I’ve started writing this newsletter maybe six times and each time it seems more boring than the time before. Now that we are no longer in the dawn of Pandemic Times things just seem…how they are. I am sorry if this content is no longer serving you! I’m not offended. I’m just a woman who’s been more or less trapped in her house since March.
Certainly a lot of people are “over” the pandemic meaning they are just going about their business as usual. Listen, I have a deep longing for many aspects of Before Times, too, but I can’t help feeling that some of us are working really hard to win a not-free trip to the local intensive care unit. I have family in this very state who attended an indoor graduation ceremony and went to church this weekend. I do not get it.
We hosted my parents for Father’s Day this weekend. I made tacos and found a recipe for kohlrabi slaw to make use of the CSA kohlrabi burning a hole in my pocket. To be honest, my main motivation was getting rid of the kohlrabi, but in a surprise twist the slaw was good, something I’d even make again on purpose.
We’re doing the CSA again this summer after several years’ hiatus because it is a very easy way to avoid the grocery store even more than I already do. Our share gives us four or five produce items plus “credits” to spend on additional items each week and I am determined not to waste any food. One of the reasons I opted out of the CSA a few years ago was that I was throwing away way too much chard and turnips to be able to sleep well at night. Chard and turnips are people too! Uh, in a manner of speaking.
I’ve continued my house purge. I have a bad habit of acquiring multiples of things when one or two would really suffice. Oh I like this shirt, I must buy it in three colors. (Although I find this more difficult now that everything seems to be offered in shades of kale, terracotta, and dirt.) This is why I have five sets of twin sheets and one twin bed which hardly anyone ever sleeps in.
What else? Creatively I have been stuck in neutral for a while. I have not touched my quilt or my watercolor paints or even the paint-by-number I started umm…last summer or fall? I haven’t written much outside of this newsletter and I don’t even do that every day anymore. Having these outlets is so important to navigating bizarre and exhausting timelines but sometimes it all seems like that much more work to do. On the other hand, not doing any of it makes me feel lazy and wasteful. Next week, when I am off work instead of in Paris, I’m going to choose a project and try to make some progress. And not think about guzzling wine and fromage at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.