Day 56 - Governor Newsom imposes new restrictions

L’s color-coded chart…it doesn’t look exactly like this, BUT you get the idea…

Sunday. 1/10/21

9:00 – 9:30 - I’m up and I go downstairs to greet the dog.  She’s on the couch, taking a nap.  I say good morning, rub her tummy three times, and outside we go.  I note that she pooped on the patio.  She goes potty (on the red rocks again) and I clean up the dog poop.  Inside for rotten chicken and coffee.

I get dressed today. Covid-19 uniform.

Downstairs and I have kitchen duty – I left everything last night so I could finish designing my classes.  L. is going to the store today (Yay!), so I clean out the refrigerator and pantry, then take inventory and do my meal planning.

When I look out my window, I see that the gazebo canopy has disintegrated and one section is actually hanging in tatters.  In fact, there is no canopy – it looks like a bunch of rags are covering my patio.  Great.

I go to work.

9:30-10:30 – First things first.  L. is leaving at 12:30 to do the food shopping so I need to prepare a grocery list.  I had the idea of preparing a “Master” grocery list, containing all the food items that we typically eat, on my computer.  This way, whenever L. does a food run, I will simply pull the “Master” grocery list, compare it to my inventory, and line-through the items we don’t need. Adding a few new ingredients to the computerized list, depending on which dinners I’ll be preparing, will only take 2 to 3 minutes from this point forward.

I finish the list.  Although it took me an hour, this was solely due to the fact that this month was my first time preparing the Master grocery list.  It will never take that long again.

10:30-12:30- I record the Audio-Syllabus for my Monday-2:30 class, using the same background music as I did with “the class that did not run” – Mariah Carey’s Auld Lang Syne on a continuous loop.  This takes  around 40 minutes.  Then, I prepare the ‘Welcome’ email and check the Syllabus one more time.  I also go through the Canvas shell and make sure everything is ready.

-To L.’s room so she can airdrop the file into Canvas.

-I should mention that yesterday L. invited me into her room to view a ‘thing of beauty’ that she created two days ago.  I’ve mentioned about 10,000 times that L. is an artist…tacked to her bulletin board were three, color-coded, overlapping charts that she compiled herself in an attempt to establish, once and for all, which classes in which categories she needs to complete in order to transfer to a UC and to obtain her AA Degree.

If you’ve ever attended college – especially junior college – you know it’s a bitch trying to figure out exactly which classes you need to get the hell out of junior college while simultaneously obtaining your AA Degree. There are categories A-F, containing multiple classes, some of which fulfill multiple categories – like a “twofer” (a two-for-one) - and students need a class from A and a class from F and everybody needs a science WITH a lab and it’s a f—king nightmare.  Inevitably, students end up duplicating their classload by accidentally taking classes they never needed or finding out at the 11th hour that they didn’t fulfill their math requirement.

L., using multiple catalogs and guides, and opening 20 tabs online in order to cross-check, cracked the Rosetta stone.  She has completed 48 units. She is currently taking 15 units for 5-week Wintersession. She will need 6 units for Spring Semester. She will finish in June. She will transfer to a UC as junior.  She will obtain an AA Degree in Art. 

As a result of her careful analysis, L. dropped her Biology class, her Biology Lab, and her Communications class. She doesn’t need them because she already fulfilled those requirements last semester. L. figured this out after she completed her color-coded college requirement project.

I get a little misty-eyed when I look at L.’s charts.  Her organizational skills, time efficiency strategies, and general productivity…it was like looking at myself…but a much better version of myself.  L. is me, but better. When I was 19, I had no idea what I was doing, but L., at 19, is very focused. I said, “I’m proud of you, L.”  Too bad I can’t hug her…she might have Covid.

12:30 – 1:00 – I ‘publish’ the Canvas shell and send a “Welcome” email blast.

1:00-4:00 - Last night, B. offered to buy a pizza and come over around 6:00. Would you believe the interior Xmas decorations are still up? I just can’t have that.  I have steamed carrots (what else? we’re down to bare bones here) because I haven’t eaten all day and my energy is lagging.

L. returns with the groceries, but I don’t have time to help her unpack because I’m in the midst of taking everything down.  At least I cleaned out the fridge and pantry.  Side Bar: A few weeks ago, L. organized our entire spice shelf.  It looks amazing and we were finally able to determine which spices we use the most and what we should buy, so we stocked the spices.

I take down ALL of the Xmas decorations, cull through what we’re no longer using and discard, then pack everything in our storage bins. I devise a more efficient way to store everything and free up an entire bin.  It’s old and disgusting so I throw the bin in the trash. I dust and Windex the entire downstairs, then sweep the floors.

4:00 – 5:00 - Everything’s done and I’m exhausted. I had hoped to replace my gazebo canopy today, but there is no time. I do, however, have time to record the Audio-Syllabus for my Monday-6:00-9:00 class.  I set everything up and record lecture, then ask L. to airdrop it.  My “Welcome” email is ready.

5:00-6:00 – B. will be here shortly so I start un-braiding my hair and putting on make-up. I might have had a glass of champagne. :-)

6:30-8:45 - B. is here with PIZZA!!  My favorite!!  I have three pieces and B. and I talk politics.  L. is making a cheese board for herself and is not interested.

8:45 – 9:00 - I excuse myself so I can “publish” the 6:00 p.m. class and send the “Welcome” email blast to the students.

9:00 – 1:00 - More talking, then B. and I go upstairs and watch The Wilds.  It is so good that we end up watching until 1:00 in the morning!  This is way past B.’s bedtime, because he goes to bed at a normal hour and is not a vampire, like me.

L. and R. are watching Kobra Cai together, via their phones.

I still have to record the Chapter 1 Lecture for my 6:00 class tomorrow so I pin L. down and ask her, specifically, what time tomorrow works best for her when it’s time to airdrop my lecture. I say I will work around her schedule. L. is going to the art studio tomorrow, but says she can airdrop it at 11:30. No problem.  I plan my day accordingly and will get up at 9:00 to ensure my recording is ready at 11:30. Spoiler alert – tomorrow proves disastrous…stay tuned.

B. leaves.

1:00-1:30 – Night time ritual. Bed.