COVID-19 Diaries: Week Four

I think that this was the week that we all settled in and adjusted to this new life.  I fully admit that I had the most adjusting to do, but after a rough couple of weeks, I am definitely in a better place mentally.  I think it helps to be honest when people ask "how are you doing?", instead of just saying that everything is great - I find that people respond with their struggles as well.  Lee continues to work on projects at the Y and doesn't see anyone when he's there - it's perfect work for a solitary guy who loves to clean, organize and fix things.  I'm surprised by the amount of work that I still have streaming in but I have to say, I do feel like people are getting around to all of those projects and work items that they've been putting off for so long, me included.  The girls schooling continues to go well although they are both looking forward to having next week off.  With no place to go and the weather looking dreary, I am not looking forward to the lack of structure in our house.
Two NWC related items.  One is this great video that the parents put together for our amazing staff, which you can view here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OGee-LEIiQ
The other was a message from our NWC Head of School, in his weekly email.  I felt like, for the first time, someone was putting into words my jumbled up emotions:

"I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time given to us." 

 ~J.R.R. Tolkein, The Fellowship of the Ring

Dear Northwest Catholic Community,

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time given to us." As we end the third week of NWC Virtual School, I am so aware of the heavy feeling that hangs over our region and our country, even our global community. There is a palpable sense of suffering and deepest concern. Rarely do we choose the greatest challenges of our lives, our crosses and rings to bear, as in the quote above from the great literary trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkein.

A devout Catholic, Tolkein served in and survived both World Wars and poured his spirit into his creative work his entire life. Certainly this moment calls us to deepest faith and creativity in the face of genuine darkness. We are coming to see as a community and nation that there is no way around this great burden that has come to us. The only way out, is through. And the only way through is as one, a united Northwest Catholic community. I am moved daily by the examples of resilience, hard work, perseverance, faith, and generosity of our students, families, and teachers. How else could we do this without our faith in each other and in our God of tender mercy? So, even amidst suffering, I believe we are living faithfully in this "time given to us."

I love this kid. 

Our (lame) submission for the teacher thank you video. 

Hours of lax in the yard. 

Hours of soccer - in the yard, at the track, you name it. 

 

Our neighborhood elementary school did a teacher parade - here is the girls' beloved kindergarten teacher.

March Soccer

Well. If Lee and I had known that Emily would only play one game this March - or perhaps, one game all spring - we would not have missed this one.  I was in en route to NYC by the time the game started (in upstate New York) and Lee was home with Elizabeth, so Emily was sent with her best friends.  I'm grateful that we have a parent that takes photos at the games, so that I was able to get a glimpse into her first game of the season.  The girls beat Alleycats 2-0 (a team they lost to 3-1 in the fall) and played a great game.  Crossing our fingers that they get on the field together again before the spring season is over.

COVID-19 Diaries: Week Three

Although we started the week thinking that Lee would be filing for unemployment, he continues to pick up maintenance hours, which keeps the paycheck coming (thankfully).  The longer we can keep at least most (minus the personal training clients) of his paycheck coming, the better off we are.
Although they finished another week of school without seeing their friends, the girls seem to be powering through this like champs.  Elizabeth has had some anxious moments but Emily is very upbeat. The other night, Emily told me that she's doing okay because she knows that "eventually, even if it takes a year, things will get back to normal. And the earth is sooo happy right now - clear skies and clear water."  They continue to run together every afternoon and play lacrosse or soccer almost every day.  I think that I am struggling the most, trying to transition to working from home (which I do not like at all) and constantly looking at Twitter for information.  It is difficult for control freaks like me when absolutely nothing is in my control!

Emily does a virtual workout with some of her soccer teammates every morning. 

Before logging on for morning classes. 

Heading out for a run together. 

Voice lessons via Zoom 

Hours of soccer in the yard when the weather is nice. 

Willis has taken over the yoga mat.

Winter Conditioning

Over the winter, when the Sporting girls only have one practice a week and one (short) game on the weekend, their coach again asked me to do weekly conditioning work with the team.  As I did work almost every weekend last winter with some of the girls, it wasn't really a stretch for me to add the rest of the team.  And frankly, it was usually the same 6 girls that showed up every week, with a few add ons here and there. Emily's coach did his best to suggest (and then flat out state) that it was mandatory practice, but several girls stayed home each week. For those that did come, the workouts were sometimes fun but always hard, and as they got closer to being back outside for games, they got considerably harder.  What's impressive to me is how much effort these girls give - parents would text me afterwards and tell me that their daughter was having a hard time walking down stairs, had sore legs 24 hours later, etc.  Yet they would show up again the following week.  For the 6-10 girls that ran, week in and week out especially in late February and early March, all the extra work really showed during their winter friendlies and first game of the season - they were clearly in much better shape than the opposing teams.  I'm hoping that these girls keep up the hard work during these strange and unusual times so that if and when the season starts up again, they will be ready to go.

Pre-Christmas workout in Christmas socks.

Stairs.  Lots and lots of stairs. 

Slap tag on a beautiful January afternoon.

One minute they were on the verge of throwing up, but by the end of their cool down, they were all smiles.

Hardest workout of the winter and unbeknownst to us, one of the dads was timing them. They got faster and faster on every step of the ladder workout, such that their final 100 was the fastest of the day.  Crazy. 

All smiles after a crushing workout.

Stairs on a frigid Leap Day afternoon.

30s, 60s, 90s

COVID-19 Diaries: Week Two

This last week brought about stunning changes, the likes of which we never thought that we would see in our lifetimes.  As of March 16th, all bars and restaurants in Connecticut were closed, as well as gyms and casinos (Lee is currently doing maintenance work at the Y); by Monday evening, all nonessential businesses will have closed or transitioned to work from home.  The city of Middletown literally padlocked basketball and tennis courts, as well as playscapes and fields.  President Trump advised that the nation could be in turmoil until July or August; and the stock market had its worst week in history, wiping out all gains over the last 3 1/2 years.  JPII moved to online learning on Tuesday and at the same time, postponed the 8th grade semi formal that Emily has been looking forward to for months.  Although the CIAC has not yet cancelled the spring sports season, the writing is on the wall and my heart breaks for the thousands of high school athletes - especially seniors - that will be impacted.  Our girls are running together every day after classes end; Elizabeth then spends about 45 minutes playing lacrosse and Emily is keeping up her daily soccer touches.  They are staying active and getting outside as much as possible, as are Lee and I.  The dogs seem thrilled that we are home all of the time.

A never before seen sight on Clover.... 

In what is perhaps the school's finest hour, NWC ran on time and as scheduled this week, just virtually. The structure and routine was a blessing.

Emily working out with her friends virtually. 

JPII - business as usual.

The girls play cards after lunch every day.  They also go for a run together after day after their classes end.

Emily is losing her mind not playing soccer.  Her team had a Zoom meeting on Saturday, something her coach wants to do every week, and she's been working hard on juggling, foot skills and shooting.

Another Damuth Scholar

Two weekends ago, Emily and I went to NWC so that she could register for her freshmen classes.  After she registered and we were walking out, the head of the performing arts department approached her and said that she recognized her from her audition video for the Damuth Scholarship, a four year partial music scholarship.  The woman then turned and introduced Emily to a faculty member as "our 2024 Damuth Scholar".  I didn't hear her, but Emily told me as we were walking out of the building - as we had not received any communication from the school, she was hopeful but still a bit uncertain.  That afternoon, we received our financial aid package from NWC, which included the Damuth Scholarship; and two days later, she finally received the letter from the Damuth selection committee - she is the scholarship recipient!!  We are so incredibly proud of Emily for overcoming her fears (performing in front of people) to go through the application and audition process and then winning this prestigious award!!

COVID-19 Diaries: Week One

On Sunday March 8th, after packing Emily into a friend's car for a two hour drive to Schenectady for a soccer game, I headed down to New York City for what was to be a two week arbitration of the largest case of my career.  Including weekends and holiday, I've worked all but two days since Christmas preparing for this arbitration - reading briefs on my laptops during long Saturday track meets, taking conference calls while we took down our tree on New Year's Day, you name it.  We got through opening statements and the direct examination of our first witness on Monday, and then headed back to the office to continue prepping.  I returned to my hotel around 8:30pm, only to realized that I'd left something at the office and headed back over; and while walking over, I received a text that it was important that I return to the office immediately, something had happened.  Around 9pm, I learned that someone in the office building where we were conducting our hearing had tested positive for COVID-19.  He had been self-quarantined for more than a week, but opposing counsel was freaked out because prior to that, someone from his office could have been in contact with this person. After the initial shock wore off, we thought that his reaction was a bit over the top and the arbitrators agreed, urging us to push forward.  Opposing counsel, even with pressure from his own client, refused and so on Tuesday evening, we packed up everything and headed back to Connecticut. When the car dropped me off around 9, I proceeded straight upstairs, threw all of my clothes in the laundry and jumped in the shower; but other than that, I really was not concerned. There were 17 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in a city of 7 million people; what were the odds, really.  As the week went on, however, things became a bit more alarming.  The CIAC cancelled all post-season tournaments on Tuesday afternoon and although Elizabeth was not impacted, she said that watching the juniors and seniors sobbing in the hallways, along with many teachers, coaches and the AD, absolutely gutted her (a petition to play without fans got 80,000 signatures in less than 12 hours, but alas, it was not to be).  By Thursday afternoon, US Soccer had cancelled all practices and games through mid-April; Northwest Catholic announced that it was going to online learning effective March 16th; and there was a run on toilet paper and other essentials at our local grocery stories (NB: this did not effect us, as I made Lee buy extra toilet paper, paper towels and Clorox wipes two weeks ago. He thought that I was crazy, but he did it.  I looked a little less crazy by the end of the week.)
Over the weekend, Emily met up with some of her teammates to run and kick the ball around; the parents stood 6 feet apart and instructed the girls that they were not to touch each other.  We'd like to keep them going with this, but I'm not sure how much longer the fields will be open and how soon we will move to snitching on our neighbors for going outside.

The grocery store on the afternoon of March 11th.

Picking up Elizabeth from school on March 13th. 

A little bit of pick up after 45 minutes of running for Emily and some her friends. 

February Odds and Ends

Kid is all smiles. 

Final basketball practice 

Final basketball game - Norwich Diocese Tournament

Emily played an amazing final basketball game on 2/29/20 and this layup was just one of many great plays she had that morning.

Foul shots were an issue for Emily in the second half of the season but in her final game, she went 4 for 6 from the free throw line, keeping her team in the game until the final minutes.

Winter Soccer

With the relatively mild winter, the Sporting girls have gotten in a few friendly games over the last couple of weeks. They've been lucky with the weather and the one game that was cancelled was cancelled because of high (dangerous) winds, despite temperatures in the mid-50's.  It's nice to see them starting to return to form and to get in some touches on the big field before the season starts.  Emily had a really good indoor season and is hoping that translates to her game this spring.

I love this photo because Emily is playing against a future high school teammate in it.

It was absolutely freezing on 3/1 when they played their last friendly.