and read Wiving. This is a book about a Mormon woman’s childhood and how her religion and family affected her life and marriage - her mother appears to be suffering from bipolar disorder and depression. The book is written in a series of disjointed childhood incidents but with an interesting prose quality about it. I just started it - so far so good.

1:30-2:30 - Shower. Covid-19 uniform. I listen to Fresh Air.

3:00-3:45 - I take the dog for a walk and we do two laps around the ‘compound.’ Several of my neighbors already have their Xmas lights up! I listen to Reveal.

3:45-5:00 - I have a frozen burrito for lunch and read more of Wiving.

-The carpet/runner I ordered from Amazon weeks ago finally arrived. I unpack it, then lay it down in my office. Looks pretty good.

5:00-8:00 - Three hours of yard work. The yard was buried in leaves and it takes FOREVER to clean out the beds. The trash can is completely filled with leaves. Tomorrow, the yard will probably be covered in leaves again. I water my plants. I listen to True Crime Garage and PBS News Hour segments.

- L. materializes from somewhere??? and says she is leaving to pick up Thai food and that she ordered spring rolls for me!! How nice!! Much appreciated, L.!!

-I finish sweeping the patio. L. returns with the goods.

8:00-9:00 - I eat my spring rolls and read Wiving. I’m 120 pages in. I have a glass of champagne.

9:00-10:00 - I do a 40-min Cardio app. I listen to Today Explained while I work out.

10:00-12:00 a.m. - I go to work. I continue designing my lecture/script for intersectionality. I’m almost done with the script, but I still need to design PP slides and forward everything to L. It’s coming down to the wire.

-Somehow, I can’t quite believe it, I’m able to reserve a ticket for the Huntington Botanical Gardens tomorrow, at 1:00! It truly is a miracle.

12:30-1:45 - I’m starting to fall asleep so I get up and start moving around in order to wake up. I clean the kitchen, give the dog food and water, and pack my lunch for tomorrow. I also prepare my morning coffee.

1:45-2:15 - I post the Discussion Board prompts and make sure class content is ready for my three morning classes tomorrow.

2:15-2:45 - Night time routine. Bed.