Items

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  2020-05

  Silence in the Morning

  At the beginning of the pandemic, I was working at a hotel on a US Military base in Stuttgart Germany where I typically worked the overnight shift. As such, my commute home in the mornings was usually the noisiest part of my day. I would often pass by the local bakery on my way home, one of the busiest places in town in the morning. I would hear the sounds of the shuffling of feet of the people in line, the clink of coins on the counter, the crinkle of paper bags filled with the daily bread the Germans would buy or the pastries they would eat for lunch, and the whine of the coffee machine for their morning coffee. In the background was the constant droning of the morning rush hour traffic. After the lockdown, when the German government shut down businesses, I had to continue working as the military converted the hotel I worked at into a quarantine facility. I continued with my overnight shifts and my commute home in the mornings while everyone else stayed home. What struck me the most about my new commute home was the silence. The utter lack of noise was practically oppressive. I could close my eyes and the only difference with the dead of night was the warmth of the sun beating on my skin. What was once the noisiest part of my day was now the quietest.
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  2021-08-16

  Masks at the Child Development Lab on Campus

  Today, after 2 weeks without daycare, ASU reopened its daycare on campus. I dropped my son off at the CDL daycare this morning, and all the kids are now required to wear a mask. This was not a big deal, because I won't let my son go grocery shopping with me unless he wears a mask, he sees his older sister wearing a mask, so the process is normalized. Last night CVS was selling kids masks with a 2-for-1 sale. Since masks always going missing at home, I bought a new one for each of them. This morning I gave one to my son Juli, and it disappeared. He claimed it was in his backpack, but I looked over the bag and didn't see it. So I gave him the second mask, the only clean one left and when I put him in the car I noticed he didn't have the mask. He said it was in his backpack, which I checked quickly and didn't see. I was frustrated and grabbed a mask out of the dirty laundry. On arriving at the CDL, he didn't want to wear the third mask because it was "stinky." I'm sure it was. I told his caregiver what happened and she said they could give him a disposable mask. I took the stinky mask and shoved it in my purse. 10 minutes later the caregiver texted to say she found both cloth masks in his bag, and everything was fine. My poor 3-year-old was right, and I was too frantic to see the truth. I feel like a hot mess mom today.