Still Isolating.

Still here.  In the same 700+ square feet.  Alone.  A few weeks ago the governor extended our stay at home order through May 3rd or 4th (so far) and closed school buildings for the year.

I want to make sure I'm documenting my experience through this in the hopes that one day it will be the crazy thing on the History Channel.  So here's a brain dump of what it's been like for the past few weeks.

It's been 5 weeks since I was last allowed in the school building, and 7-8 weeks since I remember thinking this is a pretty big deal locally, started washing my hands constantly, and put sanitizer on all student tables, requiring them to use it in and out of the classroom, and was down 8-10 students daily in class because their families were self-isolating.  I started setting up distance learning platforms to help students who weren't in class, stopped going to the gym, and only went to work and home.

So far this has taught me that... I might be an introvert.  I am not struggling to be home alone.  Do I miss social interaction?  Sure.  But I've been face timing with family, zooming with coworkers, yelling across balconies with a friend, and sending snapchats* with friends. I do want to go out, go shopping, not think about wearing a mask, etc.  But I'm not feeling drained by being home constantly.

*I'm an old lady who probably shouldn't be on snapchat, and probably use it like an old lady on snapchat.  But it adds silliness to interactions, and I like to post food there so that people in my facebook/instagram feeds don't have to look at food I make.  *shrug*

I haven't left the house in 2 weeks, since I last got groceries.  I need to go again, and am thinking of braving Costco in a few days... I should probably go start/run my car for a bit.  I do go outside for walks/runs, and it's been nice out, so I sit on the balcony a lot.  It seems like Washington has done a decent job of self-isolating.  Streets are still really empty.  People are out walking, running, biking, etc on the trails, but mostly things are quiet.

A few weeks ago when I DID leave my house for groceries, I did something really cool.  I drove downtown- it took me 45 minutes ROUND TRIP, when it usually takes 30-40 minutes one way.  Normally, I would obviously never get my phone out and take pictures while driving downtown, but I just couldn't pass up taking pictures of the empty streets.

I LOVE the food tours in Pike Place Market.  I've been a couple times, and will continue to recommend it to anyone visiting, and I'll go with because I love it!  But the market is closed for the most part- even the food stands because of the coronavirus stay at home orders.  The company that does the food tours started doing weekly "boxes" from Pike Place Market vendors to deliver and pick up as a way to support the market vendors.  They don't deliver out to me right now, so I ordered a box and went to pick it up on a Saturday morning.  IT WAS CRAZY.  Obviously I  haven't been downtown since this all started.  It was empty, and I did something I would NEVER do EVER under normal circumstances.

I drove right on Pike Place Street.  Like, I turned right onto the brick road and drove right down it.

Normally, this is FILLED with locals and tourists.  I am always baffled by people who turn down the street, likely to realize it was a huge mistake and they can't get out (unless they are delivery people).  And I turned right on it and drove down the street of Pike Place Market.

It was a completely contact free pick up.  I pulled up (RIGHT IN FRONT of Beechers and Joe's Chocolates) and parked.  They brought a bag of fresh produce from Frank's Produce (best!), and a whole bag of stuff from other market vendors and put it in my car.  I got PIROSHKYS (favorite!!), pasta and sauce, chocolate covered almonds, Seattle coffee beans, Uli's sausage, Beechers cheese, hot peppers, and fresh flowers.  They had an option to order food from the Mexican restaurant down the street, so I had also ordered a couple breakfast burritos for fun.  It was worth the trip.

That was a highlight.

Otherwise, to be honest, work is....a lot right now.  I've never had a desk job and I've never worked from home.  I don't have a good system for managing all the emails I'm getting... from businesses and educational resources, the district, the school, admin, the middle school (my kids go to a different school next year and this is the time when we would be transitioning them), coworkers, everyone who wants help with something techy, parents, and...students.  It's probably not even that many emails compared to other people, but they are all over the board and I feel constantly pulled in a lot of different mental directions. We haven't even moved to online teaching yet!  Everything so far has been optional review instruction.  Next week we start distance learning.  New content.  Required work submission.

Last week we put together pictures of all the teachers to send out to students.  We aren't allowed to do the parades that you see on the news and social media, because we are under a stay at home order.  Per our local police, the stay at home order means STAY AT HOME and going around and driving in student neighborhoods is against the order and a poor example for families.  Students and families would be going outside and it would be hard to "control" gathering for kids.  I get it, but I do miss them pig time.

So we've had Spring Break, which wasn't a break because I have loads of lists to work through.  And I'm at home, and have been for weeks, so it doesn't feel like a break.  The whole thing is weird.

I've been working hard to gather resources, make them as accessible as possible for students to navigate independently, and as convenient as possible for parents to support, for the past few weeks.  I've spent hours helping coworkers/staff with tech "stuff".  I put together a weekly assignment schedule for families.  I've had meetings with my school team to figure out how to transfer our teaching to a completely different platform.  I think we will sink into a routine.  My team has scheduled weekly virtual meetings from now until the end of June to check in.  We've set up a place for us to dump in resources by week to share with each other.  We've tried to divide up the work of transferring student assignments to a digital platform for things we are all doing the same in an effort to take some of the work off of each other.  Our first week goes out tomorrow and I'm crossing my fingers that I thought of every small detail to help make the week go smoothly.

And with my conversations with others from school, I think I'm actually handling it really, REALLY well.  I'm grateful for that.  I don't feel like I'm at a breaking point.  I'm not struggling with being on my own.  And I do have a good grasp on all the educational technology we are using.  I don't feel like I need to learn anything new in addition to making this transition.  So I'm doing well.

I try not to control the things I can't control. Like when I will go back in my classroom and clean out 26 student desks.  How I will get everything to them.  How we will return books, clean desks, and close up the classroom without students around.  How much work that will be for me...and it will likely be alone in my classroom with social distancing requirements.  I'm sure they will tell me what to do at a later date.

I am focusing on how I can make my home better.  When I can plant flowers, or making my bed every day (hahaha).  I shampooed my carpets.  I have done my kickboxing every day, and I've been focusing on the heart training aspect of it rather than calories burned.

My hair needs to be done because my appointment was originally scheduled for 1 day after the stay at home order was in place, so they closed.  I have gray hair, and it's getting long, but it's ok.

 I took a walk a couple times last week because they were giving away fresh flower bouquets for donations for the downtown association street flowers.  It was a 4 mile walk, and I had to do it 3 times (on 3 different days) because they were all gone by the time I got there.  But I did finally get a bouquet to brighten up my home.  She had me put my money on the table, then step away, and she took it and wiped it down with a disinfectant wipe and I grabbed the flowers I wanted.  Things are weird.

I still cook a lot :-)
I made brioche bread for Easter.  I thought it might make my mixer explode- I don't think I've ever had it get so hot!!  I watched church online.

Then I had to eat brioche for a week or so... so I've had french toast a few times. 

None of this is "ideal", but I feel like I'm doing alright.  It's hard to imagine doing this for months and months, but then I realize I've already done it for over 1 month.  This week will bring a new set of challenges, but I'm feeling prepared.

Today I am going to try to make face masks since I think that will be the new normal for awhile, especially once things "open up" again.  Hopefully I can figure it out easily!

Isolation

We are currently one week into our 2 week statewide "Stay at Home" order.  It's QUIET in a city that is usually bustling with traffic.  It makes it really nice to go places now, except there is no where to go because everything is closed.  The parks closed, so even the trails are quiet.

I imagine this order will go longer since this week the President extended the Coronavirus distancing restrictions to April 30th.  I am also anticipating longer school closures, but we will see what happens when it happens.

Don't mind the cords.  It is what it is.

So, fortunately, I'm quite used to living on my own and I rather enjoy it.  I am keeping regular "office hours" for school, and am available to students during our regular school hours.  Currently, we are providing learning opportunities weekly to families, but it sounds like we may be moving to a more instruction based approach after Spring Break.  As the technology lead in our building, I'm also very busy responding to staff questions about educational technology and problem solving.  It's an unexpectedly large part of a roll that isn't usually this time consuming in "normal" years.

I replaced my medicine cabinet.  While it looks great now, I'm most definitely a beginner, and need to take it back out and redo the screws.  I don't have an after picture.  Just image something that looks better.  Someday it will be done correctly!

I bought another pair of blue light glasses since I'm SO not used to sitting at a screen all day, and it was giving me headaches.  I have a pair at school for teacher work days but....well, they are at school and I'm not allowed over there. My new work essentials are sanitizer, lotion, and blue light glasses.

My typical routine is to get up and make coffee (Seattlite over here now!), switch on the morning news, and get my computer and iPad up and running.  I respond to any emails, open up my availability for students to reach me, and then basically monitor student conversations all day.  They are working through some of the work that has been sent home, and I'm answering any questions as they go.  I've been doing some online tech training, and I am taking a Computational Thinking course that should be wrapping up in April.

Since the gyms are closed, my kickboxing has been online, which I've actually really enjoyed.  I can still track my heart rate with my monitor and app, and it gives me a nice way to get moving since the trails are all closed right now.  I like to think I'm getting better, but who knows.

Otherwise, I do laundry, clean already clean things, and cook.  I cook a lot.  I went overboard in the picture (I mean, there is only one of me), but I made a cheese soup one day (it was broccoli cheese, but my frozen broccoli had seen better days- in the cast iron in the picture below), and homemade pretzel bites (also in the picture)!  So really, this was more of a way for me to entertain myself, snack, and then clean up for later.

I've tried to stay away from making treats because I'm the only one here to eat them.  So I'm focusing on cooking rather than baking as much as possible.  I've put together homemade pancake mix and hot chocolate mix.  One day I made homemade enchilada sauce and made some yummy enchiladas.  Pasta is always an easy go-to, and I always make my own sauces.  

The other day, my friends from back home all did a video get-together one night with us and all of our collective husbands/wives.  Since I usually don't get to join in on the festivities, it was kind of fun for us to all get to see each other at once.  We talked for 2 hours!  

I plan to clean my carpet one of these days. So basically, it's really exciting around here.  

Early reports seem like Seattle is doing alright in slowing the spread of the virus, but who knows as the weeks continue.  Even if that is true, it sounds like we will still be spending many weeks isolated. 

Otherwise I'm just still over here not leaving my home.

Hello from the Coronavirus "epicenter"

Hi.  It's been really something around here for almost a month now.  I'm ok, and here's what things are like here.

I can't go anywhere.  Nowhere wants anyone from Washington coming to their state.  I would need to quarantine anywhere I go, per almost every state now.  I need to self-isolate here because we're told to try to stay home.  I don't want to be carrying/spreading something if I happen to be asymptomatic, and I don't want to get it if I don't already have it.

It just now feels like friends and family back home are starting to hear all the things that Washington has been hearing for a few weeks now.  The original community spread outbreak started just miles from where I live, and it's been front and center. About two or three weekends ago, you couldn't find toilet paper anywhere.  Costco sold out of water and paper products.  There suddenly wasn't hand sanitizer for 100 miles and you couldn't order it online.  All in a matter of a few hours.

Since then, you still can't find toilet paper.  I did a drive by of a pallet they were unloading a few times before I was able to dodge in (left my cart) and grab a package before ducking back out of the chaos.

We went to school for about a week knowing we would probably end up closing, but not knowing when.  How long.  How it would work.  Schools around us were closing for cleaning.  Then districts started for extended amounts of time.

And then one day, 45 minutes before the end of the school day, we were told we would be out of school starting immediately and for the next 6 weeks.  Maybe more.  So I told the kids.  They were excited before they realized what that meant.  Then they were nervous.  We cleaned out all of our personal belongings, wiped down our room while we watched "Brain Games", and they left.  For 6 weeks...(or more?).

But it's not vacation or time off.  Districts and unions are negotiating salaries for us, trying to figure out providing meals to all students, and get technology and internet in the hands of each student who needs it to keep learning as equitable as possible.  Expectations of my job requirements are muddy.  I'm "working remotely", but with parameters and currently without students. It's confusing. Soon I will meet remotely with my team to figure out how we can push out resources to families, when this has never been a part of our job before. It's strange to have your job/career expectations change overnight and be expected to successfully (?) implement the change within a few days.  Of course, my work computer stopped working the second day of this, so I had to take it up to school today for our tech person to fix it.  I'm working from an iPad right now- haha!  The in depth part of this work will likely start tomorrow or this weekend as my team has remote meetings to work together to gather materials, put together home lessons, and develop a system and platform to push information out to parents and our students.

In the meantime, everything is closed here.  Restaurants (take out and delivery still available), gyms, theaters, stores, the zoo, schools, and most companies.  People go to the trails because they can still be 6 feet away from others.  I've been going to the trail to run every day since we've been out.  I have a lot of anxious energy and thought processing to work through, so I'm thankful for the convenience and availability of a trial being so nearby.

The grocery store has rules for keeping people 6 feet apart and the lines have been long for the fact that there are still some shelves that remain barely stocked. It's hard NOT to panic shop when everything you came there for is gone.  Like if I need one can of chickpeas, but there are only 4 cans left, do you just buy them all??  This has been slowly improving as we continue to live this way day by day.

I'm very fortunate.  Our district just confirmed that we will still be paid, and has been communicating work expectations during this time.  I have food, and a safe place to live.  I can easily quarantine if necessary.  I am currently self-isolating and still have access to grocery shopping (I try to do this seldom, less than once a week) and outdoor space for when I get restless.

And let's be honest, I'm used to hanging out with myself. Libraries are closed, but I can still check out ebooks and audio books, so I've been putting myself on waiting lists for books I've wanted to read.  I'm finding a few small things I want to fix or work on while I'm home.  I enjoy cooking, and will have the time to try out some more time consuming recipes.

I've cleared the calendar for 6+ weeks.  My hair needs attention, but it's closed and my appointment was cancelled.  It's time for my dentist appointment, but they are closed, plus it seems risky with everything going on.

The unknown is scary, but I want to do my part to keep people safe while still caring for myself.  I certainly try to keep the humor through all of it, because I've been very fortunate so far.  I pray that it stays that way.

This store was also under construction (see white plastic behind me), so the amount of empty shelves did not help the panic shopping that was happening.

 Please stay inside, stay safe, and stay healthy! <3

It's been almost a year

I'm still around!  I know a few people do check back and I haven't updated in a really long time.  I'm hoping to be better this year.  It's a goal.

I thought after passing my boards and finishing my ELL endorsement and being DONE with classes for a LONG TIME that I would have a nice relaxing year last year.  But, last year was hard. A number of things happened that left me emotionally, physically, and mentally drained. I ended up making a change in my teaching position to help me move forward, so I have moved to a new grade level this school year.  I'd like to think I came out stronger, but I also came out more protective of myself.  In my new grade level I get to teach older kids, and I have certainly missed this age group in the past few years.  It does mean I feel like I'm completely starting over- even with 13 years experience! This school year has been a new challenge.  For the first time, I got to teach the reproductive system!  It's ok to be jealous.  I ended last school year with my first visit to the Paramount to see Wicked, and it was the best way to end the school year.

Here's some more of the rather long highlight reel of what I've been up to...

I tried some new fast food.  I know, it's exciting!  I finally made it to XXX, which has fantastic root beer and quite the atmosphere, and is NOT X-rated contrary to what the sign looks like.  It's a pretty decent sunny day spot for a burger.
AND, I had the Popeyes Spicy Chicken that had been all over the news, and I can confirm, it's pretty decent.

I've also been busy cooking.  I made the famous Chrissy Teigen banana bread (it's bomb- it has coconut and dark chocolate and it's delish), and made some pretty amazing chicken piccata, just to name a few things.  I'm usually cooking at least a few times a week and love trying new recipes that are made from actual ingredients. I enjoy it and it's relaxing for me.  For Christmas, I got good knives and it's amazing.

Over the summer, a friend and I drove (from KC) down to the Pioneer Woman's Mercantile shop and restaurant and it was AMAZING.  I ordered a buffalo chicken sandwich and it was SO.GOOD.  So good.  So, so good.  We made a full day of it and walked down to the suspension bridge in town, walked the shops, and ate our way through the day.  It didn't hurt that the drive through the reservation in Oklahoma was gorgeous.

But the other wonderful part of being back over the summer was that I got to hang with one of my favorite people...

Over the summer, I did a little touring in Seattle, like checking out the new(er) brewery in the market.

Once the school year was back underway, I was busy moving classrooms and learning new curriculum standards.  It's kept me busy all year.  I did fly back to KC for a family wedding, where I spent 48 hours enjoying family and a few Squishes (only one that would pay any attention to me).  After the wedding and before my flight on Sunday, we headed to the Museum of Good Times to play around.  Then I was back home and ready to teach on Monday.

This fall I also went to my first NFL game and cheered for the Seahawks.  I had to because they were the home team.  It was a great time with friends, and very rainy because it's Seattle.

Last spring I took a cookie decorating class, and then followed it up with a book launch party at Chateau Ste. Michelle this past fall.  It was a wine and cookie pairing and a super fun way to try something new.  I loved it!

I haven't been hiking outdoors as much as I should, but I did squeeze in one hike this school year with a friend.  I don't remember where this was, but it was confusing and I would have gotten lost if not for her stellar navigating skills.  So thankful for directionally-able friends on the trails!

Right before Thanksgiving, I took a local class for flower arrangements.  I thought it would just be fun to have a pretty fall arrangement, so I signed up with a couple work friends.  It was wonderful!  I got to check out a new art venue in town and learn a new skill.  Now I'm buying Costco flowers and making my own arrangements like a pro.

Over winter break, I headed back to KC for some family time, particularly with "my guy" who finally paid me some attention!  I made a quick trip up to DSM (actually Okoboji, in the snow, because that's what real friends do) for a friend's wedding and had the best time with some of my closest friends.

Back in Seattle, I visited the Northwest African American Museum to see an exhibit entitled "Iconic Black Women" and loved the museum and the exhibit.

There was a quick trip to Portland to see the Trailblazers play some basketball.  It just happened to be the same day that Kobe Bryant passed away, so it was a very memorable trip.

Then I spent one Saturday touring "Old Snoqualmie"- checking out the brewery, looking at trains, and eating straight cookie dough, because there are actual storefronts that sell just edible cookie dough with egg substitute and heat treated flour so that you can eat it raw.

But now it's March, and Seattle has officially begun the battle with the Coronavirus.  School has not closed (yet- figured crossed that doesn't happen), but I am actively disinfecting everything around me at all times. Now I keep a bottle of antibacterial gel in my car, and I'm a person who wipes down shopping carts and plane seats, door handles, computer keyboards, and books.  So I'm working on staying healthy.

This year I also joined a kickboxing club.  I'm only saying this here so that you can hold me accountable for going.  It's scary.  It's small and they know if I'm there or not, and every time I go the trainers want to actually talk to me throughout the whole workout, so it's not anonymous like the bigger gym I've been going to for years.  Everyone is much stronger than me and my body hurts for days after I work out because suddenly my body isn't twenty years old.  But it's also fun and outside of my comfort zone, and I think I could get good (better?) at it.  I'll be running more as the weather continues to get less rainy, and need to work back up to my longer runs.  Luckily, all my runs end with this amazing view at the end of the dock.  It's all very good.

So, I'll leave you today from this ridiculous new egg chair I bought, in my Super Bowl sweatshirt because GO CHIEFS! and hoping that you are also doing well.  Thanks for following along with my silly adventures and I'll try to be back more often!