Featured Refresh
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
I am writing this on Thanksgiving Day, 2020. This week the pandemic primarily impacted Thanksgiving, and how we decided to celebrate the holiday. My husband and I just finished our Thanksgiving dinner for 2. We spent the day preparing it, and really enjoyed ourselves. I must admit, we were pleased with how it turned out. I was also reflecting on last Thanksgiving and how different this year is. Last year we hosted 13 people and 3 dogs. Our house was full of people, dogs and good cheer. We have a video of everyone at the table, busy talking and laughing. It was a truly wonderful and memorable day. This day was memorable, too, in a much smaller and quieter way. I do look forward to celebrating Thanksgiving again with our extended family, especially our children. However, I feel like we made the best of the situation this year, staying safe and keeping others safe, as well. One last note. I really missed my father today. He died 2 months ago. Although we didn't spend Thanksgiving with him since my mother died 7 years ago, I always spoke to him on Thanksgiving and we exchanged cooking tips and how the food came out. He was a really difficult person who could become enraged very quickly. I do not miss that part of him at all. However, when engaged around food and cooking, we could have nice conversations, especially when he was sharing tips with me. He made the best stuffing ever - pictured above. He always added apples, raisins and nuts. I hadn't had it in a long time but I found the recipe he dictated to me about 1 year after my mother died. I followed his recipe today, and it was almost as good as his It felt like a little bit of his good side was with us today.
November 27, 2020
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How has the pandemic affected your work, or your schoolwork? Give an example or two.
This photograph is of my school schedule, which will start in approximately a week. Here's what I wrote about in in my last blog post: "Also, schools are opening up in my area. There's been very little communication from them about what in-person/hybrid learning is going to look like, even though they've already asked us to commit to one option (hybrid) or another (completely virtual). I got interviewed by the local paper about it, and that interview should show up tomorrow or the day after. The way that the school district has decided to reopen is classes in the morning online, followed by class either online or in person, depending which option you opted in to. There are two in-person cohorts (one goes into school on Mondays and Tuesdays, and the other on Thursdays and Fridays) and one virtual cohort. There is no school on Wednesdays, which has been the case throughout virtual school and will continue to be the case in hybrid mode. Though hybrid school starts in a week, no one knows what cohort they belong to. Evidentially, communication is not Seattle Public Schools' strong suit. Oh well, right?" Schoolwork is definitely going to be very different than it is now. I won't be able to google questions on the homework that I don't understand, ha ha. And I won't be able to multitask and do other work during class. I'll have to actually get dressed in the morning. Also, I've never been in the building before and have no idea where my classes are, which should be interesting. I'm sure there'll be a lot of other change, too, but I can't think of any at this moment.
April 10, 2021