Day 9 - Teachers are eligible for the vaccine.

Starting point…bike path behind the Bridgeport lake…

3/9/21. Tuesday. Spring Break at College No. 1 - I have to get some work done this week.

8:15 – 8:45 - Why do I do this to myself? I’m not one to spring out of bed – I just can’t – so I usually set my alarm with 45 minutes to an hour of transition time if I have an activity scheduled in the morning. I listen to The Daily.

8:45-9:00 – Up and I go downstairs to greet the animal.  She’s really out of it – too early for her. I rub her tummy three times, but she still won’t get up, so I have to rub it a fourth time. Then we go outside and she does her business. Nice day!

9:00- 10:00 - Treat for her, grab my coffee, and run upstairs to jump in the shower.  I listen to Best of Both Worlds. Shower. Wash and blow dry hair. Lotion. Bike uniform. Sunscreen. Light make-up. I put my bike shoes on, put the snacks I made last night in my bike bag, fill my Hydroflask, and leave.

10:00-12:00 – B. is outside with his bike.  We go on a 2-hour bike ride, starting with the bike path behind the lake in my community, then crossing at Newhall Ranch Road and continuing with the bike path behind the Starbucks and parallel to Soledad Canyon Road. Apparently, it ends at Golden Valley Road, but we don’t make it that far because my legs are starting to give out so I have to turn around at the “wooden bridge.” It’s not like the bike ride is especially hard, but there are a few hills and some of the ride is against the wind.  I stop a couple of times to drink water and eat grapes, apples slices, and pieces of yesterday’s chocolate brownie. Here’s my age-old excuse that I’ve been using since I started riding my bike: “I don’t have gears.”

12:30 – 3:00 - Home and we store our bikes, then go to Starbucks and B. buys me a tall coffee.

-Return and sit on my patio, talking politics.

-L. and N. are here, working on a test together.  N. says he and L. are starting a podcast on Tik Tok and I have lots  of ideas.  Note that I wasn’t asked for any of my ideas, but I start volunteering them anyway.  I suggest the name, “On the Clock with Tik Tok.”  L. and N. politely and gently say, “No.”

3:00 – 4:00 - B. leaves. I heat up some of L.’s tomato/basil soup and start watching Part I of the next movie, Indochine, for my French Cinema class. By 4:00, however, I feel too guilty to continue because I have sooo much work to do so I set it aside.

-L. comes into my office and reads me her rejection email concerning the Getty internship. Stunned, I have no words and can barely respond.  I can’t believe she was rejected!  I was 100% certain she would receive this placement – we bought a wig and everything! L. is not sad…she’s pissed.  Undaunted, she immediately sends an email to the coordinator, professionally asking why she was not selected.

When we check the internship submisson website, L. and I note that the people on the website are all POC…perhaps the Getty didn’t want an Asian student for this internship?  This is a program that encourages diversity, but outside of Korean, there is no other ethnicity L. can “pass” for, other than white, and there are no programs that want white kids anymore…they’re completely excluded from participating.  I guess, currently, the only thing worse than being white is Asian.  This entire internship is conducted on an unfair playing field.  There was no way a 19-year-old, white/Korean female was ever going to be selected. L. didn’t have a chance.

I’m crushed…L. is very angry.

4:00-6:00 – Back to work and I prepare my script for Chapter 7 in the Specialty 1A Class and compare it to my PP slides. L. already did the Google slides for this chapter, but a few have to be revised now.  I select music clips for the script and set up everything for recording.

6:00-7:00 – I make a salad with the leftover lettuce B. gave me on Friday.  I add a few tomatoes and it’s good to go.  I finish In the Shadow. 

This was an excellent memoir!  The author’s childhood was so violent and her drug use so extensive, I can’t quite believe she survived.  She was also bullied in school throughout her entire childhood. This is a book about abject poverty…it really cannot get any worse than what she describes.  At one point, the author is living in a shack with no indoor plumbing, using a hose inserted through a hole in the roof as a shower. She and her husband had to boil water before they drank it. Shortly after giving birth to her first child, the author is feverish and sick – her husband and the father of her child refuses to take her to the doctor and gives her an Echinacea root to chew on instead.  A midwife later tells her she had a uterine infection and that the infection could have killed her.

The author, although born in a “holler”, claws her way out of the Appalachians, and earns an MFA degree and a job teaching at a college. She has two children ( a girl and a boy) along the way and raises them single-handedly. By the end of the book we find that her son has just graduated high school with honors, scholarships, and a college acceptance. Both of her children seem to genuinely love, care, and respect her as a mother based on some of the quotes she provides in the book. Thoroughly recommend!!

7:00-11:30 – B. arrives and we talk politics, then watch I Care A Lot. B. likes it.

-L. surfaces and comes into my room to talk to B. about the Getty rejection. She’s still pissed about it. He confirms/supports her belief that somehow the white patriarchy is involved with the fact that she was NOT selected for this internship.  :-)

11:30 – 12:30 – B. leaves.

I’m exhausted - I think it might be due to the bike ride.  I take the dog out and lock up, leaving dishes in the sink (gasp). Night time routine. Bed.