Pandemic, Week 2

Things seemed a little more real this week as the number of cases in the US topped 100,000 (and over 2,000 deaths), distance learning started in earnest, and we fully embraced remote happy hours.

We managed to get a little hike in on the Billy Goat Trail in Great Falls (or rather mostly off the trail, as it was hard to keep your distance from people on the official path) though we avoided the Tidal Basin for peak cherry blossoms viewing at all costs. DC had closed most of the neighboring streets to discourage people from gathering there, but a bunch decided to park their cars on the interstate and then walk over -- a bunch of people also had their cars towed. Given there are tons of blossoms on Capitol Hill, we never really understood the allure of the crowds, but it seemed particularly unwise in a COVID-19 world.

School technically didn't start until Tuesday, but we were a bit desperate to get the kids on a routine, so we largely started classes on Monday. Owen had fortuitously inherited Mom Mom's old laptop a few months ago, which means that he is largely encamped in his room all day, only venturing out for food and the playstation. The middle schoolers seem to all be avoiding using the camera features of their devices, so Owen is reduced to only hearing his friends voices and the odd text, but for now seems generally ok with it (and may have made the annual angst of everyone learning which high school they got into a little easier).

We signed Nora up for Camp Shenanigan's social distancing approved, Play in a Zoom camp which meets an hour a day in order to write and record a podcast (this week's episode, The Power of Caffeine). After that, she has a two hour Zoom meeting with her class (which went a lot better after Ms. Wertheimer discovered the "mute all" button), then reading, math, cursive, and a bunch of online stuff.

Since they closed the rec center by us and the weather has been less than optimal, we've largely canceled recess (and replaced it with on-line gaming). Hopefully when it warms up a bit, we'll come up with some sort of option.

Allen and I have been busy with an enormous number of calls, papers to write and other work related activities. On Thursday it was announced that my office director is being reassigned to BLS starting on Monday, so we're still trying to figure out what that means (probably nothing good in terms of workload and morale). Officially we are only scheduled to telework through April 3rd. But while the government hasn't announced an extension (which, given the President wants this all to end by Easter, they may not), given that everything not deemed essential in DC is closed (FYI, liquor stores are considered essential), schools in DC are closed through April 24th and Virginia has closed them for the rest of the school year, we don't see our situation changing by next week.

And so we upped our online communion with a massive Grady Zoom call (thanks to Mark's professional meeting organizing skills), a belated birthday dinner with Molly & Adam (note to self: coordinating take-out delivery times is a challenge), more Fawcett family calls, and happy hours with Sommer & Jeff in New York and the Mettenburgs in Pittsburg. Nora had a 5th grade Zoom call on Saturday. Owen has started face-timing his friends and cousin. And even DCYOP tried a Saturday Zoom rehearsal (with mixed results). It really has been a lifesaver.

We're doing ok. John is going through Costco run withdrawal, Allen and Nora have started trimming their own hair, I fear we're all low on Vitamin D and I'm a little concerned about the state of my liver when this is all over, but otherwise things are alright. It's scary hearing all the stories about the lack of ventilators and masks, but for now we're still getting along (lots of game and movie nights), appear to be healthy, and have a well stocked fridge as well as toilet paper. We just hope everyone else is as well.
 

(To see more pictures from our second week in captivity, click here.)

The Lottery

Applying for high schools in DC is a stressful experience. It involves essays, tests, auditions, recommendations and interviews – and that's just for the public schools. But as the alternative is home-schooling (and having now had a taste of that, we were correct in our assumption that that is a non-starter) we sucked it up and began the arduous process of visiting and applying for high school this fall.

Before the process even began, we decided that, having left the Catholic church, we weren't keen on Owen attending a parochial school (to be honest, the Cavanaugh hearing didn't help either). Most of the other private schools in DC were generally excluded based on costs since at $46k or more per year, we weren't going to be able to send Owen to college if he even managed to get into Sidwell Friends. Owen let us know that our neighborhood high school was not for him (Owen doesn't like conflict and while Eastern has lots of good qualities, it also has a lot of student drama and not in the theatrical sense), which left us with nine selective public high schools and a couple of charters to chose from.

Owen informed us early on that his first choice was Duke Ellington, DC's Performing High School, and we got it – Duke was renovated a few years ago at cost of $180 million, it's beautiful and has music labs, practice rooms, dance studios, costume shops, printmaking and a performance hall. But Duke is hard core: in the instrumental program you have rehearsals and music instruction daily from 2 pm to 5 pm; you're expected to practice 3 hours a day; and there are regular juries, evaluations and recitals. Plus it's an hour from our house via public transportation.

Owen seemed to think that he could get in just on charm. We disagreed, and so after the holidays instituted a high school application bootcamp for him. Serious, hour long practice sessions daily. No devices until he got his grades back up. Review of algebra (for the Walls test, which didn't go well...). And lessons in essay writing.

Owen's audition for Duke was scheduled for Allen's birthday. He was extremely prepared (and a little anxious given his judge was Ms. Purdie, his sectional coach from DCYOP for the past five years) but under the advice of his teacher played his main piece at 80 percent in case he got nervous. He didn't get nervous, so Ms. Purdie commented, "Huh, that was kind of slow." A week later, we found out he passed and got to move to the next stage: an assessment exam and presentation. After that, we had the family interview and musical theory test (Owen did great on the test – who knew he was fluent in melodic vs harmonic minor scales and diminished chords – though he couldn't recognize the score of "Happy Birthday;" we could have done better on the interview).

The application process finished up right as the Pandemic was heating up (Owen had his last interview for another school on the Wednesday before they closed the DC school system for 6 weeks). We had ranked his schools and submitted his Lottery application and then waited until today, when at 7 something in the morning, we got the news that Owen was in.

We're still a little anxious (partially because who knows if school will be in session this fall) about Owen having an hour long commute each way to school (Duke is in a remote part of Georgetown) and having to practice so much (they want him to bring his cello with him on vacation), but he is really excited about next year. And honestly it was pretty nice to have something to celebrate!

Pandemic!

To be honest, we should have seen this coming. I mean, technically lots of people saw this coming, but I really didn't think the whole country would be shutting down when I walked Nora to school on March 11th. But that night we found out that her upcoming overnight(s) field trip to Hard Bargain Farm was cancelled. And then the next day they canceled "Battle of the Books." And then they announced that a previously scheduled Professional Development Day would be moved from Friday the 20th to Monday the 16th. By the 14th, we learned that we were instead starting Spring Break immediately followed by two weeks of distance learning (which has now turned into at least six weeks).

So we invited ourselves to Aunt Katherine's so that kids could do yard work and co-sleep framing it as an alternative to Nora's field trip. While there we played Pandemic (and won though we also sort of cheated so I'm not sure what that means for our nation) and participated in the now remote SWS school auction before heading back to DC for work on Monday (leaving the kids behind), only to then find out that telework was strongly encouraged and our bosses did not want us to show up. The kids returned on Tuesday in order to start their remote music lessons and print out their distance learning packets. We've been social distancing ever since.



The first week has been ok. The kids were technically on Spring Break, so while we encouraged Owen to do some school work and discussed his schedule for next week, we didn't overly dwell on it. I have largely adopted our bedroom for my workspace while Allen uses the dining room, Owen uses his room and Nora is a bit of a floater. We tried to repurpose lunch break for "recess" so on Wednesday the kids and I played tennis at the rec center and on Thursday we went there for soccer (they've subsequently announced they'll be closed as well, so next week should be interesting...). We've alternated between supporting local businesses through take-out and cooking at home. Allen has been trying to work in a daily bike ride while I get in a walk, Nora has joined me on occasion for yoga and Owen is trying to get the whole family to partake in his climbing class workouts. There are lots of snack breaks, some baking breaks, the occasional nap and a couple of virtual happy hours with family and friends featuring aronia berries (we have lots of them if anyone is interested and if you add a lot of sugar and gin, they're quite lovely...).

We told our cleaning lady to stay home (with pay) and so on Saturday the kids learned how to clean toilets. We also went on an extended bike ride during which I lost my DC Real ID card (which I didn't realize until we returned home). I was pretty upset so Allen offered to go back and search for it, but was unable to find it. But shortly after he returned, I discovered that a guardian angel had actual dropped it off at our mailbox hours before we'd even gotten home.

And so that is the lesson of this first Pandemic week: even though this is a scary and isolating time, there are really good people out there that are willing to go out of their way to help you out. And if we all step up likewise, we might just make it through until whenever this is over.



(click here for all the pictures)