Here We Are----Week Four

Most notable this week was the announcement that we would be continuing online education for the remainder of the school year. While this came on the heels of our governor's "brilliant" and "knowledgeable" remarks about the value of opening schools because "kids are not affected " by this virus, it did not come as a surprise to me. 

I remember sitting at a basketball game with my boys in February when C.J. asked me if I thought schools would be closed for the virus.  I confess that even though I said yes, I never envisioned anything on this scale. In my mind I envisioned a two or three week break, with the school year then extending into June. 

But here we are ---on week four of lock down and here is how I've been spending all this time at home. Spoiler ---it's not overly exciting.

             -  Late Evening Walks: Ollie now knows when the 9:00 hour approaches and starts getting restless. I like these late evening walks because it's perfectly acceptable to walk around in the dark in your pj's. 

            - Learning Italian:  true story....my grandfather was 100% Italian. His mother (my great-grandmother) immigrated to the United States and spoke almost no English. She died when I was four or five and I have only a few memories of her.  I often felt sad that the language was not passed down and ended with my grandfather. So, I started about a month ago learning some simple words. I started with numbers 0-10, then moved to the days of the week, and colors. I am up to about 65 words now.  I have learned son, daughter, boy, girl, cat, dog, how are you, pretty, beautiful, hello, goodbye, breakfast, lunch, dinner, nose, mouth, ears, eyes, stomach, hands, feet, sorry, excuse me, aunt, uncle, grandma,  grandpa, no, yes, thank you, you're welcome, March, April, very good, not good, so so, I, me, you. 

I write out the word as it is spelled and then put in parentheses how it sounds phonetically. For instance; today is Giovedi (Thursday) - but phonetically is pronounced (Joe - va (long a)   de (long e) ) 

              - Giving Ollie Baths: A couple weeks ago we learned Ollie had a skin infection and I ordered some antibacterial/antifungal shampoo. I have to bathe him every other day with it and spend 10 minutes massaging it into his skin. He has begun to come running when he hears the bath water because he knows a 10 minute massage is coming up. I also have added Selson Blue medicated shampoo as an extra precaution. 

                  ---Watching 2004 Lightning Games: Fox Sports is replaying the 2004 playoff games on the "march to the cup". Game number three is tonight (they are only replaying the games they won)

                      ----Finding Old Pictures: This has been fun and speaks for itself.

                        My sis and me (about one)

                                             Me at about two-and-a-half

      News article on an f-4 tornado that tore through Oshkosh on April 21, 1974

       My elementary school - Sacred Heart School

                      Sacred Heart teachers. My mom is in the white shirt in the front. My third grade teacher is behind her, and my fifth grade teacher is the third one up in the zig-zag dress. My fourth grade teacher is in the polka dot dress. And, how weird is this? The man with the striped tie against the wall ----my future brother-in-law Kim. 

               the Franciscan nuns...my first grade teacher is in the front row with the open sweater (she was super mean and cruel), and my second grade teacher is at the top. 

                           2002 maybe?

             Itty bitty baby Zack

    Thank goodness for blood transfusions - give blood if you can

     It saved his life

           ---- and lastly...a couple more videos that kept me very entertained.

and

Another Week in the Twilight Zone

So we have now survived three weeks of isolation/safer at home/social distancing and I really see no end in sight. 

While life continues to move on in this strange and unfamiliar
fashion, days just seem to flow together. I often find myself unable  to remember what day of the week it is, or what the date is.  

I'm still getting up with my alarm Monday through Friday and following a predictable routine of taking Ollie out, grabbing my coffee, and parking myself on the living room couch to spend the day looking at my computer screen. I alternate watching Dr. Phil and Impractical Jokers, although at times there has been a movie on I like or some Lightning game re-run that I watch instead. 

This past week was incredibly wonderful as the 2017 tax return I filed almost two years ago now had come. I had all but given up hope. And because Zack was still a minor dependent at the time, it was a substantial amount. 

That, plus the $1,200 stimulus check I received, has allowed me to pay off a couple debts and finally have enough money to get my teeth fixed.

Hang on tight...another week of solitude ahead. 

Living in the Twilight Zone Week Three

We made it through another week of social isolation.  

I am so grateful that my family and I remain healthy, but I cannot pretend I wouldn't rather be walking in to my classroom tomorrow seeing the beautiful faces of my students. 

The week started with A LOT of questions since it was the first day of digital learning for them.  And just when things were leveling out and the students and parents were feeling more comfortable with the whole process, Study Island changed their log-in procedures on Thursday which created a whole new round of questions. Yes, step by step directions were sent out, but I had three students who did not use their school email address and, therefore, would not be able to access Study Island no matter what they did. So that was fun to get that mess straightened out. 

Having a schedule and routine helped the week pass fairly quickly. Everyday, I set my alarm for 8:30. I started my coffee, took Ollie out, and then settled in to my spot on the couch and check into what emails, problems, or issues are awaiting me. My office hours are from 1-3 so that means I have to be available for immediate response from students or parents. I also tutored online a couple times for Huntington. 

On Friday, we had to get out of the house and do our grocery shopping. I brought along a plastic container of Clorox wipes which Zack and I used to clean every inch of our shopping cart and also used a wipe to grab things off the shelves. We are stocked for another week. 

After shopping, we stopped by Chili's and got their 3 for $10 special curbside to go. 

Another week of hibernating ahead. 

Fur Real

 Lock down is not all bad when I have these two to spend it with.

Living in the Twilight Zone - Week Two

You know the old saying, "be careful what you wish for?"  Well, right now I'm the living proof that the saying is pretty accurate. 

I worked hard --- and A LOT!  Three days of the week, I would leave my apartment at 6:45 am and would not get home until 7:30 pm. In addition to that, I also worked Saturday mornings. 

At first I thought two or three weeks under lock down would be great!  Of course the reason for the lock down makes me sick at heart, but the downtime and calmness isolation bought, would be a welcome respite. 

This has NOT been the case. I love teaching---I love my work---and I love my students. Being without these things has been challenging. And just today, schools will now be cancelled until May 1.  Many believe we will not see the inside of a classroom again this year. I prefer not to think about it too much.😞

But besides being bored and feeling redundant, there have been a few positives...

------ with all this home time, I was able to give each room in my apartment a good cleaning. I'ts amazing how much surface cleaning takes place when one is hardly ever home. Then, when I was home, I just closed myself in my bedroom and mentally blocked out the state of the apartment.

BUT NOW

The Living Room

The Kitchen

Even the kitchen cupboards got a good cleaning. And I bought all new dishes, bowls, cups, and storage containers since the dishwasher destroyed our other ones (that's a saga for another day...oy)

Whoops...accidentally left the cat nip out!

She was probably flying high while I was stuck cleaning up the mess.

Zack's Closet

And Zack's Room

Finally...the bathroom

I did not take before pictures because I would have been embarrassed. 

-------NO TRAFFIC!!! The low traffic volume in Orlando is positive proof that 80% of the drivers are visitors.  I have had no stress driving for the past two weeks. There are no drivers going 10-15 under the speed limit, changing lanes at the last nanosecond, turning right or left from the straight lane, darting in front of you causing you to have to slam on the brakes because "oh...that's where I want to be", and not knowing where they are or where they are going.  It's been wonderful! Not that I'm out  driving much though.

------- More time with Ollie, Sadie, and Zack.  Especially Ollie. When we first got Ollie, I was the one home most of the time. I fed him, took him out, trained him, cuddled with him the most, and he became very attached to me. No doubt I was the alpha dog in his "pack". Recently though, I am gone A LOT! and Zack is always home, so Ollie has been growing closer to him and farther away from me. 

------Not having to wake up at 6 dark thirty!  The only aspect of my job I didn't like was the early wake up. I am most definitely NOT a morning person. On the other hand, sleeping in every day (10:30 is sleeping in for me) is not a great option for me either, so I've been finding a happy medium and setting my alarm (M-F) at 8:30. 


At lease there is some humor dispersed throughout the day, like this video with the caption...Every Couple During Quarantine" 

Living on the Edge

We are living in unprecedented times. 

The number of known Coronavirus cases in the United States is now between 32,000 and 36,000 (depending on which source you cite) with nearly 400 deaths and not enough test kits to cover the demand. 

People across the country are encouraged to stay home unless they have an imperative reason to venture out. Here in Orlando an 11:00 curfew has been imposed, all theme parks have been closed, and restaurants have gone to drive-thru or pick-up only.  

The absence of traffic has been interesting/remarkable/astonishing and, if I'm being honest, it's a nice, relaxing change...until I remember the reason for this "vacation destination" city turning into a veritable ghost town. 

This was Friday evening traffic (5:45p.m. March 20)

The first two pictures are normally extremely busy intersections. 

The last picture is the entrance to my apartment complex. Normally, traffic is so backed up at the light down the street, I have to turn in between cars who are kind enough to leave some space. 

This is our new normal for now. I have gone from spending between 3-5 hours a day awake and at home, to barely ever leaving. It's been an adjustment to say the least. We have been told to expect some remote training this week in anticipation of beginning online education March 30. This could last anywhere between 2 weeks to 2 months. Most believe the latter. I prefer to hold out hope for somewhere in the middle...maybe end of April. I just cannot imagine not seeing my kiddos again.

Thankfully, there is some light-hearted humor to enjoy. Of all I've seen, this is by far my favorite.

It was so wildly popular, it was followed up by a couple more

I could watch these over and over again all day long.

Oh My!!!

8th grade

Sacred Heart School

That's me....front row second from the left.

My two best friends were the two right above me.