Happy New Year. Sorry I’m a bit late to the party. And the after party too.
I’m not quite sure why I didn’t write for the last few days. I just… didn’t.
And now it’s Sunday. Tomorrow is Monday, which brings with it a supposed return to “normal” life. And so far, no institution in our lives has indicated that we won’t be returning to our “normal” routines. So I guess tomorrow mornings my kids will head off to school and I will head off to work, just like we have since mid-August. Except numbers are soaring and the previous mitigation strategies (masking, keeping windows and doors open (despite very chilly temperatures), and high vaccination rates) might not be very effective against this new, highly transmissible variant. But what can we do except show up and hope for the best?
It feels like we’re hobbling toward the end of this break, even though I know that’s not true. We’ve had a lovely couple of days. The weather has been wonderful – chilly, but sunny and dry. On Thursday the kids and I spent a final afternoon with my sister at Stowe Lake in Golden Gate Park. We rented a pedal boat and hiked to the top of Strawberry Hill. We had lunch next to the lake. It was a great day.
Then my parents picked up my kids and our friends came over for the evening. We were able to snag a reservation at a popular restaurant that has a great outside dining area and very effective outdoor heaters. We felt relatively safe and weren’t even freezing! We went home for more drinks and discussion and stayed up pretty late. It was a wonderful evening.
Friday we had brunch outside. Then they went on to their New Years Eve plans and I picked up my sister for a final hike in my favorite park. I was so happy she got to experience the views before she left. It was also really nice to get a couple of hours of alone time with her.
I dropped my sister back with my parents and picked up my kids. We picked up In-n-Out on the way home and then did absolutely nothing to ring in the new year. I spend New Years Eve watching TV alone, just like I spent almost every night of the break; if it hadn’t been for the neighborhood fireworks I would have missed the big moment entirely.
We spent Saturday afternoon at the zoo. My husband hasn’t joined us there in years, so it was fun to go with him, but he was clearly feeling pretty wiped by the end of the trip. Still, he was willing to walk with me from his parents’ house to the light installation in Golden Gate Park when we dropped our daughter off for a spend-the-night. Last night we finished the five hour long Japanese movie Happy Hour – which was very good. It was nice to finally get to spend an evening with him. I do think he’s finally feeling better, a full two weeks after he got whatever gnarly virus he’s had.
Today we don’t have much on the docket. Soon I’m going to run, which I’m very much looking forward to. My daughter will spend most of the day with her grandparents which means we need to keep her brother engaged. Tonight we’ll probably all watch a movie.
Tomorrow my kids have regular days of school, but I have a professional development day. I’m not sure if I’m going to attend. I have literally NEVER missed a professional development day in 18 years of teaching, but this year I may just indulge. Having said that, it would make sense to go into my classroom and “listen” to a bunch of stuff on zoom, while planning for the coming month. I could probably get a lot done and not surrender the hours on my time sheet. So I will probably do that. I scored a bunch of assessments at the beginning of the break but otherwise have done NOTHING work related for two weeks. Which has been lovely, but is a situation that now has to be reckoned with. I’m not so much stressed about it, as resigned. I also recognize that all my plans require contingency plans and then more contingency plans on top of that. I need to have all sorts of possibilities waiting in the wings for the next few weeks. It feels like literally anything could happen.
In the meantime…
My sister made it home yesterday and she’s very happy to be back with her boyfriend and dog in London.
My friend and her daughter are still stuck in NYC, quarantining in a room of her mom’s house. The daughter can not hang out with her grandparents at least, but my friend has been sick with Covid and didn’t want to fly with symptoms. She’s on the mend now and hoping they can fly home mid-week. Their one week holiday visit turned into a 2.5 week Covid quarantine.
My other good friend, whose husband tested positive earlier this week thinks she and her kids didn’t end up getting it. She’s still waiting on their second test results, and can’t find anywhere to even walk up today to get tested again. But her mom, who flew home right after Christmas, ended up testing positive after she got home. So far she’s doing fine – just mild symptoms.
Another friend, who is supposed to finally take her trip to Hawaii that was cancelled in mid-March of 2020, is isolating at home until they leave on January 7th in hopes of ensuring none of them test positive before they go.
How as your New Years weekend? How do you feel about January 2022?
Glad you have a non-kid day tomorrow in classroom to focus on planning. Am going to be curious to watch what happens with schools in the next weeks. Am glad I do not face that decision making for young children … though so far among the ‘positive over the holiday’ families (who were vaccinated) the youngest (5-11) vaccinated children seem to be staying negative (Partly, I think, because their first two shots were brand new in December). Hoping this holds, helps everyone.
Delighted you had adult friends time and that your family had special time with your sister, their grandparent’s and that sister’s flight happened smoothly.
Love your SF pictures as always.
Wishing all a healthy, happy, laughter-filled new year!
And, hope your run today is fabulous …. rain due tomorrow.
Sounds like you’ve actually been having a lovely break!
Our New Years’ weekend was nice. We just got home on Friday afternoon, and we spent NYE at my brother’s house playing a game called “left-right-center” with friends. Yesterday was a total chill day, unpacking and getting the house in order after being gone 2 weeks. Today we got groceries and are taking down the Christmas decorations. The kids are SO antsy to see their friends, so tomorrow we have play dates set up for both of them, which they’re stoked about. Then back to school Tuesday for them.
I’m excited for 2022! Locally, 10% of all reported cases in my county since the beginning of the pandemic have happened in the last 10 days, but nearly every case is extremely mild or asymptomatic. I’m seriously thankful for this variant b/c I think it will finally get us to herd immunity and back to normal with very little relative risk for people who test positive. Bring on 2022!
January 2022 is quiet peaceful. But also isolation.
Thinking of you all day. Hope plans were made and you feel more organized for thee chaos of tomorrow and rest of the week. Fingers crossed.
My kids are supposed to go back to school Thursday. I am not sending my unvaccinated four year old into a class full of unmasked kids then; will hold him at least until Monday hoping a few more of the holiday fall-out cases emerge/kids will quarantine. I’m undecided about the six year old – hoping the County will go virtual those two days. If they don’t, I will probably send her (she’s eight days past second vaccine today and masks are required) but I will NOT feel good about it.