Day 7 - Mask mandate RESCINDED; we do NOT Need to mask indoors
I finished this book today…
3/10/22. Thursday
5:00-5:10 – My alarm goes off but I don’t get up until 5:10. I typically let the dog sleep in on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but as soon as I put my coffee in the microwave, she jumps off the couch and rests her paws on my knees, while I’m standing, to say good morning. I take her outside and survey my yard while I wait for her to finish her business. Return inside and cheese for her while I go upstairs.
5:10-6:10 – Shower. I sit in the shower with my coffee and ice my eyes, while I listen to The Daily. Lotion. Light make-up. I change into my “Sexy Librarian” attire: dark khaki slacks, a black, short-sleeved sweater, and black ankle boots with Gold-leaf cherry blossoms appliquéd across the shoes.
6:10-7:20 – I leave on the late side today to see how I’ll fare as I’m still experimenting with my schedule. Traffic is terrible, much worse than usual, and I probably won’t leave this late again. I want to stress that I only left 10 minutes later than I usually do. I listen to By the Book and put my make-up on in the car.
7:20-7:40 – Arrive and park in the elementary school parking lot. I eat my overnight oats and text a dry wall contractor referred by B. to see if he can fix the water damage on my kitchen ceiling. I also leave a message for Fed-Ex in my never-ending quest to locate the missing tables that I ordered in October. I put the finishing touches on my make-up and walk to the office.
7:40 – 8:00 – I step in front of the standing thermometer [”Temperature NORMAL!!”], sign in, and walk to class.
8:00-9:30 – Once in class, I see that the pexi-glass panels surrounding my students’ individual desks were removed. The students are no longer encased in a plastic bubble, although we’re all still required to mask at this campus.
-Today’s “menu” is a documentary. I try to grade papers for Specialty Class 1B, but I don’t get very far. While the documentary is running, one of my students, C., approaches my desk, addresses me as “Ma’am, and discusses the fact that she missed the Video Quiz because she didn’t know it was due. I reply that C. missed our discussion of that assignment because she is always on her phone and doesn’t pay attention. I add that every student, except her, completed the Video Quiz…BUT I’m gentle with C. These are good kids and I don’t want to shame them – they get enough of that in our racist society. C. doesn’t respond and goes quiet. It looks like she’s about to cry so I try to reassure her, stating that she only missed one 10-point assignment. C. actually says, “I’m sorry”, which is shocking, in and of itself, but goes a step further by returning to her desk and putting her phone away.
-Class dismissed. I leave, but as I’m walking away from the classroom, C. runs after me and stops me in the hallway. She says she’s concerned about her grade and asks if it’s possible to raise it. It’s only a 10-point missed assignment, but I can tell it’s really bothering her, so I remind her that a 20-point Extra Credit assignment is coming up. C. says she already completed it. I’m impressed, tell her she’s an enterprising student, and that I’m sure the extra credit assignment will make up the difference. C. promises to do better in class and stay off her phone. It’s such a meaningful exchange…these are really good kids. My regular community college students can go to hell.
9:30-9:45 – I drop off attendance and walk to my car.
9:45-11:00 – Driving. Fed-Ex calls me about the missing tables and I get into it with an employee who doesn’t speak English. She informs me that she’s been “going back and forth” from her department to another department about the undelivered tables and says “I’m trying to help you.” She then accuses me of failing to provide the tracking numbers for the missed tables, but I counter that she already has them because she just read the numbers to me, you dumb bitch.
I hate this woman and explain to her that it would be easier for me to contact “the Department” personally so I can explain the situation instead of having her “go back and forth to help me”, which I don’t understand at all. “Back and forth?” Can’t you just use the phone? It sounds like she’s constantly walking from office to office and their experience with her is probably similar to what I’ve experienced in that “the Department” either dislikes her immensely or can’t understand what she’s saying. Clearly, she’s not explaining the situation correctly to “the Department” because she’s stupid. And what is the name of this mysterious “Department?” When I ask for the name and contact number, she refuses to tell me and asks me, instead, to call 1800-FED EX.
-I immediately call her out. That black hole? When you call 1800 FED EX you’re trapped in a maze of prompts and holding periods that can take hours. I know she knows this. No…I want the direct line to “the Department” with whom she’s been “going back and forth.” The employee says she’ll call me back in 5 minutes with the name and number of the supervisor, but I counter and demand that she look on the “Directory”, which I know is sitting on her desk, because EVERY employee for ANY company has a phone list. It’s one of the first items issued to a new-hire. This bitch says she does NOT have a phone list, but insists that she will call me back in 5 minutes. We conclude the call and I never hear from her again.
-I listen to The Double Shift and eat my tuna salad in the car.
11:00-12:30 – I drive to Walmart to return an item that I never ordered. Before I go in, I sit in my car and update my bullet journal. When I finally get out of my car and enter Walmart, I see that the Customer Service Desk is closed today. Today? As in the entire day? That doesn’t make any sense! I ask an employee on the floor about it and she says that she thinks the staff is attending some sort of training. I walk back to my car.
12:30-2:00 – Home and I bring in all of my bags and put everything away. Then, I pull the tracking numbers for the missing tables and email them to that bitch I just spoke with earlier, even though she already has them and informed me that she printed them out.
-I unload the dishwasher, ready my coffee for tomorrow, then call Fed Ex Customer Service in an attempt to reach a different employee. Success! I explain everything, yet again, to Employee No. 2 and she tells me that “the investigation was closed” and to notify Wayfair that Fed Ex was unable to locate the missing tables. I lay into her, telling her that I just spoke with another employee an hour ago who informed me that the investigation was ongoing. An hour later the investigation is canceled? I know it’s that stupid bitch from this morning but, as I continue screaming at Employee No. 2, she pretends we have a bad line and disconnects the call.
-I call Fed Ex Customer Service again and reach Employee No. 3. Now, all I want to know is if the investigation for the second table was also canceled. If that investigation is still in play, one table is better than none. Employee No. 3 says that missing Table #2 is still under investigation. I explain to Employee No. 3 that the Fed Ex tracking notes claim that I signed for the package, even though it never arrived and my “name” is actually misspelled. I’m going to sign my own name incorrectly? Although Fed Ex has the correct address on file, the tables NEVER arrived. She says there’s nothing she can do and I hang up on her in disgust.
-I call Wayfair, report to Customer Service that the tables are still missing, and reorder them AGAIN. The Wayfair Customer Service rep assures me the tables will arrive the last week of March, but I reply that the same thing happened last year in that the missing table was supposed to arrive in January and then the delivery date was arbitrarily moved to June. She says that won’t happen this time. Spoiler Alert: three days from now, I will check my Wayfair account and see that the table delivery was rescheduled to September without explanation. I was never called.
-I change into “Athletic Housewife” attire and call the DMV to get information as to how to transfer title of L.’s car to her. I’m referred to the DMV website and I print out the forms I think I need.
-The drywall contractor texts me that he’s unavailable for the next 4 weeks.
2:00-2:45 – I finish Clarity.
I don’t have a lot to say about this book. The author, Diana Estill, documents her creepy relationship with her father from tween-to-teen years. Around age 9, her Dad begins crawling into bed with Diana, spooning her and having inappropriate conversations. Diana says nothing else happened, but as the reader, I’m incredibly skeptical. If you think this memoir can’t get any worse, Diana’s mother walks in on them one night when Diana’s Dad is in her bed. When Diana’s mother questions her husband as to why he’s in bed with their daughter, Diana’s Dad says he’s merely saying good night to Diana. Her mother rightly says, “You don’t say good night like that to the boys”, then Diana’s Mom and Dad have a staring contest until her Mom eventually leaves the room, implicitly giving consent for this behavior through her silence.
-There’s more. Diana’s dad is a pig. He’s obsessed with breasts, makes lewd and lascivious comments about Diana’s friends, and insists that Diana tell him the explicit details of her sex life with her first boyfriend. Diana’s life goes the way you might expect. In an effort to escape her terrible home life, at age 16 Diana gets knocked up by an 18-year-old, they get married, and Diana flees from her marriage four years later, because Ronny is abusive. Two more marriages follow before she finally hooks up with a nice guy named Jim.
Unfortunately, for the next 15 to 20 years, Diana’s father plagues the couple, even though he’s remarried after cheating on Diana’s mother, and calls Diana at all hours of the day and night for whatever reason and routinely shows up at their door. Diana has no boundaries and allows her Dad to torment both she and her husband. When her Dad start suffering from dementia, it’s Diana who takes the reins, does the research, and admits her father into a nursing home, and then another nursing home after that because her Dad is violent and frequently attacks the staff. Did I mention Diana’s Dad is married? Although his marriage is going on 20 years, her Dad’s wife does virtually nothing to arrange for his care or medical treatment and never once tells him to stop bothering Diana.
-This chaos continues for decades until Diana’s Dad finally dies, at which point the memoir is over. In the interim, Diana’s Mom dies, too, but this is just a blip in the book’s plotline.
-Diana’s a great writer, but her failure to establish boundaries once she becomes an adult clouds the entire book. Instead of focusing on the anecdotal incidents, the reader is left in a constant state of irritation while asking the same questions over and over again: “Why is she tolerating this?” “Why doesn’t she just cut him off?” Diana’s husband is such a nice guy…eventually, I turn on him, too, with the same questions: “Why are you tolerating this?” “Why won’t you demand that Diana cut him off?” “Why don’t you get a divorce?”
-I’m on the fence with this recommendation. it’s hard not to hate Diana because she’s so weak…
2:45-3:30 – bullet journal
3:30-4:00 – I microwave a frozen 4-cheese quesadilla and have it for lunch, but it makes me sick and feels like lead in my stomach. I’m exhausted.
4:00-5:30 – I lie down and listen to The Waves.
5:30-6:00 – I change into my walking uniform.
6:00-6:30 – I leave for Striders.
6:30-7:30 – We are walking at Northpark tonight and I walk with Candy again. I learn that Candy lives near Central Park and her husband’s wood business is located in San Fransquito. Candy says she has not been to the doctor in 7 years because she’s embarrassed over how much weight she has gained. She also does not want to learn her actual weight. So no medical care in 7 years? Because of a little weight gain? It’s not my place, but I try to explain that whatever size she is shouldn’t matter when it comes to getting a check-up. Who cares? And those BMI charts aren’t accurate anyway [listen to the podcast Maintenance Phase]. Besides, she looks fine…she’s been walking two days a week [we walk 3 miles in 1 hour], for the past 20 years. She’s 75, but looks 15 years younger.
Candy mentioned that every 5 years, she and her girlfriends from elementary school take a trip together. One trip was to the South Rim [Grand Canyon] by train; she also recommends the Hoover Dam in Vegas. Candy is a hard-core Dodger fan and waxes nostalgic about the time she spent at Dodger Stadium when she was a little girl. Our conversation moved to the Super Bowl and the recent half-time show. Candy, a staunch conservative, left the house and went for a walk during half-time because she didn’t want to listen to a bunch of rap artists. Although she’s conservative, Candy says she still reads the LA Times. [insert smile emoji here].
7:30-8:30 – The walk is over. I drive to Sprouts and buy apples, walnuts, and honey. We don’t have to mask indoors anymore so I don’t wear a mask when I enter the store. I’m shocked to find that I’m the only customer who is NOT wearing a mask – I feel like such an asshole. It’s difficult trying to figure out what to do: I mask at the Charter School, I do NOT mask at College No. 1, I stopped masking indoors because I had Omicron in January, I still prefer eating outside, I’m not boosted, I don’t mask in my therapy sessions, etc.
8:30-9:30 – Home and I take the dog for a walk.
9:30-11:15 – L. is home so I’m finally able to file her taxes.
11:15-12:30 – Blog post
1:00-2:30 – I mix ground turkey with Pace Picante sauce and grill turkey burgers on my Foreman grill. What a mess! I also make a bowl of Greek yogurt with apples, walnuts, and honey.
2:30-3:30 – Kitchen duty and I ready my coffee and lunch bag for tomorrow.
3:30-4:00 – Nighttime routine. Bed.