Day 26-LA Dept. of Health mandates indoor masking

Finished this book today…

8/11/21. Wednesday

9:00 –9:30 -  More online class work and household chores.  When did my life become so boring? I woke up at 6:00 but was able to fall back asleep. Now I’m up and the first thing I do is shake out yesterday’s picnic blanket (outside) and put it in the washing machine. Then, I say good morning to the dog.  This is a slight deviation from our routine because taking her out is usually the first thing I do, but I wanted to get a start on this beach blanket.

The dog is up and following me around so we go straight to the backyard.  I water a few of my plants while she goes potty and return inside.  I make my coffee and give her some cheese.

9:30-10:00 – Kitchen duty.  I didn’t straighten the kitchen last night because I was too tired, so I do it now.

10:00 -11:30 – All in all, I was able to find 6 large rocks at the beach so I place them around my plants and the fountain in the backyard.  They look great!  Then, I pick up the dog poop, hose down the Astroturf, and water my plants.

11:30-12:30 – The last day of my online Summer session class is tomorrow.  I take attendance for last week and calculate the number of responses on the Discussion Board assignment so I can post the scores for the students.  Then, I send an email blast to the students reminding them that they have to complete the Final by Thursday, NOT Sunday. This is the fourth reminder, but I have a feeling somebody is going to end up emailing me on Sunday asking me, “Where’s the Final?”

The picnic blanket is done so I pull it out of the washing machine and hang it on the wall, outside, to dry.

12:30-1:15 – Shower. Lotion. Covid-19 uniform. Light make-up.

L. leaves for work.

1:15 – 1:30 – B. thought he might have time to pick up a lounge chair that I’m giving away, but he can’t make it today, so I load it in the car instead.  I’ll drop it off at his house on Friday.

1:30-1:45 – I change out the slip covers on my couch and put them in the washing machine.

1:45-3:00 – I eat what’s left of my Tofu Bowl from yesterday and finish All You Can Ever Know.

This is a memoir, written by a Korean woman who was adopted by white parents and grew up in a small town in Oregon. By that I mean, it ain’t Portland. Needless to say, there were no Asian people in Nicole’s  community and she was bullied by the same kids in her small school, year after year. Although her parents sound like lovely people, they were absolutely clueless and did nothing to aid Nicole’s  assimilation, saying only that, “Color doesn’t matter” when, of course, it does.

Nicole dreams of one day finding her biological parents, especially since the adoptive family narrative was that Nicole’s bio folks loved and wanted her, but they were poor and she was a preemie so they sacrificed their daughter to the Adoption Machine for the greater good because they wanted what was best for her.  Can you sense the foreshadowing here?

Nicole grows up, marries young, but to a great guy, and gets pregnant which is when she intensifies her efforts to find her bio parents. And she does!  And they’re assholes!

Nicole discovers that she has two sisters – one biological from the same set of parents and one stepsister from the same mother. Her bio Mom beat Nicole’s sister, Cindy, every day with whatever objects were in reach, while her bio Dad did nothing to stop it. When Nicole’s mother becomes pregnant with her, Nicole’s bio Dad said his first thought was, “This woman cannot keep this child” because he witnessed the daily violence she inflicted on Cindy.  Recall that he did nothing about it.

Nicole’s bio Dad makes the executive decision to give Nicole up for adoption, a decision that’s made exceedingly easy because Nicole was born very premature. The parents then lied to their daughters at home, telling them the baby died.  By the way, Nicole’s bio mom later tells Cindy that it’s her (Cindy’s ) fault Nicole died, adding that Cindy made her angry on that day, causing her Mom to go into early labor and resulting in the baby being stillborn.  What a piece of work!

After finding her birth parents, Nicole refuses to have a relationship with her mother once she learns how abusive she was to Cindy, but does allow the Dad and stepmom into her life in small doses, although it is unclear why.  Because her Dad was too much of a coward to confront his wife about her explosive anger, he gave up his own child (Nicole) for adoption.  He feels bad about it now, but so what? For reasons I CANNOT understand, Nicole abandons her adoptive parents’ last name AND her husband’s last name, who supports her in every endeavor, and takes her father’s last name as her own, which is “Chung.”  Why give him the honor of re-appropriating his last name when he obviously did nothing for her?

This is a debut book and well-written, although a bit stilted. In keeping with the disturbing trend I noted in one of my last book reviews, here, again, is a college-educated female author who has been relegated to a stay-at-home Mom and doing little else with her life, while her husband supports them. I know that raising children is one of the most important jobs you can have, but is that it for Nicole?  Even she expresses some anxiety before meeting her bio-Dad, saying in the book, “What if he thinks I’m not doing much with my life?” To which I say, “Who cares what he thinks?” but also add, “Newsflash – you’re not.”

I’m on the fence with this one.

3:00-5:00 – Back to work. I finally finish the Fall Semester Syllabus for my online class at College No. 2, but I still need to update assignment due dates in the Canvas shell and record the AUDIO Syllabus. Fall Semester at this college starts on 8/28/21.

5:00-6:30 – The garage floor stain has finally set, so I move the last remaining items that I had temporarily stored in the backyard into the garage – two buckets, an ice chest, a bin of extension cords, and a crate of Xmas lights. That’s it!  Oh…and our bikes.  These are the only items left in the garage – I completely cleared it.

7:30 –8:30 -  I need to replace the two garage doors leading into the kitchen and out to the backyard and I finally make my selection.   The two doors I want are at Home Depot, so I drive over there to start this project.  Unfortunately, there are no employees in the “Door” section and I’m told to come back at a reasonable hour, tomorrow. Sigh.  I buy a small trashcan for our plastic recyclables instead.

Return home

8:45-9:15 – I take the dog for a walk.

9:15 – 10:00 - L. announces that she is going to make an olive cream soup, accompanied with bacon and toasted bread, and it will be ready around 10:30. In the interim, I do a 15-minute Insanity-Cardio Abs workout, followed by a 40-minute Insanity – Cardio Recovery workout. 

10:00 – 4:00 a.m. - The soup is done a bit early, so I abort the workout [I was 25 minutes in] and L. and I have dinner and binge watch Married at First Sight until 4:00 a.m..  We’re obsessed! L.’s soup is amazing!

4:00-5:00 – Nighttime routine. Bed.