the rest of it

Since my last note, the UK lockdown anniversary and my first Astra-Zeneca vaccination. It's been 13.5 hours since I had the jab, and so far, so good. Also today: major happenings on our house project. I think we're through the demolition phase and it's all building from here on out. For context and posterity, I'm just going to copy/paste some Facebook statuses here about the week's events. Happy(?) anniversary of UK lockdown. I'm remembering last spring when we were all saying "Thank goodness we're locking down in spring and not winter. Thank goodness the weather is so cheery." The joke was on us, as we'd still be locking down when the winter came. But for the most part, we've got through it. I feel like I've learned a lot.   And today: Several friends who had their vaccinations before me had posted about how emotional they found the experience. I thought that their comments (and my cold, cold heart) had inoculated me against feeling...

Monday will be the anniversary of the start of the first UK lockdown. Remember how that felt? How deserted the streets were? How afraid we were to touch anything outside? Here in our third lockdown it's so different. I go to my rented office every day (and walk the long way round the one-way system to get to the loo). The builders come into our house (and destroy things). Grover goes to school (and wears a mask). Phil goes to the shops (and wears a mask).  Though the days and weeks sometimes felt dull and unchanging, in other ways so many things have changed so much and so fast over the year—some for pandemic reasons, some because things change anyhow. In some ways it feels like more than a year since I had my last latte in a cafe that has since become a ghost kitchen for a pizza delivery service.  But today Phil had his first Covid jab and on Wednesday I'll have mine. I have to admit, I had the option of having mine this weekend, and I thought "No, I want to have it on a ...

It looks like Wednesday is the night to write gratitude notes. I spend the first half of the week in a panic about getting all my teaching prepped and the second half in a panic about marking and this is the little moment to take stock.  Phil and I both have our first vaccinations booked, Grover goes back to school tomorrow, and preparations for teaching next year are all assuming we'll be back to normal face-to-face teaching. It feels like the world is about to get bigger again, but at home everything's getting smaller. We still have use of the kitchen appliances, but not for long. The carpets are covered in layers of building dust, then chalk dust, then concrete dust. I'm a little afraid to put my socks into the washer. Will the concrete in them set?  Anyhow, today/this week I am grateful: For having had Grover as an officemate for the past 3.5 weeks. She's a good one. We marked the end of it by not bringing our lunches, but going out to the Chinese grocery for buns a...

the view from our room. There used to be a roof there. We're halfway through the teaching term and I'm nearly 2/3 of the way through mine, since I'm going back on leave at Easter. It is exhausting, and of course made more difficult by my propensity to have ideas and my impulsiveness about getting things started. Monday and Tuesday each week are there to be survived. Before my term is over, I've got my two heaviest teaching weeks and a lot of marking and just thinking about it is making me exhausted.   But I am grateful: that I've survived all the Mondays so far. that it's Wednesday. that the people I work (most immediately) with are smart and adaptable and helpful and that some I work less immediately with are too that we're going to continue to have a working kitchen for at least a week and a half. that G comes to the office with me, even though I mostly ignore her while she's there. that I've been able to do two exercise classes this week so far af...