Pierce County stuck at home: an Eagle Scout project, LSAT studying, a family reunion
Pierce County residents are doing Eagle Scout projects and studying for the LSATs.
They’re journaling, painting, making video calls to friends and figuring out how to live with uncertainty.
They’re doing puzzles, planning weddings and putting apartment hunting on hold.
Some things have changed and are changing rapidly. Others, not so much.
The News Tribune spoke with several South Sound families about what their daily routines are looking like during the pandemic.
New college graduate telecommuting from home
Courtney James moved in with her parents, older brother and his girlfriend at her childhood home in Graham when she graduated from the University of Washington in December.
Before the pandemic, the 22-year-old had been considering moving to Olympia.
“I was doing some apartment hunting before, but I think I’m going to wait it out here for a while,” she said.
She had been commuting to Olympia, where she worked as a communications specialist for the Senate Democratic Caucus during the legislative session.
Now she’s doing that job remotely from Graham, which saves her more than an hour of commuting each way.
“I have my desk set up right next to my bed,” she said.
Working from home just a few months into the job can be a challenge, she said.
“A lot of times in the office if I have a question I’ll go up and ask them,” she said. “It was a transition to start the job, and now it’s another one all over again.”
It helps, she said, that her coworkers make themselves very accessible. They text, have video conferences or use a Slack channel, she said.
“I see my brother leaving every day, and I’m very thankful that I have this option and that my employer has been so accommodating with that,” James said.
Her brother is a 24-year-old electrician, who is working on a project at a hospital.
James said having everyone under one roof again is “a little crazy sometimes for sure, but it’s kind of nice at the same time. I’ve been away for a few years.”
Her brother has been working on a puzzle with her. Sometimes the whole family plays dominoes.
She’s also been doing adult coloring books and journaling.
Woman studies for LSAT, plans wedding
Journaling has been helping one of James’ friends, Shelby Wiedmann, who lives with a fiance in Puyallup.
The 24-year-old recently ended a job as a session committee assistant at the Legislature and has been studying to take the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) in July.
“It’s just been very strange, obviously not working, but also on top of that not being able to go out and get that interaction I would if this wasn’t happening,” she said.
It’s been isolating when she’s been home alone while her fiance goes to work at Boeing, she said. The company said Monday that it’s temporarily shutting down its Puget Sound factories, and that employees will get paid leave.
Wiedmann said she has anxiety, and that she’s been waking up in the middle of the night. She checks the stock market each morning.
She also tries to do projects around the house, cleans, video chats with friends, gets on social media, and started taking walks.
“You have to build a routine or you’re just going to go stir crazy,” she said.
Bullet journaling has been important to her.
“I’ve been journaling, and I have an Instagram account that I’ve kind of been trying to be more active on,” she said.
When her fiance has been home, they watch “The Flash” on Netflix, and they play with their cats, Uma and Cedar.
Wiedmann doesn’t know if the kitties like having her home all the time.
“I would like to say yes, but I’m not entirely sure,” she said. “I can sense stress, maybe. We live in like 600 square feet. It’s definitely a change for all of us.”
She’d probably be studying for the LSAT at Starbucks if not for the pandemic, she said. She’s glad she opted for an online prep course instead of an in-person one.
“Obviously now I’m worried that the exam is going to be postponed,” she said.
She’s also planning a wedding for November. A lot of those appointments have been canceled.
“For the LSAT and my wedding both, I hope that everything is still going to be the same,” she said.
The homeschoolers
Studying is one thing that hasn’t changed for Vanessa Fritsch’s family on the Key Peninsula.
She’s been homeschooling her kids for 13 years.
She has a fourth grader, sixth grader, freshman and senior, ages 9 to 17.
Her freshman does his schoolwork at a desk underneath a loft in his room. The oldest works in the family’s RV, where it’s quiet. The sixth grader works at a desk in her room, and the youngest is stationed in the kitchen.
While their school days look the same, the family’s evenings have changed somewhat.
“We try to finish our school work early in the day before we hit our evening activities, and those are all canceled,” Fritsch said.
No scout meetings. No youth group gatherings.
Her husband, an IT professional, has been working slightly longer hours. Dinners are a bit later than usual.
Some of the kids have been doing crafts in the evenings. One has been melting plastic Perler beads into figures with the iron. Another likes painting.
They’ve also been playing games.
“My kids and husband are wicked cribbage players,” Fritsch said.
Mario Kart is another hit.
They’ve also been using technology to keep in touch with friends.
“They all have messenger, and they’ve been chatting with their friends,” she said. “My ninth grader video chatted with his friend for a couple hours last night. My oldest is frequently texting with his friends.”
Another week or so, she said, and they might “get a little bit more antsy for their friends.”
Aspiring Eagle Scout with a deadline
Luke, Fritsch’s 17-year-old, said he misses the social aspect of his youth group. His youth pastor has been doing livestreams on social media.
As for scouts, the pandemic hit as the teenager has been planning his Eagle Scout project.
He hopes to replace the wooden flagpole at the community center where his troop meets, and he has to get various approvals for that to happen.
“That poses a problem because everything is closed,” he said. “So I have to come up with more creative ways to get that approval.”
He thinks he’ll submit a written proposal via email.
“And perhaps a phone or video conference in order to get some real-time questions answered and get a little more perspective,” he said.
He needs to do all that before he turns 18 in August.
“It will make it harder,” Luke said about the pandemic. “... I’ve got a lot of people backing me up, as far as they understand the position I’m in and are doing their best to help me in this.”
How are his siblings coping?
“My next youngest brother is doing fine,” he said. “And my sister, I haven’t seen any noticeable change. My youngest brother is the same as he always is. He’s the youngest brother, so you can imagine how that plays out.”
Asked about advice for kids finding themselves in school at home for the first time, he said: “Don’t be discouraged by the amount of time it takes and do your best. Do your best to learn any way you can. You don’t just have to learn at your kitchen table.”
His mom said something similar.
“Learning at home doesn’t have to look like learning in school,” she said. “It doesn’t have to take as long, and it doesn’t have to be sitting at a desk doing work.”
She suggested nature walks and reading.
“The more kids read, the better,” she said. “They can read anything, but just the act of reading teaches so much.”
