Rudi is off to see his mom tomorrow, braving two flights to Salt Lake City. He’s going to stay for a while, which will be great for his mom and will let him breathe in some mountain air for a while.

Corey and I will be holding down the fort here in D.C. and will spend our time trying to clean the apartment a bit, knitting, and working through the large pile of library books I have checked out. I do not have any boxes of cereal in the house, so I guess I’ll also have to do the cooking; you’d think Corey could at least take care of the dusting, wouldn’t you?

Next week I have 25 Zoom/Teams meetings (many of them virtual conference workshops/lectures) over the first four days of the week, so this weekend I will try to spend time outside, off screens, particularly tomorrow, when the weather looks to be drier. Rainy weather will mean phone calls, laundry, and baking.

What are you planning to do this weekend?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Soybeans at the midweek farmers market.

2. Neighbors and family friends out in Utah who can stand in as caregivers for us.

3. The Seattle Storm won the WNBA championship this week over the Las Vegas Aces. Since the Storm had three UConn women’s basketball alumnae and the Aces had none, I didn’t have to feel mixed feelings about who won. Plus, the Storm is helmed by Sue Bird, who at 39, is the second-oldest player in either the men’s or women’s NBA.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Behold! A sock that is nearly complete! I’ve started the toe decreases and anticipate wrapping this one up tomorrow evening, perhaps while up at the park.

Or, I’ll be reading. Both of these books are overdue with holds on them. I’d like to get The Trouble with Hating You by Sajni Patel back to the Arlington library this weekend. I have another book overdue there, as well, but my hold on its D.C. equivalent is waiting for me at the MLK library downtown, which I hope to be able to collect tomorrow or Friday. It took me a little while to get into this alternating-POV romance about a woman who runs out on a dinner where her traditional parents have ambushed her with a potential marriage match — who turns out to be the new lawyer she’s going to have to work with on a regular basis. But now that I’m past the set-up, I’m enjoying it.

Sarah has promised me that We Ride Upon Sticks does not contain Horrible Events (outside of the normal day-to-day horrible things that happen to real-life teenage girls), so I have picked that back up again. Its foreshadowing and style of narration had stressed me out and I’d put it down for a while.

Head over to As Kat Knits for her weekly Unraveled wrap-up.

We are now months and months into pandemic shutdowns, travel restrictions, and general malaise. In an effort to keep these last months of the year from spiraling into a hot mess, I thought I’d come up with a list, similar to the ones I often make for weekends, of things I’d like to accomplish each month. I will not get mad at myself if I don’t cross items off, but if I get stuck this gives me a physical place to turn to to see what I could work on.

I’m surprised to report that I actually did a pretty good job with my September list. I think I may have missed a week of bike riding and the MLK Library opening wasn’t actually open to the public (although I have since stopped by the outside of the building, at least). But otherwise, they all have firm checkmarks next to them.

Now, on to October’s list. This month, I’d like to:

• Finish another knitting project. It would be awesome if it were the Halloween socks, but I’d also be happy if it were the pair of socks I was trying to finish before the Tour de France.
• Start coming up with a game plan for Christmas gifts. I don’t have to decide about everyone, but with only one income, mail slowdowns, and the possibility of spending the entire month of November mourning a terrible election outcome, it would be smart to get on this now.
• Speaking of that horrific potential outcome, spend time each weekend in October doing some sort of election activity. Right now, writing postcards still make sense, but I’m sure as it gets closer to the end of the month, I’ll need to switch to texting/making phone calls. (It’s that important.)
• Send out at least three packages. I have the pieces spread across my living room, but haven’t gotten them in boxes and out the door.
• Bike to coffee shops in the area as part of the annual Coffeeneuring bike challenge. It’s good to have traditions, and I’d like to support some of the shops that have opened in the last year, particularly the mom & pops and the Black-owned businesses.
• Send another load of donations to Goodwill.
• Take a day off and see some fall foliage. I’d love for it to be on Skyline Drive in Virginia’s Shenandoahs, which I’ve never visited. But it’s possible that their autumnal adornment will conflict with a work conference, so I might have to compromise with some local fall color.
• Close my work laptop by 5:30 4 days a week. I might need to compromise and open it back up again after sundown, but I definitely need to work on getting outside during the daylight now that the sun sets before seven.
• Write at least two Into the Stacks book review roundups. I’d love to actually get an entire year’s worth of reviews written and it would help if I spent some time this month getting caught up. I hate writing book reviews, but love having them written. I just need to learn to pen posts in my sleep.
• Organize a Zoom call with my college friends. We had one in the spring and it feels like now would be a good time to check in again.

How about you? What’s on your October bucket list?

You know what helps improve your mood? Seeing the sunset over the river:

Know what else works? Getting to try the new fancy bakery in Georgetown. Rudi opted for the café con leche monthly special, while I had the chocolate peanut butter. We may also have a slice of coffee cake to split for elevenses tomorrow.

The weekend was … fine. Disappointing. But fine really. I mean, there was nothing especially wrong with it. Everyone I care about is doing fine — lifting their bale, toting their barge. I spent time outdoors, I got sleep, I talked with friends on the other side of the country, and I went for a bike ride.

Maybe it’s that it’s finally October, a month that usually includes trips to see family and friends, with birthdays aplenty and the promise of weekend festivals and cooler temperatures and … just … life.

“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”

I am counting my blessings. We have each other. We’re healthy. Our families and friends are healthy. We have an apartment and a garden plot and a car and bikes. We have food and access to libraries and online movies and phones to reach out to loved ones. I have a job that is good 85% of the time and a bank account with money in it. If that doesn’t feel like enough today, I know it’s okay. Because it is enough in the grand scheme of things.

I guess it just feels like a Mondayish Sunday in a Mondayish month of a Mondayish year. Yeah, I think that’s it — 2020 just feels like a year of Mondays.

The good thing about Mondays is that they go away eventually, whether you do anything about them or not.

Here’s to that moment.