nothing original

December 2020

Happy Holidays everyone! It has been quite the quiet year. Since we couldn’t go anywhere or do anything… oh wait, that’s our usual modus operandi. We like being boring.

Our state went under a state of emergency on February 29. By March 9, our college closed and went completely online for the last couple of weeks of winter quarter. Then we were completely online spring quarter, summer quarter, fall quarter, this coming winter quarter, and the decision has already been made to be online spring quarter. Our college president is not taking any chances and is hopeful we will be back on campus next fall (although she didn’t mention summer quarter). Now that there is a vaccine available and currently being distributed, she is even more optimistic.

Even so, me and Chris are still working, mostly remotely. My office uses Zoom to create a virtual lobby so students can stop in to ask questions. I go in to the office once a week because my office still receives faxes. Chris goes in whenever he is requested to work with other departments such as the bookstore to help ship textbooks to students. I must say, I really like my commute, not to mention the extra minutes of sleep.

Vanessa lost her job for the time being. The restaurant is still in business, and we are hopeful the business will make it through. They may even rehire her, but it will depend. For the time being, she meets with her job coach through Zoom one to two times a week. The rest of her time is spent in her room watching YouTube or playing with her brother or cousin, Penny.

Logan attends school 4 days a week… through Zoom of course. The school district opened the school for special ed students, but we are not willing to send him back just yet. Jackie is elderly and Vanessa doesn’t do well with congestion. I join his PE class in the afternoon because I can use the exercise, plus it helps motivate him to move. Now if we can get Vanessa to join, that would be a bonus.

Oh yeah, we were able to move into our new addition/remodel a couple of days before the state stopped public gatherings and closed schools. The extra elbow room has made our lives comfortable during this pandemic.

I almost forgot. I finally graduated with my bachelor’s degree in June (yay me!). A lot of people ask: Major in Communications, minor in Law and Policy. So, what do I do now? To my own surprise, I enrolled into graduate school: Master of Jurisprudence. Nothing like the decision to go into debt for that extra credential. I just finished my first quarter, and because we are attending remotely, I decided to take two classes instead of one. I survived. I’ll take another two classes this winter and hope to survive. Spring quarter has yet to be determined whether classes will be in-person or remote.

And that be all the updates from the Carlson household for 2020. We hope all of you are staying safe by being a little more hypervigilant with a boring household chore.