Week 4

We just wrapped up the fourth week of Michaela’s school (and all schools in San Diego County) being closed. Four weeks! It’s nuts.

Speaking of nuts, this week I was a spectator on a virtual press conference that was Zoombombed. They were taking questions from the media one minute, and the next minute there was Russian-sounding music and a gay porn orgy (four-gy; there were four people). Had to say, I was NOT expecting that!

Do you ever get decision fatigue? A large part of my job is problem-solving, so there’s a lot of “Music, what should we do about this” in my days. This week it felt especially wearing; my brain is tired of having to come up with answers.

Also, I ended up having to go to the doctor’s office three times this week, on three different days. I work a mask, I didn’t touch anything/sanitized and washed my hands after, but it was unsettling. The same week there was a big push to keep everyone at home, I was in a place with sick people. Yikes. So if I end up catching COVID-19, I blame Kaiser.

In happier news, Mike and Michaela spent quite a bit of time this week building a tree house. Michaela is so excited for it. She did a Zoom video chat with her best friend Claudia yesterday and took her Chromebook over to the window, to show Claudia, who said, “oh man, that’s so cool!” Michaela said, “Yeah! And if all this ever ends, you can come over and go in it!”

We’ve been doing puzzles as a family in the evenings, so we’re not spending every night starting at the boob tube. I bought a couple of 1,000-piece puzzles from a small, women-owned business and we tucked into the first one a couple of days ago. The word for “puzzle” in Spanish is “romepcabezas,” which literally translates to “head breaker,” and that’s the perfect description for this puzzle. It’s hard!

Mike trimmed his hair last weekend using his clippers. He only did the sides, so the top is still long (for him). I’m not sure what his next step is. He usually gets it cut every three weeks, so maybe we’re heading toward mullet territory? Or maybe buzz cut?

The less said about my hair, the better. (So many grays. So in need of a hair cut!)

We’ve been eating like kings and queens. Mike made his famous 72-hour pizza dough and grilled it in the gas-fired pizza oven I got him for Christmas. He also made crispy pork cutlets, which we turned into sandwiches on sourdough. A friend gave us a sourdough starter, so it’s just a matter of time before we’ll be eating homemade sourdough, too. Plus there have been fro-scratch oatmeal raisin cookies and brownies, and German apple pancakes and restaurant-style breakfasts every couple of days.

I go into the office one day a week, so I’m wearing jeans that frequently, and for now they still fit. We’ll see how long all this goes on. Ha ha.

Happy to say the Watsons are hanging in there. Michaela is a delight, Mike is reveling in slowing down, and tired as I may be, I love knowing my work is helping people deal with this crazy pandemic. We’ll see what week five brings!