Day 17-all CA students must be vaccinated

With L. at Night of the Jacks, in Calabasas, tonight…

10/17/21. Sunday

8:00 – L. leaves for work. 

10:00 – 10:30 - Up and I start a load of laundry and then go downstairs to say good morning to the animal. L. took her out before she left for work and now she’s taking a nap. I sit next to her on the couch and she jumps in my lap for kisses and cuddles. You know the drill – even though she’s already gone outside, I maintain the routine. I cue her for ‘go outside’, she grabs her tennis ball, and I’m on my patio, waiting for her to finish her business. Return inside – cheese for her, coffee for me.  I go upstairs. 

10:30-11:30 – I update my bullet journal. 

11:30-11:45 – Laundry is done so I hang up my items [I should note that I “line dry” almost everything]. 

11:45-12:00 – I unfreeze a piece of L.’s lemon loaf and eat it for a late breakfast; then 

12:00-12:30 – I finish putting out the last of the Halloween decorations. This entails setting up the ladder outside and hanging our Halloween flag. Back inside and I put up our black cat poster, then adjust the spooky lantern lights on the banister. The “gravestone” markers keep falling down on the front porch so I try to secure them with duct tape. I water a few of my plants, put my trashcans out, and listen to Happier. 

12:30-1:15 – I do a 30-minute Insanity Max – Cardio workout. 

1:15-2:30 – I take the dog for a walk. 

2:30-3:30 – I send a lengthy email to a student informing her that the majority of her Inquizitives were completed well after the due date (some upwards of 2 months), even though she emailed me bogus screenshots of completion. You had to have known that you were completing them after the due date, right??, I ask her. So you’re a liar. She sends a vague email, saying, “Umm…I thought I was completing them on time…” No. You weren’t. And now you have 0s on all of your assignments and an F in the class. Don’t con a con. 

Another student emails me that the answer he selected on the video quiz was correct, but the system marked it wrong. He just watched the documentary and is certain, certain he says, that he answered the question correctly. 

I know the answer is NOT wrong; it is, in fact, correct, but now I have to take time out of my day to re-watch the documentary so I can advise the student the exact minute and second where the answer to the question is located. What a waste of my time. 

3:30-4:30 –I start playing the video, then turn the volume up on the video and listen while I take a shower. Lotion. I put on leggings and a blouse. Light make-up. At 4:45, I hear the answer to the question the student is disputing and make a note of the time.  So, it appears the student stopped watching the video about 30 minutes in, when he was actually instructed to watch the entire video. 

4:30 –4:45 -  L. returns from work and freshens her make-up and I take this time to inform the student that I am now aware that he did NOT watch the entire video, as assigned, and that the answer to the question is correct and can be found at 45:10 in the video. Note: the student emails me back the next day, saying “I think I understand…” I don’t even know what that means. 

4:45-5:30 – We jump in L.’s car and drive to Thousand Oaks for our Melting Pot reservations. We listen to Spooked on the way.  

5:30-7:30 – Dinner is…lackluster.  As everyone knows, the majority of the dishes here are based on fondue creations.  How can cheese and chocolate melt and remain cold simultaneously? A true mystery.  The entire night, I’m dipping pieces of bread and vegetables into cold cheese and pieces of fruit and marshmallows into cold chocolate. Also, they don’t carry champagne…just a shitty sparkling wine. I’ll rate this meal an F, but say nothing to L. about it. She’s enjoying it and I don’t want to be that person [a “Debbie Downer”]. I ask L. once if she can tell waitstaff to crank up the heat on the cheese, but that’s all I say. [Note: it doesn’t work]. 

7:30-8:00 – L. and I have tickets for Night of the Jacks in Calabasas so we drive there for our 8:00 reservation. 

8:00-10:00 – This place is incredible!!  Even though we’re outside, all patrons are advised to mask.  Of course, MAGA supporters don’t, but almost everyone else does.  There are hundreds of jack-o-lanterns everywhere, in ‘themed’ sections. One area is a jack-o-lantern seascape, posed as if underwater – many of the jack-o-lanterns are carved into jelly fish forms.  Another area features celebrity faces carved into jack-o-lanterns.  Still another area has jack-o-lantern motorcycles, bikes made entirely out of pumpkins. A Sponge Bob display. A dinosaur display. There is also a Nightmare Before Xmas display…everything is lit up and so beautiful. 

L. and I run across a young 20-something “fortune teller”, who will later tell us she has four children, and I suggest we get our palms read. This is no ordinary fortune teller – she is hip and trendy, with long nails, fake eyelashes, and a skin-tight, orange sweater dress. L. goes first and she correctly surmises that L. is an artist and that she was meant to be an artist, that this is her essence, so to speak. She also correctly asserts that L. is not in relationship and now is not the time. [Spoiler alert: two weeks from now, L. will embark on a meaningful relationship with T. which will last for some time].  

The palm reader shows L. her lifeline and says L. has had a close call of sorts, at some point in her life. L. was a ‘sickly child’ the first 3 years of her life and had pneumonia when she was little – there was one night I thought I might lose her – but I don’t know about a “close call”…that was more like the angst of a inexperienced parent.  Still…it was interesting to hear this.   

According to the palm reader, L.’s aura is purple – I’m not sure what this means? – and very soon L. will be visited by an “energy vampire” with brown hair, who will suck the energy out of L., like a black hole. L. tells me that, at first, she is certain I’m the energy vampire, but when the palm reader says this female will have the initials “B” or “V”, L. realizes it’s not me. Hmmmm…. 

The palm reader then tells L. to close her fist.  When L. does, the palm reader pronounces that L. will marry only once and will have three children in her lifetime. It sounds like a fairy tale, doesn’t it? “And the mother pricked her finger and said ‘I will have a daughter…with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony…’ “ 

It’s my turn now. The palm reader looks at my palm, looks at me, and says that life has been difficult for me…I have had it hard, but I’ve come through it…NOT unscathed, though…I’m come through it damaged.  She intimates this – she doesn’t say it directly. This is true, but maybe everyone thinks this about their life by the time they turn 51???   I find navigating life and raising this child – now a young woman but a child nonetheless – incredibly challenging. I’m responsible for every aspect of our lives – me, just me – with almost no outside help and it is sooo overwhelming to keep all the balls in the air.  

The palm reader says I rarely sleep…how does she know? This declaration is not necessarily intuitive. She can probably tell from the dark circles under my eyes, although L. kindly says I don’t have dark circles. Liar…but it’s a nice lie. :-)

Sometimes I don’t think I can face another day of constant conflict – not with L., but with everything and everyone else I encounter on a daily basis. Nothing ever goes smoothly…it’s a rarity when it does.  And am I even allowed to discuss my “first world problems” since I’m a “recipient of white privilege?” Am I allowed to discuss how difficult day-to-day life is for me, a white female with health insurance and a pension? A woman with a just barely “6-figure” income [because I’m teaching 6 classes (Hyflex) at TWO community colleges and ONE high school, all of which is exhausting] that puts me slightly above poverty level because I live in the California ‘burbs’? I feel that I am NOT allowed to discuss how difficult my life is so I say nothing, except with my therapist, who tells me, “Your problems are your problems.  They’re meaningful to you and that’s what counts.” If I complained in an open forum I’d be a laughing stock and trolled so I say nothing. I don’t have the right to complain – not really. Most days, I don’t want to get out of bed…but I get up anyway. I always get up. 

The fortune teller goes on to say that I will never be married again and that I don’t care. How intuitive.  Statistically, I think most women my age would be looking for a partner, a second marriage,  financial stability, etc., so her prognostication, as it relates to me, went outside the box, but she’s correct. Maybe there’s something to this palm reader…I feel a great sense of relief when she tells me this as I have maintained, since my divorce 16 years ago, that I am never getting married again and I don’t want to. She also says I have two daughters – I don’t , but probably every woman has either miscarried or had at least one abortion in their life time, and I actually miscarried many years ago. It’s interesting because I have two names for two little girls picked out, at the ready, but ended up having just one…and that’s L. Lastly, she says my aura is gray and red…and that it’s gray because I don’t sleep. 

Very interesting. 

10:00-11:00 – L. and I call it and drive home.  En route, we continuing listening to Spooked  and Full Body Chills. 

11:00-12:00 – Home and I do a blog post; then 

12:00-12:45 – Nighttime routine; but 

12:45-1:30 – before I go to bed, I water my plants in the backyard. 

1:30-1:45 – Turn off the Halloween lights, lock up everything. Bed.