sprite writes
broodings from the burrow

August 4, 2021


spectacular sunset
posted by soe 1:29 am

Tonight’s sunset, particularly when viewed from the ballpark, was particularly amazing. We all felt lucky just to be there.

Just before Sunset

Mackerel Sky

View Over Left Field

Panoramic View

Fading

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August 2, 2021


feeling a lack of enthusiasm
posted by soe 1:39 am

We have baseball tickets for Tuesday night, picked during our season ticket pool back in the spring. The way July laid out, none of August’s days were visible on my phone (without flipping forward) until today, which meant the game snuck up on me.

Honestly, I’m feeling a little ambivalent. Partially, it’s the depression; anything that requires any effort is hard. But it’s a hard that I have a lifetime of tools to overcome and I will get myself to the ballpark and will enjoy myself once I’m there.

Second, the Nationals just traded away eight players late last week, including my two favorite team members. I can name a handful of the players remain, and honestly it mirrors the changes I’m experiencing at work a little too closely for comfort.

Third, I’d hoped to go to the movies Tuesday night, which is discount night at our local theater. It’s a minor disappointment (world’s tiniest violin), and one I can get past easily.

Again, I’ll say that once I get to the game, I’m sure I’ll be glad to be there and learning the names of all the new players and enjoying the night. It’s just the idea of it ahead of time is terribly exhausting.

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July 24, 2021


feast fit for an emperor
posted by soe 1:26 am

I decided at some past Olympics that it seemed only fitting to celebrate Opening and Closing Ceremonies with a nod to the host nation.

With this year’s Olympics being held in Tokyo, that means Japanese, and D.C. did not leave me hanging. About eight blocks away from the Burrow is Hana Market, a tiny Japanese grocery (and one-time tourism agency). After work let out, I wandered over to pick up snacks to eat during tonight’s broadcast. While I have been to Hana before, it’s either been to pick up a specific ingredient or to buy a mochi to snack on. This time I took a less strategic approach and just picked up things that looked interesting.

I came home with a bag of supplies, including:

Japanese Snacks

Peach caramel corn pops, seasoned seaweed, coffee-flavored black sesame candy (I missed the fact that they were coffee), matcha Kit Kats, chocolate stumps, roasted bean snacks, and chestnut mochi served as appetizers.

Tasty Mango Cream Soda

Mango creamy soda, which contains 0% juice, but does contain milk. I’d buy it again.

We paused in our corner-store delights to have some actual dinner, picked up from the nearby Japanese restaurant, Sakana, that we’d never been to. Rudi ordered a roll and a sushi bento. While I considered an entree, I’ve rarely been to a Japanese restaurant that offered an entire section of vegetarian sushi/maki, and that won out in the end:

Veggie Sushi

The roll at the top is tempura vegetables. The one on the right is ume shiso, or pickled plum. The one at the bottom left is kanpyo, or dried gourd. All three were delicious.

And then for dessert, Rudi and I split these two red bean paste mochis, a favorite of mine.

Red Bean Paste Mochis for Dessert

That’s a pretty good feast, wouldn’t you say?

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May 26, 2021


back at the ballpark
posted by soe 1:49 am

Back at the Ballpark!

“It’s a beautiful night for some baseball. Washington Nationals, play ball!”

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April 12, 2021


a lot is riding on volleyball
posted by soe 1:34 am

Volleyball is set to resume next week. Outside of seeing my parents and my friends, these games have been what I’ve missed most. I’ve played in various leagues and on various teams for nearly a decade down here, and going from what had been a twice-a-week schedule to not playing at all for over a year has been bad for me, both physically and mentally.

The group I’ll be playing with is most of the team that we played with last year. One teammate returned to Germany and another has (at least temporarily) relocated to Florida, but the rest of us are back. We play well together and I think we like each other, and our vibe is competitive but not at the expense of being supportive and having fun. I have played on and against teams that have lacked some or all of those values, and I’d rather give volleyball up than to play on them again. (I can stomach playing on non-competitive teams if the players support each other and enjoy playing, but it does get discouraging to keep losing. Those teams tend to shed players as the weeks go by, and then you end up losing because you can’t bring enough people to play in the final weeks.)

I’m putting a lot of pressure on volleyball to force me out of the apartment during daylight hours, to give me a reason to look forward to a day that isn’t Friday, and to get me out of my head so much. It’s possible it’s too much to ask of a rec league sport and eight teammates. But maybe it’s precisely the right ask. We won’t know until we meet at the net next week.

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February 24, 2021


heading outdoors . . . i think
posted by soe 1:47 am

I’ve decided that this spring I might be willing and ready to play outdoor volleyball again, in part for the mental health benefits it offers. I’ve emailed my former teammates to see if any of them are interested, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that some of them might be available.

A couple of my teammates played outdoors last fall, and the report I heard after the first couple weeks was that the league was was relatively good about mask wearing and social distancing from other teams and on the sidelines. Volleyball is one of those sports where there you do end up in close proximity to your teammates and some competitors, and some contact with teammates can happen as you’re chasing after a ball and trying not to knock each other down. So it’s not without risk. But it’s also not basketball, where it can’t be played without automatically coming into contact with everyone else on the court. And being outdoors definitely helps lower the risks of spreading disease.

How are you thinking about risk management as we move into year #2 of COVID? Will you continue to stay home and isolated? Were you never paying attention to those recommendations to begin with?

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