pandemic diaries: weeks 10 & 11

I'm a week behind in posting this. So much has happened in the country - hell, the world - since the kids' final week of distance learning for this school year. And I'll post more about that later. For now, an entry in the pandemic diaries for weeks 10 and 11, up to and including the final day of the 2019-20 school year. 

Eleven weeks of distance learning DONE! Before it was over, on the penultimate day to be exact, I documented a day in the life, from start, around 6 am, to finish, around 10 pm. You can watch the full collection of Instagram stories here.

The last couple of years we've celebrated end-of-year with a trip to Cal campus for the best froyo in the East Bay. Since Yogurt Park is still closed, we enjoyed ice cream sandwiches instead, plus a nice walk from/to frog park.

Randomly, we discovered a rogue tomato plant using a tree in our front yard as a tomato cage. It's produced one perfect cherry tomato so far.

What started as a weeklong experiment has turned into more of a lifestyle change, but I already wrote about our mostly vegan week here.

Speaking of food, after several weeks of recycling 8-10 paper bags each week, I discovered you can bring your own bags and bag your own groceries in the car (at Trader Joe's, anyway). A pandemic pro-tip for you.

In related shopping news, since I had had no luck finding anti-bacterial wipes for several weeks, I finally bought a bunch of these reusable Swedish dishcloths. While I was at it, I bought some reusable Swiffer-style mop cloths and a couple of glass spray bottles as well. When I run out of my current stash of various household cleaners, I might try these tablets. One silver lining of other folks' pandemic-induced hoarding is that we might get a little closer to zero waste yet.

We finished season 2 of 'Dead To Me,' which filled me with added anxiety every episode, but damn that's a good show. I kind of can't stop thinking about how good the writing/dialogue is. We also watched all of 'Never Have I Ever,' which is also such a great mix of humor and genuine emotional range. 

This is a great piece (slide show?) about the allure of practicing a musical instrument during these uncertain times. Personally, I'm still chugging away at the piano, daily if I can swing it. I really struggled with Two Ravens but got Eine Kleine Nacthmusik in a couple of days. 

I've spent very little time in the studio the past few weeks (hoping that changes as we settle into our summer routine). Following up on the excellent origami/folding workshop, I bought Kelli Anderson's 'This Book Is A Camera' but have yet to use it, hoping to add a different dimension to my 100 Days in the Dollhouse project. I did make a couple more of these soft sculptural things, though.

I'll write separately, soon, about what we did for the first week of summer break. In the meantime, I need to finish getting ready for week one of mom camp!