Here we go

Online teaching officially starts today.

I have had no communications for almost a week from any students. I am going to watch my e-mail and check in on the discussion boards I opened up. I am fearful that people will just ghost me and I won't know if I'm getting through or not. And I'm fearful I'll take the blame if people don't have a good outcome from this.

I can tell I was anxious; it took me forever to fall asleep last night and then I had stress-dreams all last night - about traveling and missing connections, about teaching and things going wrong in class, and shopping and not being able to find what I wanted. I was pretty tired still when I woke up.

But I got up. Did the usual workout, did Duolingo, will do piano practice in a bit. And then back at it. My plans now are to record lecture material in the mornings and write short tests/activities in the afternoons, and midday have "virtual office hours" (during the time I would be in class.

I got a pickup slot for groceries at wal-mart early tomorrow afternoon and decided to take it for my weekly grocery run; I do not trust the low numbers of cases reported for my state (we are not testing) and I have literally no one who could look after me if I got sick - if I got bad, no one would even know until I didn't "show up" for the virtual Thursday faculty meeting and that worries me.

I ordered more fresh milk, I hope they have it. And some of the little add-ins they have, some containers of fruit, a packet of salad greens, more cheese, some more of the yogurt raisins I like for snacks...

What a strange thing life has become. I had to think hard about what I needed, and at that it was hard to get a $30 order together (I don't care for wal-mart's meat; I guess for the nonce my protein will be canned salmon or beans) and in the end just threw another box of brownie mix in there because sometimes a little comfort is a good thing.

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I got the machine-sewn part of the binding sewn on one of the quilts (the smaller one) and made the binding for the larger one yesterday. I also finished the cutting for the Homebound top. I've decided if I can be disciplined with the teaching prep, I can knock off in the later afternoon and either sew or knit. I inventoried my supplies and I have a lot of sewing machine needles of the appropriate size, and many fresh rotary-cutter blades, and plenty of thread. And of course, lots of fabric. I even have a few quilt battings hanging around if I get some hand quilting done.

I remember stocking up on a lot of things around 2008 or thereabouts, when I was worried about craft places going bust, so I have a lot of batting ahead. I guess I use some of it now...

I'm also using up canned goods close to (or even slightly past) their expiration date. Gonna be a big restocking trip when I finally can get back out to somewhere like Kroger's. (I am guessing late June at the absolute earliest....)