Life Before (No. 4) WHADOIDO by Selina Trepp
04/15/20
by Selina Trepp
My facebook posts from when we started to shelter in place to today, April 14, 2020.
April 14 - I miss casually hanging out with people.
April 13 - I’m grateful for my community- so many of you have reached out and offered help after our cargo bike was stolen. I appreciate it so much and thank you all and an extra special thank you for letting us use this awesome Yubi bike for now Kristen Ediger and family.
April 13 - In order to run the software I need to teach online I had to upgrade my OS, which caused many problems for me. Such as my wacom tablet no longer working and after lots of research I have come to the conclusion there is no driver for the new os. So now I need a new wacom tablet, because my wrist can't handle working with a mouse or trackpad... What do people think about the options out there?
Affordable options
April 13 - I need to up my winking skills
April 13 - Apparently being locked in has a benefit: my animation students are making awesome amazing work!!!
April 12 - Today we really needed to get some groceries. Dill pickle had a line around the block. Aldi was closed. So I ended up at smart mart, the thing about them I really like is that they give out free gloves. It makes up for their useless baby wipes.
April 12 - Don’t tell M it’s Easter. Her parents completely forgot it was coming up this weekend.
April 11 - Life SUCKS
some assholes broke into our basement and stole our cargo bike.
April 10 - Are you ready for weird face tans?
April 9 - PSA
Don’t do cosmic yoga with your kid unless you are in top shape
April 8 - My new specialty: one take lectures.
April 5 - M and I took a long drive down Ashland all the way to south 99th street and listened to the Link Wray boxset
April 3 - Today I went shopping and they had no mezcal, no toilet paper and no flour.
April 3 - I now wear Birkenstocks with socks.
April 3 - I’m just going to assume we will be stuck in Chicago this summer. So I need a CSA. People which one do you recommend?
April 2 - Just gave an artist talk on zoom. Success.
April 2 - Today I would have gotten a haircut
April 2 - 10 million unemployed.
Trickle down economics at work.
April 1 - Maxine just made up a song called
“Go around the maze looking for love”
April 1 - As much as I was dreading teaching in this strange way, I think it is going to be ok (even though a shit load of work for me, I need a raise). My students seem super motivated, very excited to get to work. I am going to push them to make amazing animation with what they have. I will show them a ton of great work. We will be an active virtual community of support and inspiration for each other during the next 3 months.
March 31 - Question for families with kids- are you defaulting to the women doing most of the childcare?
March 31 - I don’t think anyone would be surprised by my dislikes. I‘m pretty outspoken about them.
But here’s one you probably didn’t know. I don’t like raisins.
March 29 - I feel like a star, recording all these videos for my students.
March 29 - This morning I mistakenly put peppermint oil on my face instead of my facial oil. My face is ten years younger and I’ve never felt this awake. I don’t recommend this.
March 27 - Why???? did the city send out an alert in the middle of the night? And then I couldn’t fall asleep for hours. I’m exhausted. Now homeschool my kid, online school other peoples adult kids, make a film and prepare remote talks. Maintain sanity.
March 25 - Probably shouldn’t wear my “fly or die” T-shirt as I’m recording my class intro video. Or maybe I should?
March 24 - I love my kid. I love my work. Homeschooling sucks.
March 23 - Thoughts on tv during covid 19. Harsh lighting. crappy tv audio are now normal. It’s interesting seeing people’s private spaces. Especially little background mess piles. Can SNL weekend update return remote? Sportscasters without sports to talk about.
March 22 - Just getting organized for a complete life reorganization.
March 20 - Ummm I got a jury summons today.
March 20 - Hey city of Chicago- you should hire lots of artists (who lost their jobs) to make custom made signs explaining social distancing to the citizens, have them placed by every bus stop, el stop, grocery store, playground. Because frankly- people aren’t understanding it. You could recycle the yard signs that are used for elections. WPA NOW!
March 19 - I think we’ll do a spectralina drive by show. Meaning you can drive by our house and we’ll project audio visions onto the street.
March 19 - This is going to require a lot of pot.
March 16 - Equality tip during homeschooling/remote working
If you have kid(s) and two adults at home- try this:
Each adult gets absolutely uninterrupted solo time for half the day. The other half of the day they are in charge of kid and home making realm.
Shift 1 is wake up w kid until 12.30pm, includes making breakfast and lunch. Shift 2 is 12.30-6pm, includes making dinner. The person who makes dinner cleans up, the other person is in charge of bed time. Switch every day.
March 15 - On the positive-my work is made for these times.
A good time to invest in lounge wear
March 14 - I’m self-soothing by buying fancy cheeses. My Swiss-ness comes out in moments of crisis.
March 14 - After refusing to upgrade for 20 years, I replaced our 12 inch tv with a 24 inch tv. The entire family is in heaven.
March 13 - Now is the time to support your artist friends.
Buy art. Buy music.
March 12 - I can learn how to teach online, but really this might be better: can I become a paid life coach?
March 12 - I arrived at school to tie up loose ends and am meeting with students and most of all I am wondering about water bottle filling station safety. I stopped at a coffee shop on the way- jam packed, zero social distancing in there, lots of people working remotely from the coffeeshop... The news is filming the empty campus. Inside the building students are hugging goodbyes and I’m thinking, we are doomed.
Life Before (Tape-Zine) is a project created by Jeremiah Chiu with support from Quarantine Times.
Selina Trepp worked on this piece with Jeremiah Chiu, the Quarantine Times Wednesday editor. Each week, Jeremiah selects a Chicago artist to share a commissioned creative response to the pandemic.