Day 14-Monkey Pox is the new pandemic

L. and I had lunch at Tartine today…

Patio at Tartine…

Me…

8/17/23. Wednesday

7:45-L. leaves for work at The Club.

-8:30-9:30-Up and I take the dog outside. Cheese for her, coffee for me. I go upstairs and grade the last Extra Credit assignment for College No. 2. Then, I scan it to the student and post his grade.

9:30-10:50-bullet journal.

10:50-12:40-I listen to Audio lecture Chapter 8 - Part I - and note the edits for L. The slide count is off for this lecture so L. will have to do some minor voiceovers, like “Slide 7” or “Slide 13.” I’m also working on yet another revision concerning my Chapter 2 Audio lecture simultaneously - I need to post it next week.

I play Audio Lecture 8-Part II at double speed and note the edits for L. Slides are off for this lecture as well and she will have to dub in the correct numbers. While Audio lecture - Part II is playing, I switch to College No. 2 and compile grades for Online Class No. 1. Grades are due on Friday but I don’t like to wait until the last minute. I update Attendance, make a cover sheet, then scan grades for Online Class No. 1 to Admissions and Records. Grades are officially submitted for this class. My work here is done.

12:30-1:30-Shower. Lotion. Light make-up. Garden Society Member attire. I wear a spaghetti strap, knee-length, sundress today.

1:30-2:30-L. returns from work and we leave for Tartine. I didn’t realize this restaurant was all the way in Santa Monica. I’m not a fan of driving over an hour, in bad traffic, simply for lunch - this is stupid. I tell L. that we’re going to hit rush-hour traffic on the return home. She says simply, “I know.” Very irritating.

2:30-4:00-Arrive at Tartine. The format for this restaurant is “cafeteria style” where you order at the counter and then waitstaff brings your food. I order a “Morning Bun Latte” and the tuna sandwich. L. gets the Tomato Bruschetta on Toast. We sit outside because it’s nice and cool here and the patio area resembles a beautiful mini-backyard. Unfortunately, there are wasps and flying insects all over the place. My “Morning Bun Latte” is too sweet, but I eat most of my tuna sandwich, sans bread -it’s fresh and very good.

4:00-5:30 - Drive home and traffic is absolutely horrible and grid-locked. I’m not doing this again.

-L. and I agree to meet at 1:00 a.m. which is when I think I’ll be finished editing the final lectures for Specialty Class 1A. Once the edits are done [eleven Audio Lectures], this project is complete.

6:00-12:00 - I go to work (in my home office)

-I check email at College No. 1. Today, I received the official Request for Accommodations from the OSD Department for that crazy OSD bitch. Policy dictates that when Instructors receive the Request for Accommodations, they are to address the “contract” and touch base with the student ASAP.

This f—-king bitch has TWENTY accommodations; for context, the largest number of accommodations I’ve ever seen in a Request is five and that’s a rarity. Most OSD students have two basic requests: 1) a notetaker [I’m supposed to assign a fellow student to take and share their OWN notes with the OSD kid while the OSD student does nothing; and 2) more time on the tests.

This ain’t my first rodeo. All of the pertinent and important information for my classes is posted on the Google slides that I’ve created for each Module and I’ve discussed this workaround with Dr. LL many years ago; notetaker DENIED! Also, increased test time is already built into the quizzes as I discussed in my previous posts; additional test time DENIED!!

HOWEVER, this bitch has TWENTY accommodations that must be provided for in accordance with state and federal law. Can we say lawsuit? I sit in silence and compile an email explaining how I plan to address every accommodation, then I send the email and cc Dr. LL, the OSD Dean. This takes a ridiculous amount of time.

-Once I’m done, I play Audio lecture - Chapter 9 [the longest one in the series (2 hours)] on double speed, noting the edits.

-I compile grades for Online Class No. 2 at College No. 2, update Attendance, make a cover sheet, then scan everything to Admissions and Records. Grade submission is complete for my second online course as well.

-I’m supposed to keep student records for 6 years. While Chapter 9 - Audio lecture is playing in the background, I go thru my mini -magazine racks, where I store Attendance/Records, and discard materials from 2014-2016. It feels great to dump this shit.

-I record PSAs for three Modules for Specialty Class 1A.

-I play the Audio lecture - Chapter 7 and note the edits for L.

-While it’s playing, I tighten up the Modules, in accordance with the Syllabus, in preparation for the remaining 14 weeks of the semester.

-I start playing the Chapter 10 Audio Lecture.

-I check email at College No. 1.

-The Chapter 10 Audio Lecture has a lengthy podcast embedded in it - I finish noting the edits fairly quickly.

-I HAVE to get a workout in so will need to listen to the last chapter [Audio lecture - Chapter 11] tomorrow.

12:30-1:15-I do a 30-minute, HIIT, Insanity Max - Sweat workout.

1:30-3:00-L. Is ready and she makes the edits for four of the Audio lectures referenced above. I try doing my own voice over - “Chapter 13” - but my voice sounds rapid fire, like a machine gun. This is reminiscent from a podcast that L. and I used to listen to when she was a little girl, where the host says the words “Georgio’s Pizza” really fast. L. and I never failed to laugh during that part of the podcast. As children often do, she asked me to play this particular podcast repeatedly, whenever we were in the car, so we must have heard it well over 50 times. L. does the rest of the voiceovers and we laugh hysterically throughout as she makes the “dubs.” I ask L. If she thinks we will look back on this moment fondly in the years to come. She says...no.

-L. finishes the edits and e-mails the PSAs and lectures to me. Did I mention that I’m paying L for her services? This work doesn’t involve design so she is billing me her $20 hourly rate instead of her standard $30.

3:30-4:00-I try to load the Audio lectures into the Canvas shell and HORROR OF HORRORS!!! all of the files are corrupted and won’t load, EXCEPT for three PSAS and the Chapter 4 - Audio lecture. If I’m unable to load these files into Canvas there will be no Audio lectures for the students!!! Thankfully, the Audio lectures will, in fact, play on my desktop, complete with all the edits. That’s something.

L is barely awake when I knock on her bedroom door and ask what she thinks the problem might be??? She doesn’t know but says she might be able to airdrop the lectures from my Ipad-mini to HER laptop, then drag them into Canvas that way.

4:00-4:30-As an experiment, I play the shortest lecture - Chapter 8-Part I - on my desktop, while recording it on my Ipad-mini. I go upstairs while the lecture is recoding.

4:30-5:30 - Nighttime routine. I check the lecture and it successfully recorded into my Ipad-mini. Hopefully, L. can airdrop the lecture from my Ipad into her laptop, and we can post to Canvas from there. Fingers crossed. Bed.