I’m probably going to upset quite a few of you here, but Sam Trammell is one of those actors that I know I’ve heard of him, but I have no idea who he is. I don’t know why, but I never got into True Blood after giving it my three-episode rule (I give every show I start, but am not getting into, three episodes to hook me.) So really all I know about Sam is that he looks like a mashup between Guy Pearce, Timothy Olyphant and Powers Boothe. Fortunately, I am an incredibly shallow person and simply looking like three men that turn me on is enough to lure me into your fandom. Sam is quarantined at home with his partner Missy Yager and twin eight-year-old boys, Gus and Winston. According to Sam, he was completely unprepared for his kids to be home from school for this long. However, as Sam points out, it was a good thing he didn’t know, because he couldn’t have handled it.
.@SamTrammell Is 'Busier Than Ever' with His Twin Sons While in Isolation: 'It's Unimaginable' #PeopleNow pic.twitter.com/78cM7s0tGm
— People (@people) April 29, 2020
When asked about quarantine with the boys, Sam responded:
I’m busier than I’ve ever been. It’s unimaginable. If you had told me that they were going to be out of school, a month ago, through the whole summer, I wouldn’t have been able to handle that information.
Honestly, that is exactly how it was for me. I could not wrap my head around the projections of quarantine here in the US, even though I’d watched China lockdown for three months. I simply had no frame of reference for what that would look like, so I ignored it. I took quarantine day by day and simply did not focus on the next week. It helped my mental state, but it got me into a few pickles with not leaving time to plan my kids birthday celebrations or Easter. Six weeks in, I understand it so I can look further out.
Sam also talked about home-schooling and said that his challenge was the emails coming from the schools. Sam mentioned that information and assignments didn’t just come in a daily email, various instructions comes in multiple emails throughout the day. Sam’s boys would probably be in 3rd grade if they are eight, so they still have a single teacher, although multiple subjects. The multiple email thing is true and with both my kids in grades that have different teachers for each subject, they were getting buried. We had to come up with a whole new system of email logging over Spring Break so my kids didn’t miss anything. Fortunately, the teachers also figured this out and adjusted so things seem to be going much smoother (again, to every teacher out there – thank you, thank you, thank you).
Much more recently than True Blood, Sam was on Homeland, which I know people love and many said Sam was terrific as Pres. Hayes. Homeland is on my list of Quarantine Catch-Up shows. I needed a break from intense political dramas after binging Madame Secretary, but I think I might be ready now. Sam has also filmed the pilot for a new dramedy called Generation about “a group of high school students exploring their sexuality in a modern world.” My money’s on him being a sexy teacher one of the kids gets a crush on.
Photo credit: Twitter and WENN/Avalon
I know it’s not the norm, but depending on how the school his kids are in handles academic tracking, they may already be switching classes. I also know a number of private schools, even at the elementary level, have teachers who specialize and teach the same subject to multiple classes.
My public elementary school started having us switch classes in the third grade, which I think is very young, but did prepare us well for middle and high school.
Lol all of this is so spot on. I saw his face, thought do I know who this guy is? His name isn’t familiar but his face kind of is and he’s cute.
And the head in the sand to what quarantine would mean and even denial when school was first closed that it would be for more than a few weeks oh lololol at my naïveté.
He is cute, super cute. And I wouldn’t call your thought about quarantine naivete, I’d call it a normal reaction considering we have not ever faced anything like this before. Hang in there!
Our school has been using google classroom, which has cut down on the emails a great deal bc the teachers just post directly in there – but even so. I have one kid in school and he’s only in second grade, and there are so many things to check and so many classes (he has one teacher for ELA and another for Math/Science, plus all the specials) and I know things are slipping through the cracks.
Overall though his school has really been excellent and our district in general has handled this well (we started distance learning after the initial two week shutdown, so we are in week 5 of it) but some districts just started this week or last week. Those districts have more students so they presumably have more logistics though.
My SIL is a teacher for a private school and said she’s working 12 hour days because she has had to redo all her lesson plans and reconfigure everything for the distance learning.
Anyway. If you had asked weeks ago what April 30 would look like, I could not have anticipated this.
I have a ten year old boy at home who is less than interested in school. It is kind of trying to get through the work with him. Google classroom is amazing though, but I also find assignments fall through the cracks. And honestly, sometimes, I wish my ten year old would fall through a crack.
“Fortunately, I am an incredibly shallow person and simply looking like three men that turn me on is enough to lure me into your fandom.” LMAO. My only disagreement with your assessment is that I think Sam is much better looking than Timothy O.
My kids are in college so I have had zero involvement with their schoolwork for quite some time but I know I would be struggling immensely if they were in the eight-year-old age range. I know some parents with three school age kids (and one with four who threw in the towel last night!) and they are incredibly stressed. I hope a new, greater appreciation for teachers may come out of this. And best to all the parents working to keep up their kiddos’ educations!
It’s a good thing this quarantine came near the end of the school year. I hate to say it, but in my state standardized testing is done in April and new learning goes downhill from there. May brings classtrips, parties, etc. The older aged kids aren’t missing that much. It’s different for the younger grades.
I am homeschooling two grandsons, one in 1st & one in 6th. My 6th grader does everything through google classroom ( thank goodness) and my 1st grader gets a weekly printable checklist of each day’s assignments and which site to locate them on. At this age he still needs to do a lot of work on paper which we then take photos of to email his teacher. So far I’d say things are very smooth although I am grateful to the bottom of my heart for all that teachers do each day.
Hecate- I’m curious when you gave True Blood the 3 episode try out. I don’t think it holds up now in the streaming age, but it predates all that brilliance and one could argue it was influential in launching the tv renaissance. All I know is I was younger and had a life back then, but True Blood was a sacred weekly event.
I’ve been watching True Blood again since the quarantine started and it holds up well—as ridiculous as it is. I know a lot of people are watching new shows right now but for some reason I’ve found rewatching some of my old favorites to be really comforting and relaxing.
When this all started and school was officially cancelled for the year, another mom told me it was 151 days until school started again in the fall and I about burst into tears. That’s so many days. (And there’s no guarantee we’ll even go back in the fall.)
I enjoyed the True Blood books (as ridiculous and trashy as they are – I am not going to call them guilty pleasures because I don’t believe you have to have guilt over whatever it is you find entertaining….) ANYWAYS. I enjoyed the first four True Blood books because the series took a turn for the worse starting with book 5. I enjoy vampire story lines. I looked forward to this show. A vampire show on HBO could really do things!!! I HATED THIS SHOW. It did not deliver. The best thing about it was RUSSELL EDGINGTON. I hated Bill. I didn’t get the umph from Eric. I couldn’t stand Sookie’s brother, who was a non-starter in the books. I just hated this series. You know what was better? THE VAMPIRE DIARIES. THE VAMPIRE DIARIES ON CW WAS A BETTER VAMPIRE SHOW THAN TRUE BLOOD ON HBO. As you can tell, I feel very strongly about this. Years later.
He also gives me strong Sam Rockwell vibes.
I watched True Blood when it aired originally. I remember enjoying the first few seasons while the quality of the last few dropped precipitously. I tried re-watching and it did NOT hold up. It’s high-cheese with not enough camp. Also, Anna Paquin’s acting was horrible. I can’t believe she won an Oscar but then again, she was a child when she did…
My school district uses a Learning Management System called Canvas and it’s been really helpful for cutting down on the emails I have to send home. The main emails I am sending are to the students and parents who did not turn an assignment in. The email is to the student, but the parent is cc’d on it. For most of my parents, they are not getting any of those emails. Some get an email each week.
I’m really proud of my students, actually. They are 8th graders and missing out on all of the end of the year celebrations that come with moving on to high school. The majority of them are not only doing these projects I’ve come up with for them, but are really trying and turning in some quality work. They are really taking on the challenge of distance learning. I miss seeing them in person so much.
I loved him on True Blood and wanted him to end up with Sookie originally. Then I realized Sookie was a pain in the behind and I forget what happened to Sam’s character. But I always thought he was the cutest out of all the men on the show. Alexander Skarsgaard was the hottest.
i thought he broke up with his longtime partner? you never see them together and he answered the questions like he’s a single dad.
Watching your own kids isn’t babysitting and watching your kids do school work, isn’t homeschooling, it’s parenting. I understand that distance learning is an added stress for parents (as it is for teachers), but parents aren’t creating content, lesson planing, delivering instruction, grading test, etc., so please don’t call it homeschooling.
Had a crush on him since TB. About a decade later I married a man who I just realised strongly resembles him. Yay me!