Week 17

You know you're starting to really internalize a foreign language when you start having dreams in that language. I thought about that this week as we both talked about the dreams we're having about the coronavirus. Does that mean that we're fully steeped in this reality?

This was my birthday week, probably the quietest birthday on record. It should be said that it sucks to have a birthday right now. But for me, it was nice because for the first time I didn't feel overwhelmed by it. The day felt largely normal, but a little more fun. I went to work and wrapped it up by attending a depressing town hall meeting that outlined scenarios for furloughs and lay-offs. That obviously wasn't fun, but I didn't let it get me down! (And honestly, I find it comforting to have the information rather than have to imagine worst-case scenarios myself.)

I can burn a candle when I work from home.

The weather was decent and my tulips were blooming. I made a cake (more on this later). A friend dropped off some homemade beans, coconut marcaroons, a can of sparkling wine and fresh eggs on my front porch. We happy-houred with her and her husband over Facetime while Joel and I dined on a spread of cheese and prosciutto from Wanderlust that he picked up earlier and drank French 75's.

More friends stopped by with signs and good cheer. Joel made dinner, maybe his best pesto ever. I talked to my folks. My siblings and dearest oldest friends chimed in. It was truly all I ever want for a birthday - just enough fuss to make the day feel different, but not so much that I have trouble falling asleep. I fell asleep quickly and slept soundly, and I dreamed coronavirus dreams. It was fine.

I took Friday off for a three-day weekend, and weeded the yard for three hours. It felt good to be outside and make things look better.

Watching

I'm always craving a good old movie, and this week we watched After the Thin Man (1936), the follow up to the first Thin Man movie. I love William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, and their dog Asta. This one also stars Jimmy Stewart.

We started the second season of Ricky Gervais's After Life, a dark comedy (sometimes extremely dark) about Gervais as a widower who is trying to press on with his dog, sad coworkers, a father with dementia, and odd characters along the way, and his philosophy about the purpose of life when you don't believe in anything after it. It is heartbreaking and beautiful.

On Friday we re-watched The Way, Way Back because we love Sam Rockwell's character in it so much. It was good comic relief.

For some reason we decided to watch The Quiet Place, about a family who is living in some sort of doomsday scenario we relate to so much better now, where creatures roam the earth guided by nothing but sound in finding humans to devour. Therefore the family lives in ways that are totally silent, speaking in sign language and marking spots on the floor that don't creak. It's the kind of movies I love to poke holes in, by asking questions constantly like, "How do they turn on the water? Or go to the bathroom? Doesn't that all make noise?" It was a fun diversion, I guess, and I think we both ultimately enjoyed it.

Reading

"But we should also aim to create a self and a life and an artistic vision that aren't an escape from ordinary life, but a way of rendering ordinary life for people of every color, shape, size, and background more magical to them. In order to do that, we have to see that every human is divine. We have to train ourselves to see that with our own eyes. It will fuel us, once we see it. The ordinary people around us, the angry ones and the indifferent ones, the good ones and the bad ones, will start to glow and shimmer."

A great book for right now is What If This Were Enough?: Essays by Heather Havrilesky. At times it was a little heavy on the television show commentaries, though I should have expected as much from a former TV critic. But her reflections on finding luxuries in the current moments and seeing value in every human among us, about cultivating compassion for ourselves and each other, were what my soul needed. There is so much emptiness in the worlds we manufacture, and times like these are helping us see the true connections that make a life well lived.

Making

I finished my Tread Hat, and now I just need to block it into shape and add a faux fur pom pom! It was a fun pattern.

Recipes: Birthday Edition

A week before my birthday, I texted my family members and invited them to participate in a birthday cookbook club, using my mom's cookbook. I specified that they must make something from the book that they either had never made before, or hadn't made in at least five years. If you're looking for a fun way to connect with people, I can't recommend this more! It was so fun to see what my mom and siblings chose to make, and I was honored that they participated. It was like we got to eat together though we were apart, and it was a way to celebrate Mom, who made all of us possible.

My sister made the strawberry meringue cake.

My brother made the Mediterranean salmon.

My mom made the Korean salad.

I made the walnut torte.

Listening

The "mom" theme continued on Saturday when I turned on Mozart's Jupiter symphony on our little bluetooth speaker while I was working in the kitchen, and left it playing after I left the room. Growing up, Mom usually had the radio on in the kitchen, often tuned to public radio, which was often classical music. She still does, I think. It was a nice comfort to replicate that in my own house.