Taking Stock – May 2020

I’ve swiped this great idea from Pip at Meet Me at Mike’s. It’s a fun way to look at what’s interesting and important and it’s very grounding to take the time to stop and think about my answers based on the past month.

Taking stock:

Making: knitting rainbow scarves for wee nieces’ Christmas presents
Cooking: easing into summer salads and trying to make do with the not-exactly-right ingredients because a trip across town for one specialty item seems frivolous — but is it still a Nicoise salad with a different type of olive?
Sipping: Hidden Temple Gin with Elderflower tonic; tastes like candied flowers and goes down way too fast
Reading: I’ve still got all the Zola to read but my author of the summer (in which I read through the entirety of their available work) for 2020 is E.M. Forster

Waiting: for a vaccine
Looking: at birds! We’ve got a pair of ravens visiting the nearby rooftops and it’s a special treat to catch a glimpse of their huge bodies and sleek black feathers.
Listening: to old mid-60s be-bop jazz after Greg made me a playlist so I don’t have to continually search for an ad-free online radio station
Wishing: for everyone to be safe as they take to the streets to protest.
Enjoying: a lack of commitments
Appreciating: all the folks picking and delivering my food and groceries
Eating: well. Too well, in fact.
Liking: that people seem to (mostly) be figuring out how to negotiate the “new normal” and (mostly) seem less terrified of each other out on the streets
Loving: going for walks and admiring people’s gardens, these feel much more important this year for some reason
Buying: new sneakers after I accidentally smashed a near-full bottle of olive oil and ruined the left shoe completely when it splashed all over me
Managing: anxiety. Wearing a face mask gives me panic attacks and while I’ve (so far) successfully avoided going places where I might need one, the idea that I’m going to have to mask up at some point freaks me out a lot.
Watching: selections from the Toronto Hot Docs Film Festival as well as the We Are One: A Global Film Festival streaming on YouTube.
Hoping: that these protests and action in the US make a difference in making the world a better place for everyone
Wearing: t-shirt and yoga pants; as it was, so shall it continue to be
Following: the news, but trying not to. It’s a daily battle that I always lose.
Noticing: the changing weather, and Toronto’s wacky variable temperatures, as summer moves in
Sorting: painting stuff as we get ready to do some much-needed painting and rearranging
Getting: excited about the flash fiction series I’m writing to celebrate Pride
Bookmarking: all the stuff about masks that supports my confirmation bias
Coveting: a replacement bottle of the super-spendy single-origin olive oil that I broke, but that won’t be available again until the end of the year
Feeling: my privilege, and appreciating that others don’t have it so great
Hearing: ravens! Groooaaak!