Day 8 since I was injected with the J&J vaccine

My $2000 stipend is coming from the CARES Act…

4/16/21. Friday

8:30-8:45 – I set my alarm for 8:30, but stay in bed for the next 30 minutes.

I’m at 102 today. My eye is still very red, but not as painful.  It tends to start throbbing towards the end of the day. Advil and eyedrops.

8:45-9:00 – Up and I go downstairs to say good morning to the dog. I rub her tummy three times, she grabs her toy, and we go outside.  The dog runs around the yard, chasing birds, before finally going potty and then we return inside – cheese for her, coffee for me.

9:00-10:00 – I take my coffee and Good Talk outside so I can read at my patio table.  I’m a little less anxious but I don’t want to be lulled into a false sense of security.  It’s only Day 9 since I had the vaccine and now I’m hearing new guidelines:  J&J patients are not out of the woods until Day 20. How do the powers that be come up with these sliding scales?  Next, it will be TWO months after the J&J jab.  I suppose I’ll continue to feel anxious until magical Day 21 arrives.  I guess I’m officially in the clear, then? I find all of this extremely depressing.

It’s still a beautiful day, though.

The dog vomits in three places on the patio.  It’s neon yellow and there are pieces of undigested chunks of cheese in it.  It’s so disgusting… I clean it up (sigh).

I finish Good Talk. This is a graphic memoir and a recommendation from L. involving an American-Indian female, raised in the US, who married a white Jewish man, and the racism and sexism she encounters almost daily via numerous micro-aggressions.

Here is just one example: The author recounts how she and her husband were attending a dinner party at his parents’ house and several neighbors and friends of his parents attended.  A few of the party guests thought she was ‘the help’ and over the course of the evening, handed her dirty dishes and asked for coffee and champagne refills. Nobody bothered to correct these slights until the party was over, at which point, Mira’s mother-in-law introduces Mira as her son’s wife.  The same men who had originally treated her like a maid, then said they had no idea Mira’s mother-in-law had such a beautiful, ‘exotic’ daughter-in-law, essentially rubbing salt in the wound. Her mother-in-law said her friends “didn’t mean it.”

Of  note is the fact that Mira’s own Indian relatives continuously lament how dark she is and constantly remind her that the best male candidates will never want to be with a woman so dark.  Her own race makes these comments throughout her entire childhood and well into adulthood. It’s disgusting.

I loved the book and I think my students in next semester’s Specialty Class No. 2 would like it, too, but I’m almost positive I won’t have the enrollment, which means that class won’t run in August.

10:00-11:00 – I’m running really late for my last DE#2 Zoom meeting [11:00-3:00].  Last week, it was implied that we would be unveiling our sandbox to the evaluators so I will have to make an appearance. Shower. Lotion. I wear a blouse and yoga pants. Full make-up and my glasses [my eye is still very red].

11:00-3:00 -I zoom in on black screen at 11:06 and start adding a little more course content to my sandbox to shore it up a bit for the “reveal.”  The evaluator is talking about the $2000 stipend and warning us that if we don’t have the Distance Education ‘chops’ and our Dean asks him if we’re qualified to teach an online, asynchronous course, he will tell our Dean we are NOT qualified.  His entire opinion will be based on the content in our sandbox – that’s it.  I add a few more assignments to my sandbox while he’s speaking, just in case.

Of interest is the fact that our $2000 stipend is coming from the CARES Act.  So this is how some of the money is being spent… Hmmmm…don’t get me wrong, I’ll take it, BUT I’m getting a $2000 stipend from the CARES Act to learn how to teach online when we return “face-to-face” in August. Online classes are over – at least for me and most of my colleagues who attended this 6-week training course.

Additionally, my evaluator says he is not allowed to distribute a “certificate of completion” to us. Apparently, only the “Academic Senate” is able to show proof of completion, even though the “Senate” had nothing to do with this DE training. So, we graduate with nothing other than the evaluator’s assurances that he will tell our Deans we finished the course. I have nothing to show to another college that I completed this Distance Education training if I decide to apply elsewhere.

-More talking, until the evaluator says the “reveal” will work like this: He will put all 50 of us into break-out groups of five and we have 2 to 3 minutes to show our sandbox.  At 12:00, I’m placed in a break-out group and an older instructor [65+??] who appears to teach a “typing” class decides to go first and monopolizes the entire session.  Our evaluator materializes into our break-out group and begins commenting on her work.  He finally notices that she was the first and only participant to show her sandbox thus far and encourages her to wrap it up, but she can’t seem to stop “sharing her screen” [she’s actually trying, but it’s not working], which means nobody else can go.

The evaluator walks her through the process and a 70+ instructor takes her place and starts showing his sandbox. Our evaluator says he’s going to visit another break-out group and leaves the meeting.  As soon as he is gone, I immediately leave the “room” and start working on Part 2 of my French Cinema paper.

-French Cinema paper

-12:40 – I try to log back into the original Zoom meeting, but the break-out groups are still in session.

-1:00-3:00 – Back in the original Zoom meeting and another evaluator is giving a lecture on something???  I’m starting to feel some eye strain so I break for a minute to administer an eye drop.

-French Cinema paper.

-I check my grades for my DE#2 class and am shocked to discover that I’ve received 100% on every assignment. I have a 99.8 in the class! I guess I didn’t need to add course content to the sandbox after all.  There is one Discussion Board post assignment, worth 10 points, that I have yet to complete.  I opt to forego it.  I leave the meeting early, at 2:45, and the 6-week class is over.  I did it.

4:00-5:00 – I make the finishing edits on my French Cinema paper and submit. I completed the paper two days early.

5:00-6:00 – I make a spinach salad with tomatoes, celery, boiled egg, and EVOO and read a Money Diary. My eye hurts.  Seriously, is this a J&J side effect? I’m just not sure…

6:00-8:00- Blog posts.

8:00-10:00 – I go back to work and record AUDIO lecture-Part I for Specialty Class 1A. Then, I send the PP slides to L so she can convert them to Google slides.

10:00-11:30 – I’m finally able to go through my entire personal email and it takes forever.  I check email at the Colleges – nothing of importance.

11:30-12:15 – Kitchen duty. Take the dog out, lock up. I prepare my coffee for tomorrow.

12:15-1:00 – Blog post.  My eye hurts and I can feel the strain from today – it’s throbbing.  More Advil and eyedrops.

1:00-1:45 – Night time routine.

I lock my door tonight.  I hope I don’t have a blood clot or die in my sleep, but it’s a relief to have completed some of my more important activities today. I turned in my French Cinema paper; I finished the DE#2 class and should receive the $2000 stipend [or at least L. as next-of-kin will if I pass away]; and Specialty Class 1A is almost current.  The goal is to have my Canvas shells sooo complete that ANY teacher can step in and run the class in the event I’m in the hospital, getting a transfusion. That goal is achieved for my 5 core classes, BUT I’m a tad behind and playing some ‘catch-up’ with Specialty Class 1A. I’m almost there.

Very anxious and I feel like I can’t breathe…is it a blood clot? Then again, I might be hyperventilating because I’m having an anxiety attack.  I don’t know what to think anymore. I have some champagne.

Bed.