Bout of Books 30 has wrapped up. For the first time in several years, I didn’t manage to make either Twitter chat, which was disappointing, since I usually enjoy them.
I did, however, get some reading done, although I didn’t finish any books.
I listened to some of Becoming Duchess Goldblatt by Anonymous, a memoir from the real-world journalist who creates a fictional Twitter persona for herself. There’s lots to make you laugh, but also lots to make you cringe.
I picked up Evie Dunmore’s Bringing Down the Duke again this week (apparently I was craving tales of high royalty), which is currently my most overdue library book with the hopes of returning it this week. It’s about a Bluestocking commoner who finagles her way onto the titular duke’s estate in an effort to find a way to get him to support voting rights for women. Instead they both find themselves fighting off mutual attraction.
The next Bout of Books is May 10-16. You can bet I’ll be back for it.
Back in September, I finished a knitting project. I showed it to you unblocked and blocking, but that was it. Well, that was the week that Rudi’s mom fell, so suddenly there were way more important things to do than model a finished shawl.
But today Rudi was home in the afternoon and the sun was out and I felt like putting on real clothes, so I have some pictures for you of my Sunflowers One Way or Another shawl.
Since it was my Tour de France Knitalong project, it’s probably appropriate that I wore it on a bike ride down to the Georgetown waterfront.
Yes, yes, I know we already had a weekend this year. But I was still on vacation, so it didn’t count.
But this weekend it does, and after the exhausting events of this week — a full week of work and an attempted political coup in my city (seriously, who offered to hold 2021’s beer?) — I really feel like I deserve to suck out all the marrow of life over the next 48 hours:
Here’s what I’m thinking:
Go for a bike ride.
Read outside. (It’s supposed to be nearly 50 and mostly sunny.)
Knit. (I’m hoping to finish a project this weekend.)
Send some mail.
Bake.
Watch the new version of All Creatures Great and Small.
Take part in the Bout of Books Twitter chat. (Note to self: set your alarm now!)
Figure out if there’s some useful action I can take to help alleviate feelings of horror about this week’s insurrection. (If you’ve found one, please share it in the comments. I know I’m not the only one looking.)
Wash handknits. (It’s always my prettiest laundry day.)
Work on my best-of-2020 reads post.
How about you? How are you going to spend your weekend? Jamming in activities or resting up from them?
1. Despite the horrible things that went on across our country yesterday, the Democrats did win both Georgia Senate seats and the electoral college results were certified.
2. Spending down my flex spending account for 2020 involved several steps, including a trip to the eye doctor, which resulted in my getting a new contact prescription for bifocal contacts. It’s really exciting to be able to not wear my glasses out to be fogged up by my mask and to still be able to read on my outing. I expect this to be a game-changer on nicer weekend days.
3. I didn’t do a great job baking during my holiday break, but I did make a batch of Spritz cookies on Sunday evening. If you were to ask me what Christmas cookies are, I’d probably point you to Spritz, so it did feel like a win to get them made (even though doing them mostly alone is way less enjoyable than making them with my folks as usual). For someone who hasn’t made them on her own in two decades, I was surprisingly well prepared to do so, with a never-before-used cookie press tucked under a shelf and a pleasingly deep collection of sprinkles.
What’s been beautiful in your world this stressful week?
I just don’t have the words to express the whirlwind of emotions I felt today, as we careened from the high of winning the Georgia Senate races to the low of racist domestic terrorists storming Congress at the behest of the President.
D.C. went into a lockdown at 6, so I did take a break from work in the afternoon in an attempt to get some extra groceries. I didn’t make it to Safeway before they’d locked their doors, but I did manage to find most of what I was looking for between the mom & pop shops and drug store.
But, honestly, it was exhausting being out, looking over my shoulder at anyone who passed me by, wondering if they were a threat. They’re staying at all the local hotels and at many of the Air BnB’s in the area, including one a couple doors down. (A pair of them mistook Rudi’s red baseball cap for a MAGA hat the other day.)
So, in the end, I hurried home even before I needed to. I finished my work, answered all the tweets and texts from those worried about me, called my folks, and took a fitful nap.
It was quiet in our neighborhood tonight. There are no cars on the road or passersby on the sidewalk, which is disquieting. There is an uptick in helicopters overhead (albeit less than during this spring’s protests or during the last Inauguration), which always adds a level of constant uneasiness to daily life.
Two more weeks. It’s a false goal, of course, because all of these dangerous jerks will still be here, lurking beneath their rocks, and now recruiting more to their cause who saw heroes in the display of toxic masculinity today. I despair for America tonight, which just seems like a lot when this morning was so hopeful.
