Day 2 - LA County Dept. of Health urges masking when indoors

Finished this book today…

6/30/21. Wednesday.

7:00 – L. leaves for Disneyland. My alarm goes off 1-hour later. I weigh 99 pounds today. I can attribute this to the wonderful food I had in Santa Monica. Well worth it.

8:30 – 9:00 - I go downstairs to greet the dog and she’s wide awake and running around. I rub her tummy three times, she grabs her toy, and we go outside. The dog won’t go potty and keeps sniffing the plants instead – maybe L. took her out, but I doubt it. I water my potted jasmine while I’m waiting around.  Then, we’re back at it, with me firmly telling the dog to “Go potty.” She finally complies and we return inside: cheese for her, coffee for me. I go upstairs.

9:00-10:30 – Shower. Wash hair. Lotion. Blow dry hair. Covid-19 uniform. Make-up.

L. texts me updates throughout the day about her Disneyland adventure. We are in the park.

11:00 – 1:30 – Although the Electrician is scheduled for 12:00, he shows up at 11:00 sans mask. He has a partner so I show them the lights I want installed (they need to assemble them first) and return inside, telling them that if they need anything, just knock on the door to the kitchen. I’m not one to hover when contractors are here, but I stay in the kitchen, reading, in case they need something.

L texts, My friends are on a ride – I’m at Downtown Disney. When I respond, Are you alone?, L. texts, Yes, for now. Then, why go with friends at all?

At 11:45, one of the contractor knocks on the door, asks if he can use the bathroom, then proceeds to take a shit in my bathroom!  This is so disgusting!  He’s still not masked.

12:00 – 12:15 - B. arrives to supervise the contractors, but Contractor No. 1 is still in the bathroom. B. sits down next to me, on another bar stool, and we talk for awhile, but all of this is so distracting…   Due to the fact that the contractor is in the house, I am forced to hold the dog because she might attack him when he exits the bathroom.  Additionally, it is now 12:10 and Contractor No. 1, who is doing a No. 2, is still in the bathroom.  I don’t know if I should knock, or check on him, or what.. 25 minutes!!?? And I’ve been holding the dog the entire time…my arms feel like they’re going to fall off. I really can’t focus on my conversation with B. until Contractor No. 1 gets the f—k out of my house.

At 12:15, the contractor exits my bathroom and returns to the job.

12:15 – 1:00 – B. and I can’t sit downstairs because the dog is here and I have no place to put her in light of the heat and the fact that the garage is occupied.  B. and I decide to go upstairs, but that means I can’t hear the contractors if they knock on the door. B. and I go upstairs anyway. 

The contractors began repeatedly opening and closing the garage door. Then I hear the security system beep, which means they opened an interior door???  I run downstairs because I don’t want the dog to get out, but they’ve only opened the side door that leads to the back yard, probably for a light source and ventilation. If I hadn’t blocked the interior doggie door earlier, the dog would have run into the garage and attacked them.

BTW, most of the downstairs reeks!!  Contractor No. 1 left the door wide open after he defiled my bathroom and now the downstairs smells like something I can’t describe.

Return upstairs and B. and I resume our conversation, but then the doorbell rings.  I run downstairs and it’s Contractor No. 1 telling me he’s done.  B. comes down to look at the finished product, which means I have to pick up the dog again because B. is wearing shorts and she’ll scratch his legs.  I tell B. to enter the garage first and close the door behind him, then I’ll enter. He does this, I put the dog down, and follow behind him.  The new lights work and look great. I want the contractors to leave. Now.

B. tries to return to the kitchen, but I tell him he can’t yet because the dog is downstairs and I still need to write the check for the work. I return inside, write the check, and give it to the contractors. They finally leave.

B. tries to follow me inside, but I tell him he can’t yet because I have to pick up the dog first. Otherwise, she’ll jump on him and scratch his legs. If this sounds like I’m repeating myself, I am, because I’m repeating the act of picking the dog up and putting her down the entire afternoon. I return to the kitchen, pick up the dog, and wait for B. to walk to the stairs, where a child-proof gate is installed, and his legs will be safe from the dog. He makes it upstairs, legs intact.

Somehow - I’m not sure how it happens - the dog gets locked outside for the next two hours. I think this was due to the number of maneuvers I had to make to accommodate everyone’s safety. I feel terrible about this.

3:00 – 6:00 - B. leaves and I let the dog in. She’s upset with me and runs to the water bowl. I am absolutely exhausted and realize I’ve eaten nothing all day. I start another load of laundry, have more of B.’s leftover salmon from Saturday, and read And You’re Leaving When?  This book is so funny, I couldn’t put it down until I finished it:

Annabelle Gurwitch is one of my favorite comedian/author and I’ve loved her writing style ever since I read You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up. The current book is a series of essays about turning 50 and heading into “downward mobility.” Highly recommend!

L. texts from Disneyland…Everyone is fat here – I don’t understand…

6:00-7:00 – I take a short nap.

7:00-8:00 –I hang my laundry, then glove and mask up so I can sanitize the downstairs bathroom. I also pull the towel from the bathroom and add to the load of towels I put in the washing machine. Kitchen duty and I clean out the refrigerator – L. made a few dishes that we never finished and they need to be dumped. I sweep the downstairs and wipe up dried poop that N. must have missed when he was taking care of the dog.  This is so gross. She is so gross.

8:00-8:30 – I take the dog for a walk. 

8:30-9:15 – I water my plants.

9:15-10:30 –I do an Insanity Cardio and Recovery workout, then add a few things to my silver bullet suitcase in preparation for my upcoming San Diego trip.

10:30-12:00 – I log on to College No. 2, check the Canvas shell, and see that I have 32 students enrolled. I “publish” the class and send all of the students a “Welcome” email, with the Syllabus and AUDIO Syllabus attached. Spoiler Alert - Nobody bothers to respond and this is still the case on Friday.

I work on my “Ipad re-curating project.”

12:00 –1:00 -  L is home from Disneyland and we discuss. She says the tram that carts Disney visitors from the parking lot, located 1 to 2 miles away from the entrance, no longer runs. It was also super crowded and nobody was masking, other than N. - he wore his mask the entire day. L. said everyone was obese and wondered why they chose a theme park of all places for an excursion that typically involves 8 hours of walking. L. also noted that in light of the huge Disney lay-offs, the park was not as pristine as it has been in the past, and there was trash lying around in various sections of the park. Gross - Disney sounds like it’s turning into Magic Mountain…or worse…Knotts Berry Farm.

1:00-2:30 – Blog posts.

2:30-3:30 – Nighttime routine. Bed.