Day 22 - Los Angeles lifts its vaccine mandate. A vax card is no longer required.

Went to Wild West Night tonight…even though the Cowboy Festival is canceled.

4/21/22. Thursday

5:00-5:15 - I’m up, but I stay in bed for transition time.

5:15-5:30-I go downstairs to say good morning to the animal, but she’s asleep. She wakes up while I’m heating my coffee so we go outside. She does her business and we return inside: cheese for her. I go upstairs.

5:30-6:20-Shower. I sit in the shower, drink my coffee, and ice my eyes while listening to What a Day. I’m upright and caffeinated.

6:20-7:30-I grab all of my bags and I’m out the door by 6:20. I listen to By the Book and Be Wealthy and Smart while I’m driving. I eat one of Bs donuts from yesterday and put my make-up on in the car.

7:30-7:45-Arrive and I finish putting my make-up on in the car and review my Chapter 10 - Part II lecture notes.

7:45-8:00-I sign in at the office and take my temperature at the standing thermometer [“Temperature normal!”] then walk to Mr. G.s classroom.

8:00-9:30-Class is in session and WiFi is down!!! so I can’t access ANY of my course content. The students are able to open up Canvas on their Iphones using cellular data instead of WiFi and they advance the Google slides on their tiny phones while I lecture. There are 3 video clips that must be shown in conjunction with this lecture and the students are forced to download the clips on their phones. It’s a mess and I don’t want to be here. Today was a disaster.

9:30-9:45-I drop off Attendance.

9:45-11:00-Driving. Traffic is terrible. I listen to Happier and have vegetables for lunch, followed by apple slices and almond butter.

11:00-11:30-I stop at Sprouts and buy bell peppers, spinach, cherry tomatoes, pears, celery stalks, apples, onions, tomato paste, cottage cheese, sliced turkey breast, pepper jack cheese, lemon almonds, and malt balls. I listen to Fresh Air as I’m shopping.

11:30-12:00- I get gas and drive home.

12:00-1:30-I bring in all of my school bags and put away the food. Then kitchen duty and I ready my coffee for tomorrow.

1:30-2:30-I take the dog for a walk and listen to the Political Gabfest.

2:30-5:00-I take a nap.

5:00-6:00-I change into my walking clothes and microwave a pork chop and yellow rice dish for dinner that I froze last month. I made the pork previously but it doesn’t look like the pork was cooked through in some places so I can’t eat most of it. Gross. Did I actually eat this pork previously? I probably have a tapeworm…

6:00-6:15-I drive to the Striders meeting place.

6:30-7:30-This week, we stage up at City Hall and I meet Sarah, a financial planner, who recently moved from San Diego to her parents’ house in Santa Clarita and is saving to buy a house, although she can’t decide which city she should live in: San Diego or Santa Clarita. Sounds like a no-brainer to me. In the meantime, Sarah is taking ukulele and hiking classes and walking every Monday and Thursday.

Sarah recommends The Thing About Pam podcast and Hulu series. When I tell Sarah that I’m thinking of retiring from teaching by the end of the year, she tells me I can’t retire from CalSTRS until I’m 55, but to let her know if I find out otherwise. Spoiler Alert: This conversation sparks my CalSTRS retirement journey, i.e., shit-show, that I’ll be documenting in future blog posts. Stay tuned. It’s a disaster.

7:30 - Walking is over so I text B. that I’ m en route home.

8:00-9:30-I change into Western wear and B. arrives. We go to Senses for Wild West Night on Main Street, which was supposed to kick off the 2022 Cowboy Festival except, shockingly, the Cowboy Festival was cancelled due to Covid restrictions. I say shockingly because I live in a red zip code and this City could give two s—ts about Covid, especially since America, as a whole, is collectively “learning to live with the virus” and pretending the sub-variant (BA2) of the variant (Omicron) doesn’t exist. Regardless, there’s a lively country music band tonight and a line-dancing lesson taking place in the street. We order draft beers and check out the activity. It’s “open carry”, meaning we can actually walk around with our drinks in hand…like Las Vegas. Nobody masks.

9:30-11:00-Return home and B. and I have drinks and talk politics. B. leaves.

11:00-11:45-Nightime routine. Bed.