Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts

2020 Mood

 

1. Oh man, Monday was the worst. Ellie, our Golden Retriever, was spayed last week (oh man, trying to keep her calm for two weeks, even with medication, is HARD) but was showing signs of a UTI, so I had to deal with the vet. I also had a huge mix up to sort out with my doctor and two pharmacies, and then a missing credit card (I found it). Then, to top it off, when I went to unclog the pool vacuum I found a field mouse in the suction hole that I then had to pry out (with several layers of plastic covering my hands, don't worry). None of this is catastrophic, I know, but all in one day was super annoying. (and we still don't know if she has a UTI because we're waiting for test results... aughhhhh.... she was basically housebroken before but now has to go out every 90 minutes so she doesn't have an accident). 

2. California is basically entirely under revised stay-at-home orders now, since COVID cases are skyrocketing, and I saw the best tweet. It said, "if the stay at home orders that are coming are going to massively change the way you've been living your social life lately, it's quite likely you're the reason we're going to get more stay at home orders." SO TRUE. I hate it when a few bad kids ruin it for the class (and by "a few" I mean millions).

3. Another great tweet: "the entire education system is built on unpaid teacher overtime." This basically sums up this first semester perfectly. 

4. I like to go to work on Fridays, sine I don't have synchronous teaching, just so I can get some alone time to focus on planning and grading. Because of the rise in cases in our district's personnel and the area in general, they've stopped letting us go. Trying not to cry....

5. I signed up for a Zoom visit with Santa through a company called Jingle Ring and after the fact saw that a lot of people had trouble with their visits (as in Santa not showing up), so I didn't tell Sawyer until we received several email confirmations and then the visit link the day of. And, guess what? After twenty minutes of watching their warm up programming they ended the visit without Santa. I was livid as I watched my six-year-old put his teary face down in his hands and say his "heart was broken." He then ran out of the room, threw his Santa hat on the floor, and went to his room. Luckily he calmed down quickly and bought my story that it wasn't Santa's fault, just the company he uses to get online. Jingle Ring refunded me and gave me a comp code for a new visit, but I'm just still SO mad that they're screwing up so many experiences in a year where kids have been repeatedly let down. 

6. I've been trying to do something Christmas-y with Sawyer every day, even if it's just something small like reading a holiday book of drawing Santa pictures. I know if he was in-person school he'd be doing tons of activities, so I'm trying to compensate at least a little. His school is working with a company that does art lessons, so for only $10 I can pick up a kit for a project today and they'll send me the link to walk him through it tomorrow. I love it! I don't really have to do anything!