The Real Care Package

Look who came to visit me!

Yes, Martha Washington.

Just kidding, my Mom! I am so grateful to get to spend this time with her.

A Care Package

My former roommate Rina sent me a care package because I had COVID. She thoughtfully filled it with tea, a candle, honey, and a coloring book.

It arrived today.

I have been COVID-free for nearly two weeks.

It is the thought that counts ❤️

Book Club Meets Daddy-Long-Legs

After a series of depressing, angsty, modern books, I used my turn to pick the book in our Tuesday book club to give us something a little more lighthearted. I chose Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster. The reaction went something like this:

Girls in Book Club: LOVED IT! Immediately started re-reading. You say there is a musical?

Boys in Book Club: But why was it a romance? This book was doing so well until it became a romance. The best thing I can say about it is that the main focus was not the romance.

Which, to be honest, is kind of how they’ve reacted to just about every pick I’ve had so far.

Begin the Barbie Movie Marathon

Housemate #1 has never seen a Barbie movie in her life. Housemate #2 grew up on them. (Much like myself.)

Housemate #2 decided to leverage her birthday to force Housemate #1 to watch her favorite Barbie movies.

Our living room:

Housemate #2 and I sing along to every song: “I’m JUST LIKE YOUUUUUUUU….YOU’RE JUST LIKE MEEEEEEE…..””

Housemate #1: “… why is this animation so bad?”

Housemate #2 and I: * tetradactyl screaming in protest *

The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey

When a middle-aged country solicitor is approached to represent two women accused of brutally kidnapping and beating a teenage girl, he’s the first to admit this isn’t his usual line of work. But with public opinion firmly on the girl’s side and the police unwilling to clear the women’s names, he’s determined to figure out what really happened.

This was a satisfying novel, more interesting for its role historically as a piece of 1940s detective fiction than for any great detection. Inspector Alan Grant is barely in the picture and the mystery of the alleged kidnapping is the main focus. But the characters are colorful, the plot entertaining, and the “how-dunit” aspect worth puzzling out (if occasionally a little deus ex machina.)

4/5 stars

Sheftu Doll

It is my housemate’s birthday! One of her favorite books is Eloise Jarvis McGraw’s Mara, Daughter of the Nile. My other housemate and I thought it would be a great gift to “get” her Sheftu, the male lead of Mara. I envisioned buying a pharaoh doll and writing “Sheftu” on the box. Funny, low effort gift.

There was just one problem: we couldn’t find a pharaoh doll. I searched the internet, nothing. There were plenty of Cleopatra, Nefertiti, and King Tut’s sarcophagus. But nothing quite like we wanted. So, we made our own.

This $4 Ken doll…

Became:

It took HOURS and DJ did most of the actual work because she’s much better at arts and crafts. But the birthday girl laughed for almost a full minute so I think it was a success.

Roe v. Wade Overturned

❤

Mixed Messaging

Me: “Hi, I’m just calling to make sure my insurance covered everything and I don’t have an outstanding bill.”

Receptionist: “Sure, hon, one moment while I look this up…SSSSSHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT….no, you’re good.”

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Technologically Challenged

Being the youngest attorney by at least a decade has given me an inflated sense of my own technological ability. Newsletters, websites, Microsoft Office, Apple products? I know them all!

Apparently I needed to learn humility.

Today I participated in a webinar. After watching a video, participants were supposed to be able to ask me questions about homeschooling. The problem was, I logged in and couldn’t get the audio to work! I tried my wireless headphones, no headphones, calling in, my corded headphones. I couldn’t hear the questions.

And then, while awkwardly clicking on things, I started my web camera. All 40 attendees could see me. But I couldn’t hear them, they couldn’t hear me, and they could all watch me scowling at the screen trying to figure out how to turn off my web camera!

It took 3 excruciatingly painful minutes to figure out how to turn off my camera. But no sound.

Finally, after 20 minutes of struggling (the host bravely stepped into the breach and started answering questions for me), I broke down and called the tech guy. Guess what the problem was?

I forgot to turn up the volume on my laptop.

Grocery Fail

I went to the grocery store yesterday because I looked in the fridge and realized the only thing in there was kale.

$135 in groceries later, the contents of my fridge are now kale and oat milk.

Maybe I’m the problem.

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(Now, my freezer and cupboard are fully stocked.)