Day 17 - LA County moves into yellow tier

I made pork stew tonight…

5/19/21. Wednesday.

9:00-9:30 – I’m up and I go downstairs to say good morning to the animal.  She’s awake and she pooped near the front door. Great. I rub her tummy three times, she grabs her tennis ball, and we go outside. She does her business and we return inside: old cheese and cold cuts from the 2-week-old charcuterie board for her and coffee for me.

9:30-10:00 – I didn’t check email at College No. 2 yesterday, so I do it first thing this morning.  I have an email from my evaluator, scheduling a meeting with me for next week.  We tentatively decide on 5/27/21.

10:00-11:00 – Shower. Lotion. Covid-19 uniform. Light make-up.  I put my hair in a ponytail.

11:00-12:00 – Grade papers.

I check on L. She’s exhausted and feels feverish so I give her another Advil.

12:00-4:30 – B. arrives for “patio coffee” and we have Starbucks and gourmet cupcakes and talk politics.

2:00-I check on L. and she requests a “Venti Black Ice Tea Lemonade with 5 pumps of classic.”  B. and I run to Starbucks to pick it up and then return to the patio.  Continue talking politics. B. asks me to listen to The Line podcast so I confirm that I will.

3:00 – L. is up, fully dressed, with make-up (I’m relieved she’s feeling better). She and N. leave for Whole Foods and god knows where else.

4:30 –5:00 - B. removes the mouse traps he placed the other day and we set up the new rat zapper that he just purchased.  Fingers crossed although in the past the rat zapper has worked.

5:00-6:00 – I thaw out a home-made Sloppy Joe mix that I made a few months ago and eat it with cheese and crackers, while I watch episode 4 of Mare of Eastwood.

7:00 – 8:00 - Grade papers and watch episode 5 of Mare of Eastwood.

8:00-8:30 – I take the dog for a walk. I listen to the Pop Culture Happy Hour.

8:30-9:00 – Gardening.  I transplant 3 small succulents into one of my empty containers.

9:00-9:45 – Some of my Target purchases arrived so I unpack everything and put the items away. Kitchen duty and I rearrange the flowers in my vases then make my coffee for tomorrow.

9:45 – 10:45 - I finish a Money Diary during transition time, then do an Insanity –Pylometric workout.  I’m really lagging tonight, unfortunately. Why do my legs feel so heavy?  I have no energy tonight.

L. is feeling exhausted again and has a fever.  I bring her two Advil and crank up the air conditioning while she sleeps.  This is totally out of character for L. as she is a night owl.

10:45-11:30 – Recover.  I have a glass of champagne and work on blog posts.

11:30 – 1:00 – I make a pork stew using pork chunks, cabbage, leeks, carrots, yellow bell pepper, etc.  This is a labor intensive dish – I have to peel and cut the carrots, break down the cabbage, prepare the leeks, chop up the yellow pepper…it’s… a lot. I also make boiled eggs. While the pork is boiling, and in between steaming each vegetable in this recipe, I go in my office and scan the papers that I finished grading today. I catch up with Air Talk.

-I have a piece of pork, a few pieces of the yellow pepper, and a boiled egg while I prepare this recipe. Let’s see how this affects tomorrow’s weigh-in.

-Kitchen duty. I take the dog out and there are no rat sightings today.

-1:00 – 2:00 – I post the grades from the essay assignment to Canvas, then email the papers to the students. This is the last major assignment from College No. 2; recall that College No. 1 ended two weeks ago.

2:00-3:00 – Nighttime routine. Bed. I listen to What a Day.