We’ve made it to the weekend again, and honestly it didn’t get here fast enough. I’m feeling burnt out and exhausted, which seems ridiculous for a life that involves rarely leaving my couch. Which is probably the problem, come to think of it.

So this weekend, I’m hoping for less couch time and hoping for more time:

• Riding my bike — maybe I’ll be super ambitious and bike over to the Arlington library to return a book.
• Walking — if I get up early enough, I should head over to the bank in Georgetown for quarters.
• Tending the garden — I have some old potatoes that should go in the ground, and I’d like to plant some beans. Plus the herb section of the garden is being overrun by lemon verbena and mint that should be cut back.
• Baking — I should take advantage of the cooler weather and Rudi’s planned absences to fire up the oven.
• Reading and knitting in the park — The weather is supposed to be just gorgeous. We were outside until nearly 10 this evening and weren’t the last ones to leave.
• Getting takeout — I’m thinking pizza for supper and a drink from one of my local shops.
• Sending some mail — I was really good at reaching out to friends earlier in the pandemic, but I’ve fallen back on bad, non-card-sending habits that I’d like to break.

What are you hoping your weekend includes?

Tracy Chapman performing “If Not Now” live back in 1998:

Honestly, I feel like I could just write “sleep” after half a dozen bullets and that might accurately convey how I’d prefer to spend the weekend.

Since that’s probably not how I should spend the weekend, here’s what else I’ll probably do:

• Go to the Black Lives Matter protest.
• Have a video chat with friends.
• Shop at the farmers market.
• Make some bread.
• Read and knit in the park.
• Tend the garden.

How about you? How are you thinking you’ll spend the weekend?

I’m not going to lie: It was not the best weekend. To be fair, it was far from the country’s best weekend, so to expect mine to stand out is probably both unfair and tone deaf.

Right now, District residents are under a curfew until 6 a.m., in part due to several nights of incidents that arose in the aftermath of police violence against Black Americans and protests against it. (The incidents include several fires, including some in the vicinity of my office.)

I’d like to think that we are all safer because of the curfew, but it’s less because then people won’t be out causing mischief, but more because police seem emboldened in cities across our country to flash white power signs and to use seemingly unwarranted force against citizens peacefully exercising their Constitutionally guaranteed right to assemble and the media exercising theirs to report on news.

D.C.’s police force is usually relatively restrained when dealing with protestors, in part because D.C. so often hosts large rallies. But this weekend’s responses has left me worried about even our seasoned force. They are not without their problems and this situation seems rife with opportunity for bad behavior in clashes with an agitated public.

But at the same time as people have acted out in horrible ways against their fellow humans, I’ve also heard about an outpouring of support — donations of money and physical labor to damaged businesses, funds to raise bail for protestors jailed over the weekend, food, water, and milk (to combat the tear gas) shared, people looking out for each other’s kids, for each other. Once again, in the wake of a great American tragedy, we are looking for the helpers. It’s just too bad that they don’t seem to be the people many of us (white people) had been led to expect.

D.C. began loosening restrictions today, which includes things like opening parks, but not playgrounds; letting restaurants seat people at a distance outside, but not in; and asking people to observe a “stay at home lite” life.

As such, Rudi and I took a drive uptown for takeout pizza and a quick trip to the grocery store this evening, which is pretty much what we’ve done every third Friday since mid-April.

I have to spend some time working this weekend, but here’s what else I’m hoping to do:

• Read in the park.
• Take more beer to the garden slugs. They are hard partiers, despite knowing the consequences. Harvest things while I’m there and consider planting beans.
• Pull together some library materials to take back later this week, since branch libraries are slowly going to allow curbside pickup.
• Watch the rocket launch.
• Really put winter away, since I didn’t follow through on that last weekend and since this week highlighted the need for tshirts over sweaters.
• Make crackers. Apparently that’s one of the things I can do with my sourdough.
• Bike down to Constitution Garden to see the ducklings.
• Drink daiquiris.
• Do laundry. I should probably launder the reusable bags we have that can be washed. Plus I need cleans masks again.
• Get a takeaway drink from one of the local restaurants that have been shuttered for months.

What are you hoping to do this final weekend of May?

Ours was a quiet, but nice, weekend. There were bike rides and walks and wildlife sightings. I ate peas from the garden and waffles from my sourdough starter.

I splurged on peonies at the farmers market, as well as more predictable purchases. They made my soul sing.

We finished our Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone listen, and I will wrap up reading Chasing Vermeer after I post this.

We did laundry (we were out of masks again) and repaired a piece of furniture my grandfather built me.

I talked with my folks and with my BFF, Karen. Rudi’s friend, Rachel, dropped off some homemade lemon curd, and we chatted briefly outside — only my second in-person interaction with our friends in months.

And we were scofflaws and took our beach chairs to the traffic circle at the end of our street this evening and soaked up the sun for a little while. It’s my first time sitting outside since March (city parks are closed for lounging and I live in an apartment below ground), and it was glorious. I don’t even care how many bug bites I got. There is a possibility that D.C. will enter into Phase 1 of pandemic recovery as early as Friday, in which case I can soon return to lounging — at a distance from my neighbors — in the park without skirting the law (the traffic circle is technically federal property, and they’re a little murkier about legalities of such green spaces).

I hope you all had a pleasant weekend, too, or as pleasant as possible. Stay safe and stay apart!