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corona diary

Corona Diary: CoWorkers

SIP Day 74, wearing a black blouse and black shorts; 76 degrees outside; writing from my home office desk.

The new coworkers are helping me to shed stress during a time that has been hard for so many reasons, but primarily because of following the BlackLivesMatter protests. I am so proud to see so many showing up in solidarity, and yet so afraid for governmental retaliation for those who are peaceful and nonviolent.

Should you want or need a bit of a distraction, I give you a few adorable images of my new coworkers:

June 2, 2020

corona diary my farm

Corona Diary: Chicks

SIP Day 71, wearing a grey tank and brown linen crops; 76 degrees outside; writing from the back porch at golden hour

You know how people always say that when your children are small, you should just enjoy every minute of it and not stress too much?

That has pretty much been my day. I woke up at 6:30, ate a hurried breakfast and went to the Feed Store to pick up the chicks that I ordered six weeks ago. Four, because that is the limit according to my city’s backyard chicken ordinances.

Of course that has meant that for six weeks I have been reading chicken-raising advice on the internet, and every bit of that was swirling around in my head as I walked out of the Feed Store with a cardboard box full of four very loud day-old peeping fluffballs.

So far I have learned that much of that chick-rearing advice was overkill, but gradually throughout the day I have learned a lot and so have the wee ones. They learned how to eat chicken scratch, how to drink from the waterer, and how to form adorable chickie pyramids and naptime acrobatics. Mostly I have just watched and admired their awkward little bodies navigate their new environment.

Two personalities have already emerged in the bunch. One of them is the first to explore everything. She was my first escapee from the carrying-home box and when I hold her she prefers to climb up my arm than snuggle in my hands. I like her spunk and her sense of adventure. The other emergent personality is the smalled chick of the bunch who is a champion napper. She can fall asleep anytime and anywhere. Scarily, she has fallen asleep with her head in the water already (eek). I think she is likely a bit younger than the rest of the bunch and needs a bit more time to mature.

I haven’t named the girls yet, but my little adventurer just might be Isabella Bird, my favorite Lady Explorer.

What I watched last night: The Biggest Little Farm (a perfect documentary for the day before becoming a chicken tender)

May 30, 2020

corona diary

Corona Diary: Creatures

SIP Day 70, wearing a black short-sleeve tshirt and black gym shorts; 76 degrees outside; writing from my home office

The now-famous squirrel obstacle course video highlights how our relationships to our backyard wildlife has changed since we have spent two months at home. And while we haven’t manipulated any of our backyard wildlife like @MarkRober, or even made friends with them, we have become quite intrigued by the wide variety of creatures that we’ve discovered in our backyard.

We installed a “game camera” near the back part of our property when we began noticing animal poop appearing there nearly every morning, and what we found was that we have multiple regular nightly visitors. Most frequent is a possum who likes to hang out between 1-5am and eat bugs from the grass. While I have zero fondness of possums, I have massive respect for them as bug-eating machines. Around 4am it is common for us to have raccoons visit–we have caught them visiting solo and in pairs. And before midnight, a calico cat often visits and when he does, the first thing he likes to do is poop. I have no idea why our yard is her preferred litterbox, but I suspect it might have something to do with that cat showing dominance over our two housecats who we’ve caught staring at the roaming poop-cat through the back sliding glass door.

Perhaps the most fascinating part of our backyard fauna is of the avian variety. There are dozens of birds who visit everyday and who are especially enchanted by the bugs and worms that they find in our un-mown and gone-to-seed back lawn. In the late afternoon 2-4, we have crow feeding hour where we often have 12-15 crows gathered in a herd under the orange tree (they cooperatively open and eat the fallen oranges). Then, from about 5-8 pm each evening the yard is full of a variety of small birds, the most striking being a large number of neon-bright bluebirds.

May 29, 2020

corona diary

Corona Diary: Meetings

SIP Day 67, wearing a navy sleeveless top and brown linen pants; 78 degrees outside; writing from the living room couch

Today was back-to-back meetings. I was in my office chair for nearly 8 hours straight and then kept answering emails for an hour or so after that.

On days like today I wonder how I can be in meetings all day long and still, when I finish the day, feel as though I made no progress on my long list of things-to-do.

May 26, 2020

corona diary

Corona Diary: Birthday

SIP Day 66, wearing a striped tank and cutoff shorts; 85 degrees outside; writing from the back porch as Stijn cooks dinner…

Today is my 49th birthday, which is a complicated day for me, for many reasons. First off, I am delighted to be another year older. As the years go on I am realizing just how happy I am to still be here and even the ageing of my body is not terrifically discouraging.

That said, it was just about on the very day that my sister turned 49 that she was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. So I feel like this year is something more than just another birthday year for me. It’s a year that I’m feeling so many “what ifs” and life feels ever more fragile and uncertain.

Things I did on this first day of my 49th year:

Ate a simple breakfast with Stijn
Paddled six miles solo on my outrigger canoe, my first time on the water in over 70 days
Took a leisurely afternoon nap snuggled up with Stijn
Re-lived memories from last year’s birthday celebration, in which I spent time in both Amsterdam and Brussels
Chatted with my kids, telling them stories about all of the wild creatures that we caught on our backyard camera this past week
Sat in my favorite chair on the back porch watching the bluebirds sly around the yard
Picked tomatoes and assembled a gorgeous burrata tomato salad
Had a conference call “Happy Hour” with work friends
Sipped a bottle of wine from Chassagne-Montrachet, the Burgundy village where we stayed on our tour of France last summer
Momentarily I will also be eating a dinner of stoovfles and Belgian frites with Stijn’s homemade mayonnase. Since I cannot be in Brussels today, Stijn is bringing a bit of Brussels to our dinner table.

My 39th year was one of the most momentous years of my life: I separated from my first husband, began working full-time for Chapman University, and met Stijn! Now I’m aiming to have my 49th be just as exciting and life-changing…

May 25, 2020

amputee body corona diary

Corona Diary: Social

SIP Day 64, wearing a black tank and brown linen pants; 85 degrees outside; writing from the living room sofa before I head to bed.

Today held lots of socializing:

A socially-distant in-person dropoff of tomato plants that I grew from seed, to a friend
A neighbor dropping in to chat about sourdough starter with Stijn, and to share some special flour
A phone call with a Quaker-Friend
A breakfast conversation with my daughter

I also got several tasks completed on my To Do list:

stripped, sanded, stained, and applied a new coat of varnish to the wooden handle of my favorite canoe paddle
cleaned, sanded, and applied a coat of varnish to our outdoor dining table
graded most of the final assignments for History class I taught this past Spring
chatted with Stijn about some garden priorities while he fixed the sprinklers and hand-watered the tomatoes with fish emulsion

Thirty-six years ago today I learned that I had osteosarcoma and that my leg would be amputated. I still remember laying awake in bed that night, so many thoughts running through my head and not being able to sleep. I snuck back out of bed and wrote and wrote in my diary until my handwriting got big and loopy and drifted off the page. It was such overwhelming and impossible-to-believe news then and now when I think about it, it still seems too sad and hard to have actually happened to me.

May 23, 2020

corona diary

Corona Diary: Roots

SIP Day 62, wearing a white blouse and navy chinos; 85 degrees outside; writing from my home office desk

A few days ago we created a hydroponic strawberry farm along one of the cinderblock walls at the back of our yard, behind our detached garage. It is about as far away from the house as we can get while still being “at home.” We are now marking time by how many new roots are emerging from the strawberry plants, which we can lift out of the system and examine. While so many other things are static right now, new roots are growing every day.

May 21, 2020

corona diary

Corona Diary: Off

SIP Day 60, wearing a grey tank and black shorts; 75 degrees outside; writing from my home office desk

I took today off of work and ended up working in the garden all day today. A few things I did:

worked with Stijn to build a hydroponic system for 40 strawberry plants
began the layout of my chicken coop, for the chickens that I decided to buy for my birthday(!)
helped Stijn move a new-to-us (i.e. Craigslist) wood-fired oven into our outdoor kitchen
picked some tomatoes
rearranged the lounging furniture on the back porch
Did 3 Peloton bootcamp and strength class sessions
Read two chapters of The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami

May 19, 2020

corona diary

Corona Diary: Grey

SIP Day 59, wearing black tank and black yoga pants; 71 degrees outside today and rainy all day.

A year ago I stopped dyeing my hair on the anniversary of my bone cancer diagnosis. The anniversary is always a tough time for me–last year was even more difficult than usual, because my sister was fighting stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

It seemed a time that I wanted to visibly mark that I was still alive and I was growing older, older than I thought I’d ever be. Every time I looked in the mirror and saw my grey I realized how fortunate I was to be alive, and it simultaneously reminded me that my sister’s days were numbered.

I didn’t really announce to anyone that I was going grey, I just let it happen. My son remarked that every time he saw me I was more grey and he said I was wearing it well. I don’t know if I am wearing it well or not well, but it is “me” now and I like this streak of white that edges the front of my bangs and that fans out across the right side of my hairline.

I have many friends that have stopped dyeing their hair during this pandemic and I wonder how many of them will mark this period of time as one when they were celebrating their ageing, and not trying to hide the fact that they are growing older.

May 18, 2020

corona diary

Corona Diary: Fighting

SIP Day 58, wearing grey tank and blue cotton shorts; writing from the desk in my home office; 85 degrees outside today.

Has something changed or have folks reached the breaking point? I am not sure, but I am hearing so much more yelling screaming, door slamming from my neighbors than ever before. One house in particular had about six hours of violent yelling.

It makes me happy that I have the privilege to choose who I am sheltering with. I would be under so much more stress if I had to endure yelling in my household. I can’t even remember the last time I had a reason to yell at another person. My life is very quiet these days.

May 17, 2020

corona diary

Corona Diary: Background

SIP Day 57, wearing a maroon tank and black cotton shorts; writing from the desk in my home office; 85 degrees outside today.

When I first began working from home I had my desk turned so that there were two windows behind me. That meant that I looked like someone in the witness protection program in every online meeting, so within a few days I pivoted my desk to show a gallery wall and the half-height bookcases in my office. I felt that view represented much of who I am and also every time I was in a meeting I enjoyed looking at favorite art, plants, photos and books.

Thus, I wanted to catalog some of the special pieces that some of my colleagues end up getting an eyeful of everyday:

Photos and Artwork:

1) Son with a Harry Potter book, taken by my French teacher Nancy Jo Hoy circa 2000
2) Daughter in princess dress, also by Madame Hoy
3) Me & kids walking on beach; taken just after my separation from their father
4) Painting by my great-aunt showing several family heirlooms including a wooden bowl that came “across the plains” with my pioneer ancestors. Received when my grandma Afton died
5) Cat-in-yarn print by Emma, from when she was taking art lessons from printmaker Noriko Uriu
6) Em’s self-portrait which won a bronze medal at the Laguna Beach Festival of the Arts
7) Painting of Christian by friend Tim Motika
8) Photo collage from our second family trip to Europe, taken in Paris (incl Notre Dame & Eiffel Tower)
9) Stijn & me on my 40th Birthday, at Emerald Cove (coincidentally the same day Stijn met my kiddos for the first time)
10) Remy family photo taken at Peel Castle, Isle of Man (our first family overseas trip)
11) Son, just before his HS graduation, photo by D’Arcy Benincosa
12) Daughter, teenager, also by D’Arcy

Plants:

Mostly from @thymeandplaceslc, owned by my dear friend Melinda

Books:

Vertical on the shelves: showing several favorites, including Wallace Stegner, Isak Dinesen, Terry Tempest Williams

Horizontal on top of the shelves: books from both of my grandfathers, from my Dad, and a few old editions that I’ve collected myself

May 16, 2020

corona diary teaching

Corona Diary: Endings

SIP Day 55, wearing a black tank and black cotton shorts; writing from the desk in my home office; 75 degrees outside today.

Tonite is the last class session for HIST 301, the environmental history course that I am teaching this semester. This ending feels more somber than usual, given the struggles to stay connected to students this semester. Generally I feel a strong sense of satisfaction at the end of a term, and I’m not sure that I will feel that this year, and I suspect that this feeling is shared by my students.

May 14, 2020