Day 32 of the California quarantine
My diffuser…
4/20/20 - Monday
8:45 – the dog starts barking so I go downstairs and let her out. Is this starting to sound like Groundhog Day yet?
9:30-12:00 – I go back to bed
12:00-1:00 – I drink a 16-oz Hydroflax of lemon water and read The Queen Must Die.
1:00-2:00 – I get dressed – no shower today – and open the windows in my bedroom to air it out. I also start the defuser and add Lavender essential oil. I notice that the window sills are dirty and clean two of them. I have my coffee and read more of The Queen Must Die. I eat the last of the Greek yogurt that I batched previously. I start a barbecue chicken dish in the crock pot.
2:00-4:15 – I return everything to my office and set it up the way it was prior to the repairman coming on Saturday. I get to work, telecommuting, fielding emails from my students, updating assignments and online classes (side hustle), and working on investigative tasks and reports from my state job (main career). I coordinate a conference call / interview for tomorrow for my state job. I listen to The Daily podcast, BBC World Service, Skimm This and Start Here.
4:15-5:15 – L. and I attend a Webinar for the college she’s allegedly going to in August – The New School in New York. L. is an artist. At the end of the Webinar, I’m just as confused as ever and still don’t know the bottom line for the cost of tuition.
5:30-6:00 – I have a spinach salad with zucchini, carrots, cubed cheese, tomatoes, boiled eggs, EVOO, and sea salt. I read more of The Queen Must Die.
6:00-7:00 p.m. – I go on a 2-mile bike ride – I go a little bit further than yesterday. I don’t mask.
7:00-7:30 p.m. – I walk the dog and listen to PBS News hour segments podcasts. I mask.
8:00-9:00 p.m. – I start loading an online Final to the Canvas platform for one of my other classes – same thing, 50 questions, and 4 multiple-choice answers each. This is the last Final. I listen to the Global News podcast.
9:00-9:30 – the chicken is done so I make a corn tortilla street taco adding in L.’s sweet potato mix from a few nights ago. I have one regular potato left that’s starting to go, so I microwave it and split it with L. – I tell her to top it with the chicken and set everything out to make it easy for her. I eat my half of the baked potato with butter and sea salt. I don’t usually like eating a carb or starch this late at night but the potato tastes great!
9:30-10:30 – I finish the Final. While I input, I try to complete a mandatory online training for my other job, but the website keeps crashing. I listen to Crime Junkie while I work.
10:30-12:30 – I adjust my lecture, adding notations, for Specialty Class No. 1, and add some relevant audio and video clips. I get everything ready – I have like 10 tabs open to include music and a sound effect that I use for every PP slide so students know when to advance – then I record the lecture. I call them “poli-sci podcasts.” I teach four classes – one is combined – and they vary in length. This one is 3 hours, but I usually supplement with a video and I already posted the video link to Canvas. Lecture takes 1 hour and 45 minutes, but I spend some time editing my notes and PP slides to reflect tonight’s changes for next semester.
12:30-1:30 – L. and I watch Surviving R. Kelly
2:00-3:00 a.m. – I’m an essential worker and have work tomorrow although our Chief has directed us to work from home as much as possible. I food prep for tomorrow and clean the kitchen. I make double helpings (batching) of Greek plain yogurt, diced apples, honey, and walnuts for breakfast and a salad with spinach, zucchini, cubed cheese, cherry tomatoes that I cut into smaller pieces to bulk up the salad, carrots, EVOO, and sea salt. I cut up a few apple slices to eat with my jar of almond butter if I get hungry. I add a peanut butter cookie from a batch I made last week and a few pieces of orange-infused dark chocolate. I prepare my coffee and store it in the fridge. I graze on the macaroni and cheese I made the other day and scoop it with plain Tostitos while I’m prepping my lunch. I listen to The Slow Home podcast.
3:00-3:30 a.m. – I unload some packages that arrived today, break down the boxes, and put everything away: 4 cans of sugar (bags of sugar weren’t available so I had to buy cans); 2 tubes of sunless tanning lotion; 2 bottles of Advil; a 16 inch picture frame; and a barbecue lighter in case the pilot light goes out on my water heater.
3:30-4:00 a.m. – I think I’ll have some down time tomorrow and prepare the materials I’ll need for my French assignment due on Wednesday – maybe I can get some of it done at work? Then, I try to finish the same online training I was working on previously, but the last segment fails to load, even after I’ve already completed 1.5 hours previously. The “portal” crashes and I lose all of my work. I prepare some light mail-out correspondence for my state job tomorrow and add tasks to my ‘to-do’ list. Most of my work can be done via telecommute but there are a few ‘essential’ tasks that have to be done at the office-I want to make sure I don’t leave anything out since I only go in once a week.
4:00-4:30 a.m. – I do my nightly routine and go to bed.