Bout of Books 31 wrapped up tonight, and while I didn’t complete all my goals, I’m counting it as a success. I finished my audiobook, Abby Collette’s A Deadly Inside Scoop. It was sort of a middle-of-the-road cozy about a young Black woman who stumbles over a dead body the same day she relaunches her family ice cream parlor. Her father ends up being the main suspect, so she and her BBC Mystery-loving best friend find themselves trying to clear him. I don’t know I’ll keep reading the series, but I’m glad I read the first one, particularly because BIPOC sleuths are hard to come by. I started George Saunders’ A Swim in a Pond in the Rain because it’s overdue and I want to see if I should request it again, buy it, or just return it and give it no further psychic energy. (I need to read a few more pages before I can decide.) So that was where my print mojo went, rather than to the graphic novel, which is what I’d planned to finish.
I did make it to all three Bout of Books Twitter chats (the two official and the bonus one), although only one of them did I arrive on time. Oh well.
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!
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1. Most of my volleyball teammates and I went out after the game. One exchange elicited the sort of uproarious laughter that leads to tears. I can’t remember the last time I’ve laughed that hard.
2. Another cyclist and I pass on the multi-use trail. He has a pug riding in each pannier.
3. As I was biking home tonight, there was just the slimmest sliver of a waxing crescent moon off to the west. (If you click through to Flickr, you can make the picture bigger. I’m down near the Capitol in the shot and you can see the lower part of the Washington Monument through the trees at the bottom left. Also, a couple of those sprinklers over the Mall were really misaligned. I did not make it past dry.)
How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?
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Although the Zoom fatigue is real in my life, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to tune into a reading by former Poet Laureate Billy Collins hosted by the Folger Shakespeare Library earlier this week. This is the poem he closed with:
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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.
