He is fatigued but made it through work. One coworker missed a couple of days but no major issues.
Safe travels to your kids. I’m sure you’ve heard but I’d try to get N95 masks or higher quality filter / triple layer masks if we were flying.
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The reason the plan for an in-person fall quarter was announced on Monday is because they also announced that the spring quarter will be virtual and they needed to push out some good news, both for new and current students:
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I’m taking the pandemic seriously but we’ve flown twice already and know a LOT of people who have flown and we felt safe. I wouldn’t stress about it. Now, we’ve only flown between Chicago and Boston and both cities (and airports) are serious about Covid so everyone was masked etc., and the airports weren’t super crowded.
D21 and my husband are also flying again in about three weeks to take S19 back to school and to get out of dodge for a while. They’ll get tested before they leave. I don’t know. We just aren’t that stressed about it.
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This is my life! S21 submitted every application but the last one within an hour of the deadline, when he could have been done before Christmas. Still have S23 to go, but I’ve learned a lot for next time…
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@homerdog yeah I hear ya. My son flew back to SF last week and the airport was dead. I laughed when he said “the airport is busier than I expected”. He flew back here at the end of March and his flight then had only 19 people on it so compared to then ohare was great.
The issue is when traveling is more when someone may be in a middle seat. Otherwise I’m not worried about the traveling due to not be careful as we are extra cautious and take many precautions, but when a kid flies alone then extra precautions have to be made. Fortunately Delta still blocks seats off and first class is cheap enough when that’s not an option, plus if you have to check bags it can actually be cheaper right now buying a first class ticket. My kiddos better enjoy that while they can! ;).
We flew to take my daughter back to a Ithaca in August. It was more a nuisance than anything because of the 2 week quarantine and because you can’t fly direct. Airports were otherwise dead. Although at that time there were many people in the airport not wearing masks. I think people here are much better about it now. Bottom line, you just have to be aware of your surroundings.
Chicago was I’m sure you saw just put in travel restrictions in effect on Friday for anyone flying in. Chicago Travel Restrictions: What to Know About the Latest Changes
I have known too many people that have gotten sick and/or died so it’s going to be a worry until we can all get our vaccines. Hoping it’s soon based on the emails I received today but that’s only 1 of us so not enough but it’s a start!
I think it was reddit that had a post that on Jan 1 (or deadlines around there) that over 1000 applicants submitted their common app at the exact same time and it caused some sort of crash or delay in the system. So you’re son is not alone by far! 
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I am less concerned about the flights at this point than about the desolate campuses. Worried that, even if we go, S21 won’t really get a feel for the schools. We are going to wait as long as possible and then likely do an around-the-country tour the last week or two of April. With remote school, at least that’s possible.
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Youth is really wasted on the young…
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My state, Maryland, has said that only 30% of Marylanders will be vaccinated by end of May, so that’s not even close to anyone can get one. That isn’t even getting to the normal population yet. It’s so frustrating, truly. Meanwhile DC and VA seem to be moving at record pace.
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How can a state know that if they don’t know how many vaccines are coming their way? Are they counting the J&J one? I read that the J&J vaccine is a bit behind on production but expects to get up to speed by late spring. 30 percent sounds pretty low for May but, even if that ends up being the case, we still have summer to get people vaccinated.
I guess we just have to wait and see how it goes. It’s only mid- Jan.
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That was based on the projections they were given by the feds and it can “get better” but at the rate things are going even 30% by end of May seems to be a joke. But the gov himself said it last week in a press conference. My county comprises 1/6th of the state and right now we only get about 6,000 a week and over a million live here. (Right now they can give 3500ish a day for reference). We also have the highest number of deaths (the nursing homes were hit hard at the onset) and the second-highest number of cases.
There is no discussion on how higher risk populations will be identified, no website unlike NJ, DC, and VA.
My in-laws are in the 75+ group and they’ve heard nothing about anything and they live in the county with the highest number of cases in the state and the second-highest deaths. Supposedly they are “coming soon”.
So yeah, I hope it’s wrong, but it’s based on information and projections. I’ve told my senior that he’ll probably have better luck getting vaccinated at college than he will here before he goes to college. He’ll be 18 in June so he’ll be able to get either vaccine then.
@MIP750 I did receive a response from UStrive with instructions on registering as a mentor. I used the same email you posted up thread. Just wanted to let you know!
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Maybe that projection was more like “at the rate we are going we will be at 30%” but that’s not the plan. Vaccines will become more available and states will get better at getting them into people’s arms. 
I certainly hope so, at this point all I want for both kids is a graduation.
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This will be a state by state decision…in Illinois I am not optimistic that our governor will allow large gatherings by May/June, whereas some states have never put limits on gatherings.
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My D’s school, the university that I live adjacent to, both set up huge outdoor tents so students could safely dine with other people.
When the weather was nice, students socially distanced on the lawns to eat. When the weather was bad, they utilized the tents.
I was also pleasantly surprised at the ways clubs and organizations found to meet and carry on. This term my D’s theater club is doing a “radio play”. Another group last semester did a Shakespeare in the park type performance outdoors.
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Oh my county and DC are pretty strict. But the one helping factor is outdoors (those capacities are bigger) and that their graduations are masses, so they fall under religious restrictions and not general gatherings. However they can split the classes into cohorts, etc as several did last year. Others just had for kids and not parents, which I’d be fine with. I just want both of them (I also have an 8th grader who has been at the same school for 9 years) to be able to see their classmates one final time, I’m okay with watching it on TV if that can happen.
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@skkm0906 There’s definitely something to be said for getting some closure. My 2020 grad said ‘I wish I had known my last day of high school was my last day of high school’. It was a strange feeling to just never go back and never again set foot in the building. They ended up doing a big drive up outdoor graduation that turned out really fun, so I think it gave them some sense of senior year ending. We actually all remarked that it was a more festive atmosphere than my older son’s formal indoor graduation, so I hope your kids get something similar that at least feels like it marks the end of an important chapter. I’m assuming my 2021 grad will have something similar.
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I contacted our superintendent and principal yesterday to ask if they are planning options for graduation. They both replied and said they are working with the student government to set up different scenarios depending on the Covid rules in May. D21 then told me she already knew this and I should have asked her first. Lol.
The student counsel is asking for in-person graduation no matter how it has to be done - broken into smaller groups etc. They’d like all kids to still be celebrating at the same time so it sounds like the plan is to find different sized spaces around the campus so all 650 of them can be there at the same time.
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I thought I read somewhere yesterday that things are going to ease up the first week of February. Not sure about restaurants but I know for some things. My son plays tennis and I have been getting continuous updates about where things stand for that (still closed) but I know I read somewhere else about the first week of February since the recent measures he has taken have helped keep our rate and cases have been declining since spiking in November. Fingers crossed it continues.
I go back to school in person on Tuesday and am hoping my son will actually get to go in person this year too although our district has unrealistic metrics so not sure he will ever see the inside of his high school again. While he’s not rushing to get himself back in, there are others who really need to have to have that.
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