Day 12 - Los Angeles lifts its vaccine mandate. A vax card is no longer required

Mondays…back-to-back classes today…as usual.

A new study found that the vaccines might cause hearing loss or ringing in the ears; about 367 cases have been reported. Of course, after TEN blood clot cases were reported, the FDA rode in on its white horse of misinformation and cautioned against getting the J&J jab, then banned it altogether. I guess going deaf is not a big deal.

A recent study also finds that people who have contracted Covid are more likely to develop diabetes. Which came first? The chicken or the egg? If you have diabetes, you’re more likely to get Covid.  If you’ve had Covid, you’re more likely to get diabetes. If you’re fat, you’re more likely to get Covid. If you’ve had Covid you’re more likely to get fat [I made that one up (insert smile emoji here)].  This means an obesity epidemic could be on the rise…oh wait…America is already in it.

4/11/22. Monday

6:30-L. Leaves for Otis.

9:30-10:00-I’m awake so I go downstairs to say good morning to the animal. She’s awake and leaning against the child gate at the foot of the stairs, wagging her tail, and waiting for me. When the dog sees me walking down the stairs, she jumps on the ottoman and rolls over on her back so I can start petting her tummy ASAP. I rub her tummy, then sit on the couch next to her and she immediately jumps in my lap for kisses and cuddles. We head outside and I stand around, waiting for the dog to do her business. Return inside and coffee for me; cheese for her. I unload the dishwasher and go upstairs.

10:00-11:30-Shower. I sit in the shower, drink my coffee, and ice my eyes while listening to Reveal, about an episode discussing the huge amount of energy that Bitcoin uses and how it’s affecting climate change. Lotion. I put on “Sexy Librarian” attire: a black blouse with tan piping in the front and a vintage, beige, long skirt from my Mom. This is the same outfit I wore to my high school class, on Thursday. I also listen to Best Laid Plans.

11:30-12:45-I make a batch of scrambled eggs with cheese and microwave steamed rice and frozen vegetables. Then, I coat the artic cod I pulled out yesterday with lemon pepper and bake it. I divide everything into two meals and store in Pyrex.

12:45-1:15-I check email at College No. 1 and deploy course content for my 2:30 class before I leave. The high school student emails me that she got out of school early today and will be attending online, thank god.

“And then there were 10”…

There are only 10 students left in this class now. The majority of the students refused to do their assignments [as of today’s date, 17 Inquizitives are due] and withdrew with a W right before they were scheduled to receive a D or F for the semester.

-I load everything in the car and leave for College No. 1

1:15-2:30 - Driving and I realize I’m almost out of gas. great. I eat the fish, rice, and vegetables I just prepared and listen to the Ezra Klein Show -an episode about the perils of cryptocurrency. I have some orange-infused chocolate for dessert and put my make-up on in the car.

2:30-5:35-Arrive at College No. 1.

-The lone, F2F female students have returned, even though they’ve been attending online for the past two Mondays and are familiar with how the online section of the course is delivered. In other words, there is absolutely no reason to appear F2F at this late date in the semester! They can’t use the excuse that they get more out of the class via interaction because there are only TWO of them in the classroom. Other than the high school student, these two women are the only students who ever bothered to come to class. There is no reason that they should be here, right now, in a brick-and-mortar classroom.

Fuck It... I play the lecture that I recorded last night.

It’s a surreal experience hearing my voice giving the lecture while I’m sitting there advancing the slides and working on other tasks, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to physically lecture to TWO students when the remaining students are ONLINE listening to the pre-recorded lecture. I grade the Extra Credit assignments for my upcoming 6:00 class and press the button to advance the slides whenever I hear the harp sound effect from my pre-recorded lecture. I don’t bother looking up…I just keep grading papers and pressing “Next” as my own voice drones on.

As an aside, one of the students masks, the other doesn’t. The student who does NOT mask is the student who contracted Omicron last month, which resulted in the class going fully online for a 10-day period. The irony is that the class was ALREADY fully online, except for “Patient 0”, the highschooler, and the other female student.

4:00-5:30-It’s time for the documentary. I push play and continue grading the extra credit assignments.

5:30-Class dismissed. I post the Discussion Board and course content for my 6:00 class, along with two video clips that I want them to watch.

5:45-7:00-I leave, stop by the Chevron and put in just $10 because gas is $5.95 a gallon at this gas station, and drive home. I eat the rest of my fish and more orange-infused chocolate. I listen to Organized 365 and The Productive Woman.

7:00-8:00 - Home and I scan the extra credit assignments for my 6:00 class, post the grades to the online grade book, and return the papers to the students via email.

-I take Attendance for both classes.

8:00-9:00-It’s time for the documentary. When I post the Video Quiz, one of my female students kindly emails me that the dates are from 2021. I fix it within two minutes and thank the student. Mind you, this is the first time in the semester where the dates were off on any of the assignments. Ten minutes after I make the change one of my male students weighs in and emails me the following: “There’s a problem with the quiz. The dates are wrong and I’m assuming it’s because you forgot to change them. Please fix this now.” Can you imagine? Talking to a teacher like that? What an asshole! AND it was already corrected 10 minutes ago. I respond: “Please return to the Video Quiz. It’s ready for you to take at 8:30.”

9:00-10:30 - I take this time to TRY to get to “Inbox Zero” with my personal emails and I’m able to delete 1000 emails during this time period. I have Organized Money videos playing in the background.

-Tomorrow is the first day of my spring City Hiking Group so I check my email to see where we’re meeting. Oh no! It’s Golden Ranch, a near vertical mountain! There’s no way I can do a workout tonight if I want to have the physical capacity to hike Golden Ranch tomorrow.

10:30-11:00 - L. returns from Otis and starts working on a collage for an upcoming project. Since I rarely see L., I have her sign the new DMV Transfer of Title paperwork immediately. I bring in my trash cans.

11:00-12:00 - Kitchen duty and I ready my coffee and pack a lunch bag. L. brought back some Mexican Wedding Cake cookies from somewhere and says I can have some. They are so good!

12:00-12:30-Nighttime routine. Bed