some early summer scenes.

Sam and I recently moved to D.C. Moving during a pandemic is strange. It's hard "ghosting" your neighbors and friends, but such is life in 2020. It's also hard not being able to make new friends, get to know your neighbors, or get to know your neighborhood as well as you would like. But we do what we can. Taking lots of walks help. Especially after both of us are on computers (or in books) all day for work.

[not of moving. but just a picture of daily life during the pandemic outside of wegman's in princeton.]

[bench wisdom in a favorite place of mine on campus.]

[the drama of 2019--and january 2020--was that the alexander road bridge (which is by FAR the easiest way for us to get in-and-out of princeton) was out. i thought that was going to be the bane of my existence this academic year. little did i know. the bridge is now repaired and some balance has been restored in the world.]

[wisteria on the tow path]

[katy sent us cookies to help with moving. that was nice of her.]

[with the moving van. laughing because of lack of sleep and snakes on a truck.]

[delirious. hilarious.]

[our purple abode.]

The last weeks of May, we enjoyed the cooler weather--D.C. didn't get really hot until around the first week of June, although the summer has not been nearly as hot as I remember last summer. That being said, it's not yet the summer equinox, and I don't want to tempt fate. And it looks like next week has some thunderstorms in the forecast, so there is definitely mugginess in our future.

But, when it's not too hot, you'll find us outside in our backyard (!), or on walks around our neighborhood. And, now that D.C. is slowly phasing back into a different-kind-of-normal, you might even find us dining on a restaurant's patio.

[neighborhood walk]

[SO MANY ROSES on capitol hill in the early summer.]

[oh hi.]

[in case you were looking for one.]

[sometimes i run here in the mornings. usually not. but sometimes.]

[hike near the potomac.]

[we have a backyard! with a fire pit! and twinkle lights! and tibetan prayer flags!]

[anniversary vibes.]

[more than one place to kiss around here.]

[if there are two trees, sam will hammock.]

[outdoor dining. amazing.]

[a satisfied sam.]

Covid Updates part who-knows-what

I have a few different places I record my pandemic thoughts--my journal, my blog, a special Covid-19 notebook I have--but it gets to the point where I don't even remember what I've written where, or if there's even a "part i, ii, iii" to all of it. Because, when we get down to it, this feels like the song that will never end. Or like that part in Jacob 7 where Jacob mentions that "our lives passed away as it were unto us a dream." Yep. It's feeling a lot like that nowadays--nowaweeks.

But here are some snapshots of our endless numbered days (if you get the music reference I am making, you will get virtual brownie points--which may or may not be translated into real brownie points once everything settles down).

[typical work station.]

[sam and i re-created a work of fine art.]

[repin's ivan the terrible and his son.]

[we went on walks around capitol hill.]

[secret garden house.]

[complete with home-made face mask, courtesy of betsy.]

[sam and i re-created another work of fine art.]

[i indulged my vanity with sunglasses and selfies.]

[sam and i went to a "pick your own produce" place and wore face masks and brought our own knives, so sam looks like a surgeon in the kale.]

[you can't tell, but i'm smiling.]

[BIG shoutout to some friends in my department who sent over a pile of Super Kontik cookies. MADE MY DAY. And subsequent days, because Sam and I are still enjoying them.]

[slightly crazed, but oh-so-happy to have a coconut Super Kontik cookie Tim-Tam Slam style.] 

We feel incredibly blessed that our friends and family members are safe and whole, but we know that it not the case for millions in the world, and we are doing what we can to flatten the curve. I hope that this next week of the pandemic treats us all more kindly than the last week, whatever the state of your last week may have been. 

Some Quarantine Updates

Earlier last week, Sam and I left Princeton to head down to DC. We knew that there would be stringent measures in the Northeast, and we wanted to be in DC with Sam's family if there were going to be lockdowns (which there subsequently have been--both in New Jersey and in DC). It was good we left earlier rather than later, since starting yesterday, there has been a travel advisory for New York and New Jersey. So we're in DC for the time being (though I really hope I can get back up to Princeton by the end of April). We'll see, I guess. There's so much uncertainty, so it's hard to plan--research, travel, anything, really.

[beautiful princeton in the springtime.]

[i'm convinced that princeton is prettiest in pink.]

Before leaving Princeton, I stopped by the library to gather up any odds and ends in my carrel and to say goodbye (since I really don't know if I'll be coming back there). I was only given a 30 minute slot to get what I needed. Luckily, I didn't have to grab all of my books, some friends had been able to gather together my books five days before--I was out of town and there was an unexpected announcement that they were closing the library for a couple of days, and some friends (shout out to Miri, Bailey, and James) answered my panicked texts and went to go get my books out of my carrel for me. There ended up being about 3 boxes of books and 6-tote-bags of books. In other words, I would not have been able to get all of my books out in 30 minutes. So I am incredibly grateful to them for doing that. Instead, I was able to grab a couple of leftover things out of my carrel and just spend the time feeling melancholy and nostalgic instead of panicked.

[sign of the times]

[empty reading room. very abnormal.]

[everything is GONE. so, SO weird.]

[of course i had to document myself feeling sad. i mean, i guess i didn't have to. but i did.]

[documenting for posterity's sake. and my vanity's sake. but also, look how tired my eyes are. this has been A RIDE.] 

[the vastness of eternity.]

While in quarantine, I've been organizing my research files, writing, reading secondary sources, trying to learn more French, brushing up on my Russian, stress baking, and taking daily walks (although it's much more fun to call them "daily constitutionals"). Writing those things down make it sound like I'm being more productive than I really am. I promise you--I am not being as productive as I usually am. 

[more signs of the time from our passive-aggressive neighbors in princeton.]

[making pancakes.]

[now onto cookies.]

[walks around tacoma park.]

[beautiful cherry blossoms. not the ones around the tidal basin, because those are #offlimits, but these ones in a tacoma park neighborhood were beautiful, too.]

[a rare day when i actually get dressed AND do makeup.]

[maybe it's her, maybe it's quarantine. JK, this one is definitely a maybelline--or a maybelline-adjacent--look.]

Another thing I am doing while I listen to audiobooks is this dot puzzle. It's kind of hard to explain, but it's kind of like a color-by-number picture, but instead you stick on little dots with wax to create a picture: 

[you can't really see the picture, but it's to the right and it will be van gogh's "cafe at night" when we finish it.]

It's mindless, but it also is one of those things where I feel like I'm actually producing something tangible, so it helps me deal with stress. 

Hope you're all healthy, safe, and well during these "unprecedented times" (as every email from Princeton's administration likes to call them).