Pandemic Daze: Taking Standardized Tests From Home

So, to get the good news out of the way, I graduated with an MS in speech-language pathology!  I thought about writing a post about graduation during the pandemic, but decided there wasn't all that much to say about it.  My institution canceled the actual graduation ceremony this year, but (a) I think nearly every institution did the same thing, and (b) I wasn't actually planning to attend graduation anyway.  I do feel sorry for people who were looking forward to it, of course, but I don't feel a personal sense of loss for not having it.

Anyway, aside from finding a clinical fellowship, another task awaited me:  the speech-language pathology Praxis exam.  For those who may not know, that's one of the expensive standardized tests that is normally taken at a testing center.  Many of my classmates took it during winter break, to take advantage of time off and having recently prepared for oral comps.  I decided that I would benefit from exposure to the material in my final semester classes, so decided to wait.  At that time, my spring semester internship was scheduled to run through April 15; I planned to take the Praxis after I was done with that.  I'm sure everyone can see where this is going.  My internship ended several weeks early due to the pandemic and testing centers mostly closed.  I started halfheartedly reviewing for the Praxis, but honestly, it was hard to feel motivated when I had no idea when I might be able to take it.

Well, earlier this month, ETS decided to allow people to take many Praxises (Praxi?) at home.  I decided to sign up since I wanted to get it done and had no idea when I might be able to access a testing center.  I took it today, and felt like it actually went pretty smoothly!  There were various security procedures, such as showing my ID and allowing the proctor to take control of my computer to make sure all programs were closed.  I also had to use my webcam to pan around the room and show the proctor the room around me and the (cleared) table I had my computer on.  We also couldn't talk or have anyone enter the room while we were testing.  Scott had to run a rare outside errand this morning, and we agreed that I'd text him when I was done.  I was concerned about Stella waking up from her nap and coming into the room and meowing loudly (or worse--jumping on the table and trying to walk across my keyboard), but fortunately that didn't happen.  It occurred to me as I was working on the test that I probably should have just blocked off a section of the apartment to keep her from interfering, so I'll just leave that as a tip for other pet owners who may need to take a Praxis from home.

The only thing I didn't like is that I didn't really know what to expect on testing day.  So, for anyone else who might need to do this, it's pretty easy.  You have to sign in to the Proctor-U account that you created when you scheduled your test.  There will be a countdown showing how much time you have before the test is scheduled to begin.  Then you be allowed to start.  You'll be connected to a proctor who will walk you through everything you need to do.  The proctor will then log on to the ETS browser you had to download to take the test and let you get started.  It was pretty seamless after that.  I know a proctor was watching me virtually from afar, but since I never saw them, it wasn't a distraction.

I won't feel officially out of the woods until I get my official score report, but the score I was given at the end appears to be a comfortably passing one, and if there were any problems, I wasn't aware of them.  I don't know how long people will be allowed to take standardized tests at home; maybe if it works well enough it will continue, but this also might become an experience emblematic of these unusual times.

Pandemic Daze: Exercise

One interesting aspect of staying at home and having non-essential businesses closed is how it changes your exercise patterns.  Under normal, non-pandemic circumstances, I get a fair amount of walking each day to and from mass transit.  Now, I'm hardly going anywhere at all (and I'm heeding Metro's pleas to not ride unless absolutely necessary), so that's gone.  I also typically did more formal workouts a few times a week.  Up until winter break, I was using my apartment complex's fitness center.  Then, after deciding that I needed to up my fitness game a bit, I joined a kickboxing gym.  As the public perception of the pandemic began to change, my apartment complex closed our fitness center.  The gym I joined voluntarily closed hours before our governor ordered all gyms to close.

One of the first things Scott and I did when it started to look like we'd be hunkering down for a while was to order some hand weights and a kettle bell.  It took a while for them to come in and Scott mentioned that he thought the hand weights would normally have been less expensive, so I suspect others had the same idea.  On my last "normal" day (i.e., the last day I ventured more than a couple miles from my apartment), I saw a Peloton bike (of the ad fame) being delivered in a ritzy neighborhood, so maybe there was a run on higher-end fitness equipment, too.

My gym has been creating daily workout videos for people to do at home.  None of them require equipment, although you can sometimes incorporate things like hand weights if you have them.  We've been trying to do three of those workouts per week, and while it's not exactly like going to the gym, they're pretty good.  I do miss the uncluttered padded floors of the gym, though--no furniture to rearrange there, and no rough carpeting for floor exercises!  Also, at home, we sometimes get a feline interloper who wants to know what all the commotion is about.

We're taking long walks most days, too.  We usually walk through a nearby residential neighborhood to a trail and then walk on the trail.  The problem is that the trail is sometimes pretty crowded and there's not a lot of room to avoid other people, but we do our best.

Playgrounds here have been closed; the ones near us are surrounded in that orange flexible fencing.  This doesn't directly impact us, but I do feel sorry for the kids, especially ones who don't have yards to play in.  I'm starting to see more kids on the trail we walk on, possibly because it's one of the few places left where they can let off some steam.

I'm glad that the existing restrictions have still allowed for people to get exercise outdoors.  It'll be interesting to see what happens as restrictions ease up--I kind of doubt gyms or team sports will be among the first restrictions to be lifted, and I think most people are fearful enough that there won't be too many volunteers to be first to go into a non-essential crowded situation.

Pandemic Daze: Face Masks

Anybody else suffering from mental whiplash from all the contradictory advice we're getting in the time of covid-19?  Like how wearing face masks was utterly pointless and possibly socially irresponsible until it wasn't?

I am definitely NOT providing any medical advice in this post.  I also don't want to upset anyone at such a sensitive time.  But I will say that I am unconvinced by the utility of most people wearing face masks, especially of the DIY variety.  I'm willing to be persuaded to think otherwise, if anyone has evidence they'd like to share.  But the usual explanation I hear is that various Asian countries where face mask-wearing is widespread have had lower infection rates than the US.  I would argue that that evidence shows correlation, not causation, and that the countries in question also did other things differently.

Also, I worry about some of the wider implications of encouraging everyone to wear face masks.  Sure, they tell us to make our own and leave the "real" face masks for medical personnel.  But is it really that much of a leap in logic to think that if people are being told to wear face masks that they might try to get ahold of good ones to wear rather than, say, cut up a t-shirt for a no-sew DIY mask?  I also worry that people might put too much faith in the efficacy of face masks and become more lax about measures like physical distancing.

Also, to be honest, I'm just very upset at how this whole crisis has been managed.  With two months of warning time, I suspect lots of medical-grade face masks could have been manufactured, possibly enough for (gasp!) our medical personnel to have all the masks they need.  Maybe even enough for the rest of us to use them!

All of that being said, my county has started requiring people to wear a face mask in supermarkets, pharmacies, and various other establishments.  I'm not getting out all that much these days, but I'm still making weekly supermarket trips, so I finally broke down and sewed a few masks over the weekend.  We wore them to the supermarket for the first time today, and I thought they were fairly tolerable.  We could breathe through the fabric and they didn't slip much.  When we were standing in line to get in to the supermarket, the guy behind us complimented our masks very enthusiastically; he liked the fact that they wrapped around our faces to our ears.  Upon learning that I had made them, he told me I was the MVP. 

I wonder how it will feel, at some distant point in the future, when wearing a face mask in public becomes an anomaly again.  I remember when I left a job where it was absolutely essential to have my employee badge every day.  For months after I left, I kept having these brief spells of panic looking for it in my purse, only to remember that I didn't need it anymore and had turned it in on my last day.  I wonder if similar mask panic is in my future, and if so, when.

Pandemic Daze: Toilet Paper!

I've written here before about grocery shopping during the pandemic.  Aside from one grocery trip we made just as things were starting to close down in the US, our supermarket has been pretty well stocked.  Aside from a few key items, that is, including the all-important toilet paper.

We were lucky as far as these things go.  I normally order our TP in bulk online.  I had just placed an order before people started panicking.  I felt fortunate that the timing had worked out so well in our favor, that we just happened to be running low on our previous package of TP.  I also felt lucky that I was in the habit of buying it in bulk.  As I told someone at the time as we discussed the situation, if there was a problem that required more than 24 rolls of TP in the immediate future, I didn't want to know about it.

Well.  When I made that comment, I had a sort of loose schedule of toilet paper usage in my mind, one that was based on not being home all day every day.  To be a tad indelicate, under ordinary circumstances, we use the bathroom at work, school, restaurants, other people's houses...all the while, not dipping into our own stock of TP.  When we stay home all day, we necessarily only use our own bathroom and our own TP.  A different TP usage schedule applies.

While I don't think (and fervently hope) we're not in imminent danger of running out of TP, the fact that it still has not reappeared on store shelves or in any meaningful quantity online concerns me.  It concerned me to the point that I thought I should maybe start sourcing our next batch.  This is not an easy task to square with official orders to stay home--checking out multiple stores in person didn't seem like the best idea.  We looked at our supermarket when we were there buying groceries anyway, and we checked the 7-11 on our block, and none was to be found.  I checked my usual sources online.  There were a few false hopes there, where I tried to add TP that was allegedly in stock into my shopping cart, only to be told that they had just run out. 

I was finally able to order some weird looking off-brand TP from Amazon.  Even that sort of TP appears to be in short supply, and we can expect to receive ours anytime between April 24 and May 15.  I'm kind of hoping that my giving in to buy it will be the signal to the universe that it's time for regular TP to become available again in the sort of abundance we're accustomed to.  Until then, wishing everyone plentiful (or at least adequate) supplies of paper products of all kinds!

Pandemic Daze: Grocery Shopping Continues To Evolve

Even before our governor issued a stay-at-home order, we hadn't been leaving our home for every much, but weekly grocery shopping is still an outing.  We may get to a point where we decide that it's best to order groceries, but for now, we like going to the supermarket so that if one key ingredient we want is out of stock, we can regroup on the spot and choose something else.

That being said, there have been some changes at our supermarket in the past couple of weeks.  One change is that they limit how many people can be in the store at once.  This week, we were able to go right in, but when we left, we saw a line of people waiting to get in.

Other changes are at the checkout line.  There are lines on the floor now to show people where they should wait in order to maintain social distancing.  There is also a plexiglass barrier between the cashier and the customers.  And this week, our cashier told us they couldn't handle reusable bags that customers brought in; basically, if you brought your own bags, you did your own bagging.  This is fine--I certainly understand how stores would develop such policies under the circumstances. 

More people were wearing face masks (mostly fabric ones, not the disposable kind that nobody has been able to get for weeks).  I have mixed feelings about the DIY face masks, and I'm on the fence about whether I want to make them for us or wear them.  Maybe that should be another blog post at another time...

Our store was pretty well stocked, but there are still shortages of some items.  Unsweetened almond milk, for instance, is something that inexplicably seems to sell out.  And the places on the shelves where toilet paper and disinfecting wipes are usually found are completely bare.  The ongoing toilet paper shortage is somewhat of a mystery to me; after all, we're dealing with a respiratory illness, not rampant diarrhea.  Nonetheless, it does seem to be a real situation, one that might also warrant a separate blog post at some point.

Pandemic Daze: Cat Ownership During Quasi-Isolation

One feature of our current quasi-isolated state is that we're getting lots of time with our cat, Stella!  I think she was excited to have us home for the first couple of days.  Now...not so much.  I think she'd gotten used to a routine in which we were gone for large swaths of the day and she had some cat alone time to do whatever it is that cats do when humans are not rudely interrupting.  Don't get me wrong, she still seeks us out sometimes, but we've noticed that she's spent more time hiding, and we've tried to give her some space.

One thing that I've noticed but can't explain is that she's more vocal and demanding at night.  She's always gotten up on the bed to wake us up, but I feel like the nighttime interruptions have become more frequent.  Also, last night, she decided to pounce on my legs with her claws fully extended...

We got an email from our veterinary clinic the other day.  They're staying open as an essential business, albeit with reduced hours and different procedures.  Until further notice, when we bring an animal in, we're supposed to sit in the car and call them.  Then, a vet tech will come out to retrieve the animal.  At the end of the appointment, the vet will come out with the animal and discuss/answer questions.  We're also supposed to pay over the phone via credit card. 

Stella seems pretty healthy, so we're optimistic that we'll be able to avoid vet appointments in the near future (although I think her annual rabies vaccine may be due in May).  But having had relatively recent experience with a sick cat, I know that sometimes vet appointments can become very frequent very quickly.  I'm glad our clinic had thought creatively about ow to stay open while minimizing everyone's exposure to the corona virus.

Pandemic Daze: Grocery Shopping

We went to the supermarket today for the first time since Saturday.  This is also the most contact we've had with other people in several days, which is sad considering we can't even get together with friends right now.  But I digress. 

The supermarket wasn't terrible today.  I wasn't as crowded as it sometimes gets during even normal times, which I attribute to some people ordering groceries rather than going into the store.  It was also much better stocked today than it was on Saturday, which I attribute to the store setting limits on the number of certain high-demand items that people could buy.  Many of these items made sense; one of these items was packaged salad greens, however, which makes me think that people who don't make salads regularly don't understand what short shelf life those have.

In spite of the limits on items, some things were in short supply or nowhere to be found.  I did not see a single roll of TP or a single container of disinfecting wipes.  We bought one of the last two boxes of Kleenex on the shelves.  The store was down to its last few jars of peanut butter.

In other cases, the thing that was missing was the less expensive option.  The bulk bins with the ladles are closed due to sanitation concerns, so you couldn't get the bulk nutritional yeast (which we love to put on roasted veggies).  However, you could buy a prepackaged canister of the stuff at a considerable markup.  The least expensive olive oil was long gone; however, there were many "fancier" options still available.  There was no store brand butter on the shelves, but there was still a good supply of the imported European butter.

Ordinarily, I'm not very germophobic, but that has changed due to current circumstances.  When we got home, I disinfected our phones, the pen I was using to cross things off my list, and my house key.  I also threw both of our jackets and all of our reusable bags in the laundry.

We're lucky in a lot of ways.  We're not rich by any means, but if the less expensive item is missing from the supermarket, we can sometimes buy the more expensive option if we need it.  Similarly, we have enough money to be able to buy extra of things we think will be essential to our well being if we get to the point that we can't leave our apartment.  Also, we have a washer and dryer in our apartment, which means we can do laundry whenever we want.  What worries me is some people have very little margin for dealing with even ordinary inconveniences, and something like this pandemic may prove ruinous to them.