Browse Author: beakatude

The Big Move

It felt like an ultimate goal of us eventually moving back to SoCal at some point in our life but as we got more and more settled in Alameda it didn’t look like it was going to happen. Then 2020 arrived and we were all at a breaking point after 15 months of working from home, remote learning, and sheer burnout. The kids had their last day of school on 6/15/21, movers are here today 6/17/21, and my last day of work is on 6/25/21. This next week will be a whirlwind of activity at the house with the handyman, gardener, housecleaners, and stager all prepping the house for listing.

Today, the movers arrived at 8am and we were in our minivan waving goodbye to Maya (KK’s best friend in the neighborhood) by 2:30pm. It was crazy to see all our belongings in a truck and a giant pile of trash left in the corner of the garage. Unfortunately, a portion of our belongings also didn’t make it into the truck so we had to say “see you later” as we drove away.

We made a similar drive up I-5 in our X3 in 2007 with the car packed to the top, our belongings in a moving truck heading to a storage facility, and a dog on my lap. It’s now 2021, 14 years later, and we now have a packed minivan, two kids, and lots of good memories to take home with us.

Things I will miss:

  • My friends
  • The cool breezes along my running trail.
  • Hog Island Oyster Co.
  • Watching the kids play outside with the neighbors

Things I look forward to:

  • Having my family and old friends close by
  • More space
  • Time off with the kids
  • Good food

One Year Later

It is March 17, 2021 and it’s one year ago that the Bay Area started it’s Shelter-in-Place order. Schools, sports, concerts, and Disneyland closed on March 13th and we had one last weekend out before everything else shut down. I can barely remember what it was like to be in a crowded restaurant or bar or a staff meeting of 25 people huddled in a small conference room.

Our numbers have gone down this past month and Alameda County finally got moved from the purple to red tier last week. The kids went back to in-person school on Monday (3/15/21) and they are happy to be there even if it is for only two days per week for 2 hours per day. They have to have a COVID test every two weeks, wear a mask throughout the school session, are not allowed to eat on campus, and have to come home for a noon-time Zoom meeting with the whole class.

Jes is still working from home and it doesn’t look like he’ll have to go back to the office any time soon. I am back at work all my working days and also started working some shifts at the vaccination clinic that opened up at the Oakland Marriott Convention Center last week.

All 4 grandparents are now fully vaccinated along with Joy, Jia, and myself. Johnny got his J&J vaccine last week and I’m pretty sure Jes and Jason will get theirs in another month or so.

We went to Hawaii last month for ski week and it was a nice change for us. Hawaii is still under certain strict rules but it was all worth it. In fact, we booked a second trip while we were still there and will be heading back there next month for Spring Break. Flights were cheap and we have enough points to stay at the Sheraton for free this time.

Disneyland announced that they are allowed to open starting April 1st and they will actually open on April 30th at a very limited capacity. I have no idea how much a ticket will cost and how long it will take to actually get a reservation.

Life is so weird right now and everything still feels like it’s in limbo. Changes happen so frequently nowadays that we just live day by day. We have had a lot of take out and delivery this past year and hope that it went toward keeping some local places afloat. Here’s a list of our usual places we eat and order from regularly: Off the Grid food trucks on Saturdays, Royal Indian Kitchen, Bowl’d, Thai Noodle House, Hong Kong City Restaurant, Angel Fish Sushi, La Penca Azul, La Val’s Pizza, a variety of pho places, and Trabocco.

The kids are still going to Kung Fu on Saturdays at Lincoln Park and swim at Aquatech on Fridays. We are down to one car after the black car finally called it quits in December. It just stopped turning on so we sold it for a few hundred last month.

I started meeting up with friends at outdoor places. Had an afternoon picnic at a park with Teresa and baby Eleanor on Saturday and then an outdoor brunch with Elaine on Sunday. They’re both vaccinated so it seemed less risky and it was so nice to see people in person again.

I hope that this summer will feel a little more normal but I won’t hold my breath.

COVID Vaccine


On 12/11/2020, Pfizer was approved for emergency use by the FDA. It was delivered to our hospital about a week later and my staff and I were placed at the top of the list to receive it. Most of my staff got their vaccine by 12/21/2020. A week later (12/18/2020), Moderna was approved and I got my first shot today. What a historic time in our lives. I feel lucky to be one of the first ones to receive it.

Eight Months of SIP

It’s November 13, 2020 and Election Day happened last week. Interestingly, we still don’t know who will be our president. Biden/Harris look like they’re in the lead but Trump/Pence are hanging on and fighting back. This year really is a mess and isn’t getting better.

Halloween was in SoCal for Alice’s Birthday. We went to Jia and Jason’s house to do a distanced scavenger hunt around their neighborhood. The kids still managed to come home with buckets of candy.

Right after, we all got into our Honda Odysseys and drove down to Carlsbad. We stayed in a hotel across from the beach, which provided a free shuttle ride to the beach along with umbrellas and chairs. The kids had a blast and the grown ups were able to sit and relax. The hotel was pretty quiet and the kids also ended up with the pool to themselves.

I guess we are all adapting to life with all the circumstances around us and the kids are resilient.

One Month of SIP

It’s April 15th and it has been over a month since KK’s school closed and will be one month on Friday that we’ve officially been living under the Bay Area’s shelter-in-place order (started on 3/17). It’s also Tax Day and the deadline has been extended. Our taxes were prepared in February so the packets have been sitting around collecting dust while we put off mailing them in.

So far, the kids and Jes have adjusted to a new routine. They have been doing pretty well without me. Outside of their regular Zoom meetings for school, they have been enjoying life without all the shuttling around to various classes and activities. They have rekindled their love for playdough and sand and our patio is getting much more attention lately.

Sadly, their idea of a good time nowadays is taking a ride in the car to pick up boba drinks and drinking them in the car on the way home. They haven’t been out in public aside from bike rides and runs around the neighborhood last past month. I’d say they haven’t left Alameda for over a month!

It was also Easter this past Sunday and instead of having our usual neighborhood egg hunt, the kids and I went outside and drew eggs all over the sidewalks for others to fine later as they walked by. We didn’t dye eggs due to the shortage at our stores. We did, however, manage to do egg hunts in the house with the plastic eggs that we’ve accumulated over the past couple years.

Luckily, my feet are no longer hurting and I was back to running just in time for this pandemic. Now that the gym is closed, all I can do is run or do some HIIT videos at home. It’s been fun running with Brother on the phone too.

At work just last week (4/07), everyone in my department was issued laptops and given permission to temporarily work from home. I had my first day of working from home on 4/8, had 4/9 off as usual, and then worked from home on 4/10. That meant I had been home away from the hospital and office for 5 straight days. That was the longest stretch I’ve had since this all started. By Sunday, I was a little stir crazy and not used to being home all the time.

Going back to the office on Monday was pretty eerie. By then, everyone had migrated to their homes (even the ones that initially said they wanted to stay in the office). I was literally the only one from my department in our 2nd floor treatment area. I wasn’t needed in the hospital so I hid in my office and worked. At lunch, I got antsy so I took a walk. It gets pretty lonely when it’s so quiet in a normally bustling part of my life.

At this point, the government has recommended universal masking so I took my handmade cloth mask that was donated to our department and wore it outside to pick up lunch and also to shop at Trader Joe’s after work. I’ve always hated wearing masks for work and now I have to do in my life outside of work.

We had planned for a surge by now but so far we have “flattened the curve” so much that we anticipate the surge will be closer to end of April/beginning of May. Schools are officially closed for the rest of the 2019/2020 school year and I have no idea whether or not kids will be able to go to Summer Camps by June.


P.S. We finally got some toilet paper from Costco. Jes was lucky enough to see it in stock online and ordered a pack.

COVID-19

It’s April 2nd and Day 17 of the Bay Area Shelter in Place. I’ve been meaning to document what’s been happening so far this year but hadn’t gotten around to it until now.  Unfortunately, we are still bracing for the worst of it here.

In late January, we were hearing about a virus that had originated in Wuhan, China. At work, we had regular huddles to discuss new screening processes at the front desk. We were still seeing patients in our clinic and it was mostly business as usual. At home, we were still going to large gatherings for Super Bowl and Chinese New Year.  The kids were in school and we had just signed up KK for Spring Soccer.

It was around this same time (end of January through Chinese New Year), Jia and the twins went to Beijing for a trip and they arrived with everyone starting to wear masks all day long. She would send us photos and updates from Beijing and saw that they was quarantined to their relative’s home for the last part of their stay. She also sent photos of what it was like to go to the grocery store with everyone getting their temps taken before entering. We were wondering if she would even be able to fly back to the states. They got home safely but had  to fly through Japan and Dallas before arriving in LA. They also self-quarantined at home for 14 days with Jason staying away at a different house.

We went to Vancouver for ski week (2/15-2/22) and the usual bustling parts of Vancouver were already getting quiet. We went to a Chinese restaurant where they had a sign on the door that said it had been “fully disinfected”. We also went to Cypress Mountain on the busiest day of the year. The crowds were annoying but had different meaning to us then.  We got lots of time on the ski slopes that week and were excited for the rest of the season now that the kids were getting a lot better.

At the end of February, we drove down to Cerritos to take care of our taxes and spend some time with the family. That feels like it was so long ago. We were also relieved that my mom canceled her trip to Italy. She was supposed to go a couple days before that weekend and just days later there was a surge of cases and Italy was experiencing an outbreak.

By March, there were some new reports of cases in Washington state. We were JUST THERE traveling through Seattle to come home from Vancouver. Work was getting a little more stressful with an increasing number of memos and changes to screening procedures at our registration desks. People were asking for masks and stealing the hand sanitizer off our receptionist’s desk while she was on her lunch break. At that point, Jes’ company was having some trial “work from home” days and other companies already started closing their offices. There was also a cruise ship that had 9 positive cases on board and they were going to dock in Oakland sometime around 3/9/20…scary!

On 3/8/20, we were still hearing about cases outside of California and I even had some friends over for brunch that morning. That would be the last I would see of them (except Teresa) for a while. Later the following week at work, we had converted all our in-person therapy appointments to video or telephone visits.

On 3/12/20, Jes worked from home and I was off so we took a casual trip to Costco while the kids were in school. We hadn’t gone for a while and we were out of chicken and running low on toilet paper.  When we arrived, we saw that all the whole chickens and toilet paper were sold out and there was only one flat of bottle water left. The panic-buying has started and most stores were running out of hand soap, toilet paper, sanitizer, and rice. On the evening of 3/12/2020, the school district announced that if parents chose to keep their children home from school that they were be “excused absences”.

We still sent KK to school on 3/13/20 and she was only one of 6 in her class that attended. On that same day, it was announced that school would be closed starting 3/16 and continue through Spring Break (4/3). Earlier that week, there was an increasing number of reports of COVID-19 cases – mostly in Washington state and the Bay Area was starting to prepare for its inevitable arrival. By that weekend, Disneyland announced they would close (!), the NBA season ended (with one player already testing positive for the virus), and large gatherings in the Bay Area were already canceled.

That weekend, we took the kids to their last swim class and last kung fu class that had only 1 other kid in Peanut’s class and a handful in KK’s class. I did my best that weekend to keep it together but things were sounding worse and worse on the news. By Sunday evening, the governor asked all at-risk people (including people over 65) to stay home as much as possible. I was also getting emails from various organizations and companies announcing they were be closed for a while – including the Tahoe resorts. NOOOOO!! It was JUST STARTING TO SNOW AGAIN!!!


I couldn’t sleep on Sunday night. These memes I found truly depicted how I felt.


Everyone was going to be staying home but I had to go to work on Monday.


To help me sleep, I went back downstairs and taped some butcher paper on the wall and wrote out a rough schedule for KK for her first day at home.

On 3/16/20, the Governor announced that 6 Bay Area counties would be ordered to “shelter in place” starting at midnight. That afternoon, Jes and KK went to Costco, Trader Joe’s, and Safeway to stock up. There was no toilet paper or chicken but they managed to get a good amount of fresh produce, other meat, and plenty of coffee and wine for me. 🙂 Luckily, daycare was still considered an “essential service” so Peanut was able to continue going to school. In the meantime, they also allowed families to withdraw their enrollment if they chose to keep their kids at home. So, he was one of 5 kids in his class and by the end of the week he was one of 6 kids in the entire school!


At work, the parking structure was not as crowded and the streets were not as busy around the hospital. It was also eerie to see everyone at work but no patients in the waiting area.


We were taking it all in stride and people were getting creative with their virtual visits and social distancing.

On 3/21/20, Peanut’s school sent an email saying that they too were going to close. So, starting on 3/23/20, Jes would be home with both kids and still have work to do. In the meantime, we canceled my mom’s trip to come up for Spring Break. It was a tough decision but the right thing to do. Southern California had not started their “shelter in place” until a few days after us and Los Angeles County was having a surge of positive cases.


We also upgraded from butcher paper to a large dry erase board and everyone has a section (even Jes).


KK is navigating the internet as best as she can and has become very good at texting and starting Facetime and Zoom meetings. She checks in with me and I also Facetime during the day to check on what their doing.


The kids have Zoom meetings with their classmates and KK is doing a great job helping out with Peanut during the day. They are getting better at checking the board during the day and checking off their tasks.


I am still going to work at my regular schedule and while it’s scary out there, I am comforted by the company of my co-workers and knowing that we are doing everything we can to help people while protecting ourselves. We haven’t had a surge yet and PPE is still at a good level for now.


Last week I even helped pick up donated masks, gloves, and wipes from local dentists that were no longer seeing patients.


We also managed to have a couple virtual Happy Hours last weekend, which was a nice way to stay in touch.

It is now 4/2/2020 and KK has been out of school since 3/16/20. Peanut has been out of school since 3/23/2020. Tomorrow will mark the end of the 3rd week of this new normal. School has officially closed until May 3rd but it looks like we will be out of school until fall now. I have no idea if Summer Camps will even be available by June or July. We don’t know what the next month will look like but hopefully it will be uneventful for our little family of 4.

KK will turn 8 this month and we will have to be creative with how we can make it special at home. There will be no egg hunt outside with the neighbors and who knows when the kids will be able to take their belt test (supposed to have been on 3/28). Peanut will likely not have his Preschool Graduation in June as well. Things are put on hold, other things are canceled, we are getting refunds for some things, and some costs will get eaten. We still get to go outside as a family and happy that Peanut still learned how to ride a bike through all this. I’m thankful for our health and thankful for a dual income that is not impacted by this pandemic yet. I will never take those for granted.

Can’t wait for all this to be behind us.

Stay home. Wash your hands. Stop buying all the toilet paper and chicken.