Day 42-Monkey pox is the new pandemic

F2F class at the Catholic High School today…

“Back to School” and “Back to Covid.” At the start of September, LA County Dept of Health reported 2500 new Covid cases PER DAY!! followed by an average of 14 deaths per day. Who the hell is still contracting Covid, you ask? It’s the kids.

Since the 2022 school year started, LAUSD has been plagued by “Covid clusters” and outbreaks in K-12 schools. Here are some fun facts for you:

“There have been a total of 624 clusters reported at schools since August 7, involving more than 3,500 individuals; 3,355 were students. The number of reported clusters more than tripled every week in August: 38 clusters reported for the week ending August 13; 135 clusters reported for the week ending August 20; and 451 clusters for the week ending August 27.”

27 outbreaks were documented in elementary schools; 5 outbreaks were in middle schools; and eight outbreaks were from “Youth Sports.” BTW - all of the kids have BA5.

LA County received 170,000 of the new Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna updated, bivalent boosters, targeting both the BA4 [recall that nobody even has the BA4 variant] and BA5 variants and started administering them on 9/7/23, throughout LA County…five weeks AFTER Covid had already ripped through our schools. Why get a booster now? Especially since, at this point in the pandemic, people have had close to 20 boosters if they’re still bothering to keep up with the CDC’s stupid guidelines.

I can’t wait to report to my F2F high school class today…[insert sarcastic emoji here].

9/14/22. Wednesday.

5:45-6:45-Shower and I wash my hair today. Lotion. I wear a sleeveless emerald green and black dress with short black heels and a pink crystal necklace that resembles a Peter Pan collar.

6:45-8:15-Driving. I listen to By the Book and put my makeup on in the car. I also eat my leftover Chick-Fil-A for breakfast. Traffic is terrible…I’m afraid I might be late!

8:15-9:30-I’m on time. I walk across campus to my classroom. We’re on a modified bell schedule again on account of the extreme heat. Recall that there is no air conditioning in my classroom. Class ends 30 minutes earlier than it should…not that I’m complaining…I’m glad I get to leave early. The only problem is I have to adjust my Syllabus every day that we leave early because I have to shuffle course content to other days….and we’re on a shortened bell schedule almost every day.

My god, it is hot in this classroom. Just as I’m about to pass out, class is dismissed.

9:30-11:00-I drive home. Traffic is horrible. What’s new?

-There’s a scheduling snafu with the dog groomer. L. booked a mobile dog groomer for 10:00 am, while I’m at school, but then decided to take an extra shift at The Club, which means NOBODY is at the house at 10:00. L. instructs the dog groomer to go around to the side gate, physically pull the dog out, then groom her in the portable van. This works.

11:00-12:00-Home and I bring in all my bags and put everything away, change my clothes, and immediately take a nap. I text L and ask her to bring me an iced coffee when she gets off work. The groomer finishes and returns the dog to the backyard. I don’t have to talk to anyone - this is great! L. Venmos $120 to the groomer, then tells me I only have to Venmo her $100.

12:00-3:30-I wake up with a start thinking I’ve overslept for my class this morning.

-Part of the class content that I email that crazy OSD bitch every Monday includes the Chapter Review quizzes and the Video/Podcast quizzes. Today’s email du jour reads as follows [recall that I’m getting upwards of five to ten emails a day from this bitch, but I’m referencing the “best” emails for my blog post]:

“I saw you emailed me the two quizzes, but I wasn’t clear on how to submit my quiz responses. I need clarification which email to use.”

This bitch cc’d everyone on this email, but sent it to me AFTER she submitted her answers, which means she was NOT the least bit confused and knew exactly how to send her material to me. There are two email addresses associated with College No. 1 and I always check both of them.

I challenge her email wherein she alleges that she’s confused over where to send the material. Using strong language, I note that nothing could be further from the truth and it’s obvious she is NOT confused because she already emailed her answers to me. I write: “I’m unclear as to why you need clarification when you already forwarded your answers to me.” I cc everybody on this email. She doesn’t respond because…she can’t.

Dr. LL, the spineless OSD Dean, does nothing. On 9/8/22, he sends the following email:

“Hi Dr. _____,

Thank you for all the concrete steps you have taken and continue to take to accommodate _______. I greatly appreciate all your efforts.

Thank you so much,

Dr. LL”

F—k you.

Spoiler Alert: This is one of the last email correspondence I will have with Dr. LL. He is absolutely useless.

3:30-4:30-L. appears with my iced coffee. She said she went to the doctor today and reports that she does not have a UTI (she gave a urine sample and it was tested). Kyra, her EMT friend who is currently enrolled in a nursing program at COC, went with L. to her doctor’s appointment to provide moral support.

The circumstances of this appointment are horrible. L. had to fast the night before - at Disneyland!! - because she was also scheduled for a blood draw today. Unfortunately, L. also had to report to The Club at 5:00 am and was still fasting because her doctor’s appointment was scheduled for 1:00, the only time the office could get L. in. When she and Kyra arrived, L. said the nurse couldn’t find her vein and had to stick L. SIX times!

L. is now at home, with my iced coffee in hand, having had nothing to eat for the past 24 hours. I feel terrible and never would have asked her to pick up an iced coffee for me had I known any of this. Poor L. ! They still don’t have a diagnosis for the burning sensation that is plaguing L, but they tested her for chlamydia, syphilis, and gonorrhea. L. thinks she might have a yeast infection so I give her some Monistat that I keep on hand. She goes upstairs to lie down.

-In my neverending quest to restore my profile picture on the Canvas platform at College No. 2, I log into Canvas and continue deleting files because, allegedly, if I free up enough storage space, my profile picture will be restored. Today, I work on deleting outdated Audio lectures that I no longer need. The profile picture is especially important for my online classes because it pops up every time I send the students an email - it’s a personal touch, especially when we have no assigned meeting days/times. Also, the profile picture enables the students to see my face on the Home Page…WHEN it’s working. Currently, all they see now is a gray blob.

-After deleting numerous lectures, I free up massive amounts of bandwidth but am still UNABLE to upload my profile picture.

-I switch to my Canvas email inbox and see that approximately 80 emails are lingering from a previous class. Unfortunately, I can’t just delete the emails like we do on every other platform. I have to go to You Tube and watch the tutorial so I can find out how to do it.

4:00-4:10-I check headlines.

4:10-5:00-I check personal email. I make a reservation at The Langham for B.s birthday then try to buy a ticket for the Forest Bathing class at the Huntington; it’s still sold out.

-I pull the folio from my recent Desert Hot Springs resort trip and see that I still have NOT received the $58 credit for Day 2 in accordance with my AAA discount. I send an email.

5:15-6:20-I log onto the Canvas shell and delete even more files and audio lectures, hoping that after this, I will finally be able to upload my profile picture. It doesn’t work.

6:20-6:50-I log into College No. 1 and check email. Then, I make a few adjustments to the Canvas shell.

6:50-7:10-I check headlines.

7:10-7:15-I log into my BofA account and reimburse L. for the dog groomer.

7:30-9:00-Kitchen duty. I pack my lunch bag and ready my coffee for tomorrow.

9:00-10:30- I take ANOTHER nap. Long Covid?

10:30-12:00-I prepare a blog post from scratch (I didn’t take notes while I was on vacation) regarding my South Dakota trip with B.

12:00-12:45-Nighttime routine. Bed.