Day 26 - CDC recommends all J&J patients get a booster after 2 months
Finished this book today….
11/15/21. Monday
8:00 – L. leaves for her long day at Otis.
9:30-10:00 – I’m up, but I lie in bed for transition time. I put in for this day off several months ago in anticipation of traveling to Ireland with B.; however, I changed my mind regarding the trip. B. left for Ireland on 11/13/21 and I left my Days Off requests intact.
10:00-10:30 – I go downstairs to say good morning to the dog. She’s awake and running around – probably due to the garbage trucks – so we go outside straightaway and I wait for her to go potty. Once she’s finished, we return inside and I make a cup of coffee for me and give her a few pieces of sugar cookies. I go to work (enter my home office) and the dog comes with me.
11:00-8:00 – I work on my Self-Eval for NINE straight hours and I’m NOT happy about it. This is ridiculous and I NEVER want to work this way again. This is all due to the fact that my evaluator moved the due date for my Self Eval up three days before the originally scheduled date. What’s more, he wants it by 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday. I don’t shower, eat, or change out of my pajamas. I also don’t have time to walk the dog. I hate my evaluator.
-At around 5:00, I break and eat some of L.’s potato soup.
-L. returns from Otis with cookies from Crumbl Cookies, a new bakery that opened in Santa Clarita. They taste like dough, as if they haven’t been baked properly. I thank L. for trying something new and bringing them home, then discover that she used my credit card for the purchase.
L. shows me her Power project. Instead of taking pictures of children’s graves like I suggested, L. drove around town taking pictures of telephone poles. Uh…power? The poem is about a son dying from police brutality! I think this is a terrible idea but when she shows me the pictures – one set of black and white telephone poles, the other set of color photographs with a bright blue sky as background for the telephone poles – they are oddly beautiful.
8:00-8:30 – At 8:30, I email my 15-pg Self-Eval to my Evaluator. I am absolutely disgusted with how I spent my personal time – a terrible day.
**Self Eval - Excerpt #1 - OSD Students Note: In 26 years as an adjunct instructor, I have had TWO legitimate OSD student : 1) the first was deaf and lovely and I did everything I could to help her; and 2) the second was enrolled in my Core Class last semester. She was a veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress, and occasionally brought her service dog to class, whom I also loved, especially since my dog is a hot mess and this dog was incredible. She was one of my favorite students of all time. Both students got As and were smarter than everyone else.
The rest of my “OSD” students have been entitled “imposters.” I don’t give a shit about any of them; they’re all assholes.
Excerpt #1 - Self Eval
“All of my classes were designed with the OSD student in mind. Students, to include OSD students, do NOT have to take notes because all pertinent material is provided on the Google slides. Inquizitive homework assignments are not timed, allowing ALL students, to include OSD students, to work at their own pace - they can stop-and-start the Inquizitives as it suits them, as long as they complete their homework by the assigned due dates. Additional time for the video/podcast quizzes is built into the quiz for ALL students, to include OSD students.”
“If an OSD student is taking my class online, he/she/they can increase the volume or reduce the speed of my lectures. OSD students can also request a transcript of my lectures. Podcast transcripts are available upon request. Of course, subtitles are available with every video.”
“I personally reach out to my OSD students a week before the semester begins so we can have a conversation about their accommodations and I can ensure that their needs are addressed. Throughout the semester, I make it a point to personally check in with them, especially if I see that they’re struggling, and we’ll have a conversation. If I think additional help is needed, I immediately contact the OSD Dept. and ask for intervention - OSD staff are helpful and proactive.”
“As a result, my OSD students are very successful, typically earning an A/B in my classes. I’m proud of that fact.“
9:30-12:00 – L. and I watch the last two episodes of Squid Games. L. has an important assignment due and M., her friend from Otis, was supposed to come to our house and help L. but she flaked because her Mom wouldn’t let her take the car to Santa Clarita. I offer to help L. with her assignment and she informs me that we will be taking pictures in the Antelope Valley of the house and neighborhood where L. was raised. We plan to leave at 10:30 a.m., tomorrow.
12:00-1:00 - I finish the Paper Solution then take a short nap.
This is a straightforward book by Lisa Woodruff, the host of my favorite podcast, Organize 365, informing us that American homes are overrun with paper, and providing hints and tips regarding how to handle the paper deluge. Of interest is the fact that Lisa eschews filing cabinets; rather, in her estimation, all paper items can be stored in 1 of 4 binders: 1) Medical; 2) Financial; 3) Household Reference [any/all papers related to your home that you would give to a new owner or tenant]; and 4) Household Operations [ex: the “lesson plans” of your house, such as pet information, babysitters, recipes, etc.]
At first I thought, “4 binders? That’s it?” I have a 2-drawer filing system [the top drawer is my A-Z filing system and the bottom drawer contains my Performance Evals and my tax returns] that I routinely purge, but upon closer inspection of the contents, Lisa’s right. You really only need the above 4 binders. She says if you have minor children, then you’ll need a binder for each child, and tax returns should be stored in a box. The book takes you through the process of sorting, categorizing, purging, and finally putting everything in the appropriate binder. She uses the binder system because binders are portable and it’s especially useful to have all of your medical information in a binder that you can carry to and from the doctors office.
After reading this book, I immediately created a Household Reference binder where I put all of my garage conversion receipts to start. I still need to go through my file folders and pull out other related documents for this category and the other three categories. When I will find the time is another story. Highly recommend this practical book about paper!
1:00-2:00 – I wake up with plans to work out but I’m sooo tired that I lie down again.
2:30-3:00 – I do a 30-minute, Insanity – Friday Fight workout, but tap out after 20 minutes.
3:00-3:30 – Downstairs to take the dog out and there’s a terrific crash upstairs as one of my photographs falls off the wall!! It scares the hell out of me!
3:30-4:30 – Kitchen duty. I pack my lunch bag and ready my coffee.
4:30-5:00 – Nighttime routine. Bed. I set my alarm for 8:00.