Weekly Recaps - Fifty-Six

(Backdated weekly Facebook update)

Week FIFTY-SIX. It just seems like it deserves capital letters.

This week has been weird. It feels like we're stuck in a strange sort of limbo, where things are in a constant state of change, but also nothing has really changed at all. I realize that doesn't make much sense.

Our school district is having asynchronous learning days this week to prepare for full time school next week. It's been one day so far, and I'm having terrible flash backs to last spring. We were less than 30 minutes into the "school day" when Anna melted down, screamed at her brother, and retired to her room in hysterics. (Also let me just say a big ol' Fuck You to QWERTY Town, source of God only knows how many meltdowns over the last year.)

I'm not comfortable with all elementary age kids returning to small classrooms all day. On the other hand, Anna cannot function if her whole day is virtual. She just can't. And after over a year of this, I can't ask her to do that. I don't think *I* could handle it, either. So we'll get our vaccinations and roll the dice.

Ben is still working from home 98% of the time. After he got annoyed at me for interrupting a meeting to ask if he would like some lunch, I did not interrupt another meeting when I scheduled my second shot appointment, which as it turns out, also annoyed him. Which annoyed me. And led to the following conversation:

Me: So, when are you going to be able to go back to work AT work?

Ben: Why? Do you want me to leave the house?

Me: ... I didn't say that.

Narrator: But she also didn't NOT say that.

It's been a long year, ok? A year of trying to contain the noise of a very loud toddler and his sister ALL the TIME. "Ssh! Daddy's in a meeting!" "You can't be out here if you're being loud!" "Go play upstairs, you can't be down here!" And I'll let you in on a little not-so-secret secret: they're always loud. They're loud when they're upset. They might even be louder when they're having fun. Constant noise.

Here's another secret: you want to know what it's like to be a PhD physicist working for a national lab? Meetings. It's just meetings. All day. Every day. I'm not even in the meetings and I'm sick of them! There's probably some actual science at some point but I haven't seen any evidence of that.

Oh, and there's guinea pigs occasionally, if you happen to have a colleague who enjoys bringing her pigs to meetings.

In all the chaos, Nicholas had a birthday. We had a tiny "party" of the only people he really knows, thanks to Covid: one of Anna's friends and one of my friends (our "bubble," as the saying goes). He had a blast. Thanks to an amazing 12 year old baker, he got his much wished for "choccy cake with caw-babies, razz-babies, and blue-babies."

Blowing out candles, The Cake,
New easel, birthday boy

Thank you so much to everyone who wished him a happy birthday, sent him a card, or a present! If you haven't seen a pic of the gift yet, it's probably because he still hasn't opened them all. He has the attention span of a coked up squirrel and therefore only opens about 2 at a time before he wants to play with the presents. He loves them all.

I'd like to be able to take the kids to Texas soon. Most of our family lives there, and Nicholas has never been. We have a nephew and cousin there the same age as him whom we've not been able to meet. But - it's been over a year, and everything is still totally uncertain. Texas lifted its mask mandate, which is absurd and dangerous. It's still not a great time to fly, especially with kids.

(Narrator: But is it ever a good time to fly with kids? No, gentle reader, no.)

So, yeah, we're still in a state of limbo. And I don't know about you, but I feel like I could happily live the rest of my life if I never used the words "asynchronous," "Zoom," or "virtual" ever again.

#weekfiftysix #highfive #covidlimbo