Clean out Your Desk

We're coming to the end of the Spring session and into the Summer session for Sabian's daycare.  Gib5on had his last day on Kindergarten this past Friday.  A couple of family friends' kids had their High School graduation yesterday.  Regardless of the opened-up-edness of the economy and various schools the milestones are passing by with regularity - even though there's almost nothing regular about it.

Sabian's daycare is going to open up for the "summer camp" session.  For a kid in diapers that doesn't speak there isn't much of a difference between the spring and the summer.  There is a difference this year though.  Because of social distancing under PA "green" the number of kids that are allowed in the room has dropped.  There was a survey that went out earlier asking if as a parent you were in an "essential worker" job.  When we saw that we figured that they were probably going to have to back out on providing slots to many of the kids that were already signed up.  Since we were already looking for a solution for Gib5on we just rolled Sabian into that plan.

I bring this up because today I got to go by the daycare and collect the belongings we had left there when things abruptly closed up.  Parents got to drive into the driveway where they were met by a staff member who brought out whatever was left in plastic grocery bags.  We had one bag of diapers that were now too small and one bag of clothes that are also now too small.  I would have just donated all of it to the daycare but as with many things set up with a procedure there wasn't really an off ramp for that decision.  We'll find a way to do it later.

Picking up her stuff reminded me of an experience last week I had at my work.

Over Spring Break when we got the notice that we would be coming back online rather than in person we got an email instructing us to come in and get what we needed out of our offices to be able to finish the semester.  I went in with Gib5on riding in a collapsible wagon to pick up the binders for my Spring classes: one for ScenoFab, one for Production Planning, and one for CAD.  I also grabbed a armful of books I might need for Entertainment Rigging.  On top of that I also took a case of soda, a case of chips, what was left of the juice boxes I keep for Gib5on as well as some toys he plays with when he's around.  I thought about cleaning out and unplugging the refrigerator, but that felt like over reacting.

That would have been two and a half months ago.  It had an aura of responsibility and preparedness to it.  I bumped into other people in the building even though we were on break.  There were folks in the offices at the front of the ship and people in the shops working on inventories and maintenance.  The school had a buzz of activity to it.

About a month ago we got another email, this one talking about the fall telling us that we'll be in a hybrid model and that campus would eventually open up again but for the time being everything was still closed.

I have a shortened summer session coming up.  We're not having Drama Precollege this year, but we are having a Drama Summer Program (also for high school rising seniors).  I have taken to calling it "The Program Formerly Known as DP Precollege" but I probably won't put that on a syllabus or anything.  Since campus isn't opening until the fall and I am teaching next month I needed another trip to the office for supplies.

Instead of just going in this time I first emailed our facility manager to be sure I wasn't going to be stopped by Campus Security.  He told me things would be locked up but that it was ok for me to go in and out quickly and reminded me to wear a mask.  Once again I packed up the collapsible wagon and Gib5on and I went to my office.

I hadn't anticipated it, but this trip was really different.  The building was empty.  The only person I saw was a Campus Security person taking a break in our lobby (probably taking advantage of the air conditioning).  I was in the lobby on the way to the mail room - I had been told my box was overgrown.  It was.  I expected the guard to challenge me on my presence but he didn't.  Maybe having a key is enough to confer permission to be there.

In my office I loaded up what I think I need for my summer Technical Production class and anything I might need for the "Applying to College" class we're creating this time around.  We also snagged the last of the food I had: another flat of soda and half a case of Rice Crispy Treats we'd left the last time.  There just didn't seem to be any reason to leave anything this time.  I still haven't unplugged the fridge, but I do keep expecting an email telling me someone from FMS was going to go door to door to do that.

It doesn't look like we'll be back in our offices before the top of the Fall Semester.  That means any prep for the Fall is also likely going to happen at home; so I grabbed the binders for TD1 and TD3.  While I was at it I just grabbed the rest of the class binders: Rigging Seminar, Production Planning & Organization, and Technical Design.  I also grabbed books for those classes and also a stack of books that I haven't read but have been living on my shelves for a while now: my own "Books you should have read by now."  The thought was that with all this time at home I might have time to read more.  (Spoiler: it hasn't to date, I'm not sure why it will later).

Then, and I can't really speak as to why, I also took a bunch of general supplies and some of my personal gear.  I have this cool Arduino clock that seemed like it would be wasted sitting in an empty office.  I took my echo tap, another thing that seemed a waste sitting in an empty room.

That last bit seemed really weird.  The only time I have ever felt this way before was when I had left a gig forever.  There was this moment where you find an empty carton and fill it with the personal items you had accumulated at the office because you were never going to be int hat office again. I went from room to room looking for an empty box for odds and ends.  It really felt like a "clean out your desk" moment.  I have an intellectual appreciation that this was temporary, but on a gut level this errand felt very different from the first one.  We loaded up and slunk out of the building before we got busted.

I wonder if it is going to take more than opening up campus to put us on the path again.  Based on my last visit I think maybe something more fundamental has broken and will need to be rebuilt.

And we should unplug all those refrigerators.