Kris's Covid Pandemic Blog

Huh. Okay. Where were we? When I started this, I wrote every day because there was NOTHING ELSE TO DO. It's funny that as life starts back up again that changes. I actually had to start keeping a calendar in May because enough was happening that I couldn't keep it in my head. That...hadn't happened in awhile.  So since I wrote last I received both my vaccines and joined the ranks of the fully vaccinated on June 7. Which means I can hug my friends which is nice. We've eaten at a few indoor restaurants and I signed the kids up for swimming lessons starting June 28 but it hasn't changed our life that much. I still wear my mask to the grocery store even though I'm not required to anymore. I still wear it most places. We still haven't been anywhere with a giant crowd. My dad wants to go to a baseball game. I like the idea of it, but it's also kind of terrifying. My family and close friends are all vaccinated now except my kids who still aren't eligible. C...

Have I talked about Mother's Day before? I dunno. All of it is blending together into a mixed up soup. My mother passed away suddenly in June of 1995, just a few days after Father's Day and about two weeks after my older sister's high school graduation. I was 16. In early years, I had no idea how to escape Mother's Day. It's everywhere and it felt like there was no place to go to be away from it. I didn't know how to honor her or deal with it at all. Then in February of 2000 I gained a stepmother. I was 21 at the time and the only one in the family still in school. My sister was living overseas and engaged, my two new stepbrothers were older than her and starting families of their own. I was an adult, but still in college and the only one in the family who ever lived with them for extended periods of time.I lived with them in multiple month stretches a couple of times after graduating from college but never longer than six months. The final stretch was over the ...

 Got my first vaccine (Moderna) on Monday. Super easy process. I surprised myself by how emotional I felt when she was doing it. I'm sure they get this a lot but after over a year of this getting that shot in my arm brought up some feels. The shot didn't hurt, my arm ached a few hours afterward but I've slept on it and had no real issues. Woke up yesterday dizzy and my head felt heavy. Ibuprofen and water helped. Still quite a bit headachy today, could be sinuses, headaches aren't uncommon for me this time of year. Ibuprofen helps but doesn't totally shake it. I'm a little worried about the second shot because that's when the big reaction is supposed to happen and since my first shot reaction (if that's what it is) has been bigger than a lot of people's maybe that one will suck. On the other hand, maybe it will be better and it could be the headaches aren't shot related at all and just the effects of being a mom in the time of allergy season. Any...

 I did something big and scary yesterday. I started writing a novel in verse. I LOVE novels in verse. If you've not read one or have no idea what I'm talking about, here's a few to start with so you can get the feel. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai Sold by Patricia McCormick The ones I listed are all young adult or kids books. The idea of a novel in verse is not new, there are some from way back, but they've become, for a variety of reasons, much more trendy in children's and young adult books over the past several years. And I love them. I really love reading them. Something about them speaks to me.  I've learned over the past couple of years that I actually enjoy writing poetry, which is something I never expected, particularly free verse which is generally the choice of novels in verse.  I dabbled with novel in verse a little bit for my 2...

When you put off doing something...like writing a blog post...long enough, it's hard to figure out where to begin. I have been very much wanting to write but I've been so exhausted by the end of the day most days that even getting up to come downstairs feels like a challenge. Plus my computer got a virus it couldn't shake and I had to back everything up and it had to be basically wiped and rebooted. Good times. Both the desktop and the laptop are 100% operational now, yay, technology. So I'll start with the present and work backwards. It's Friday night and we are wrapping up a week of spring break. It's been an odd one...the governor's mandate to reopen schools had no flexibility for spring break so instead of starting the hybrid school schedule the week after spring break as planned they had to start it the week before. Which meant that none of the last three weeks has had the same schedule. After a second week of "bridge" days where he went for 2...

Year 2! As promised, I've stopped numbering days. At least in part because it's very clear there's going to be a definitive end to this, just a very slow and drawn out fadeout. So a lot of conversation has happened about schools since I last wrote. Our school made a plan for returning kids to in person school and literally the same day they announced this the governor came out with a directive about in person school and it was all lovely chaos. We had 48 hours to decide if we wanted to send James back to in person school, which is...not long enough to make big decisions, but it is what it is. I'll spare you the long story but here's the upshot. James is participating in what are called "bridge weeks" this week and next week. Each grade K-3 is divided in half and half of the kids from that grade who are returning to in person learning (there is a stay all remote option, not sure how many kids are going to do that) come for a 2 hour session once per each bri...

Dude, I don't know what to say. A year ago was James's last day of school. He is currently scheduled to start "bridge weeks," where he will go to school one day a week to do some orientation and rules introduction stuff, the week of March 22 and back to school 2 days a week after spring break. That's the current schedule, but I'm not counting on it yet. I've learned enough to know better than to count on things before they happen. For most of the country, the anniversary of the shutdown is about a week from now but for me and my family it's tomorrow. March 5 was the first day school was closed in our district and also the day we moved my husband out of his office and into his remote work space, while listening on the radio to a press conference happening at a nursing home that had been the site of the nation's first outbreak. The nursing home was down the street from the hospital where we used to volunteer. March 6 was my last day of work. I don...