Day 24 - LA County Dept. of Public Health mandates indoor masking and OUTDOOR masking at large events

I have shingles… :-(

9/7/21. Wednesday

6:00 – L. leaves for college. She will be gone the entire day.

7:30-7:45 -I get out of bed immediately because my highschoolers have access to Canvas today and they don’t know how the new format works. Downstairs and the dog is out. of. it.  Too early.  I rub her tummy three times, but she still won’t get up so I sit next to her and slowly coax her outside. I water a few of my plants while she goes potty, then return inside: coffee for me; pieces of sliced cheese for her. I go to work.

7:45-11:00 - I send an email blast to the students instructing them to report to the Canvas Discussion Board and then I wait to see how many of them actually sign in.

Once the students report to the Discussion Board, there are more instructions informing the students that now they have to report to the Home Page for this week’s Module to see what we’re doing today…kind of like a scavenger hunt. It’s a light day today…audio lecture, accompanying Google slides, a Chapter 2 Review Quiz that will post today, but is due on Friday…

The students email me throughout the morning with questions.  This is to be expected because it’s a new format and confusing. By some of their comments, I understand that Mrs. B. continues to circulate and take attendance.

The shit hits the fan when the students start emailing me that class ends at 9:40 today because they have to go to Mass.  Yes, that’s right…Mrs. B. emailed me a list of six days with adjusted school schedules.  I forgot and didn’t incorporate it into today’s class.  Great.

Snafu successfully smoothed over, class ends and I send personal emails to the students who failed to sign in on the Discussion Board, informing them that they were marked absent for the day. I have to “program” the students to sign in by 8:45 a.m. every day and I do that by impressing upon the students that this is a Synchronous class and if they do NOT sign in on time, not only will they be marked absent, but they will also receive a 0 on the day’s assignments. In other words, I use the “stick”, not the “carrot” to make the point.

I update my attendance.

11:00-2:00 – I switch to College No. 1, check email, and review the Canvas shell for my Thursday class tomorrow evening. Then, I listen to lecture with the accompanying Google slides to ensure that the slides correspond with lecture.  I edit the slides along the way and update the Discussion Board. Chapter 2 and Chapter 4 are my longest lectures with almost 3 hours of pure talking.  I don’t like to do that to the students but it can’t be helped – there is too much information to convey. It’s also exhausting for me.

-I take a timeout so I can follow up with my AA Degree in French.  Last semester, I completed the requisite number of units, but I’m not sure what the process entails at this point. How do I get the AA? I know I need to forward my transcripts to Pasadena City College… just thinking about this is overwhelming, but you know how it is…take one, small step to get the ball rolling. That one step starts the momentum and results in that stupid, yet accurate, platitude, ‘one foot in front of the other.’ I fill out a Help request for the Pasadena counseling department and hit ‘send.’

- I spend some time looking for a comparable version to the Ikea “light panels” that I want to buy to simulate windows and find, what I feel is, a viable option, although I need L.’s final approval. I bookmark the product to show to L.

2:00-3:00 – I have leftover chicken wings and ranch sauce that L. brought home from…somewhere and read a Money Diary.

3:00-4:00 – I refer to my Insanity cookbook and prepare a meal plan and grocery list for this week.

4:00-5:00 – Shower. Lotion. Covid-19. Light make-up. I listen to The Daily.

While in the shower, I pop the strange blisters on my thumb.

When I exit the shower, I see horrible lesions on my right hip, right groin area, and right side of my abdomen! The lesions have the appearance of an infected, bright red rash, and they are filled with liquid.  On closer inspection, the right side of my body – this section, anyway – is covered in blisters and there is a strange burning sensation. This is very much like a horror movie!

5:00-6:00 – I spend this time systematically popping every blister, then washing the sites with anti-bacterial soap. Although I’m afraid of what I might find, I consult the internet and arrive at the self-diagnosis of Shingles!

6:00-7:00 – I take a nap, lying on my left side, so the sores on my right hip will start to dry.

7:00-7:30 – Up and I cover the lesions with numerous band-aids, then take the dog for a walk.

7:30-9:30 – Grocery shopping. The burning sensation continues – it’s painful and distracting.

9:30-10:00 – Home and I put away the groceries.

10:00-10:30 – I have a phone conversation with B.

10:30-12:00 – L. arrives and we discuss her day. L. has made a new friend named M. (female) who happens to be in all of L.’s classes. L. says that M. is cool and they text each other throughout the lectures. F. continues to walk L. to her car and he is starting to take the place of N., who L. misses greatly since he moved to the San Francisco dorms. I’m glad L. is making friends.  She also loves most of her classes, especially Photography where she is learning how to develop her own film. L. hates her “Sophomore Seminar” class, however.

I show L. the lesions and she googles Shingles’ pictures and confirms my self-diagnosis.

12:00-1:30 – I make a large 2-bean salad with chopped celery and tomatoes that will sustain L. and I for the next few days, and graze along the way.  I also eat some of L.’s tortilla chips and mango salsa. When I’m finished making the salad, I clean the kitchen. I listen to Up and Vanished and try to ignore the burning on my right side.

1:30-2:30 – The fake ivy that I ordered for the garage wall arrived. I water my plants, move the fake Ivy boxes into the garage, and finally clean the base of the hot water heater, which was still covered in rust flakes from when the plumber replaced the rotting pipe with a brass pipe. I take the dog out and shut everything down.

2:30 – Upstairs and I merely “sit” on my chair for a minute…

3:30 – …and the next minute I am waking up an hour later, at 3:30.  I hate when I do that.

3:30-4:30 – Nighttime routine. Bed.