Dear Washington, D.C., commuters,

I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for a wee bit of congestion you might have encountered this morning in front of my house.

We got home yesterday evening while the restaurants were still doing brisk business, leaving no Tuesday-side spots available. I told Rudi to park on Florida and that I’d move the car later.

What did I not do last night? Move the car off of Florida.

I am the first to be annoyed by people who thoughtlessly inconvenience others, so please know that I feel terrible about having bottlenecked your commute this morning. That it happened on a Monday, when you’re already hating life, makes it even more guilt-inducing.

While I’m sure you were all disappointed that the traffic cops did not tow my car out of your way, please rest assured that the ticket I found on my windshield after I woke up and exclaimed, “Oh! Fuck!” will serve as no small deterrent to my remembering to park legally for rush hour in the future.

I hope the city does something nice with my money like fix a pot hole along your commute.

And I hope Monday improves seriously for both of us after this.

Contritely,

sprite of the Colgate-green Geo

This is what happens when you ask a cat which yarn you should use to make mittens:

This week has been a long one and I am particularly glad to reach Thursday because it means the weekend — both work-free days of it — has nearly arrived. I am planning to sleep and clean and sleep and see friends and sleep and bake a pie and sleep and …

Anyway, before I do all that, I wanted to highlight three beautiful things from the week past:

1. My project went public this week. While its launch does not actually mean we’re done with the work, it does mean my coworkers and I can stop working such ridiculous hours. I celebrated Wednesday by leaving the office while the sun was still in the sky.

2. Sarah, Rudi, and I took Saturday as an apple quest day. We picked some granny smiths and a handful of enterprises (as well as beets, broccoli, and spinach), returned to our local cider doughnut purveyor, and found some delicious cider at a farm stand where they also had an apple launch. It was a lovely day out — with the surprise addition of seeing a hot air balloon aloft as we were driving down the highway. [N.B. to Mum: I told Sarah and Rudi about that time where we saw the balloon from the backyard, and you got us into the car and we chased the balloon down until it landed. That was really cool.]

3. John, Sarah, Rudi, and I headed to the movies after work tonight to kick off the Halloween season with a viewing of Ghostbusters (the entirety of which I don’t think I’ve seen since watching it at the drive-in at the Cape when I was a kid). I ain’t afraid of no ghosts.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

You know you are loved when your dear ones…

• offer you a stash of Samoas if yours runs out before you reach your deadline.
• give you a list of things to watch out for at the end of your project that you wouldn’t have known to look for.
• mention a much loved book that ends up being just what you need to read in the mornings while waiting for the Metro.
• come into work on the weekend in large part so you won’t have to be there by yourself.
• don’t complain about how late you are at the office for a month.
• keep pots of soup on the stove for when you finally make it home at midnight.
• send emails and texts checking in on you.
• wash your workout gear so you will have something to wear this week.
• make you tea so you have cups to drink when you drag yourself out of bed and when you arrive home.
• snuggle into your lap as soon as you collapse at night.

Thank you all.

One more day…

To help heal what ails you:

Admittedly, this adaptation may have been chosen in part because it was half the length of the Harry Nilsson version. Although if you do listen to that rendition and, at the same time, play the David Seville version of “Witch Doctor,” you’ll find they mash up surprisingly well. Just sayin’…

I’m rapidly losing the ability to string words together in a coherent fashion, so let’s get right to three beautiful things from my past week:

1. On Sunday, Rudi, John, Nicole, and I headed out to a Maryland forest for the local renaissance faire. There were people’s costumes to admire and/or marvel at, there was comedy, there was jousting (although I missed all the battle parts and just saw people riding horses…), there was a slide amidst the trees, there were arrows to shoot (my enemies remain safe), and there was a garland to buy. The trees were golden, the skies were blue, and the company was lovely. A perfect day of rest.

2. Just as I reached home tonight, the scent of autumn wafted over me.

3. Ghosts peek out of a neighbor’s windows at me. They remind me of Casper’s friends, though, so it’s okay.

How about you? What’s beautiful in your world this week?

The Donovan classic, as performed by The Strangelings (a folk supergroup comprised of The Kennedys, Chris Thompson Lively, Ken Anderson, and Rebecca Hall):

I’m neck-deep in a work deadline that’s keeping me late at the office nearly every night and starting to infringe on my sleeping hours, as well. Until that passes (and perhaps a little while after, as I’m starting to resign myself to how much will still be left to do even after the project goes public), I’m afraid we’re looking at continuing the recent trend of posts of music videos and lists and the occasional photo essay that are heavy on pictures and light on text.

To that end, here are three beautiful things from my week past:

1. We pulled into my parents’ driveway at 4 a.m. on Saturday morning. The sky was ink black and, to my amazement, filled with millions of stars. (I had noticed my old college friend, Orion, earlier in the night, but this was something of another scale altogether…) Rudi and I stood outside the car in the chilly fall night just staring up. I breathed to him, “I’d forgotten about stars.” It was nice to be re-introduced.

2. Even when I was good at volleyball, I was terrible at serving. Last night, for the first time in years and years and years, I got both of my serves over the net and in my opponent’s court.

3. I arrived home last night to discover that my keys were not in my purse. And they were not in my bag. I looked (and shook the bags to verify) … three times … each time convinced I’d somehow missed their reassuring jingliness. I knew I’d taken them out of my pocket when I changed for volleyball and put them on my desk with my metro card, but the card was there and the keys were not. In a Shrödinger’s Cat kind of key nightmare, I refused to let Rudi take me to work to see if they were still somehow in my office because the possibility I’d lost them elsewhere was too much to contemplate actively. The panic I experienced this morning when the keys were not on my desk where I last remembered placing them was, however, quickly replaced with joy when I discovered them on the windowsill where I must have left them when I rearranged my bag right before leaving.

How about you? What’s been beautiful or breathtaking or gratitude-inspiring in your world this week?

Carole‘s Ten on Tuesday topic this week comes at a good time. Neither Rudi nor I had to work on Columbus Day, so we headed north to spend the holiday weekend in Connecticut. This offered plenty of options for this week’s subject.

Ten Things I Did This Weekend

1. Finished my first pair of Socktoberfest socks in the appropriately titled New England colorway and started my second. (Photographic proof coming soon.)
2. Worked on some trip-prep for the upcoming Iceland vacation by catching up on my reading and buying a red winter raincoat.
3. Celebrated Dad’s birthday.
4. Ate Mum’s delicious apple crisp.
5. Sat outside in the sun.
6. Slept in.
7. Took in some fall color. (It’s muted and still edged out by green leaves after a ridiculously wet summer, but the yellows, oranges, and reds are still there.)
8. Bought unpasteurized apple cider (Note: should you decide to do this, I would recommend against storing it in a non-refrigerated garage for two 85+ degree days and then taking it on a cabin-temperature, 8-hour car ride. It pretty much guarantees that your trip will end with the cider blowing its seal and leaking all over the car, the sidewalk, and the entryway to your apartment. You will, however, remember that cider forever regardless of its flavor.)
9. Dozed in a hammock.
10. Decompressed and relaxed enough to realize that a work deadline can be moved back a week without disastrous results.

How about you? What did you do this weekend?

Today marked the first time since August that we’ve had back-to-back sunny days in D.C. Who wouldn’t call that beautiful?

Three more beautiful things from the past week:

1. We return from Crafty Bastards and the D.C. State Fair with four jars of jam — two peach, a plum, and blueberry lime.

2. Sam is in town for a conference. He spends an evening filled with laughter with us.

3. Our volleyball team wins its first game of the season tonight (before dropping the next three). I’m having a blast so far and am so glad I signed up.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your life this week?