Over the past 12 weeks now, I’ve been documenting in this teeny, tiny corner of the internet how COVID-everything has been turning life upside down and inside out, specifically here in SCC, in SJ, for my family and me.
SC library storytime, May 2020
And while COVID has most definitely dominated life as we know it for the better part of the past ~3 months, other stuff has been going on, too, of course, since life generally doesn’t wait for one catastrophe to clear before beginning another. Just a couple weeks back, I wrote about 25 year-old Ahmaud Arbery’s murder at the hands of white supremacists, a story that didn’t come to light until months after it happened. The gut-wrenching tragedy rocked the running community, myself included, and it has helped spawn subsequent conversations about race in the running world, a place wherein I spend a lot of my time in some capacity or another (be it actually doing the thing, reading or writing about it, or talking to people about it). Race is fresh on many people’s minds, some maybe for the first time.
And then, nearly three months to the day — February 23 to May 25, 2020 — yet another Black man, George Floyd, 46, was murdered at the hands of a white person, this time a police officer in Minneapolis, and like Mr. Arbery’s death, Mr. Floyd’s, too, was captured on video for all the world. In the subsequent days since Mr. Floyd’s murder, people have taken to the literal streets across the world, including here in SJ, to protest police brutality and this country’s long-standing, institutionalized racism towards BIPOC. Alongside the many peaceful protests have been unfortunate incidents of looting and vandalism, resulting in citywide curfews across the country (including here), and in some places, an activated military presence. Some people are focusing their disdain on the riots, looting, and vandalism. Others are on the aforementioned racism and invoking Dr. King’s prescient line that riots are “the language of the unheard.”
It is messy, it is complicated, there is literal loss and diminishment of human life, and this is all independent of COVID. COVID is only exacerbating the social stratification that’s a consequence of this country’s ingrained racism.
I’m not going to try to write anything eloquent here and say or reiterate things that have already been said, but from my point of view, it seems like a public reckoning on race is underfoot, which I’d argue is good. We can’t do anything to bring back Mr. Floyd or Mr. Arbery (or anyone else), but we can change the conversation — we can have conversations — about race in this country, and that’s a start. We owe it to ourselves. Dear god, we owe it to our kids.
Every human should be talking about this stuff right now, regardless of how uncomfortable it may make us feel (that’s ok; growth comes from discomfort) or whether we feel it’s applicable to us or not (it is; we’re human; even if we don’t identify as BIPOC, there is so much that we can learn from people’s personal stories [among others] that, in turn, we can use to make this world a better place for everyone). None of us has all of this figured out — none of us are perfect — and many of us, myself included, have come to the realization that even though we may abhor racism and consider ourselves allies, our passivity can make us complicit in this struggle.
In other words, none of us can afford to be anything but actively (vociferously) anti-racist.
In any other normal time of life, we’d usually be marking Memorial Day as the beginning of summer, and we’d be excitedly counting down the remaining few days of school. In these parts, this time of year is usually when we begin having ridiculously HOT weather and when beaches, water parks, and amusement parks (as well as nearly anywhere with great air conditioning) all look reeeeeeeally good.
Of course, we’re still far from normal times, as we’re in the thick of COVID life (week 11 here, but who’s counting), and basically all of the aforementioned is still off the table. There are some exceptions — like being able to go to the beach but not sunbathe (or put stuff down) — but by and large, at least in SCC, all that stuff (public pools, waterparks, splash pads, and the like) is still off-limits. From what I can remember, as of a couple days ago, the entire state is now in Phase 2, and some counties (none in the Bay Area) are creeping toward Phase 3, marked by the very exciting developments of being able to go get “personal hygiene and grooming” done. Services that require coming into close contact with people’s faces, though, such as eyebrow threading or waxing (or whatever) or facials, are all still offline.
from a family walk sometime last week
Oh, and effective last week Friday, in SCC and in SJ specifically, folks *have* to wear masks when they’re out in public, though if you’re exercising outdoors, it’s not necessary. The caveat, of course, is that if you’re hiking/running/cycling/whatever outdoors and you go to a park that’s frequented by others, then it’s strongly urged (or maybe even ordered? I can’t recall) that you have a mask on your person that you can easily put on if you find that you don’t have ample space to physically distance yourself from others on the shared path.
Got all that? If you’re confused and can’t keep everything straight, you’re not alone.
And as it pertains specifically to my family, my eldest’s principal hosted a videoconference the other morning to field questions from parents, and of course people want to know what next school year is going to look like. (This makes me think of my grandma, RIP. She had this ongoing joke that my grandpa always thought she could read his mind or somehow always know the future when the reality was [of course] that she couldn’t. One year, we got her a crystal ball candle from Spencer’s as a joke. I think Spencer’s could make a killing on crystal balls right now). How in the world is the principal supposed to know what next school year is going to look like when she doesn’t even have the power to know what tomorrow or next week is going to resemble? This stuff continues to be hard for everyone. Everyone wants answers, some clarity, a modicum of confidence, but no one can give it because we’ve never been here, with this, before.
In addition to the principal’s videoconference, the district office is currently surveying families to get feedback from how distance learning went this year and to learn about which supports, resources, and the like families still need (or need to have continued access to) so their children can be successful with distance learning. It’s very challenging to imagine a (physical) school environment that’s in accordance with CDC guidelines pertaining to COVID-combating sanitation and health, so it seems all but promised that distance learning will continue in some manifestation for next school year. We’ll see.
#seenonmyrun
Here’s a funny story: with both girls being in school full-time beginning next year, in the past six months, I had finally begun to update and revamp my resume for the first time in many years. My original grand master plan was to still be the primary parent tasked with doing all the kids/school stuff but pick-up a local job during the school hours; the assumption was that with both girls in school, I’d have all types of time on my hands. (HA!) I might not be able to get a job closely aligned with my degrees, but just getting out there, getting my feet wet, and putting myself out there again would be a good start for this transitional period of life… and then COVID hit, and yeah, I don’t see any sort of outside employment happening if I’m going to continue to educate my children part- or even full-time. Again… that crystal ball…
Regardless, I think we’re definitely at a place where complacency and COVID-fatigue is beginning to rage within people. (Again: it’s a virus, it doesn’t care that you’re tired of it. I get that that is so hard to hear, but still, I think we all need to remind ourselves of this from time to time). Maybe it’s just a coincidence, or maybe it was simply because of the Memorial Day long weekend, but I’ve observed way more group gatherings on runs, rides, in parks, and the like than I have in the previous weeks. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d also love to go run with friends right now, or go run in parks that require that I drive myself there, but I’m choosing not to; the idea that we’re having “physically distant” runs or rides or whatever with our closest five friends is garbage. That’s just me, though; to each her own, I guess.
Fortunately, as has been the case for the previous ten weeks, my family and I are supremely lucky to continue to be healthy and well during all of this and hope that all’s the same for you and yours.
On occupying time and settling mental unrest:
Watch:Bohemian Rhapsody. I don’t know why it took me a couple years to see it (because I most definitely wanted to see it when it came out), but man I loved this. A and I have been jamming to Queen for the past week on our thrice-weekly runs together, too.
Read: The girls and I knocked off another Beverly Cleary book (Henry and Beezus), started another Cleary work (Henry and Ribsy), started Ivy and Bean, and I’ve continued to make progress on Dr. Murthy’s book (Together) and also picked up Mindy Kaling’s book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (though I may have read it before but can’t seem to recall).
Run: I enjoyed last week’s down week after a super voluminous and hilly week the week before, and I’m planning for this week to also be a down week in advance of Wolfpack’s month-long elevation challenge in June. Somewhat miraculously, I think I’ve finally found a rhythm that is sustainable for my ancillary work — something that I’ve been terrible at doing consistently in the past — and that stuff will definitely become even more important if I try to get stronger and faster a la hills and climbing in the next month. In the absence of racing, doing little virtual challenges, like the elevation challenge, with my team has been a lot of fun. My training continues to be of the “training for life” variety, with very little planning ahead of time, and it’s liberating and one of my favorite parts of my day.
A’s 5k training is progressing well, and this week she has bumped up her run/walk intervals from 3/2 to 4/2; she’ll also be bumping up her time from 30’ to 36’. We got our first taste of really hot running weather over the past few days (like 95-100+ degrees), but it looks like we’ve only got a day or so left before it breaks for cooler temps and (dare I say) rain. And in the interest of helping out my fav local races and the RDs whom I adore, I signed-up A for the virtual Mermaid Races challenge for late June, adding to the mix of she.is.beautiful, Wharf to Wharf, Girls on the Run, and Big Sur’s JUST RUN challenge.
Eat: Just like most people, we’re still eating at home a ton, though lately I’ve been less motivated to cook stuff than I have to simply pull whatever we have from out of the freezer. Over the weekend, though, I got a little inspired to create and made some pesto, a homemade Dutch Baby pancake, some mushroom zucchini taco mix, a spinach-chickpea saute, and today, yogurt banana bread. Remarkably everything has tasted pretty good, so I can’t complain.
Hang in there, friends; take care; be well; and stay safe. xo
from tonight’s run; 1/3 of us apparently didn’t last
