Week 47

These days are so routine as to be absolutely forgettable. Each day is some version of doing a morning workout, showering, administering pet meds, eating the same breakfast (English muffin, poached egg, tea), working, lunching, walking with the dog, working, walking again by myself with a podcast before it gets dark, drinking afternoon tea, finishing work, taking out cheese and putting it on a small cutting board with a few pretzels, pouring a tiny glass of vermouth, sitting at the table with Joel discussing news headlines and recounting our workday, starting dinner, eating dinner while watching an episode of Frasier, cleaning up, offering each other either sparkling water or tea before watching Schitt's Creek or the Crown, knitting, getting ready for bed and reading until I start to doze. The cat crawls in bed on my right side each night around 1:30 and drapes herself over my arm until I get up four hours later. On Mondays and Thursdays we take turns vacuuming. On Wednesdays I try to remember to water the plants and clean the bathroom. When the weekend rolls around, we sleep in until 8:30. We spend more time outside and watch movies instead of shows. I take on a larger cleaning project or do yardwork. We make more involved dinners and I make something more interesting for breakfast and/or dessert. We drink the whole bottle of wine from dinner. 

Each Sunday, I write out a weekly schedule in my journal to plan for the week, but I rarely actually fill it in, because anything out of the ordinary - a trip to the vet, a Zoom happy hour - is easy to remember without writing it down. 

What's more helpful right now are to-do lists to help me break out of these routines and give me something different to do, and something to remember. This is not to say I don't love my routine. It's comforting and it helps the days pass, and these days I'm looking forward further into the future and the routine helps me forget how far off those days might be. 

I am greatly looking forward to a few days off from work, and my task today (Sunday) is to come up with some ideas to make those days look and feel like some sort of vacation. I have a feeling Christmas decorating might be one of those things. 

Reading: The Mysteries of Pittsburg by Michael Chabon- I'm taking my time with this one, especially since I'm mostly just fitting in a few minutes at a time before bed. In the meantime, books-of-the-year lists are starting to emerge and I'm feeling that annual push to aim higher with my reading goals.

I also got a lump in my throat reading this, written by a woman whose mother died of COVID last week in Spokane. There were certain elements that hit close to home, and I'm sure so many others felt the same way. Beautifully written and incredibly sobering.

Watching: The Crown and Schitt's Creek -- we may finish both by week's end. On Friday night we watched a cute but maybe a touch racist Argentine movie called Chinese Take-Away. On Saturday it was the 1983 movie Tender Mercies (available on Prime), for which Robert Duvall won an Oscar. I'd watched it 20 years ago in my American Film class, and neither I nor my classmates fully appreciated it at the time, though I remember my professor nearly getting choked up while describing it as a meaningful film for him. It indeed hit me more deeply this time around.

Listening: It's about time for the annual listen of my Turkey Trotters playlist, a compilation of toe-tapping old gems which I compiled years ago for Thanksgiving food-prepping. 

Making: I finished my little cabled hat and want to make more. But I am also almost done with my raglan sweater, GLORY BE. 

Recipes: This was the last week of our CSA box. Having that box really made our eating lives more interesting this year and was the best way to ensure we were eating lots of vegetables. We could sign up for the winter box but I think I'm ready for the break. But on Friday night I really celebrated what was made possible by all the contents and made a creamy parsnip and leek soup, which also contained potatoes and celery. It looks brown because I had to use beef broth, but it was delicious. On the side we had a kale salad with Braeburn apples and golden beets. We drank wine from our beloved Wanderlust, a local wine and cheese shop where we have a monthly wine club membership. The bowl that contained the salad was made by a local artisan, KJ Pottery. It was a nice way to feel thankful for the people around us here in Spokane.

I made pumpkin scones with oats and crystalized ginger as well as brown-sugar anise cookies, both recipes from the New York Times. 

And finally, a 5-star Melissa Clark dish for Moroccan chickpeas with kale in the Instant Pot. It's even vegan.  

I'll be thinking of my friends and loved ones even more than usual this week. The one comfort I've found during these shutdowns and travel restrictions is that, strangely, I feel less alone when I know we're all alone together. (By the way, Zoom is free on Thanskgiving!) Time to read some Mary Oliver poems and revel in all the beautiful little and living things that fill our lives with wonder. Thank you for reading and for caring about the little pleasures in mine.