Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. A long, chatty phone call with my BFF. We hadn’t spoken since Thanksgiving, and it felt like we had tons to catch up on.

2. My volleyball team brainstorms solutions for a problem I’m having as we sit at the bar after our game. Some ideas are perfectly reasonable, and I’ll definitely use them. Others have unintended lewd connotations (wrong word choices, mostly), and while we decided those should end up on the cutting room floor, they provide a genuine laugh track during a week where the humor has otherwise been grim. Either way, I come away feeling more certain of myself because people I care about believe in me.

3. A nap under the duvet surrounded by books while Rudi’s on a conference call.

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

One of the things my parents gave us for Christmas was a smores maker that you can plug in. It’s a kitschy gift, but precisely the sort of thing that I adore. We didn’t get a chance to test it out during January, because while eating gooey chocolate and marshmallow sandwiches may make you feel better about a loved one’s demise, it’s tough to pack the cooker in your carry on.

Tonight, though, we were both home, neither of us had meetings or activities, and we’d had a healthy diet otherwise for the day, which meant overindulging for dessert was not only allowed, but encouraged.

In addition to the maker, my parents also outfitted us with our first few rounds of ingredients, including jumbo marshmallows. This makes eating a little more challenging as you’ve got to worry about leakage on all sides of your dessert, but also means you’re pretty content with two.

Thanks, Mum and Dad!

I thought I’d share some of the books I’m hoping to read during February as part of Black History Month:

• Blackout by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon
• Moth by Amber McBride
• Black Boy Joy, edited by Kwame Mbalia
• Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon
• Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
• The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
• So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo

What are you reading this month?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic at That Artsy Reader Girl is a write-your-own topic related to love in honor of Valentine’s Day.

Romance has become a favorite genre during the pandemic, because I desperately need to cling to the certainty of a happy ending. Here are the top ten romances on my library holds lists:

1. A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske
2. The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer
3. A Rogue of One’s Own by Evie Dunmore
4. Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
5. Serendipity, edited by Marissa Meyer
6. The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune
7. Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis J. Hall
8. Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell
9. Not Here to Be Liked by Michelle Quach
10. Digging Up Love by Chandra Blumberg

How about you? Got any romance recommendations for by holds list?

I didn’t get to everything I’d hoped to this weekend, but I did enough.

Most importantly, I spent time with friends every day.

I got outside into the sun both yesterday and today. Yesterday it was for a walk to Georgetown and today it was a bike ride over to NoMa to eat cupcakes with Sarah. I also spent time at the garden, putting my plot to bed. Much like with myself, I’m doing this far too closely to when I’ll need to wake it up (peas go in next month!), but better than not putting it to bed at all.

I went to the library, the grocery store, the hardware store, and a couple shops where I didn’t buy anything.

I got rid of the compost and picked up some produce and bread products at the farmers market.

I ate actual real food and not just cereal straight out of the box (that was Thursday night).

I didn’t do much cleaning or laundry, but I did deal with all the flood-related materials, and there’s now a gigantic bag of clean, dry towels just waiting for the next time we get two straight days of rain. And I’ve got a load of clothing ready to go into the wash tomorrow, when fewer of my neighbors will be queueing up for the machine.

While I spent a lot of time reading, I will not finish my book, Beth & Amy, before bed, much to my dismay.

Along with the book and the laundry, there are some other things that will trickle into this week, and that’s as it should be. I mean, I’ll need cookies to eat in the middle of the week, too.

How was your weekend?

It’s been a while since I’ve done a post sharing how I’m thinking about spending my weekend, but, to be fair, it’s been an unusual last month.

Here’s what I’m thinking:

• Have after-work drinks with a friend. (We got to give each other work advice and bolster each other’s self confidence.)
• Order Chinese food to eat during the Opening Ceremony rebroadcast of the Olympics. (The snow peas in ginger sauce, usually a household favorite, were a little lackluster, but the other dishes were delicious. And I’m looking forward to 1-2 more meals of leftovers.  I dozed off during the Olympic anthem, so I missed the cauldron being lit. I may see if Peacock, which comes with my internet service, has it on-demand so I can see the 20 minutes I missed.)
• Talk with friends online, on the phone, and in person. (This is going to be what gets me through.)
• Clean. (The tree may be out and the ornaments away, but my apartment is in shambles — all the moreso after the apartment flooded this afternoon — just your typical too much rain in two days flood.)
• Wash clothes and towels. (See the previous item for the latter. And Mount Laundry has started having avalanches, a sure sign we’re past time to deal with it.)
• Write a letter.
• Assemble the shelf I bought just before I left in January and find a spot for it. (I need to hit up the hardware store for one more pin to complete the task.)
• Bake a cake or cookies. (I love baking, but I don’t really do it a lot unless I’m home with Mum and Dad.)
• Knit. (The thinking part of the shawl is a dozen rows from being done and then I can just crank rows out without having to pay attention, which is what I need right now.)
• Read. (I have lots of good books out of the library and two more waiting for me to pick them up.)
• Send some cards. (I completely failed at Christmas cards this year, but I have some happy new year cards and some Valentine’s Day cards, and I’d like to think everyone will be delighted to get real mail in February.)
• Get outside during the daylight. (Pretty obvious, right?)

What are you hoping to do this weekend?