Day 8 - Mask mandate is rescinded in California

At The Musical Road today…

6/22/21. Tuesday

6:45 – 7:45 - L. has to be at work by 8:00 a.m. so I wake her up at 7:00 and explain the tragedy. I asked L. to back up my Ipad to the Cloud the day before I left for Tiburon and she assured me that she did it, although the process seemed to have gone suspiciously quick on that day.

I ask L. to restore it now and am embarrassed to write that I was crying.  Of course, L. is not happy about waking up this early and she’s not compassionate at all. She types a series of commands and hits “Restore.” After 10 minutes, an error message said that only 65% of my data was restored because my storage was full.  I start deleting some podcasts to make room, but L. says it doesn’t work that way – there will be no second attempt.  More than that, however, it looks like my “Notes” files never made it to the Cloud last week, when L. allegedly did the “back-up.” When I look in the Cloud, nothing is there – in fact, they were never backed up.

I tell L. I don’t know how I can function – yes, I’m still crying. My To-do list is extensive – I can’t remember all the items on it – and all the movies, books, restaurants/parks/places I want to see, that I’ve been logging into my “Notes” file for EIGHT YEARS... how can I possibly recreate that?  L. brusquely says I’ll carry on the same way  everybody who’s lost their data carries on.  Do you know how many times I’ve lost my data?, L. says. But have you lost eight years of data, though?  Eight years???

And yet…I’m remembering something…in May 2020, I asked L. to email the :Notes” file from my Ipad to my personal email.  Even then, I was worried about backing up my content but was afraid to send my files to the Cloud because I thought they’d be lost in transit. I flash back to May 2020 – it feels just like I’m revisiting a scene in my past life, like Scrooge in a Christmas Carol - when L. completed the task (it only took 30 seconds).  That’s it?, I asked L. That’s it, she said. I remember opening my email seeing everything in a compressed file, and feeling relieved that I had a second copy.

I remind L. of this. We don’t have much time because she has to leave for work, but she says if I can pull up the May 2020 file in my email, she can reload the Ipad. The only problem, though, is that all the data I’ve added since May 2020, is still lost forever…there were a lot of parks, restaurants, books, movies, TV shows that I added to the file this past year [read: pandemic] and I can’t remember everything, especially some of the outdoor spaces/botanical gardens I had heard about and noted. Nevertheless, one lost year is better than seven lost years. I’ll take it.

L. is actually able to reload my Ipad.  Even L. is impressed by the sheer amount of data flowing from my hotmail [which gives you an idea of how technically backwards I am] account to my Ipad.  Her mouth drops open and she whispers “Oh my God” as she swipes through an unending scroll of 7 years of data.

L. says, You need to create separate files for all of this!  You can’t just put it all in one scroll! She shows me a few examples of how she stores her data then leaves for work.

I go downstairs, greet the dog, and take her outside – I’m very distracted and forget to rub her tummy.  She goes potty and we return inside: cheese for her; coffee for me.

7:45-9:00 – I think about ways to re-create the last year of data.  When I’m interested in, or hear about a place I’d like to go, I immediately google it on either my home office computer or my Ipad. The same with movies and books. Perhaps using my internet history as a guide, I can find the locations I searched and add them back to my Ipad. I go downstairs and pull up a tutorial on how to access my Google history.  This takes some time, but I finally figure out all I need to do is hit Cntrl H and everything I’ve searched pops up…but only for the last three months. I start the process, but I don’t have time to finish because I have a therapy session.

Things start flitting through my mind, one after the other.  A TV series, an item from my To-do list, a movie I wrote down the other day, a book…I open my Ipad and start logging these random items, one after another…it feels like my brain is in the midst of a huge data-dump and my thoughts won’t stop, they keep coming in rapid fire, as if my mind is trying to restore the lost items in the Ipad. This is what it’s like, almost every second…What’s the name of that movie starring Amy Adams? You wanted to see it. Did you download that podcast your Mom recommended? Write that down.  Remember the TV series you thought B. would like?  What was that? Don’t forget, booking L.’s flight was on your To-do list – put it back on the list. Did you put the money for your therapy session in your wallet?  That was on your To-do list, too. Did you mail your life insurance? The trash bill is due.

I can’t make these thoughts stop and I feel like I might be going…well…I guess, crazy…BUT I’m going to attribute some of this to lack of sleep. I sit quietly and log each thought in my Ipad as it flits across the screen of my mind. Gradually, the thoughts start to slow down.

9:00-9:45 – Shower. Lotion. Covid-19 uniform. Light make-up. I grab my insulated lunch bag, coffee, Hydroflask and leave.

10:00-10:30 – Therapy, but I don’t mention any of the above…how to explain?

10:30 – 11:00 - I lost Verizon cell service at my house several months ago…Well, that’s not entirely true…I have one bar if I stand, motionless, in the left corner of my bedroom closet. Any kind of movement results in the call dropping or breaking up. I have no cell service downstairs at all.

After my session, I call my credit card company from the parking lot [I have full service in various places around town] and have them reverse a $13 charge for a product I never received. Thoughts/reminders continue to come in and I diligently write them down as they materialize. I eat a piece of my lasagna in my car.

11:00-12:30 – I drive to The Musical Road on Avenue G. Rumor has it that when you drive on The Musical Road, your car tires create music from the strategically placed divots in the road. And…it’s true!  OMG!  A song – an actual melody – is coming out of the asphalt. Incredible!  I drive it a couple more times.

12:30-1:00 – I swing by College No. 1 to pick up my mail and check out where my face-to-face classes will be held come August. So, here, dear reader, is where you might be able to figure out where I work. I drive by the building and find the rooms.  Then, I park and pull up the Fall Semester schedule. There have been some changes and they are not good.

I’m teaching three classes next semester.  20 students will be in the classroom and 20 students will be remote, attending class via Zoom as I’m teaching. It’s called a “hybrid class.” How do I lecture at the podium and still manage to teach my students via Zoom?  This is a logistical nightmare.  If I didn’t need my highest 36 consecutive months of salary, I swear I’d retire today.

1:00-2:00 – L. texts me her order for the Whole Wheatery so I call it in, pick it up, and head home.

2:00-3:30 – Driving. I eat my taco salad on the way home.

3:30-7:00  - I spend this block of time re-curating my life. By that I mean, I create separate files/categories, per L.’s suggestion, for the 7 years of material that I was able to restore, then view each item on my computer and manually log it into the new file/category I’ve created for my Ipad. This is a painstakingly slow process. I start with Google history, and look at every website I’ve logged onto since March 2021 [remember, it only goes back 3 months].  Based on the hits in my Google history, I’m able to recreate what I had previously logged into my Ipad. Unfortunately, information from May 2020 to March 2021 is still missing.  It’s a 10-month gap, but at least it’s not 8 years.

7:00-8:00 – L. returns home with flowers for me. How nice! She visited my parents and we discuss her day.

8:00-8:30 – I take the dog for a walk.

8:30-10:30 – Gardening. I sweep the patio, rake the leaves, and water all of my plants.

10:30-12:00 – Kitchen duty and I have the rest of  my taco salad even though I shouldn’t be eating this late.

12:00-1:00 – I do a Kathy Smith Ab workout and the first 30 minutes of Insanity Max Cardio. I don’t finish – too tired.

1:00-2:30 – I try to work on some blog posts, but accidentally end up falling asleep.

2:30-3:30 – Nighttime routine. Bed.