Items

• 
  2020-09-09

  The smells of the campus silenced

  The vibrant community around San Francisco State was the main factor why I decided to move into Park Merced. The ability to walk to campus each day or ride my bike with other students was exciting to see riding skateboards or bikes while smelling coffee or energy drinks was common. The smell on campus with the wide variety of food and snacks was common to every part of the campus early or late. However, this all changed once Covid was originally announced and students and staff started leaving the campus and area and the sights and sounds of people and food on the campus were silent. The campus now remained silent and the smells of burritos and coffee were gone along with students walking to campus. The residents who used to sit outside and occasionally sat outside reading papers disappeared. The air while cleaner breathing because of the lack of air was soon polluted by the fires in California leaving a red mist that made the air smell like burnt wood. The pandemic changed so many people's lives and it is important to recognize the impact mentally and physically people have suffered. The pandemic silenced the campus and the community silencing the site and sounds while removing the smells that the campus was known for.
• 2020-03-16

  My life with COVID

  The COVID pandemic has affected everyone around the world. Going into march of 2020, I had a lot of pressure put on me by my parents to either quit my job, or take time off because they didn't know how serious the virus was and wanted me to take no chances. I also have an autistic brother who cannot speak so I didn't want to risk giving COVID to him. At the time, nobody knew how severe the virus was, but as time passed I witnessed first hand how serious it was. When I got back to work after taking time off, I saw what I thought was a joke. Shelves of foods completely empty, and all toilet paper sold out as well other cleaning products. This went on for about a month before people stopped buying a lot of things in fear. There would be lines outside of my job because too many people were coming and we didn't want to have a lot of people gathered in one place for safety reasons. More time passed and things sort of went back to normal but people now wore masks and practiced social distancing. Now over a year later, things are more calm and people are finally doing the right thing and wearing masks to prevent the spread of the virus and end this pandemic.
• 
  2020

  Exploration Camp Main Page

  This is the main page on the Golden Gate Area Council website about Exploration Camp, which was a virtual merit badge camp offered in the summer of 2020. The session information on the side notes the camp ran from June 15 to August 7.
• 
  2020

  Exploration Camp Class Catalog

  This is the catalog of merit badges offered at Exploration Camp, a virtual replacement for Wolfeboro in 2020 offered by Golden Gate Area Council. Some traditionally-offered badges couldn't be done online, like many nature-related badges. However, the online format made it possible for other badges to be offered, like Genealogy or Game Design, that aren't offered at Camp Wolfeboro.
• 
  2021-01

  Wolfeboro Storm Damage

  These are two screenshots of a post and comment from the official Camp Wolfeboro Facebook page talking about damage the camp sustained in January 2021 from storms. The post provides a donation link for people to donate money to fix the damage; the post notes the donation goal is $20,000. The post notes that 40 trees fell in camp and that the water heater shed was destroyed. A comment left by the camp account under the post says "At this time, about 40 trees down in camp and on the road. The water heater shed has also been destroyed. This information is as of Sunday, no news on the storms of the past 48 hours". The post was uploaded on January 27, 2021.
• 
  2021-01-25

  An atmospheric river could dump 10 feet of snow in California’s Sierra Nevada

  This article from the Washington Post discusses the possibility of snowstorms in the Sierra Nevadas at the end of January 2021. The article specifically mentions that the Sierra Nevada could see up to ten feet of snow. The article also forecasts the possibility of 80-mile-per-hour winds in California's eastern mountains. These storms turned out to be real and damaged Camp Wolfeboro's infrastructure.
• 
  2021-06-16

  Golden Gate Area Council Updated COVID-19 Policy

  This is a document made by Golden Gate Area Council in response to California's reopening on June 15, 2021. It discusses vaccination and testing status requirements for campers, masking requirements indoors, tenting, and dining service, all of which are mentioned in the Leader's Guide. The end of the document implores leaders to make sure their Scouts clean themselves at camp, and concerns about mental health that arise from Scouts not staying long periods of time away from home for over a year. Neither hygiene nor mental health is mentioned in the Leader's Guide, but both are mentioned here. The document softens some of the COVID restrictions that were planned for camp. The update states that dining halls will be open for normal dine-in meals, overriding the Leader's Guide which stated that some meals may be take-out. Additionally, the update specifies that masks are not required to be worn outdoors. The Leader's Guide said "while at camp each and every camper must wear a face covering over their mouth and nose", not addressing a difference between indoors and outdoors.
• 
  2020-06

  BSA SAFE RESTART Checklist

  This is a checklist made by the Boy Scouts of America to guide adult leaders in resuming in-person activities. The checklist is split into four parts: Supervision, Assessment, Fitness and Skill, and Equipment and Environment, which together make the acronym "SAFE". The document additionally has a list of things to consider while planning in-person meetings and during meetings. The Golden Gate Area Council Summer Camp 2021 Combined Leaders’ Guide recommends that each unit (troop) completes the checklist prior to attending any camp, including Camp Wolfeboro. A note on the bottom of the checklist says the document is from June 2020.
• 
  2021-05-14

  Golden Gate Area Council Summer Camp 2021 Combined Leaders’ Guide (Version 2.1 - May 14, 2021)

  This is a document from Golden Gate Area Council that provides a variety of information on the council's Scout camps, including Camp Wolfeboro. The guide is made for Scoutmasters and other adult leaders, hence the name of the document. Page 1 provides a summary of changes made to camps for the 2021 summer. Some of the changes the documents discusses for the 2021 year include: Page 10: Troops cannot arrive to camp early, on Saturday instead of Sunday. All troops must arrive on Sunday. Page 13: "ALL Campers must show proof of either a valid vaccination for COVID-19 (both doses of either the Moderna or Pfizer with at least two weeks of elapsed time after the second dose or two weeks of elapsed time after the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine) or a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of arrival at camp." Page 14: Dining halls at camp would be at 50% capacity, with outdoor seating available. Page 14: Wednesday meals will not be given to troops to cook, but instead will be served in the Dining Hall like all other meals (specific to Camp Wolfeboro). Page 15: Visitors are not allowed at camp. Pages 20-21: Explains COVID-19 procedures before camp and at camp, including vaccination or testing requirements found on page 13. Page 24: All campfires are prohibited, except for propane- and butane-based firepits. Page 45: The Lifesaving merit badge will not be offered at Camp Wolfeboro in 2021. Page 49: The Adventures Connection Experience (ACE) program will not be offered (specific to Camp Wolfeboro).
• 
  2021

  Drought at Camp Wolfeboro

  This National Integrated Drought Information System website shows a timeline map of drought conditions in the United States from 2000 to present by week. The map timeline shows that Camp Wolfeboro was located in the extreme drought category during the entire of the 2021 camp season. Extreme drought, according to NIDIS, means: "Livestock need expensive supplemental feed; cattle and horses are sold; little pasture remains; fruit trees bud early; producers begin irrigating in the winter Fire season lasts year-round; fires occur in typically wet parts of state; burn bans are implemented Water is inadequate for agriculture, wildlife, and urban needs; reservoirs are extremely low; hydropower is restricted". During the same time period most of the rest of California was also in drought conditions.
• 
  2020

  H396 University of San Francisco prompt

  Prompt given to University of San Francisco students in H396, taught by Kathryn Nasstrom
• 
  2021-01-19

  Essential Business Continuity Stipend – November 3, 2020 Election

  This is a letter I got in the mail from the Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder-Registrar, that was sent to anyone in the county who worked at the polls on "the four days prior to or on Election Day". The letter accompanied a $100 stipend that the county was able to provide to election workers for the November general election because they received a grant from The Center for Tech and Civic Life. The following is an excerpt from the letter that mentions the challenges COVID provided to election working: "I want to personally thank you for being a key part of our Election team and for helping to keep voting safe, secure, and convenient under the uncertain conditions of a global pandemic. Your service as an Election Worker ensured that every voter who showed up to the polls was helped with ease and accuracy and that our ballots were processed securely and accurately. The November 3, 2020 election included many new challenges and obstacles that we had never faced. We overcame them together and had a very successful Presidential Election. You did a great ["great" is bolded and underlined] job – from learning our new electronic poll books, to taking the necessary precautions with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and social distancing."
• 
  2021-07

  Wolfeboro PO Whiteboard

  The top of the program office at Camp Wolfeboro, where the camp director and program director offices are, has a large whiteboard every year where Scouts are invited to draw anything so long as it is Scouting-appropriate. The two photos of the whiteboard were taken at the middle and end of the fifth session of camp; IMG_5768.jpg was taken on Wednesday, July 21 at 11:41 AM, and IMG_5817.jpg was taken on Friday, July 23 at 4:17 PM. In the two and a half days between the photos, there were some additions made to the board. The whiteboard includes a variety of references to recent cultural trends, some of which include: -Upper left: text reading "whats [sic] so funny about Sussus Amongus", a reference to a YouTube video titled "What's so funny about sussus amogus?", itself an Among Us parody of the Biggus Dickus sketch from Monty Python's Life of Brian. -Center left, immediately next to the edge of the board: the word "SHEESH" in orange marker, which is used to show a sense of disbelief about something, with a positive tone (similar to how "dang" or "damn" might be used) -Upper center, slightly to the right: a dark green drawing of an open eye crying laughing emoji, an edited version of the laughing crying emoji that is used in memes to signify an emotional reaction to something -Bottom right: an orange-colored set of Olympic rings, with the words "Olympians [illegible]" in blue beneath it Some of the additions between Wednesday and Friday include: -Center left: an Among Us crewmate next to a text bubble saying "SUSSY!" (a reference to the slang term "sus", meaning suspicious, often used alongside references to Among Us) Many of the specific cultural references refer to the video game Among Us. According to the program director, the massive Garfield drawing at the bottom left was drawn during the 2019 camp season but became unerasable by the time camp opened in 2021 (camp did not take place in-person in 2020).
• 
  2021-04-13

  Camp Wolfeboro Status Update Monday, April 13, 2020

  This is a letter from Monday, April 13, 2020 that was sent out by the Mt. Diablo Silverado Council of the Boy Scouts of America outlining three possibilities for the 2021 Camp Wolfeboro season, depending on when California lifted its stay-at-home orders. The letter also discusses an online opportunity to earn merit badges that would be hosted in the summer of 2020 if camp could not occur in person or if it only occurred for a reduced amount of time in person. The letter discusses how refunds would be handled if camp was canceled. Camp was canceled entirely in 2020 because the stay-at-home order extended past June 1, 2020, which is stated in the letter.
• 
  2021-03-18

  Oakland clinic offers Mayan interpreter for COVID-19 vaccinations

  Oakland clinic offers Mayan interpreter for COVID-19 vaccinations La Clinica de La Raza is targeting Latin Mam or Mayan-speaking community with translation service Thursdays OAKLAND — A new COVID-19 vaccination clinic in the Fruitvale neighborhood is offering interpreter services for the Latin Mam or Mayan-speaking community. This month, La Clinica de La Raza began offering the community-targeted vaccination service at 32 locations across the Bay Area, including ASCEND Elementary School on East 12th Street, where Latinos who speak Mam, K’iche ‘and Q’eqchi’ can get translation help from appointment to inoculation on Thursdays. There are over 22 different Mam dialects spoken primarily by people of Guatemalan and Mexican descent. According to a recent UC San Francisco study, Mayan people with Guatemalan roots are the fastest-growing ethnic group in Oakland. “I’m here to support my community, getting them the service that they deserve,” Brenda Sucely Perez, the on-site interpreter at ASCEND, said last week while about 450 eligible people were vaccinated. Staff at the Fruitvale site have administered roughly 2,000 Moderna vaccines per week since opening on March 4, according to La Clinica officials. Salvador Garcia, an Oakland firefighter, volunteered at the vaccination clinic. “Coming to get the vaccination is a good thing because it would help prevent the spread,” Garcia said, adding that it’s especially important given how close relatives in the Latino community live. “When you’re around people in such tight quarters around here, the way the families live with each other, it’s just good to have the preventative measure of the vaccination.” It’s also one of the reasons the nation’s first and strictest stay-at-home orders proved ill-suited for the hard-hit Latino community, a four-month Bay Area News Group investigation found. That analysis showed case rates for the region’s Latino residents are nearly four times higher than White residents, while the Latino population has fared worse against the virus across California. During the fall case surge, economic pressure to keep working outside the home became another major factor in the Latino community’s higher COVID-19 positivity rate in the Fruitvale neighborhood than the rest of the state, according to a UCSF study conducted in September. The results of that study found that antibody-positive prevalence was 9.8% overall among people who live and work in Fruitvale, a predominantly Latino neighborhood. The number spiked to 26.8% among the Latin Mam, or Mayan, speaking community, USCF [sic] researchers noted. The COVID-antibody test shows that someone once had coronavirus.
• 
  2020-07-05

  Painted rocks on Iron Horse Regional Trail

  These are a series of photos I took on July 5, 2020, of a set of painted rocks I found on the Iron Horse Trail in Danville. The rocks say: "BE KIND" "STRONGER TOGETHER" "DANVILLE GOT HEART" "WHEN THERE'S NO PEACE ON EARTH THERE IS PEACE IN CHRIST" "SRV '20" (in reference to nearby San Ramon Valley High School) "SMILE! 🙂" "EMBRACE THE PAUSE!" "count your BLESSINGS" "Learn from Yesterday" "LOVE has many COLORS" (with a painted Pride flag in the background) "TOGETHER we will PERSEVERE" The rocks are all positive in tone, with a rock celebrating the recently-graduated seniors at the local high school, a rock advocating for queer people, a variety of rocks with generic inspirational messages, and a message urging others to find solace in religion. There is also one rock that references Danville's community explicitly.
• 
  2020-11-14

  Diwali rangoli at City Center Bishop Ranch

  This is a photograph of a rangoli at City Center Bishop Ranch I took on November 14, 2020. That date also happens to be Diwali, a Hindu holiday on which some people make rangoli. Rangoli are made of various dyes and powders.
• 
  2020-04-30

  Minions!

  A family in San Ramon made a cutout of two minions wearing masks and put it in front of their home. The sign says "THANK YOU ❤️ HEALTHCARE WORKERS ❤️ FIRST RESPONDERS ❤️ ESSENTIAL WORKERS WE ❤️ U". The photo was taken on April 30, 2020.
• 
  2021-06-25

  English, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog COVID signs in SF

  On June 25th, I saw this set of posters next to a bathroom in Japan Center, a Japanese shopping center in San Francisco. The posters are in English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Tagalog.
• 
  2021-06-16

  Get vaccinated at SFO airport

  The SFO airport is now offering 1-shot vaccines at a medical clinic. I never would have imagined in 2019 that you could get vaccinated in an airport, but clearly the priority is on increasing the number of vaccinated people in the U.S. It sounds convenient, as no appointment is needed.
• 
  2021-06-19

  Museum of the San Ramon Valley

  The Museum of the San Ramon Valley is well on its way to being back to normal. On June 15th, California officially reopened, which amongst other things meant there were no restrictions on how museums could operate. This means we can finally operate at full capacity. Even when we could only operate at 25 percent capacity we never hit our upper limit of guests, so capacity wasn't ever really a problem. That is something that concerns me as the museum reopens; that we will have low attendance. I was able to work at the museum a few times in the middle of the pandemic, and I never worked a day where we had more than thirty total guests (including people who were merely looking for a restroom or asking for directions to something, who did not pay to look at the exhibits - we had probably no more than 20 or so paying customers per day). We also don't need to impose mask mandates as of June 15, but the museum's board of directors decided to keep our mask mandate. However, if someone comes in without a mask and doesn't want to take a free one then we will still allow them into the museum. I am not concerned by this because I am vaccinated, and even if I wasn't there is a very low likelihood of getting sick. We have not done any exhibits related to COVID yet. Starting last year and continuing this year we have an exhibit on the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, with a focus on our local area. This is in addition to our regular exhibits. Starting today (June 19) we also have our train exhibit for a month, which is a model train display with models of local historical buildings (and other things, like a UFO and more non-history-related things). The model train exhibit always brings in little kids with their families, so hopefully that improves museum attendance. Most of our attendance comes from families with little kids, older Baby Boomers, and the elderly. The museum needs to improve on attracting people in their teens and twenties in order to earn more. Hopefully, a COVID exhibit can do that by making history more personal. On our website, we have a story collection form for people to share stories of COVID, much like JOTPY, but I do not know what we will be doing with those responses. When I physically work at the museum next I have a bunch of items from last year (inspirational painted rocks, city council and school board campaign materials, masks) that I will donate, and hopefully, those and other items find their way into an exhibit.
• 
  2021-06-12

  Mask trash Golden Gate Bridge Park

  Several disposable masks littered the grounds around the Golden Gate Bridge Park on the north end of the bridge. This photo shows a blue disposable mask near a lookout.
• 
  2021-06-12

  Mask trash San Francisco

  While visiting the Golden State Bridge, I came across this blue fabric mask with a penguin print.
• 
  2020-06-23

  SRVUSD Budget and Reopening Protest Photographs

  These are unpublished photographs I took while reporting for my school's newspaper, The Californian. These photographs show the people who attended the protest, including a mixture of students and parents. There are also a variety of signs showing various motivations for protesting. This entry is connected to the "San Ramon community protests SRVUSD spending and issues with remote learning" submission.
• 
  2020-06-29

  What should the school year of 2020-2021 mean for Cal High’s students?

  This is a set of three articles from The Californian, the student newspaper of California High School, each one arguing in favor of a different stance regarding the reopening of San Ramon Valley Unified School District schools. In the articles one can see the concerns that motivated high school students (well, three students in one high school) to form opinions about various forms of learning during the pandemic. One article argues for fulltime in-person learning, one article argues for completely remote learning, and the third argues for hybrid learning, a mix of the two. An illustration also accompanies the set of articles.
• 
  2020-06-27

  San Ramon community protests SRVUSD spending and issues with remote learning

  This is a news article I wrote about a protest for my school newspaper. The protest was convened to support the ability for students in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District to be able to return to school for the 2020-21 school year, and to oppose raises for district management and certain purchases made by the district. The protest occurred on June 23, 2020, at the SRVUSD offices in Danville, California.
• 
  05/03/2021

  Jeff Foster Oral History, 2021/05/03

  Elizabeth Hathorn interviews Jeff Foster, a college student and member of the U.S. Army. He discusses the effects of COVDI-19 on college classes and on military training. He also touches on a few other aspects of life during the COVID-19 quarantine.
• 
  2021-01-16

  Kaiser apologizes

  Kaiser Permanente apologizes for long phone wait times since the Covid-19 vaccine became available.
• 
  2021-01-17

  Bay Area firefighter paramedic deployed to SoCal hospital describes COVID-19 situation

  MARIN, Calif. (KGO) -- As COVID-19 cases surge, Bay Area firefighters are getting deployed to hospitals across the state. Bob Craft, a firefighter paramedic from the Central Marin Fire Department is working the nightshift. Two hours into his shift, he intubated a patient in the emergency department who arrived to the hospital with stroke like symptoms and prepped a COVID-19 patient for their flip onto their stomach for the rest of the night. "It's the gamut from really regular people coming to the emergency department to people on ventilators on the ICU who are on the COVID ward," said craft.
• 
  2021-01-16

  Guard troops deployed throughout downtown Sacramento in advance of expected violence

  California National Guard troops were deployed throughout downtown Sacramento early Saturday in advance of expected protests and violence that the FBI warns could last through Inauguration Day. At the state Capitol — which is expected to be the site of protests Sunday and Wednesday as well as unrest between supporters of President Trump and antifacist groups — armed soldiers, Guard trucks and armored Humvees were stationed on streets around the building. Soliders and vehicles were positioned around other buildings, including the federal courthouse and the Superior Court building, as well as the Leland Stanford Mansion and buildings along Capitol Mall.
• 
  2021-03-30

  California's Latino Communities Being Disproportionately Impacted By The Virus

  This shares a tragic story of a COVID-19 victim leaving behind multiple dependents, as well as a report of the disproportionate risk for Latinos in California. They lead with a personable story of a mother and guardian in order to put names and faces, featuring Maribel Alvarado, to the statistics that follow. It goes into the risks many Latinos go through in their daily lives; their jobs and communities.
• 
  2021-03-20

  Stop the Covid Virus

  A friend sent this to me. She saw it on her morning walk and decided to take a photo of it.
• 
  2021-03-20

  If You Need To Read Lip's...

  At Muir Woods National Park the park ranger had a sign displayed, If you need to read lips just let them know and they will remove their face coverings to communicate with you. I was super impressed. This year has be rough. I make my husband do the shopping after a man yelled at me at the beginning of the pandemic because I didn't hear the cashier the next isle over when she said she could help me. The man yelled, "What are you deaf?" and I was too embarrassed to defend myself. I don't wear my hearing aids now because of the mask. Insurance wont cover the cost of the hearing aid and it costs more than my car. I am worried a hearing aid will fly off when I remove my mask so against the advisement of my audiologist I just keep them off. It's whatever. Seeing signs like this just impress me. Inclusivity matters.
• 
  2021-03-20

  Mask Trash in Our Sacred Places

  Mask Trash found in our sacred places. This was found inside of Muir Woods National Park.
• 
  2021-03-20

  Mask Trash in Our Sacred Places

  Mask trash found in a protected habitat area of Muir Beach, California. The area is closed to try and recover habitats in danger.
• 
  2021-02-26

  Streets of San Francisco 2K21

  Streets of San Francisco 2k21 by @gregoryd1 #sf #sanfrancisco #sfchinatown #chinatown #regram
• 
  03/14/2021

  Trisha Vaughn Oral History, 2021/03/18

  Trisha Vaughn is the CPT Supervisor for a large Bay Area community hospital. In her spare time, Trisha hosts a podcast with her daughter, is an avid writer, and she is starting a small apothecary business to sell her skin care creations. In the oral history interview, Trisha shares how she has navigated through Covid-19 in both her personal life, and as an essential worker. She reflects on staying motivated and helping the people in her life stay motivated thought these hard times. Trisha describes how the social injustices and civil unrest in response to police brutality during the pandemic has affected her and those around her and about how the urgency of the pandemic has overshadowed the injustices faced by people of color across the nation.
• 
  03/11/2021

  Tom Dickinson Oral History, 2020/03/11

  “Chef” Tom Dickinson is the Culinary Instructor for Fairfield High School in Northern California. A native of Oregon, Tom shares his journey in overcoming his personal challenges as a student with Autism who was often dismissed by his educators, to becoming a beloved teacher himself. He is currently organizing the development of a comprehensive culinary program that teaches students essential life and job skills. Tom reflects of the effects Covid-19 has had on his life, community, and students. He reflects on the challenges of online learning and shares the creative ways he has tried to connect with students using technology during the pandemic.
• 
  2021-02-26

  Koi street art in San Francisco

  This article in the SFGate tells how artist Jeremy Novy has pivoted to commissioned street art work during the pandemic. Novy's commissioned work is done out in the open "based on guidelines from the Department of Public Works and the San Francisco Police Department, which he says assert that his public art is legal, with permission from the property owner."
• 
  2021-03-04

  S.F. Japantown businesses owe tens of thousands in rent. Can the area survive without them?

  In the decades since, the community’s boundaries have shifted and shrunk, devastated by forced Japanese removal and internment in the 1940s and by large-scale redevelopment in the ’70s. But San Francisco’s Japantown persisted, even as others throughout the United States faded away. Today, Nihonmachi is the country’s oldest and largest Japantown, one of three remaining, but it covers only about six blocks — and many worry it is in danger of disappearing. The pandemic has hit neighborhood businesses particularly hard, and this year an agreement with the area’s largest landowner to keep the Japan Center malls “Japanese-themed” is set to expire.
• 
  2021-01-31

  HERMIT HERALD, ISSUE 97

  San Francisco school board erases school names
• 
  2021-01-29

  Virtual School in the Pandemic

  This drawing shows my mostly normal morning during the pandemic.
• 
  2021-01-21

  West Contra Costa Unified School District Food Services Meal Distribution During the Pandemic

  This is an example of what many schools in California are doing for children and families during stay-at-home orders of the pandemic, as part of efforts of the US Department of Agriculture. Many families face food scarcity issues and the meals provided at school are sometimes the only source of food during the day for students. During the pandemic, many children will face food scarcity issues if they do not attend school in person. This school district has organized meal boxes that provide breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack. The website provides the pickup information in both English and Spanish to meet the communication needs of the families in their district, and stresses the importance of food for students' health and well-being.
• 
  2021-01-24

  Anxiety, confusion remain over COVID-19 vaccine rollout at mass vaccination site at CCSF

  This article discusses the confusion over how vaccines are being rolled out to eligible individuals in San Francisco. A vaccination site is allowing individuals to get vaccinated without an appointment if there are extra doses at the end of the day. However, while texts are being sent out to let people know they are eligible, without an appointment there is no guarantee they will receive a vaccine if they go to the site; this is leading to people arriving, hoping to receive one of the leftover doses, only to be turned away. This is just one example of how confusion and misinformation about the vaccine is leading to anxiety and disappointment, and a desperate sense of hope that the kinks will be worked out soon so that the vaccination process will improve.
• 
  2020-03-18

  Comfort in the Kitchen

  I have always loved cooking, and from a very young age, I spent time working through tough moments in my life with the comfort of flour, sugar and butter in the kitchen. When the pandemic hit in March 2020, I was a student teacher at a middle school in California, and finishing up my final quarter of my masters in education. I loved my job, my students, and my colleagues and I was heartbroken when I had to say my final in-person goodbyes to my first set of students. Just as I had in the past, I took my confusion, worry and stress to the kitchen, and began to procross the difficult road that I knew was ahead of me. One of the first recipes that I baked in quarantine was coffee cake because I had been talking to a friend, who had never tried it before. As I listened to my mixer beat the sugar and butter together, I could feel a sense of calm wash over me. Baking, even though it’s science, has an interesting paradox of being confusing and straightforward at the same time. I typically understand how the ingredients work together, and the process of following each step of a recipe brings a sense of peace. As I incorporated the eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, dash of allspice, salt into my mixture, the daunting nature of a global pandemic hit me. How was I going to adapt to online learning? How was I going to get a job in the fall as a teacher? How was I going to handle the next unknown amount of time? The smells wafting from my mixer comforted me, and even though the smell was confusing to my nose, I knew that the end product would be delicious and bring warmth to those who tried it. As I poured the mix into a pan and set it in the oven, a new sense of ambition began to bubble in me. If I could bake this wonderful cake, how hard could it be to face a pandemic? As I said this to myself, I knew how ridiculous it sounded, but I knew at this point I had to fake it until I made it. So as my coffee cake was baking I sat down and began to plan the next few weeks of virtual learning and by the time the timer went off, I had a rough plan of what I wanted to do. Taking the cake out of the oven and sampling it for the first time was glorious. I had worked hard to produce this thing, and I knew I could do the same with any task put in front of me during this pandemic. As I delivered baked goods to my friends doorsteps, while maintaining 6 feet of distance, and wearing a face mask, I hoped that a taste of coffee cake would bring the same comfort to my friends as it did to me in the tough early days of the pandemic.
• 2020-09-07

  Today's Daily Thought... Semester Journal

  This journal entry was written as a part of the American Studies class at California High School in San Ramon, California. I cannot believe it is already almost fall. I was thinking about it yesterday and it makes me really sad. Quarantine took so much of our normal life away, and it all just went by too fast. When I really think about it, so much has happened and changed for me over these months and some of which I wish never ended or changed. All the good times I had feel like a blur and all the rough times went by so slow. I wish I remembered more. In a usual year, I would look forward to Labor Day so much. This year I didn’t get to do what I normally do. Labor day usually comes by so slow because I just cannot wait for it to happen but this year it passed me up. Lately that has been all I could think about.
• 2020-09-22

  2020-09-22 covid summer

  This journal entry was written as a part of the American Studies class at California High School in San Ramon, California. Over the summer i guess i did change quite a bit. The main thing that changed was really my hobbies or rather, my newfound disinterest in my old set of hobbies. I always took my hobby far too seriously and it turns out that when i didn’t have any pressure to keep pursuing it, i kind of dislike it a bit. I had a bit of an existential crisis over it but it’s been nice to take a break.. I’ve also gotten used to school a lot better. I’m a lot more responsible nowadays and i have no missing work so that’s nice. It’s partly because of all the time i don’t use up on my hobby but it’s mostly that i just find find it fun to organize my computer. Now that i think about it i really don’t want school to start. I won’t have the choice to stay home because then i’d lose touch with my friends but I’ll really miss not being mentally drained from talking to strangers. There’s also the fact that i don’t want my room to be filled up with papers that i’ll just stare at become overwhelmed by. There’s just so many reasons that i don't want to go back to in-person.
• 2020-09-23

  life during Covid-19

  This journal entry was written as a part of the American Studies class at California High School in San Ramon, California Throughout Covid-19, I’ve learned that I don’t really have any hobbies or anything that interests me because I realized all I did was playing video games after school. So I changed myself to be more active by doing some workouts and reading every day. Even though the first try didn’t work very well to keep my routine organize, I felt it was getting better each day since there’s much time I can spend my time on myself. I hope this would make my life a little better.
• 2020-09-14

  Our COVID Summer

  I spent my entire summer walking around San Ramon with one of my best friends. I had plans to go to Hawaii and to go see my Dad in Utah a lot but those plans changed because of COVID19. My mom didn’t really think it was a good idea to allow me on a plane to run around another state in the middle of a pandemic. So my days were spent walking the Iron Horse trail to marketplace, central park, Target, Cal High, or pretty much any park that exists around here. Finding things to do was definitely a struggle but we mainly just wanted some company and someone to talk to so we didn’t have to sit in our houses alone all day. Everyday was definitely an adventure and we made a lot of memories throughout the summer that we will remember forever. It was the summer where you couldn’t do anything or go anywhere because everything was closed but we tried to make the most out of it and ended up a lot closer and happier than we were before the pandemic.
• 2020-09-22

  Business Startup During COVID-19

  COVID-19 literally shook my life straight. Before, my life was full of procrastination, laziness, and just simply unmotivated. I didn’t know my purpose in life but now I came to the realization that I am a certified bad bytch! I was finally able to Launch my second company Peasant Cosmetics and relaunch my slime company Peasant Slimes. I did months and months of research on the hair industry so I can came in prepared to dominate and take over. All companies I have started have my 100% pride behind them, meaning no matter how large it grow to, none of it will be sold. I will always own 100% of the company since I didn’t get into business for the money and I would never really do anything in my life except for 9-5 to get money. I also used several extremely fragranced lotions from Bath and Body works which gives me a few scents to smell for nostalgia into the future.