November 25, 2022
soccer in the circle, light displays, and filling up
posted by soe 12:53 am
Three beautiful things from my past week:
1. Watching World Cup soccer on big screens at an outdoor party in the middle of Dupont Circle.
2. Seeing holiday lights as we drove north.
3. Our new car takes regular gas, not premium, like the last one.
How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?
November 11, 2022
represent, missed, and results
posted by soe 1:05 am
Three beautiful things from my past week:
1. We needed at least one other female teammate to show up this week for us to participate in playoffs, and we got two!
2. Monday, we went for a drive out to the countryside to a cafe that used to come to the farmers market. I’ve dreamed of their smoothie bowls in the last two years since they stopped coming, and reality did not disappoint.
3. We aren’t out of the woods yet when it comes to the election, but it certainly wasn’t the slaughter that many predicted.
How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?
November 4, 2022
sportsmanship, party, and progressing
posted by soe 1:21 am
Three beautiful things from my past week:
1. We’ve hit playoffs in both volleyball leagues, and with my team tonight, the list of available players shrank rapidly until I was down to four. The bad news is that that league sets the mandatory minimum at five players. So the other team would have been within their rights to call us on it and to force us to forfeit the game. But they didn’t. They said we could play with our four against their full team and they’d abide by the outcome, which was tremendously decent.
2. Our friends invite us to a Halloween party, our first in years. We don’t stay for long, but I’m so glad we went for a little while.
3. New Christmas music has started coming out. I’m mostly playing it after Rudi goes to bed so it doesn’t annoy him too much, but it feels good to be working on this year’s mix already, particularly since the last couple have come down to the wire.
How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?
October 28, 2022
autumnal color, old friends, and unseasonal reading
posted by soe 1:39 am
Three beautiful things from my past week:
1. Rudi and I went for a hike on Tuesday at Seneca Creek State Park in Maryland. It was a lovely 4’ish mile walk around a pond and the color, while muted, was pretty.
2. Two of my dearest college friends came down to visit from New York for the weekend. I hadn’t seen Eri since the fall before the pandemic, which is probably the longest that we’ve ever gone between visits, so I was particularly glad to finally connect with her. We had lots of good conversations, ate many tasty things, and just really got to enjoy each other’s company.
3. I didn’t mean to get all my Christmas holds in mid-October, but apparently no one else was thinking that far ahead.
How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?
October 21, 2022
older girls, done(ish), and connections
posted by soe 1:46 am
Three beautiful things from my past week:
1. Mondays, I coach in a kids’ afterschool volleyball program. Usually, I end up with the littlest kids, but this week, there were only two adults. The other woman doesn’t have much volleyball experience, so she asked if I’d take the preteens. I thought we ended up having a pretty good practice, and while I got a little attitude at the beginning, I thought I dissipated it pretty quickly.
2. I knit a bulky-weight hat this week, so I could wear it while playing tonight if it felt cold enough to need it. (It didn’t.) I didn’t check stitch gauge and it’s a little bigger than I’d like, so I’m going to reknit it on slightly smaller needles. But it felt so good to actually finish something enough that it could be worn.
3. I had a meeting this week with the president of the company that organized the scavenger hunt my friends and I did earlier this month. He was looking for feedback on how our experience with the game and I was happy to tell him how much we’d enjoyed it. But he also offered to make any connections he could with local nonprofits in his network as I’m continuing my job search, which was such a surprising kindness.
How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?
October 14, 2022
round number, samuel, and plans
posted by soe 12:28 am
Three beautiful things from my past week:
1. My dad’s 80th birthday was Saturday, and our immediate family and his best friends went to Cape Cod to celebrate. My brother made all the arrangements and did a fantastic job with all of it.
2. My friend’s baby was clearly eager to help open his gifts from the volleyball team, because he arrived on Friday to much fanfare.
3. Two dear college friends texted to say they’re coming to visit next weekend.
How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?