1. The mailman has been so good to me this week. I received my copy of Nomadic Knits issue 7, featuring our beautiful Mitten State. I haven’t read it thoroughly yet but just browsing through it, it’s full of beautiful patterns and stunning photographs. I think my next sweater project (after Pink Memories) may be in there.

But first, I need to pick a pattern on cast on for my very first pair of Halloween socks – using one of my other bits of happy mail this week. Two preordered colorways from Traveling Yarn came – Turning Leaves (the pink tones) and Slutty Pumpkin (who can resist that name???)

2. Miss L was very disappointed not to get placed into an art class at her middle school this semester, so I signed her up for a small, socially distant weekly community ceramics class. It’s held at a local park which is the site of an historic homestead, a beautiful old house, stables, barn, a forest with several trails, orchard, a nature center, etc. The art studio is in the old stables and while Miss L threw some clay, I rambled around the trails, admiring the hazy sunshine, thickly overlaid with high altitude smoke from the West Coast, and did some knitting. It was a very peaceful way to spend an hour, watching the archery class and martial arts class meet outside, six feet apart. I can’t wait to see these trails in a few weeks, when darkness rises and fall color blazes.

3. For someone who very rarely paints her nails, I sure love nail polish and look of a beautiful, shiny manicure. It’s one of the first things I notice and admire in women. I ordered a Cookies & Creme polish set from Olive & June and did my nails this week. The colors seemed to go on a bit thin, but I’ve been overall pleased with them, and they’ve lasted 4 days without chipping so far, just using the Olive & June topcoat (usually I use Orly topcoat, which is the only thing I’ve tried that can preserve my manicure). I’d love to get back into the swing of having painted nails.

4. This week’s only real spot of bad news is the water heater. See last week. Sure enough, the diagnosis was imminent death. So Monday was essentially spent with a plumber. I’m out a nice wad of cash, but it is undeniably pleasant to have hot water whenever I turn on the tap without having to run down to the basement to relight the pilot.

5. I went into the office yesterday. I’ve gone in about once a month since the pandemic hit, but the mood yesterday was different. I’ve had some tough moments working from home this summer, even though I prefer it overall to being in the office. But this time the sun was shining and the leaves turning, and I had a feeling of wistful nostalgia walking up the stairs, unlocking my door, smelling the office smell, turning the calendar another month. Will we ever be back? The office is comfortable; it makes me remember that I’ve got this. Things that feel like a huge deal sitting alone in my home office slash spare bedroom are shrugworthy in the office. Being there reminds me that I have a pretty good track record of handling shit and a pretty strong emotional bandwidth, even when I am not sure that I can take one more thing when I’m on my own during a pandemic. I feel alone sometimes but in truth, I’m not. Two of my colleagues were also in, and we chatted behind our masks. They reinforced that they’d had the same moments of self-doubt, malaise, isolation, and loneliness. It was so nice to see them, to laugh about the fact that we couldn’t hug after six months, share our stories, catch up, and then go our separate ways with best wishes until we meet again. I needed that boost because, as my colleague said, it will be dark soon. Winter will bring the darkness, the days of grey will come, the cold will come, and it will be hard again, here; short days and long nights and a second wave. He’s worried about how we will all deal with that. But somehow, yesterday, being in the office reminded me that we are all in this together and will get through this and although our politicians and our bad actors will continually try to point out how different we are, how much we should hate and fear, in my experience, the people in my circle, work and personal, even with ideological differences, want to come together and find a middle ground and do right by each other as best they can. I hope you have those people in your circle as well and I hope wherever you are this weekend, you have a moment of remembering them, not just in your mind but in your heart and your soul. xoxo