sprite writes
broodings from the burrow

June 17, 2020


midsummer sensing
posted by soe 5:01 am

Flickr is down, so instead of my sunset shots, I’m going to give you a sense of what’s going on in the Burrow in the early morning:

Smelling: Overripe strawberries in the berry bowl on the table.

Feeling: A warm, soft Corey awkwardly tucked under my arm and draped on the edge of my lap in front of my laptop. Tired, from having dozed off on the couch before I got the dishes done and because I’m PMSing. Mentally exhausted from having put in two really long days at work (albeit from my couch and rocking chair), without having checked off a whole lot from my to-do list (my mother would tell me to put all the things I did do onto my list, but that method just makes me feel worse). But also hopeful because I only have two meetings scheduled for tomorrow and I have blocked hour-long chunks on my calendar to try to move projects forward. (If this fails, I’m going to have to ask my equally harried boss for some help in managing my priorities.)

Hearing: Birds in the trees, because it’s after 3 a.m. Cars passing by, because we aren’t as shut down as we used to be. Occasionally, a light rustle from the window well, where I assume a bug is out for an early-morning stroll. The fan in the bedroom whirring.

Tasting: Chocolate. Do you think Hershey kisses taste different from Hershey eggs or bars? Why do you think that is? Does the unique shape require a slightly different recipe?

Seeing: A super messy living room. I really need to do something about that, but after the long work days, I’m really lacking the energy/enthusiasm to move forward on any other task at this point.

Feel free to give me a sense of how you’re doing in the comments.

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June 15, 2020


mid-june weekending
posted by soe 1:39 am

Sunset at the Park

I did pretty well on this week’s list.

I rode my bike over to Georgetown on Saturday to get quarters and then also stopped to treat myself to takeaway lunch and to buy groceries.

We got three loads of laundry done when we were indoors.

We did a lot of thinning of bunching onions, violet leaves, and mint/lemon verbena at the garden. And I hacked back some of the vines from the outside of the fence.

We bought pizza for supper Saturday night.

This morning, I came home from the farmers market with lots of goodies, including the first cherries, green beans, and zucchini of the season.

I read in the park and saw the sun set each evening. I hope to continue the trend.

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June 13, 2020


mid-june weekend planning
posted by soe 1:23 am

20200607_204532

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?

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June 10, 2020


midweek music: ‘if not now’
posted by soe 1:28 am

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

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June 6, 2020


early june weekend planning
posted by soe 1:42 am

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?

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June 1, 2020


in the wake of weekending
posted by soe 1:07 am

Teenaged Duckling

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.

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