Day 43 - LA County enters yellow tier
Finished this today…
6/14/21. Monday
10:30 – 11:00 - I’m up so I go downstairs to say good morning to the dog. It’s been very hot lately and the dog is miserable. The earliest we could get her in for a grooming appointment is 6/26/21 and that’s a long time to wait when it feels like you’re constantly wearing a blanket. We go outside and the dog quickly goes potty while I water my potted jasmine. Return inside – Monterey Jack cheese for her and coffee for me. I go upstairs.
11:00-12:30 – I finish Women’s Work. This is an excellent memoir written by Megan Stack, a foreign correspondent reporter who was also married to a foreign correspondent reporter. She gets pregnant and before she can even comprehend what’s happening, she becomes a stay-at-home mom in Beijing, China [they’re both Americans], while her husband continues to pursue the career that he loves. Megan plans to write a novel while raising her son, but this is quickly derailed because her son screams all the time and never sleeps.
Megan can’t write a novel and look after a baby so she hires low-paid female nannies who are living in poverty to do the job. Women’s Work details the “help” she hired to watch her son while she and her husband live in China and then India. Megan feels conflicted hiring these women because it means they’re estranged from their children, but Megan has no choice if she wants to carve out time for her novel [Spoiler alert: after 4 years, she finishes her novel, but it’s rejected by all of the publishing firms].
In the midst of all this angst and perpetual time crunch, Megan gets pregnant again and has a second son. Her husband continues to work at the job that he loves and she hires even more women (nannies and housekeepers). She wonders, and the reader (me) also wonders, why did she have to sacrifice her career? Why didn’t her husband? Highly recommend. [Spoiler alert - Women’s Work ends up taking the place of the novel]
12:30-2:30 – I finish compiling grades at College No. 2, post them to the official College No. 2 transcript, and scan everything, including Attendance, to Admissions. I’m done. The semester is officially over.
2:30-3:00 – I eat the quinoa dish I made previously and read a Money Diary.
3:00-4:00 – Shower. Lotion. Covid-19 uniform. I don’t bother putting make-up on because I’m wearing my glasses.
4:00-5:00 – B. says that he and G., a contractor, will stop by so G. can fix the air conditioning vent that fell from the ceiling last week. I tidy the kitchen and sweep the downstairs. Put out the couch pillows. Wipe down the bathroom. Bring my trashcans in.
5:00-6:00 – The last of the plastic crates arrived the other day [if you recall, I ordered black plastic milk crates to store my Halloween and Xmas decorations so the storage would look more uniform]. I pull my remaining Xmas decorations down from the garage shelf and hall closet, and place them in the crates.
6:00-8:00 – B. and G. arrive and G. fixes the vent. B. hangs out for awhile, then leaves.
8:30 – 8:45 – I take the dog for a walk, but she’s not into it and wants to go home after 10 minutes.
8:45-10:30 – I sweep the patio, then sanitize the Astroturf one section at a time. After, I water all of my plants.
10:30-12:00 – I set up the ladder and go up and down, placing the crates in the garage shelving unit, until everything is stored. This part of the garage project is complete. Next, I update my blog, then do some personal Admin, ordering new light fixtures for the garage; swim trunks for B., for father’s day; a few toiletries from Walmart.com…somehow, I got roped into reserving July plane tickets for L.’s visit to see her Dad in South Carolina. I don’t understand why she and her Dad can’t buy the tickets, but apparently I have the duty.
12:00-1:30 – I do a Kathy Smith Ab workout and a 1-hr Insanity – Max Core Recovery.
1:30-2:30 - Recover. I have a glass of champagne and work on blog posts.
2:30-3:30 – Night time routine. Bed.