This is a not-fantastic photo of a box elder nymph hanging out in my strawberry patch. It refused to stop and pose for a photo, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that it was bright pink, like a fresh strawberry. I hope it didn’t mistake my garden for a family reunion. That would be so disappointing for it.

Other than bug-viewing, my weekend also included:

• Armchair BEA posts, comments, contest entries, and Tweetup participation. It was a fun experience and I’d do it again, but if someone presented me with the opportunity to attend the real conference instead, I’d totally take them up on that offer.
• Friday night at The Yards. There was a breeze off the water and I remembered our travel speaker so we could still have music after the band wrapped up for the night. Sarah brought a tasty fruit salad (nary a banana or melon in sight!), and friends of the group came and brought their 2-month-old baby, who was delightfully serene. The speakers were turned up way too loud this week, so the salsa band drowned out conversation with anyone not immediately adjacent to you, but it was still a good time.
• I rearranged a cabinet and pulled out books to read this summer or to get rid of at the end of it (most of them, anyway). The pile includes Cybils nominees other judges read, advance reader copies I’ve picked up through the years at library conferences, and prizes I’ve won in online contests. A few books I’ve bought and a few that were gifts also resurfaced from where they were hidden before I got a chance to read them. I also put together a bag of books that (get this!) I’m going to donate to the charity bookshop. (I know, right?!)
• Picked up fava beans, among other things, at the farmers market.
• Ate lots of strawberries, including some from our garden.
• Accepted an invitation to a small dinner party from a couple we’ve known since early in the Dean days. It was quite enjoyable.

How about you? How was your weekend?

Weekend’s over. I’m not looking forward to heading back to work, but at least I got a lot accomplished over my three days at home:

1. I didn’t finish any of my knitting project, but I feel like the end is in sight for my grandmother’s birthday wrap — just as we’re heading into a heat wave.
2. I wrote a pair of postcards that will go out in the morning’s mail.
3. I visited the Georgetown library and picked up a few new books to peruse. I also took advantage of their back patio to read some of Eleanor & Park, which I also read by the C&O Canal, at a cafe, at a pizzeria, and, finally, on my couch, late into the night.
4. I stopped by the garden to water and refill our slug traps with beer. I picked spinach and lettuce and probably a pint of strawberries. I also noticed the first tomatoes of the season are growing.
5. I looked for ducklings in the canal, but only saw a family of geese. Oh, and turtles, cormorants, a couple great blue herons, and what I’m pretty sure was a belted kingfisher.
6. I rode my bike, probably ten miles or so.
7. I took a yoga class. (Weak arms!)
8. I went to the farmers market, where i picked up strawberries and a spear of bamboo. (We’ll make a stir fry this week and use that and some of the bok choy from the garden.)
9. My friends phoned and invited me to join them for dinner, so we ate Thai food instead of playing on the swings. Still very enjoyable.
10. I drank tea, mango juice, and an Arnold Palmer outside, but not all at the same time.
11. I got a couple loads of laundry done, but there are probably three more that need doing. (The perils of living with a stinky boy.)
12. I mopped the bathroom floor and cleaned the sink and mirror. I’m going to let the aforementioned stinky boy work on the tub.
13. I went to trivia night at my local bookstore and joined a team of strangers. We did not win, but probably finished in the top third. I left without buying any books, but only because it was my second trip there this week.
14. I put away the Christmas dvds. Maybe next weekend I’ll go over my desk and put away any spare Christmas cds that are lingering there.
15. A friend and I played phone tag for a while, but we finally got a chance to catch up in a nice chat.

How about you? How was your weekend?

Three mild, sunny days stretch before me, nearly epic in their length. We kicked it off well tonight, with an evening viewing of Into Darkness. Here are 15 more things I’m hoping to do while Rudi is off on his weekend-long bike trip:

1. Finish a knitting project or two.
2. Send some mail.
3. Read a book or three.
4. Visit the garden.
5. Look for ducklings.
6. Go for a bike ride.
7. Take a yoga class.
8. Shop at the farmers market.
9. If my friends are in town, meet them at the playground.
10. Drink tea outside.
11. Do laundry.
12. Mop the bathroom floor.
13. Head up to Politics & Prose for trivia night.
14. Put away the Christmas dvds (which have been sitting on a cabinet since December).
15. Call a friend.

How about you? What’s on your agenda for the long weekend?

I haven’t been so good about posting non-Thursday entries for a while now. Some of it’s been event-related stress, much of which is now past or, at least, de-escalated. Some of it’s been tiredness and malaise and depression. But generally it’s been all-encompassing, not just here on the blog.

This week, though, maybe things are a little lighter. I read a couple of books. I called a friend. I started thinking about where I want my life to go next from here and how I might find myself there. And I’ve knit a bit. So I thought I might also write a little something here.

I don’t have any answers yet. And maybe there are no answers. Maybe there’s just putting one foot in front of the other and moving in one direction or another. Maybe any direction is just as good as the rest, as long as you’re moving. Treading water may be fine if you’re stuck in the middle of the ocean, but just staying afloat is no way to live a life if at the end of it you’re not going to be filled with regrets. And if making no moves is going to lead to that, then it’s the same as actively choosing disappointment.

I reject that choice.

So instead I choose motion. I opt to creep — slowly if need be — away from stasis. I will crawl, walk, hop, scramble my way from would-haves and should-haves. And if I encounter a dead end, which I will most certainly do at some point, I will inch, skip, run, twirl in some other direction.

I am done waiting. Life, I’m on the move.

One of the things on this weekend’s to-do list was to paint my nails, partly in recognition of the impending warming weather. I knew I’d want to wear sandals, and an incident earlier this year of wearing too-small shoes had left my toes contused and uglier than I’d like for revealing footwear.

So a cover-up was in order:

(Yes, my new flip flops do have cherry blossoms on them.)

And while I was at it, I wanted to try a new top coat I picked up after returning from Salt Lake:

As you can see, precision usually doesn’t worry me.

Here are some of the things I’m hoping to do this weekend:

• Complete my shift at the garden clean-up day. Possibly also assess our plot. Consider turning over soil.
• Shop at the farmers market. Hopefully find ramps and maybe spring mushrooms.
• Do taxes. Or, at the very least, assemble paperwork necessary to doing them.
• Make something with apples in fridge.
• Finish reading my novel & return overdue books to library.
• View cherry blossoms. This will probably require rising at a ridiculously early hour to avoid tourists. Conversely, battle tourists. (As I think there may be fireworks tomorrow night, maybe I’ll brave the crowds as it gets toward dusk.)
• Read a chapter in a novel-in-progress that I’m behind in offering thoughts on.
• Find yarn for my grandmother’s shawl.
• Paint fingernails.
• Sit outside and knit and read.

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