Number 6 every 3 weeks! I do it all but the back (and I can do that with the help of a hat I have)

What @Acadie said. I like this one! Mainly (and this is super hard at first) really listen and call out (whether kindly or not) racist talk/actions/language when you see them. When my White true-friends/allies step and and stand up for me I am soooooo grateful.

My daughter's creative arts camp (MD based) cancelled a while ago. My oldest's NOLS trip in MT was cancelled as well. My DS2's camp says they are going to open (VT) but with the boys mainly coming from NYC and the like I'm not thrilled. My youngest's day camp says they hope it will go but they have plans to do a virtual camp if not (we don't want him on a screen that many hours a day no matter how well run it is.). My daughter is thinking about running a small backyard camp for two families. I just got our state's recs for summer camps - ay yi yi! Might be re-evaluating.

Still makes no difference as I am in Boston (way more cases than you I believe). We want to keep our best kosher restaurants alive and that means I get take out about once a week. Sometimes twice. I don't usually reheat but I replate because we're fancy pants like that. LOL Enjoy the steakhouse - I would if I ate non-kosher meat!

Probiotics are on many of the oral immunotherapy (OIT) protocols for life threatening food allergies. I'm glad it worked for you!

I am coming to terms that I might have to do this with my DD, going into 9th grade. She moved to the school after being homeschooled until then. The high school she will be going to had a horrendous COVID-19 transition . They are not teaching much even now and it is PHONE based for a couple of hours a day (for both secular and Jewish subjects). My son's high school on the other hand transitioned within a week of closing and have the teachers (both Jewish and secular subjects) doing a fabulous job. His school day is from 9:30am-4:40pm (regular was 7:30am-6pm) and my son is thrilled by the fewer hours and online education. If I have to transition him out of his school I'll be surprised but I think he'll be ok with this going forward when we have to move from in person, school-based education (which I assume we'll start the year) back to online education. We asked her potential high school if they had a plan for next fall/school year and they admitted they hadn't even started planning for next year (my son's school is deep into planning for next year). During normal times the education was pretty good. But between the chaos I have seen from DD's middle school class (literally the girls have motivated multiple long-time teachers to quit during or after the school year in which they have been students over the years) and the lack of planning I am convinced I cannot let her 9th grade year to go to pot. She is not the kind of student who wants to learn but will do the schoolwork if prompted. She and I butted heads during her last year with me so I am really hoping that I can make a decision before the school year begins because I would rather her in synchronous classes and not being taught by me, nor asynchronous classes (she is a Social Suzie). She said to us that she may be able to handle going back to homeschool but she wants the social experiences as well.

Actually, my husband (a professor) said that the incoming freshman class will be composed of mainly the redshirted freshman plus a small number of the "real" freshman. The redshirted ones will "reserve" their spots in the following year and therefore taking spots away from the "real" freshmen. THIS is the actual issue here.

In our basement. I read or watch TV on my Fire while running. It gets used with all the other quarantine gum equipment (weight bench, lots of weights and bars) I got. My husband thanks me a couple of times a week. Without the Hive Mind I wouldn't have gotten all the equipment at good prices before everything went south. He uses it every day as well as most of my kids (the 16yo everyday even while zooming school, the others at least a couple times a week). Our basement is crazy full now but at least we have options for workouts.

Husband spoke today to a American grad student doing a Fulbright in Russia. She has absolutely no knowledge of the "accidents".

My 18yo son got his lifeguarding certification right before COVID-19. So he hasn't gotten a chance to use it. He took a job in a convenience store but that only lasted a month. He got his hours cut (and he was less than pleasant to some unruly customers) and then was let go. He needs to focus on graduating high school and his summer community college classes start next week (yes before HS graduation). My 19yo bonus son (my son's friend who is living part time with us) got a job in a pizza shop and got let go within about one week. He is focusing on finals and then he will see what he does for the summer. My 16yo son thought he would try working for Trader Joe's but that's on hold. My 13yo is a highly sought after babysitter/summer camp leader and is wondering if she can run a camp this summer for a family or two.

My 18yo DS (senior due to a "gap year") is out and about, no mask, and I imagine no social distancing. He is selling weed and G-d only knows what else. If not out being entrepreneurial (!), he's in his bed and chilling with YT and etc. His best friend (a freshman in college) living with us part time now (when he's not with his father (cancer patient) and grandparents (lots of conditions). His mother and he were not getting along and we decided to take him in. My 16yo DS is 95% online with friends (mostly a good friend in Israel who is even more isolated than ours is) and 5% taking walks with other masked schoolmates. My 13yo daughter is on the phone, Zoom, Google Hangouts a lot more than ever before. Sometimes a friend comes over and they chit chat from far away or she goes to a friend with a big yard (we live in Boston proper) and sits and talks. My 10yo DS is the worst off. His friends don't want to videochat. So we are his social life right now and the older kids are making trouble for him at times (other times they play and have fun with him). We all wear the Totobobo mask (F96 filtration) except the oldest who is too smart and cool to wear one. We'll see what happens now that we in MA are mandated to wear a mask/face covering as of next week.

Can y'all imagine the march over Selma Bridge with MLK, etc all carrying (even unloaded) guns? I cannot help by falling over in laughter. Forget dogs and water cannons; it would been a bloodbath. We all know why they were allowed to do this.

My husband is working with people in chaos theory and physics (he does social (human) capital to do this exact stuff right now. Been working on other projects together and now they got some grants to do COVID-19 stuff.

Sent out our 10 yo son's passport for a renewal about 2.5 months ago. Usually we get them back within 4-5 weeks. No sign of it and I doubt we're going to get it back anytime soon.

Prayers please. In addition to the other stuff I mentioned above my son's (whom some of you have heard his exploits on here) best friend abruptly is coming to stay with us for an undetermined amount of time. His mother has mental health issues and his coming home from school just blew up. His father is recovering from cancer (and is not 100% either in MH) and although he can go there he really wants to stay with us. They've been thick as thieves since they've both been released from school (mine senior year, him freshman year). He's a good kid but another kid in our little condo makes seven.

One of the bigger fruit and veg distributors said they can handle this. I am guessing they are hurting from so many restaurants closed or doing much less business so I hope it helps them and they will be able to keep helping our community during this time. I'd be running though gap year scenarios if I were you.

I haven't been on here much in the last week. I've been putting together a bulk buy for fruits, vegetables, and eggs for the Jewish community here in Boston for Passover (and because things are a little scary here in terms of groceries - many things out, lines to get in stores (physical distancing enforced), limits on staple items). I did a trial run 2.5 weeks ago and got $2K of produce. I think this time I'm going to get close to $10K. Also going out masked (Totobobo to the rescue!) and gloved to get food for people unable to get out. My family is all at home now; the Uni kicked out my husband from his office even though he was the only one on his floor (and in a private office). Internet is thin (even paying over $100 a month!), computers are always being jockeyed for to do online school for the older kids, and we have Passover starting on Wednesday night. So the house has to be flipped (all Passover pots, pans, utensils, food. Covering all surfaces in the kitchen, cleaning the fridge/freezer, oven, cabinets, counters, car and making sure no leaven foods are outside the area they are corralled until after the holiday week) My husband's dean did a virtual coffee hour and said Summer 2 (July-August) are going online and to be fully prepared to teach online for Fall 2020. This is nowhere near over. I'm a little scared. I wasn't until this week.

From talking to my kid's pediatrician, steroids are NOT recommended.

Shavua tov! Did you see the video where they took down a person who was supposed to be in quarantine on the street with two police officers in hazmat suits? They are tracking cellphones. That's Singapore Level stuff right there.

The scary thing is that I was in that TJ's yesterday - no lack of food.

I went to my regular grocery shop in a Somerville (Next to Cambridge) Market Basket yesterday at 3pm. I thought the place would be dead and I could hop in and out in less than 30 minutes since I have stocked up very nicely already - just stocking up on dairy, fruit, and veggies. The parking lot was like the day before a blizzard and the aisles were insane. My friend went to Costco in Dedham MA today and she said the lines were out the door and the queue for the cash registers wound from the beginning of the store around the back and back to the front again. Lots of stuff was gone. I'm going to try Tuesday morning. I think it's becoming real for more and more people. All the schools in the immediate Boston suburbs have cancelled school for at least two weeks; everyone but the actual City of Boston and rumors are that it is just a couple more days until they do - our percentage of poor/homeless/food insecure is much higher than the other districts. The Modern Orthodox day school has shut down, the right wing ones are rumored to be shutting by next week at the latest. This is a very productive time for Jewish schools right before the holiday of Passover and I think people both want it done now and are scared to death about the kids being home while Passover preparations are going on (you have to switch out all your foodstuffs, pots/pans, dishes, utensils; then clean the house to rid it of leavened foods, then cook enough food to float a boat for eight days of "Mom! I'm hungry!").

This is the Trader Joe's in Brookline MA this evening. I haven't been scared before, but I'm honestly worrying now. This place even before a blizzard is full of food.

It's true. I have at least two Orthodox Jewish friends who have been verbally assaulted in the last couple of days.

Gosh! I think my $100 filters (yes you read that right) are going to be some good then.

It's sad but disaster planning people always feel like they're Don Quixote or the chicken who ran around saying the sky was falling. The powers that be don't want to spend the time, money (especially), and effort to prepare for bad stuff. It's totally human nature to rally together during bad stuff and forget about it 6 months later. Like childbirth! Lol Some governments and non profit agencies get it and that's why my husband continues to have a job but overall as he says, " We're our own first responders and our neighbors are the zero responders. They'll be the ones saving the elderly, the housebound, the ones who can't help themselves."