Browse Author: beakatude

Four Months of SIP

It’s July 14, 2020 and we just finished our 4th month of SIP.

The kids and Jes are still in SoCal and it’s been good for everyone. The kids are enjoying the extra company and I think Jes and my brother are relieved to have a little extra help in planning/cooking/sharing meals.

I got to fly down for the long July 4th weekend. It was fun to play with fireworks on the driveway like we used to as kids. Jason and Jia’s neighbors were really into it too so there was plenty of entertainment that evening.

Here’s the airport and what the plane looks like when I fly. There are usually only about 50-something passengers and we are all spread out.

Here is my usual garb at work now. It’s standard to everyone to be walking around with a surgical mask and face shield.

If I’m doing a procedure in Radiology, I have to up my game and wear an N95 mask, faceshield, gown, gloves, AND the lead apron. Fun times.

KP also sent us all masks and a red sticker that we are supposed to put on our badges in case we are called to work during a lockdown of the city. Hopefully things will not come to that but it was a nice gesture.

All the elevators have stickers on the floor to cue people to keep their distance and limit the number of people inside to no more than 3 at a time.

What’s nice is that I still have one of my very good friends by my side in all this. Teresa still works with me and we are going through another crazy disease together.

We have been through scabies, H1N1 (photo above from 2009), Zika, and now SARS-COV-2.  It’s been good to have someone to hang out with now that I am home alone without the family. Gets kinda lonely after a while.

What’s been helpful in passing the time is playing Animal Crossing New Horizons. It’s fun to just hang out on an island building stuff, catching fish, growing flowers, and making friends with villagers.

On the to the next month!

 

Three Months of SIP

It’s June 14, 2020 and we just finished our 3rd month of Shelter-In-Place.

The official last day of school was on May 29th (over a week early), Peanut had a drive-by promotion ceremony on June 3rd, and I had taken the week of June 8-12 off for a possible camping trip that never got planned because of the pandemic.

So, we drove down to Cerritos on June 6th and instead of driving back up the following weekend, I flew home alone.

It was nice to finally be able to combine our family bubbles. The kids now have 4 different houses to visit and stay. They also have 4 cousins to play with! Johnny has a giant backyard complete with bounce house/water slide, my parents have a house filled with toys and a backyard to explore, Jason and Jia have a playroom and pool that never closed during SIP, and Jes’ parents have a brand new home with room for everyone to sleep. This is the best set-up ever…aside from it being 400 miles away from where I have to go to work.

My experience on Southwest Airlines was pretty good. The flight was so empty and everyone was able to spread out. We all had masks on and they boarded only 10 passengers at a time. I felt safe but was still a little anxious. The security line has almost no one waiting and the restaurants and bars are all closed. I caught the bus home and luckily didn’t have to wait too long. This is going to be an interesting summer. What am I going to do with all the extra time??

Two Months of SIP

Wow, it’s been two months (9 weeks actually). I can hardly remember what has happened these past 4 weeks. The days are blurring and would probably be worse if I wasn’t going to work on a regular basis.

I’ve been able to work from home 2 out of 4 of my work days and it’s been helpful but challenging at the same time. Jes bought me a widescreen monitor for the desk upstairs and set up my laptop so I had dual screens for work.

The kids are in somewhat of a schedule now:

Between 7-8am: They wake up and hang out together on their iPads until Jes wakes up.

8:30am: Breakfast (they get some good meals nowadays – bacon, eggs, waffles sometimes)

9:30am: KK’s Classroom Zoom Meeting / Peanut on his laptop doing some math games

10:00am: KK either has Music (on Mondays) or free time to play with Peanut

11:00am: Office Hours with Ms. Bliss (her teacher). Some days she reads to them, some days it’s a small group lesson

12:00pm: Lunch

1:00pm: Play Time

2:00pm: Yu Ying (Mandarin online school) and Peanut takes a nap

3:30pm: KK is done and Peanut generally wakes up by then.

The rest of the day is spent watching tv and/or playing.

5:00pm: I come home (on Mondays and Tuesday) and the kids go outside to ride bikes, scooters, and skateboards. I park the van outside and they use the garage as a play area.

Cabinets

This guy turns out to be pretty handy. He installed IKEA cabinets in the laundry room for me all on his own. We just need to buy extra shelves and install cabinet doors.

Here are the BEFORE and AFTER photos:

Thanks, Jes! I love it! Now I feel like the space is so much more functional. Ah…the simple pleasures in life.

OTAC Conference

As Supervisor, I was asked to attend the Annual OT Association of California (OTAC) Conference in Pasadena. It was an all-expense trip paid for by the department that pays for recruitment and marketing. So, I flew up on Thursday afternoon and checked in a the Hilton Pasadena.

On Thursday evening, I took an Lyft to DTLA to meet up with Brother and Joy. We went to Tender Greens and then Library Bar for a quick drink.

I love attending these conferences because of the new things I get to learn and it’s also a great way to catch up with old friends/colleagues. I bumped into Allison who I worked with at PTN over 17 years ago!

I also hung out with current co-worker who was attending to help with OTAC membership recruitment.

The main reason I was sent to the conference was to be present at the KP booth. We are hiring and Ken (middle) is the recruiter who sometimes does this on his own without actual OTs present to answer clinical/day-to-day questions. It was fun chatting with people and giving away KP swag.

On Friday, Brother drove the parents up so we could have a birthday lunch to celebrate my mommy’s birthday.

We went to Houston’s, an old favorite of ours.

She got her steak and I got my tuna platter that was very different from what I was used to.

The nice thing about having so many people is that we can share all the favorites. Brother got the ribs and I was so happy.

I also got a prosecco that came in this cool glass.

Later that evening, I went out for dinner with Holly, who lives in South Pasadena. It was so fun to catch up with her “after work”.

Overall, it was a productive trip with a good sprinkling of personal time. I flew back on Sunday morning with enough time to take the kids to kung fu that day.

My 44th Birthday

My birthday celebration started early the week before when Ranee invited us to the winery at Jack London Square last Friday evening. It was a gorgeous evening with lots of sparkling wine to sip and taste.

Ranee also got us a bottle of sparkling rose to share. The kids played on the lawn all evening and we got to sit and unwind.

If that wasn’t fun enough already, we got to hang out AGAIN the following night!

We dropped the kids off at Jimmy and Eleen’s house (thanks guys!) and took an Uber to the city. We had tickets to see JANET!!!

We had purchased these tickets months ago and the Chase Center just opened a few weeks ago.

It was so nice to see Ishya smiling after the passing of her mom (my aunt).

Janet was awesome and sang what seemed like ALL HER SONGS.

The Chase Center was on their feet and he had such a good time.

The following week, we flew down to Cerritos to celebrate the actual birthday with Brother who turned 40!!

We had a family dinner at Lawry’s and then went out for dessert at David Chang’s milk bar.

The following night, we went to see Ali Wong at The Wiltern.

Interestingly, she had a strict no-device rule. We had to go through security at the entrance and lock our phones and smart watches in a bag that we carry around with us but can’t unlock until the show is done. It was a fun experiment and reminder of how things used to be when we were younger and didn’t have cell phones.

Ali was really funny and so was the guy that opened for her! Good show.

My last bit of birthday fun was the day after when we arrived back in Alameda. Just the 4 of us went out for Korean BBQ and stuffed ourselves silly.