Living in the time of pandemic: COVID-19 (129)
November 21, 2022
Year 3 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 3, Day 241: An unfortunate confluence of events for this Monday making it an Extremely Monday Monday. PiC had both overlapping meetings and a time sensitive morning errand to run so all before 9:30 I had to: get two boxes of donations out the door for a pickup, get 2 boxes of donations for shipping out the door. Drop off both kids. Drop off a bag for a friend, and drop off a return shipment at the UPS store. It was all a bit of a scramble, made more challenging by Smol Acrobat’s inexplicable (to me, anyway, I’m sure it made sense to them somehow) angry tantrum as I wrassled them out of the stroller and into the car seat.
It’s super satisfying getting five boxes of stuff out of my house but it was also REALLY hard to focus again when I finally got back to my desk.
We’ve got a heck of a week in front of us so this feels like an inauspicious start, especially when we ended the day with some real parent-child headbutting. I hate that. Not much makes me feel like a bigger failure than letting my kid get under my skin.
I’m sure that feeling is exacerbated by this deep pain flaring up on my right side. It started in my hand at 7 am and by 7 pm, my whole right arm and shoulder were aching.
Pine Ridge / Lakota giving daily update
Irritating: getting notices from Costco that two shipments are delayed due to problems with the address. The same address to which they’d already successfully delivered four other shipments last week. ARGH.
Year 3, Day 242: We were running 5 minutes late getting out the door so of course we had to run into EVERY SINGLE NEIGHBOR we know, half of whom wanted to chat. Who’s going to say no to the neighbor puppy who so desperately wants to romp with Sera? We’re not heartless.
Entropy attracts so much more entropy!
I managed to get PiC and Smol out the door, and started cooking prep because it’s a self defense day. Half my afternoon is shot on self defense days.
Pine Ridge / Lakota giving daily update
In today’s not-spare time, we pursued the question of Schrodinger’s packages. UPS tells me that these two orders were undeliverable and also that they were delivered. It was perplexing. In the end, I had to ask the coordinator to ask the Center volunteers to confirm if they had arrived. I try not to bother them as they’re busy and I’m keeping them busier with our project here!
The Center volunteers shared that some of the kids at the Center are there all day because it’s not really safe for them to be home, but they have to go home at night. They’ve requested bean bag chairs because they only have one used sofa for about 30 kids. Thanks to some friends’ recommendations, I’ve located one large one that was on sale and will continue to shop for individual chairs too.
Year 3, Day 243: Sera met a s-medium neighborhood dog today. We know him well, he often comes to me for pets and love when he catches me in the driveway, but he’s not yet acquainted with her. He kind of went on the attack, after an intense staring period. His owner had him well in hand, but most notably, she didn’t try to fearfully destroy him in response. That was a really good interaction, considering! I expect he was intimidated by her staring. She was nervous but it probably seemed like an attempt to dominate. It very much wasn’t! I hope they’ll do better in later encounters.
JB was a big help getting the house ready for our favorite visit of the year. With close instruction but little oversight, they tidied the guest room, made up the bed with fresh sheets, and tidied the essential dining and kitchen areas. I couldn’t have gotten everything ready without their help.
I’m also very glad I splurged on extra sets of bedding. That meant I could just pull out a full set of already clean sheets and pillowcases and send JB to work instead of having to strip the bed, wash and dry everything, and then make it up the same day. My poverty roots are showing: we couldn’t afford the luxury of extra anything and this is still a novelty to me at times.
Scary moment today: I was driving to run an errand and my brain seemed to stop working. As in, lost my muscle memory related to driving and navigating. I had to think really hard to figure out where we were, less than 2 miles from home, and how to get to the next stop. Thankfully we made it through fine but I was gripped by the worry we’d get in an accident because I’d forgotten how to do basic things momentarily.
Pine Ridge / Lakota giving daily update
No update today, I was barely keeping head above water and couldn’t shop or ship.
Year 3, Day 244: Preparing for the holidays both at home and at work has derailed my day. There are several things I have to adjust in the last few months of the year and I have to make arrangements for holiday gifts/meals/whatever at work. I should have gotten on the holiday meal/gift/whatever part in October when I still had an ounce of sanity but I didn’t so now..!
I was going to say I’m reaping what I sowed but technically I didn’t sow anything and that’s the problem! Oh! I did get the group gift for a bunch of niblings in order. Now it has to be sent to them. Plus the housewarming card is ready to go, as is the thank you card for the teacher departing from Smol’s daycare class. We still need to do a thank you treat for the whole class, but that’s a Monday problem.
Pine Ridge / Lakota giving daily update
Today was mostly administrative work: paying the bills for the items that have been shipped and received, checking to see what money is left, and working with Tami to figure out the Target diapers order. She’s got a better Target Circle offer than I do so we’re going to max that out first before I put in any Target orders.
Year 3, Day 245: Le Sigh. It’s November, Smol’s third month in daycare, so of course we have our third fever today. Excellent. /sarcasm.
I’m tired. PiC’s tired. JB is not but Smol is tired AND cranky. It’s official, I’m overwhelmed.
There’s too much to do and not enough me to go around: work and holiday shenanigans to organize and arrange, family holiday shenanigans to arrange, family holiday gifts, I haven’t written a letter to my friend with Alzheimer’s in a couple weeks which breaks my personal commitment to sending a weekly letter. There’s more, I’m just forgetting what.
Bright side: Smol was inspired to learn the word cracker today! Now they can request Ritz crackers specifically. Forever.
Also bright side: one of my favorite people is here with us for a week and they made the most tasty dinner ever. A specialty dish, bun rieu, that I never would have attempted because it takes three hours and I simply don’t have that kind of energy or time. Now this is the kind of stuff I’d want to cook in retirement.
Pine Ridge / Lakota giving daily update
The director of One Spirit emailed me this morning asking if we could support the adults in the Allen area with more winter coats. We had a quick chat about sizes and I’m now eyeballing sales that have come up close hitting the $30 price point I was looking for. I’m hoping to get into it this weekend.
:: What would you cook if you enjoyed cooking and had all the time and energy and ingredients at your fingertips?
Do you have any plans this week?
You do a lot– just reading this made me feel a bit anxious. And I’m on leave this year!
Here’s a list of what I see that you’re doing while working full time and having an energy sapping disability:
Running a non-profit and working for that non-profit.
Making arrangements for holiday gifts/meals/whatever at work.
Organizing group gifts.
Making treats for a class.
Doing thank you cards.
Writing weekly letters.
Cooking from scratch.
Like, you’re working full time, being a full time SAHP, and being a full time non-profit CEO AND worker. These are all nice things, but … it’s a lot.
Ok, I’m conceding that you have a point. Though we just BOUGHT treats for the class, still, that was a lot.