Sunday Salon: March 22, 2020

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz runs The Sunday Salon.

Books read over the past week:   

• The Shape of Family by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

Challenge progress 2020

• Literary Escapes Challenge--This week: 0 states and 0 countries. 13 states and 10 countries total
• Mount TBR Challenge--1 book read this week, 21 books total
• Popsugar reading challenge--1 book read this week, 17 books total
• Social Justice Challenge--1 book read this month, 3 books total
• YA Award Winners--0 books read this week, 6 books total

My life outside books:

What a difference a week makes and I am exhausted! Last Friday schools closed "until April 3" due to the growing pandemic of COVID-19. Now they say the end of April, but I know we're not going back. Here's what that meant for me over this past week:

I have been in zoom meetings from 8:30am to about 8:00pm almost every day (or so it seems).

• I went in person to do the negotiations for our union, but the rest of the team zoomed in. Those of us there in person kept 6 feet apart. We finished negotiations so now just have to do an online General Meeting before the ratification vote.
• As one of the teacher leaders in our school district, I have been working with other teacher leaders and admin to figure out how to role out online learning. That involves what will class schedules look like, how do we train staff to use the online tools as well as how to structure school work, how do we ensure that students get fed (we have a high percentage of students on free/reduced lunch who get 3 meals a day for free), how do we get internet to all our students when local companies don't want to donate, how do we all stay calm and centered through it all. Tough questions.
• My girlfriends from high school are all excited that we have zoom accounts (we're all teachers/professors) so they also want to zoom. While I was pretty sick and tired of being on zoom, it was great to see their faces and talk to them.

In amongst all of this, we got the new panoramic wi-fi at home, which meant I had some installation to do. Well, it ended up being not so panoramic so I dealt with the Cox guy visiting. And yes, I wiped down everything he touched after he left. At the same time I had a new water softener installed. I had forgotten what it feels like to have soft water in my shower!

My dad flew home early from the UK on Monday and we are having him semi-isolate for 14 days. We all share a house (me, my mother and father, and my daughter). So he is allowed in only a couple rooms in the house and we have to do everything for him (pour milk on his cereal so he doesn't touch the milk, open the fridge whenever he wants something, press the buttons on the washing machine as he throws in clothes). It's quite time consuming and we really have to focus. Both my parents are over 75 and my mom has a lung disease so we are being really careful, with them only leaving the house to go for walks. This means that I am the one doing pretty much everything that needs to happen outside the house. Actually, it's all food related: farmers' market, grocery shopping, and getting take out food.

I am supposed to be participating in the 24in48 readathon, but so far (it's Saturday afternoon as I write this), I haven't read a thing.