Covid19-Log Day 108

Monday June 29, 2020
Warm and humid

I will start by saying I am one of those people who actually loves Mondays. Fresh starts, new opportunities, and all that good stuff. Well, yesterday was NOT a good fresh start, at all. I had a really crappy night of sleep, feeling hot and sweating through out the night (I feel for whenever the time of menopause comes! I feel for me, and mostly, for those around me, ha!), and I was just sore, exhausted, and sleepy all day. Not a good way to start the week, for sure.

After sleeping in until almost 7 am (which is uncommon), the boy and I went for a 1.3-mi walk and even that just felt painful and exhausting. I struggled to be productive on the work front for most of the day.

Thankfully the boy was really good. He started a weekly Math camp from MSU (fractions), and that gave him access for the rest of the summer to Beast Academy, so he's super excited about another online Math website (in addition to Prodigy and IXL, which he already does). He's also been struggling with having some focus when reading and writing, so I asked him to do a short write-up about his kayak trip from Saturday, which he did, so that was good.

Frozone continues to amuse us during Spanish practice...

We skipped our post-lunch walk and instead moved to the sunroom to work there for a change of scenery. So we went there, kicked the cat out of the couch where he basically spends half the day sleeping, and the boy did some Math practice while I worked. 

Afternoon scenes...

Unfortunately, despite having some freezer pops and other sugary things, my energy levels remained low throughout the day (I'm sure the heat and humidity in the room didn't help either), so we ended up skipping our Tae Kwon Do class and I didn't do my flexibility challenge workout either. I do feel bad but my body really demanded the rest.

I only had watermelon and a protein bar for dinner, I wasn't really that hungry. I was in bed really early to read but because I couldn't get comfortable temperature-wise, I ended up sleeping in our guest room, which along with the boy's room, is considerably cooler than our room. When my Man asked if we were going to get a sleeping divorce, I told him we might have to just have summer separations. We shall see. Hope your week got off to a more energetic start than mine!

Covid19-Log Day 107

Sunday June 28, 2020

Warm

We had a nice finish to our week. Got up at the usual hour, enjoyed my coffee, then the boys were up. My Man went on a morning run and the boy and I went on a longish (2.5-mi) walk to campus. As much as he talks about Nintendo and Minecraft, I really have been enjoying the walks with him, especially the times when he's still happy to hold my hand. I know those times won't be here much longer. 

After our walk, we had a nice breakfast my Man had made for us (scrambled eggs, biscuits, sausages), then I started working on the TCBA newsletter. Then at some point I did yoga while my Man took care of the yard, and that was most of our morning. 

We had leftovers for lunch and started watching The Theory of Everything but only saw half of it. Then we FaceTimed with my Man's parents, and then with my parents. They're all doing well so that is good. After that I finally showered, did some laundry (never-ending!), and then took the boy on a walk (one of the quickest ways to get him to get some time away from tech these days!), and got home to get ready for our socially distant dinner with friends. 

My Man went to get some pizza, I cut up some watermelon I had gotten at Costco last week, and then we had some friends over for dinner. I love our yard, and the deck is looking pretty good these days. I continue to be thankful I didn't listen to other people's opinions on the size of it!

SF and the squirrel...

Friends on the deck...

We hung out with them for almost 4 hours, and it was really, really nice. It literally was a reunion spanning generations (a boomer, 2 Gen-X, and 2 millenials, though one is almost a Gen Z, as is our boy, evidently). Fun times. Hope you had a nice end of your weekend!

Covid19-Log Days 101-106

June 22-27, 2020
Mostly warm and humid with "cool" mornings

I will say, I miss the daily blogs, so after some consideration, I will go back to them tomorrow and we'll see how it goes. This week was mostly uneventful, thankfully I didn't have any big meetings at work, other than the standing Friday meeting I've been having with our new coordinator (you can read a really cool story about her here!). She's finally moved to the Lansing area this past week so hopefully we'll start connecting in person for socially distant walks in the coming weeks!

Now, when I say the week was mostly uneventful, I meant for us. There was a big earthquake in southern Mexico on Tuesday (my family and friends are fine, thankfully), and then, after the previous weekend's stupid outings from the East Lansing youths, there was a hotspot of Covid19 cases resulting from one bar (looking at you, Harper's). Now, it's not like the bar spiked their drinks with Covid19. What happened was that the bar was operating at 50% capacity, but people were waiting to get in, standing in line on the street, without any masks nor social distancing. And there was yet another story about Elijah McClain, a black guy who got killed for "looking like someone suspicious". From last August. Why are we just learning about it now? It angers me that a lot of these stories are taking so long to come up in the news, and only then, justice is demanded.

While showering last week I had heard on NPR a story about reparations for blacks, so I bought the book and once I finished Arundhati Roy's book (which was enjoyable), I started reading it. Again, I realize that as a Mexican who didn't grow up here, there's a lot of history that is somewhat lost on me (not the history but the ramifications of it), so educating myself is a good first step.

This week the boy continued with his Outschool - Making a Zoo on Minecraft class and then started another one on Ancient History. I think the excitement over those classes is starting to wear out so once these are done we'll pause for some weeks. For the Minecraft Zoo, he hasn't been as excited to learn about the animals; he was quick to make the Zoo (and he did make a really cool one with 4 enclosures including one for dolphins where you could see them from underwater and above!) but the reading wasn't as exciting. On the Ancient History one, they learned about mummies but it was all about one power point presentation and the homework was to learn about a mummy, so without it being super structured, he also hasn't been that interested. We'll see how this coming week goes.

We did our 2 Tae Kwon Do classes this week (Monday and Wednesday), and both days I did my flexibility workout right after, so that was good. I decided my main running days would be Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, with either a complete rest or short runs (with the boy) on Wednesday and Sunday. So I went on a 5-mi run on Monday (the last mile or so with the boy), Katharine bailed on Tuesday so I ended up running 7-mi by myself, which was really nice (and slow), only ran 1.3-mi with the boy on Wednesday morning, did my usual 5.3-mi with Katharine on Thursday, and only did 1.25-mi with the boy on Friday again. That day we also took a little detour to go into the skateboard park on Frandor (now that it's open again).

Doing some serious hill work...

In addition to the running, flexibility workouts, and Tae Kwon Do, the boy and I went for a lot of walks this week. We've been walking once in the morning and then right after lunch, so that's been really nice. So even though no pounds have been lost (at all, actually, during this new-normal), none have been gained, either so I'm calling that a win. And most importantly, mental sanity is mostly around, so that's all good.

On other topics, the boy and I went back to church on Tuesday to have his last class after his First Communion. Before that, we had our first store outing in quite a while (we had been to Van Atta's some weeks ago and I had been once to drop off something to the tailor last weekend). We went to Staples to get some art supplies (and I was glad they required a mask to get into the store), then went to Sugar Shack to get some cupcakes and cookies to bring to the gathering. While there we talked to the owner for a bit. I met him years ago because our running group used to meet there every Tuesday when I first joined. This was "the cupcake run", and after running 3 miles, we would gather there and enjoy some sweets. After some years, that all fell apart as more people started going to the beer run and others moved away. The beauty of the cupcake run was that it was really close to our house and we ran through our neighborhood so it was a nice opportunity to get some rolling hills while working. Plus the route looked like an upside dog so that was fun. When I think of my many friends who came to run with us at some point, it makes me smile. The owner told us that he had stayed open this whole time because it was cheaper to do that (he did mention he sadly had to let go of all his people so it was a one-man shop these days) than to close and re-open.

Boy with mask, vans, and a Fanta... 

On Wednesday I had my family call. They're all continuing to stay healthy, and it was nice to have everybody on my screen. While I'm so bummed we haven't been able to fly to Monterrey and we won't be able to catch up with my brother in Sweden this summer, I'm so thankful for technology. 

Family gatherings in the age of technology...

The cat continues to provide some entertainment while the boy and I study Spanish. He ignores us most of the day, but when we're working on Spanish he really wants to be with us. And I don't mean just around us, I mean right on top of the book or playing with the pencil or something. 

Trying to get the pencil...

I need attention, human...

I really want that attention, human...

The boy and I finally finished the 3rd season of Young Sheldon and now we're trying to figure out what to see next. He's not keen on Scrubs, but we might have found a new show (Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street). It's definitely meh for me but I can tolerate it (well, I tolerated the first episode) and it's not a cartoon and the child likes it so we all win.

The boy had his final French lesson for the "school year" on Thursday. We're hoping he'll continue doing the summer lessons as well, we normally skip them, but considering we're not going places this summer (tear), he might as well continue his practice. Same goes for piano and Tae Kwon Do (and all on zoom for now). He's also doing an MSU Math virtual camp next week, so we'll see how that goes. I'm sure it's zoom overload for him as well, but such are the times we live in.

On Friday, the child and I ventured out to grocery shop for the first time since mid March. We went to Kroger, World Market (to get our fläder), and Costco. We survived. I was pleasantly surprised to see most people wearing their masks at all 3 places. The child was disappointed that Costco didn't have any books (I had promised him I'd buy him one), but he ended up getting one of those lazy, reclining pillows, so he was happy. Our nice evening take out meal was Maru; it never disappoints.

On Saturday I had a text from Katharine saying that their babysitter might have been exposed to Covid19 (one text was negative but it was too soon) so to be safe, they'd be self-quarantining until the sitter got another negative test, which means we won't be running together in the next few days. While trying to stay positive about the lack of extra adult interactions for my sanity, I did take advantage of the solitude and went on a 10-mi slow run, most of it was on zone 2, which I don't get to do much when we run together. I even did some strides towards the end (I think I did 8 repeats but don't remember now). Hopefully as I continue to acclimate to the humidity I can get back on some speed and stairs/hill work. And I will say, even though it was ridiculously humid during the run, it was so green and quiet for the most part, it was really enjoyable to be out (chafing notwithstanding).

The RT... without geese...

The boys went to pick up the newly-repaired Nintendo Wii U game pad at some point on Saturday (this is the one the boy smashed in anger some weeks ago). We had ordered a repair kit but instructions only came in Chinese and despite there being a YouTube video about how to repair it, my Man decided it was best to let the experts fix it. As he should have, of course. Of course, as soon as they were home the boy was lost to Splatoon. But hopefully this will keep him distracted from his wanting a Nintendo Switch.

I made some delicious chilaquiles for lunch and afterwards, we got on the road to visit our friends Lori and Ron, who had graciously invited us to hang out with them and go kayaking on the lake by their house north of Auburn Hills. It was fantastic. And the boy had his first solo kayak adventure! He wasn't sure at first, but after Lori mentioned her nieces went solo on kayaks, he gave it a try, and next thing we know, he was off!

Getting on the kayak

Going through the culvert...

The boy with Lori and Ron...

Nice view!

Lori and my Man...

The boys...

We kayaked for about 2 miles and had a really, really enjoyable time. When we were done, we hung out for a bit, then we got on the road back home. The most memorable thing of the ride there and back was seeing the Palace at Auburn Hills basically being torn down. So bizarre to think I saw Pink and Justin Timberlake in concert there and now the place is gone. Don't get me wrong, the Little Caesars Arena is in a nice location and we've seen some people there already, but it was just weird to see the place taken down like that. Ah, progress.

Not so palatial palace...

On the way home we stopped at Qdoba to pick up food and eat in the car. I hadn't had Qdoba since January, probably, and it was delicious. It's the small things. And that is so far our week. As I said above, I'll go back to the daily blog posts starting tomorrow. Hope you've had a nice couple of last few days!

Covid19-Log Day 101

Monday June 22, 2020
Hot and humid

Another week of the new normal, week #15 to be precise, is here. And I need to figure out if I'll continue blogging every day or focus on weekly blog posts starting now. The latter sounds more like it, so most likely this will be the last daily blog and the next one will be this coming weekend to tell you about the week. Now that there aren't any weekly schedules and our Monday-Friday tends to be the same, I could use the extra morning time I've been using to blog to do other things.

It's been definitely fun, and for good or bad, this was the TLC this blog needed after struggling to post on a regular basis for the most part in the last decade.

This week got off to a decent start. I went on a really warm and humid run, then looped back to pick up the child, who was still in bed when I got home. I used that time to cool down a bit and catch my breath, then he and I ran a bit over a mile for a total of slightly over 5 miles for me. Not a bad way to start the week. We ate, got ready, and before 8 am we were out on a walk already, then we started working on Spanish.

The lesson yesterday was about National Holidays in Mexico, and of course, October 12 was there as the "Discovery of the Americas" (we call it in Mexico). In the picture, they showed Columbus along with a Spaniard in his army uniform, and a native (a Mexican native). It struck me as odd to think of all the hatred towards that day here in the US where in reality, Columbus never even set foot here. Yet, Thanksgiving is still celebrated. Gotta love the holier than thou hypocrisy. I get Columbus was a jerk, and you don't have to tell me about how the Spaniards massacred the Mexican indigenous people. I know. But it's interesting to see how in some ways, the path the countries took is very different, culturally. Anyway. I'm not a historian, and I can't go into detail, but it really struck me as fascinating to think of that yesterday as the boy and I were studying the holidays. Others of course included the Mexican Independence Day, the Mexican Revolution Day, and the Day of the "Niños Héroes" (the... "heroic cadets" I suppose, who died defending the Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City against the Americans during the Texas war).

After Spanish, the boy got to work with Math (his Math Expressions book, IXL and Prodigy), then Literacy (practice in a Brain Quest book, then some IXL, then reading). I was really productive for most of the morning, which was much needed.

For lunch we had leftovers, watched some YS, then went on another walk. The early afternoon was also mostly ok and productive, but things degenerated after 3 pm, after the child fell from his scooter and scraped his arm (as I was in the bathroom, of course), and I just couldn't really have the sanity to get back to writing. I FaceTimed with my sister in Scotland for a while, then the child and I did our zoom Tae Kwon Do lesson.

When that was done, he ate and did his piano zoom lesson and I did my 20-ish minutes of yoga/flexibility. Day 2 of my challenge. So far so good. When I was done, my Man had already made us some delicious Blue Apron zucchini quesadillas that were ok. We finished watching La La Land, then the boy and I got ready for bed and my Man went grocery shopping and running. I read for a while and was sleeping by 9:15 pm. That's how it is these days.

Hope your week is off to a great start. I'll check back this coming Sunday for the week's recap! Have a fantastic week!

Covid19-Log Day 100

Sunday June 21, 2020

Sunny and warmish

I slept in for a bit and woke up and enjoyed some peace and quiet before the boys were up. I read the sad news that Carlos Ruiz Zafón died in the past few days. I very much enjoyed his books. My Man went on an early run, and the boy and I went for a 2-mi walk on campus. Well, I was walking, he was on his scooter. It was definitely a warm morning but it was nice to be out. 

Scooting on campus...

When we came back home, the boy went to tech, of course, and I practiced Tae Kwon Do. I talked to a friend for a bit, then started my 30-day Yoga / Flexibility Challenge; basically, for the next 30 days, I'll do at least 20 minutes of yoga/flexibility/stretching every day to continue the efforts to being kind to my body after all the running it's been doing.  In addition to my beloved Rodney, I found some videos on YouTube, so I made a playlist and will be doing some varying sessions. My friend Michelle also mentioned a class that is available on Amazon Prime, so it should be nice to have variety.

Yoga Challenge - Day 1

When that was done, I FaceTimed with my friend Rene. He and I graduated college together; I met him through my ex-husband, and basically we have known each other since 1996. We went to Vanderbilt together (he also was in Physics, so my Man knows him as well), and we have kept in touch through the years. I very much enjoy talking to him and his family, so last week for his birthday I had texted him (and his Mom, of course) and we planned to talk over the weekend. He lives in North Carolina (we actually spent Thanksgiving with him about 7 years ago). He's doing well - and I invited him to come over and visit us this summer if he wants to get away. We shall see. 

After that, we ate while watching some YS. Woody's leftovers were delicious. Then I showered and chilled for a bit before calling my parents to wish my Dad a nice Father's Day. He was busy when I first called, so I was able to talk to my Mom for a while before talking to both of them. But they were doing well; I was jealous my sister had made some arroz con leche (Mexican rice pudding) for them; hers is so delicious. 

After that, I started watching La La Land with the boys; we only watched half of it, then we went on a short walk, and by the time we got back, our friends the Kuhlmans came over with pizza and we had a nice dinner in the deck. It was a really nice evening. And a really nice end to the weekend. Hope yours was well.

Also, the Shutterfly page is up to date, including pictures from the First Communion! Make sure to check it out!

Covid19-Log Day 99 - The boy did his First Communion!

Saturday June 20, 2020
Sunny and warm

I started my day earlier than usual for a Saturday as Katharine and I had decided to move our run to 7:30 am to try and beat the heat as much as possible. So I got up at 5:30 am so I could have enough time to get caffeinated and hydrated before the run. By the time we started, it was definitely warm and humid. We decided to run on the River Trail heading downtown to avoid the busier area around Hawk Island, and it was nice to run into 3 wonderful ladies of my running group, one of which is about a month away from giving birth and was keeping the other 2 company while biking. She rocks. We also saw Brandess, the wonderful woman who organizes the pacers for CCRR and 2 friends; little did I know they were early in their 20-mile run! It was a warm one for that for sure! Kudos to them. We only did 8 miles, and we had some walking breaks because Katharine was getting tired. It happens, and I didn't mind the breaks.

Turtle hanging...

As we ran we saw this giant turtle near Aurelius; Kathryn, Ashley and Sarah had mentioned it, and there it was, just chilling on the side of the road. Hopefully people were kind to it the rest of the day. As we finished our run, Katharine said all she was thinking was "hate". Later I saw on Michelle's Strava feed that hate and heat have the same letters and is that a coincidence. Maybe not. Ha!

We ended up doing 8 miles at around 10 min/mi, which considering the temperature was really not bad at all. Then, when I got home, the boy was ready to go on a 1-mi run to finally finish our 41-day running streak!!! We ran to his school and back and he said he really had enjoyed running with me. I so have enjoyed it as well - it has given us extra time to be together sharing something I love. Do I love all the details about Minecraft and Splatoon I've gotten during the runs? I couldn't tell you, I have forgotten, ha! But I have loved seeing him run excitedly next to me for sure! My Man still has several days to go (he's doing the originally-intended dates of Memorial Day to Independence Day - the reason for the 41 days!) but I'm glad to be done for sure! The boy ended up running about 55 miles in this time; I did 231 miles, which is insanity!

We're done with our 41-day running streak!

My Man had made breakfast for us, and I spent some time (at least 20 minutes!) stretching, to the point where I was able to get my fingers past my toes when bending over, so I'm excited to see what the flexibility/yoga streak will bring! I ate, enjoyed some more coffee, rolled and used my torture device a bit more, then got in the shower. My Man spent a lot of time watching some sort of nerditude on TV (Star Trek), then we ate, watched some YS. At some point, the boy got in the pool to cool off a bit (it was hot!) and my Man went for a run.

Cooling off in a hot day...

Then we started getting ready for the evening activities. It was a big evening for sure! You see, last year around Ash Wednesday time, I had gone to lunch with my friend John (at Sansu; it is a vivid memory), and as we were talking, the topic of Ash Wednesday came up and so naturally we discussed our childhood memories revolving around Catholicism. After that lunch, I started thinking that it actually made me sad to think of the boy growing up with no memories like that. If anything, the only religion he's been very aware of growing up has been Judaism, as we have close friends who are Jews and we do celebrate Seder with them almost every year and he's been to a couple of mitzvahs (bar and bat), so the idea of him going through the process of doing his First Communion started floating in my mind. Well, that and I wanted him to learn how religion works and have some guidance (I do fear that without any guidance, he'll be 20 one day and join some cult or something!).

He was baptized when he was 2 months old, and he actually wore the same baptismal gown my brother had used in his baptism back in 1985. My sister Tania and her husband Erwin are his godparents. My Man and I weren't going to go through the baptism here in town, but since he would be 2 months old at the time of my other sister Claudia's wedding (and she didn't mind sharing the occasion), we decided to do the baptism preparation here (for us), and my parents helped set it up in Monclova, and so it was. That way my parents were there (and a bunch of our family). And that was that.

So last year after that lunch with John, I called the main Catholic church here and asked what it would take to get him ready for his First Communion. They assured me the process would be from September to April and it would include some dedicated classes for the First Communion itself, every other week, and then weekly Sunday school-like classes, and then the First Communion would be the Saturday before Easter, which is a nice, long ceremony where most of the conversions/"welcomings" to church happen. That seemed ok, especially since I was told it was perfectly fine for me to be present at all the classes, which was a requirement for me - I needed to know what they'd be teaching him!

I asked my friend Mayra, with whom the boy shares a birthday already, to be his Godmother and we were set. And last September, he and I started going every other Tuesday afternoon to classes, along another older boy (a teen) and his Mom, to get the boys prepared with learnings and stuff. I will say, most of that was interesting and informative, which I appreciated. Whenever possible, he would attend the Sunday afternoon classes, which were more geared towards learning about the Saints and general values and not being a dick in society, so that was fine too.

We had even cut our planned trip to Mexico for Spring Break short one day, as this year his Spring Break was the same week as the Holy Week, and we needed to be back for the mass on Saturday. Then, a month before all these planned events, Covid19 hit and all that went away.

With churches re-opening and all, they started talking and asked if we would be comfortable having this in June, assuming some precautions (masks, sanitizers, and a lot of non-contact things at the church: no peace offering, no singing, no drinking the blood of Christ -which suits me fine, I find the whole sharing the chalice with everybody so gross!), so we said yes, and here we are.

I will confess to shedding a couple of tears seeing the boy get ready. After having a meltdown when he showered, he was all cute getting his suit on and putting gel on his hair. He wore a suit that my parents had gotten him in Monterrey last year, and his vans ("they really stand out" he would later say). At some point while all dressed up, he told me he "felt important". I told him he IS important regardless of what he wears. He looked so handsome and adorable.

Had this been done in normal times, I had originally planned to have a celebration the following day and have some people over, but as it was, it was a closed-to-the-public mass, only family and friends of the ones being baptized and confirmed, so we couldn't really do much. In our pew it was our family, Mayra and her family, and my friend Emma and her husband. We had Mayra and them over at our house for dinner before the ceremony (Oh Woody's, I had missed thee!) - It was Emma's birthday so she and Evan celebrated elsewhere and just joined us at church. As I was getting ready, I got all excited about wearing red lipstick, then I felt stupid when I realized the mask would cover it. Ah, fun. And then we went.

Los enmascarados: Mamás y niños... 

Only the center pews had people for the most part (2 other rows of pews on each side of the center ones were empty), and even the center pews were filled every other one. Most of the people had masks inside, and of those, most of them were wearing them correctly (I will never understand those who have it just covering their mouths but not their noses). You can see the mass here. It was a normal mass for the most part, except for the 20 minutes or so devoted to doing the baptisms of about 10 people, all adults. Those were the only people who were wearing white after. Then the priest called the 4 who had been baptized and were doing their confirmation (the boy among them). There was some confusion when the boy came up, as the priest thought he was a little young to do the confirmation, but that got cleared up.

Baptisms...

The confirmation confusion... 

Then the mass went on until it was time to do the communion. And unlike a First Communion ceremony in Mexico (or I assume one geared only towards the children), the people doing it for the first time weren't singled out, so that was interesting. So the boy got up when it was our pew's turn, and only him and the women (me, Mayra, Emma) went up. Everybody knows the men sin more.

The First Communion...

Then, in good Catholic fashion, once he was done with the Communion, he asked if we could go. Ha! But no. We waited until mass was done, then they got a whole group picture of all the newly initiated, we got some group photos, and then of course they had to enjoy some food outside the church (ice cream, chips, sodas, you know... holy food). By then it was almost 9 pm. I felt bad for Mayra and her family driving back to Grand Rapids, but at least there was light still. And even though unfortunately my family had some technical issues in Monterrey seeing the mass being livestreamed, my cousin Marichu in Chicago, my Man's family in South Carolina, and Mayra's mom and sister in Puebla were all able to watch, which was really cute.

Then we all left, came home, finished cleaning up from dinner and got ready for bed. All 3 of us got in bed until the boy fell asleep. I read for a long time and finally called it a day around 11 pm! All in all, a really busy, emotion-filled Saturday for sure! And just in time to reach 100 days of this new-normal life!!!

Covid19-Log Day 98

Friday June 19, 2020
Warm and sunny

After a decent night of sleep, I got up, and went out for a 4-ish mi run around campus. It was a nice morning, and for the most part, it was easy to stay in Zone 2. I need those runs these days, the ones where it feels easy to stay in the zone, as opposed to the ones where it's a struggle because it's too humid or my legs are tired. When I got home, the boy quickly got ready and he and I went on a 1.5-mi run. That was nice, and I really have enjoyed running with him the last 40 days. I can't believe we are about to finish our 41-day running streak!

Evidently fitness hasn't been great with the running streak and no rest... 

We got home and since it was going to be warm (and we have a couple of warm days ahead as well), we spent some time cleaning the inflatable pool, and we filled it up with water. I also added a bleach pack hoping it will stay clean a bit longer. He didn't actually get in the pool during the day because the water was too cold, but it should be good to go for the weekend.

Then I ate, showered, and quickly got ready so we could work on Spanish for a bit before I had to get to work and call into a meeting. The morning went well with work, and the boy was good with his learning activities for the most part. He did take a longer break than he was supposed to so we're starting to use alarms. I just can't be telling him to switch activities every 15-30 minutes. After my meeting, I talked to my parents for a while. My Mom had had one of her coughing episodes the day before but she was doing well and they were in good spirits, which is much needed right now for them.

He's thrilled...

We had lunch (pasta for him, Thai leftovers for me), watched YS, and then went for a walk in the neighborhood to try and stay in the shade as it was getting warm. I went back to work when we got back and he played on tech. Then I called one of my cousins in Monterrey. They're still working from home and trying to do virtual activities for their daughters. We commiserated and caught up a bit which was nice.

At some point while scrolling on Facebook and Instagram, I saw that gyms are opening next week. I texted a bit with my trainer (and owner of a small gym nearby) about it. I wished him luck in the reopening and told him that even though I haven't heard from our gym with any reopening plans (a big gym in town), I'd give it another month at least after they open to see how it goes. It'll be interesting for sure. I just have no idea how you clean things in a gym. It's not like people are stationary and only use one set of weights. And sure, we all need to be conscious of the spread of things (thinking of flu season), but it just seems like things are reopening a bit haphazardly for my taste.

This was later brought up again when one of my running friends and neighbors walked by the house as I was sitting in the front steps watching the boy bike around. She works in Public Health for the State, and she had the same opinion. Even to the point where evidently the Governor has given the go-ahead for schools to open in the fall. It'll be interesting to see how that story develops in the following weeks. I get that people are anxious to get back to normal (I am for sure!), and I get that our numbers here in Michigan have been down for a while (as opposed to southern and western states where they are now getting hit!), but without a cure or treatment for this, or a full understanding of the long-term effects on survivors, it just seems too fast. We shall see.

My Man brought pizza for the boy for dinner. He went on his run and I wanted to see Just Mercy, so I ate and started watching. I had read the book some years ago after my boss and friend Tina had recommended it, and I wanted to watch something relevant to the day. I will confess up until this year I had never heard of Juneteenth, which is surprising considering I lived in the South for 8 years. The movie was sad but good.

At some point, the boy had a delivery from Amazon. We had gotten him a scooter, so he was all excited to get on it. So they did that as I kept watching the movie, and then we all finished watching it together, so that was good for the boy to see. It's free on Amazon Prime right now to rent.

With his new toy...

And that was pretty much the day. Another week gone!

Covid19-Log Day 97

Thursday June 18, 2020
Warm and sunny

After a really crappy night of sleep, I bailed on Katharine for our run. It was unfortunate but thankfully I was able to get an extra hour of sleep. Then it took forever to get motivated to go on a run. By the time I decided to go, it was already late and my Man was about to go to work, so the boy and I ran 1-mi together, then I left him at home and I went on a 2-mi run around the neighborhood in case I had to come home quickly. It was ok overall, humid AF and no wind but alas, I did it.

He was practicing with no prompt early in the morning before our run...

I've been thinking a lot about what I'll do once this running streak is over. I think I've settled on running 5 times a week while still trying to hit 30-35 miles running a week (and will make up the rest with walking for my GVRAT mileage). We'll see how the first weeks go and reassess if needed. The pressing thing is figuring out when to do yoga so it can be sustainable. That'll be the next streak: 30 days of at least 20-min yoga/flexibility/stretching. Slow steps.

I showered, ate, the boy and I did a short Spanish review, then I got to work and had a morning meeting. When that was done, I worked a bit more then made some lunch for us and we watched more YS, then we went on a walk. When we opened the sunroom door, this was the view. It's almost like he's saying "here you are again, humans, disturbing my rest".

At 1 pm, I joined the dissertation defense seminar for one of the girls in the Center where I worked. It is fun to see how time goes by and these kids evolve. As soon as that was done, the boy and I went to St. John's so he could do his first confession in preparation for the First Communion this weekend. I felt a little bad to not do it myself, but we all know the priest just doesn't have that kind of time. I did tell the priest that this was his first confession, so he was nice about it. Evidently one of the atonement things was for him to tell me what his sins had been, which included him watching youtube videos when he should be doing Math. I knew that.

It was also interesting that this was in view of the church; there was an adoration going on, so there were 5 people in the church who saw him kneel and talk to the screen. He was a bit self-conscious about it (the other church has a separate room for confession), but I told him that growing up, not only did you do it this way as well, there was no screen separating you from the priest so you had to say stuff directly to him, which was always weird!

He seemed to enjoy the process. Even asked if we could start going to church more often (I'm sure my Man will have some feelings about that), but all in all, I was proud of him for doing this. It's all a learning opportunity. After that, we walked to Coldstone but it was closed, so we drove to Sugarberry to get some frozen yogurt. It was the first time since February, and it was interesting. We were given gloves upon arriving; facemasks were required, and all the frozen yogurt was "to go" (you couldn't eat at the place), which was fine with me. We brought our frozen yogurts home, he went straight to tech and I got ready for another meeting. He did comment that I have a lot of meetings for work. And yes, it's true.

Confession times... 

When my meeting was done, I wrapped up some work stuff, dealt with some laundry, and texted my Man requesting Thai food for dinner (I just had a craving). Then the boy and I finished the 2nd season of Young Sheldon and started the 3rd one. But that didn't last long. In his own words, the child can't stand still when he's "not interested" in something, so after going back and forth asking him to please stand still and him not doing it, I sent him outside for a while. He clearly has no issues being still when he's playing on his iPad or Nintendo or watching cartoons. I know it's a first world problem, but I'm also tired of only watching stuff with him (so I already go out of my way to find things that look interesting and are appropriate for him to watch) so when I do watch, I want to enjoy it, but half the time, he's constantly talking and moving, which absolutely drives me nuts, so, there we were. I felt a little bad sending him outside, but such is life. I started watching Captain Marvel.

His alone time...

Eventually he came in because of mosquitos. My Man came home with food as the boy was starting his French class. I paused the movie, ate while watching some Dave Chapelle, and then when my Man came back, he ate and we went back to watching Captain Marvel.  At some point, Stephen came over to drop off some delicious coffee from their trip home to Kentucky; can't wait to have it!

When the movie was done, I finished up some laundry as my Man cleaned the kitchen. For some reason, it was a late night going to sleep. I did read for a while and ended up falling asleep after 10 pm (late for me these days!) and while my Man was already sleeping, the boy was still awake! Let's see what Friday brings!

Covid19-Log Day 96

Wednesday June 17, 2020
Beautiful and warm

I started the day by sleeping in a bit after a weird night of sleep (light sleep, waking up often). Then I went on a run. The idea was that I'd loop back home after 3 miles and pick up the boy, but he actually went back to sleep and we let him rest more and figured he could do his 1-mi run later in the day with my Man.

The run was nice. I just went to campus and ran by the river, thankfully there weren't that many geese. Lately, with less campus traffic, they've been everywhere and they're assholes, so it's just a more enjoyable run when they are not around.

I ate, showered and got ready, and then the boy and I went on our morning walk and came home to work on Spanish. We focused on Civics and some reading/grammar (for the letter C and how it changes sounds, and he did great). The cat, of course, was there for the whole Spanish time, playing with the pencil.

It's hard to work with a cat around...

I had planned to take some time off during the afternoon since our cleaning lady was coming over and it's just better if we're out of the house, so I was as productive as I could be in the morning, especially since I had an 11 am meeting that eventually got cancelled.

I packed our lunches and a book, and the boy and I biked to pick up his friend Ryker, then we biked to the EL soccer complex. We ate, and my friend Jake joined us for a bit. For the most part, the boys just ran around as I sat in the shelter, first reading a bit, then talking to Jake. He's a graduate student who just started going back to work at the university, so we talked a bit about the whole reactivation process. At some point, the boys found some sprinklers and got all wet so at least they cooled off that way. After being there for 1.5 h or so, we headed back.

Boys

Biking boys

Love seeing him bike!

Crossing a busy street

When we got home, he went straight to tech and I had my weekly family call. Unfortunately my brother couldn't join us, but it was still really good to see my parents and my sisters and laugh for a while. 

As usual, by then the motivation to join our Tae Kwon Do zoom class had gone away, so we skipped it. That's really been a struggle. Between my getting annoyed with people and the way they deal with tech issues (especially those who still can't remember to mute themselves), and the boy usually having attitude, I just run short of patience by then. 

My Man got home and we had a very light dinner (they had quesadillas, I just had cereal), watched some TV, and then they went on a run and I read. I'm pretty sure I was sleeping by 9:15 pm. And that was pretty much it! Hope your week is going well!

Covid19-Log Day 95

Tuesday June 16, 2020
Beautiful

And another beautiful day. I started my day with a nice 5.5-mi run with Katharine on campus. We had to cut our usual 6-mi run short due to some construction on Service Rd. It was ok - the morning humidity these days makes it hard to run at times. That said, I felt great during the run, even though my garmin indicated my HR was a bit higher than usual, I never really felt winded, so whatever. What does the garmin know.  When I got home a bit before 7 am, the boy was almost ready to go, so I waited a bit and then he and I went on our 1.5-mi run. It was fun. And it's been so much fun to run with him in the past several weeks. We talked about what we'll do regarding his running once the running streak is over. He was ok with running 4 days a week, so we'll continue doing that.

My running partner 

Once home, my Man had made us breakfast, so we ate, I showered, and then we went on our 1-mi walk before working on Spanish and getting our day moving. One thing that continues to be funny is how Frozone acts when we work on Spanish in the morning. For the most part, he spends the day sleeping away from us. But in the mornings, especially as we sit at the table, he wants to be there. And not just "around us" there, he wants to be *there*, in the middle of the action. So he'll climb on the table and either lie down on top of whatever book the boy is reading from or constantly play with his pencil. It's really funny.

Frozone paying attention to the Spanish instruction

The rest of the morning went well. I was somewhat productive and the boy made some progress on his morning learning activities (a mix of a book from Brain Quest, IXL, Prodigy, and some of his school books, all 4th grade materials).

We had leftover pasta for lunch and watched some YS. Then we were going to try to watch something on Netflix but we came along the screen below. My Man would later claim that's an invasion of his privacy. Considering it's my Netflix account, I told him there's no privacy concerns, ha! Still, it was funny when we noticed he was using it and the boy went "Papá!".

Oh yes. Netflix told on you!

After lunch, we both retreated to our activities. At 2 pm I had a zoom call about our building's reactivation plans. Still unknown when I will be required to be back, but still interesting to see the plans for others to start working at the building again. Some concerns about HVACs and food/water in the labs, and mostly, some annoyance over the lack of consistency from the messages coming from the University Administration. 

After that, I spent some time reading about the ongoing situation with the request for removal of our University's VP for research. Still unsure where I stand on that one - I don't really have enough information to have even an opinion. 

Then, the boy and I went to the church to do a retreat in final preparation for his upcoming First Communion. I wasn't sure at first, but it was only going to be 5-6 of us in a big room, and half of the time we were going to be in the actual nave of the church doing a rehearsal, so as long as we were wearing our masks, I figured it'd be ok. That went ok for the most part, so now he just needs to go to confession once and we'll be done. I still don't understand why they had to do the actual First Communion mass so late in the day but at least it won't be the 3-h ordeal that it would have been back in April!

By the time we got home my Man had made some delicious shrimp tacos from Blue Apron (yay for food delivery) so we ate, watched some TV, and then while the boys spent some time outside while the child biked, and as my Man went for a run, I FaceTimed with my parents for a while. It was nice.

And that was it for the day! Hope your week is going well!

Covid19-Log Day 94

Monday June 15, 2020
Another beautiful sunny day!

Another week is here. I slept in a bit to let my body rest and finally got out of bed around 6:30 am and after debating whether or not to run then (or just do a short run with the boy later), I decided to go on a 3-mi run on campus, a bit quicker towards the end, since the boy had told me he didn't want to run in the morning. I should have known he'd change his mind. When I got home, he and Bufi were ready to go, so off we went on another 1.5 miles. It was a really nice morning, so that worked out ok.

My morning crew... 

We came home, had breakfast, then I took my time getting ready, and we went on a 1-mi walk. By the time we got back, we only had about 20 minutes for Spanish, so that's all we did, focusing on Civics work; the lessons focused on society rules and how we need to take care of public things like lights, street drains, phone booths (it's Mexico!), and our water usage. I find it fascinating to see these small differences in what the kids learn there vs. here. The boy appreciates these differences too, which is very interesting to me.

After Spanish, he worked on Math, then Science, and I got to work, and all things considered, it was a really productive morning.

Close to noon I made us lunch (pasta with fake meatballs) and we watched some YS. Then he started another Outschool Minecraft class; this time focused on building a Zoo. So he did that after lunch and I went back to work. Then we took a break and soaked some sun. The boy went around on his bike as I sat in the front steps and enjoyed some fresh air.

Biking boy...

Then we got ready for our Tae Kwon Do class. The dojang opened yesterday. The way our instructor is doing the class right now is that you have to sign up, up to 10 people per class, socially distant, wearing masks. I figured I'd wait a week or two before going to an in-person class. I wanted to see how the classes would go first. And based on this particular class, with the higher intensity warm up, we're definitely waiting some weeks. It seems there were some technical issues, so we ended up disconnecting and just doing poomse and blocking set practice on our own, then the boy went upstairs to have dinner and prep for his piano class, and I did a 20-min session of yoga/stretching.

Socially distant class...

Guk-gi yea dae ha yo Kyong-ye

Once I finished, and as the child was starting his piano class, my Man had already sliced onions and bell peppers, so as he went on a run, I made some delicious chilaquiles. By the time I was done cooking, my Man was back from his run and the child was done with his piano class, so we watched some more of "10 Things I hate about you" (which I had started earlier in the day with the boy), and then called it a day. Ah, Heath Ledger.

I went to bed early and read for a while as my Man cleaned what was left in the kitchen and the boy got showered and ready for bed. And that was it. All in all, a good day. Hope your week was off to a good start!

Covid19-Log Day 93: We left town for the first time!

Sunday June 14, 2020
Beautiful

I woke up early and enjoyed a quiet morning with my coffee and some reading before the boys were up. Around 8 am, I went out for a short run to campus. While running by the Botanical Gardens, I got to see a big turtle on the side of the trail. I had never seen one this big on campus before. I got home and the boy was ready to go run with me, so we ran to his school and back for a total of 4.2 mi for me and 1-mi for him. He's been so good during this running streak! It's been fun but I'm glad we have less than a week left!

Turtle by the Red Cedar...

Once we got home, he got some tech time as my Man went on his run and I had some Namaste time with my beloved Rodney Yee. It was a really nice morning with nice lightning in the basement / workout area to do yoga for sure. I did 25 minutes of the flexibility yoga session and then did some extra stretching after that. I had read a Runner's World article the day before about identifying whether your injuries are due to your muscles lacking flexibility or strength, and I think in my case a lot of it comes down to flexibility, which of course is not news, but yet another reminder that I need to be serious about this.

Yoga times...

I got ready and as we waited for my Man to come back from his run and then get ready, the boy and I watched some TV. I was proud of my Man, too, as he ended up running 6 miles; his longest run in a while!

Once he was ready, we got on the road to Grand Rapids. This was our first time leaving town as a family since mid February (4 months! Longest ever in the last decade!) when we went to South Carolina to visit family! Granted, we didn't fly anywhere, but just getting out of town was nice! We went to visit our friends Mayra and Brian for the afternoon. Mayra made some delicious food and we ate outside and just talked for a while. I will confess, as a Mexican it was weird to greet another Mexican without a hug and a cheek kiss, but alas, such are the times we live in.

The Professor professing... 

With the Leo babies...

We started talking about potentially going somewhere in the state later this summer; we'll see how Covid19 progresses. But for now, this type of social interactions will do. It was so nice to be outside with friends.

The drive home was uneventful and thankfully I remembered that 496 E in Lansing is shut down, so I took 69 to 127, which I almost never do. It'll be nice to see 496 when it's done! The rest of the evening was pretty mellow. My Man went grocery shopping, and we finished watching Forrest Gump. I think the boy enjoyed it, even though many of the historical references were lost on him.

I went to bed and read for a while before calling it a day. Overall, a really nice weekend! Hope yours went well as well!