Apparently the desire to leave my house and see people again makes me want to buy new clothes. Friday I bought a couple casual tshirts online during a sale. Saturday I took myself to TJ Maxx for the first time since the pandemic and came away with several tops I could wear for work calls and a sundress I need to try on for Rudi. Yesterday, I ordered shorts, none of which may fit. But apparently I’m tired of the clothes I’ve been Zooming in for the past 15 months. Now, if I could just find some underwire-free bras for a reasonable price and get a Target BOGO sale on underwear, I’d be a very happy camper!

Today was a day for doing a couple things at once. I listened to an audiobook while having breakfast. I did laundry while taking part in the Bout of Books Twitter chat. I snacked in the sun while reading. I listened to a band while knitting. I finished my audiobook while sleeping on the couch.

Okay, I confess: that last one ended up being too much. While technically both happened at the same time, I had to rewind the audiobook to catch the end of the book.

But still!

Things I’m hoping to get to this weekend:

• Do my taxes.
• Clean up some portion of my apartment.
• Spend lots of time outside.
• String the peas up higher. (They’re growing like weeds.) Also, remove more weeds.
• Go to the library.
• Stop by a craft festival.
• Wash laundry.
• Pick up my knitting.
• Finish my audiobook.
• Shop for some graduation gifts for my interns.

How about you? What’s on your to-do list?

For the third time in 14 months, I’ve gone to a restaurant and sat on their patio with other people.

The first time was for Sarah’s birthday last month, and we hadn’t yet been vaccinated. People’s interpretation of “wear a mask except when you’re eating or drinking” was too lax for my taste, so I told Rudi I wouldn’t be repeating the experiment until I’d had a shot.

Last week, post-shot #2, I went out for drinks after my volleyball game. I didn’t yet have full immunity, but given the latest info on outdoor spread, I decided I could take the chance.

Tonight, Sarah and I went out for pizza. We talked about her garden and past work evaluations (we’ve both worked places where they’ve asked supervisors not to rank employees as “excellent” on their annual reviews) and upcoming travel (she’s going to go see one of her oldest friends next month; I’m going to see my family later in May). It was so … normal.

I’m not ready to eat indoors yet. But it is a nice feeling to be comfortable eating outside again, particularly as we’re about to head into the time of year when that’s nicest.

Today wasn’t the most productive day, but there’s always hope for tomorrow, right?

There are definitely some things I’d like to cross off my mental to-do list this month in addition to the key one, which was to get my second COVID shot. But I’d also like to:

• See my family
• Clean my apartment, so I can have the pet sitter come
• Plant tomatoes
• Find my swimsuit (it might be in my travel bag, since I was on travel two weeks before the world shut down), so I can swim at the pool once it’s open
• Celebrate Rudi’s birthday when he gets home

I mean there are definitely others, like spend time with friends, socialize with my volleyball team, and be outside as much as possible. But those are the main five.

Are there things you’re still hoping to do this month?

Rudi and I had a nice final evening before he headed out to Salt Lake City to spend 10 days with his mom and sort some things out there. Despite the cool drizzle, we strolled down to the library and then on to Trader Joe’s. With pizza dough in hand for the night’s supper (along with salads made from greens from our garden topped with delicious Green Goddess dressing from the bakery at the farmers market), we moseyed home. While Rudi was cooking, I put on a livestream of authors Amor Towles and Chris Bohjalian chatting, courtesy of one of our local bookstores, Politics & Prose. It ended in time for us to watch the season finale of Magnum, and then we rounded out the night with Now You See Me 2.

Rudi’s flight leaves from Dulles early, so I anticipate needing to come home for a nap before starting the day for real.

Quite a bit of rain has fallen this week, so I expect there will be a correlative quantity of weeds to pull out of the garden and more twine to put up for growing pea vines sometime this weekend. I don’t mind. I’d much rather Mother Nature take care of watering the garden, although it’s easier this year than ever before, thanks to the faucet installed last year and the Y splitter we added this spring.

There’s a neighborhood arts walk/craft fair across town tomorrow, so I may head over that way in the afternoon. And, of course, I can take in the Saturday night park concert from our local band.

If I have any energy left, I’m putting it toward reading and knitting — and maybe replacing all the batteries of my jar lights. I told Rudi I was going to do some spring cleaning while he’s gone, but I don’t see any reason to tackle it on the day I already have to get up before sunrise.