Sunday Matters

COVID is spiking all over and we all know why, but frankly I am losing my patience. We have had enough of it and yet it’s surging happily along. It was reported this week that people who have the antibodies don’t have them for long, so that means herd immunity can’t happen. We will be living with this until we have a viable vaccine. I keep praying though and if you pray, it certainly can’t hurt to keep praying about it.

Right Now:

My youth group meetings are officially on break for the summer. My church began in-person services again via a reservation system but we will continue to watch from home for awhile more.

This means that my day is pretty open. If it’s not too hot, I may work on my patio a little bit because we have a nice backyard and patio but we never spend time on it. My daughter said she wants to hang out there so it needs to be put in order.

This Week:

My daughter has ballet and tap this week. Still via Zoom. She also has a monologue coaching. My campus is closed on Friday to observe Independence Day and that happens to be the day that Hamilton is streaming on Disney+! Then, Independence Day which is the day we celebrate my pup’s birthday. She will be 10!

We will not be attending the city’s firework’s show. We will probably just grill and watch movies. It will be a loud night though. TONS of illegal fireworks in our neighborhood (usually).

Reading:

I finished The Dutch House and I really loved it. I found the story to be a little sad and bittersweet but so beautifully told. It’s a dark fairy tale which might put some people off but it has all the themes you see in a fairy tale but told in a very modern way (the wicked stepmother, stepsisters, a home that is like a palace/castle, etc.) I hope to have my review up this week. I really would like to buy a copy to own as my version is a Kindle version from the library.

Currently, I am reading The Mother-In-Law by Sally Hepworth. One of my students lent it to me. I love that she enjoys the same twisty reads that I do. It’s been fun to share our favorite page-turners with each other. A bit of a challenge to keep it a “clean” recommendation. Not too much language or other inappropriate behavior but we’ve read some good ones and this one is no exception.

Watching:

We will probably finish up the Coben series we are watching on Netflix, The Woods. It’s a Polish crime story and has subtitles but you don’t notice them at all.

I mentioned it above, but Hamilton will be watched this week for sure. Our tickets were cancelled and we are supposed to be going sometime in January. I have to check with my friend who rescheduled for us but will that even happen? Probably not if we keep going on the way we are going.

You guys, I finally bought a nice copy of JAWS, and my Blue-ray player died. Seriously!! That was supposed to be my July 4th movie. We may venture out to buy another one so I can have it in place by the weekend.

Grateful for:

My son bought me an air purifier for Mother’s Day. Seems like an odd gift but I’ve been using it in the house and it’s amazing for a device that is so small. It’s made by Levoit.
My pup is finally healing after tearing up her feet during our San Luis Obispo weekend. Between the ratty boardwalks/piers and sand, she managed to shred her feet pretty good. We had to lay off of walks this week but her feet are finally healing. She was walking pretty crooked these past few days.
My son is doing well at his new job and liking the people and work a lot. This gives me peace of mind.

I think this pandemic is affecting us in a lot of different ways. I’ve seen a real drop in blog posts and comments. I think we are all just trying to do the best we can with what we’ve been given. The news is depressing. Waking up is hard when you are faced with the same routine day in and day out. Let’s look out for each other. If you haven’t heard from someone in awhile, reach out to them. I am going to spend my week touching base with people.

Hang in there.

Sunday Matters

I’ve had enough of the world and all its nastiness. Today it’s all puppy dogs and rainbows and nothing else. La la la.

Figuratively speaking.

Right Now:

We aren’t entirely sure what summer will look like for youth group. Typically we break at some point but this summer we might not break in the traditional sense. Today, we will meet in Zoom and see who shows up. It’s good to catch-up anyways.

After group, I may try to hit the used bookstore. I don’t need any books. Do any of us? We all have stacks and stacks on top of the couple hundred I have on my Kindle, but the idea of browsing sounds nice to me and might break my week up a little.

This Week:

My son got a job in San Luis Obispo so he won’t be spending the summer with us after all. He will be headed back soon, renting a room in someone’s house, and hopefully saving some money. It’s at a luxury hotel and if it goes well, he will keep the job through the school year which will be nice. I think he will still work in the Theatre department too.

My daughter started the process to prepare for pre-screen auditions for college. We are working with MTCA for coaching and just trying to figure out when to schedule what. There are voice lessons, monologue sessions, dance consultations, etc. We also decided to do the summer intensive with Rider after all. It will be virtual and they had to change the program a little but we decided to go with it for July and August.

Have any of you had a kid go through the college audition process for theatre or musical theatre? It’s pretty intense.

Reading:

This is where I stumble. I had good intentions to start Hello, Summer and then I got distracted. I plan to read it this week for sure because it has been patiently waiting for me to pick it up. I also want to read something really juicy to go along with it. Any suggestions? My goal this week is to flood my brain with the written word and not social media.

Watching:

Still trying to decide what to watch after Broadchurch. I did watch a few movies though. I finally saw Rocketman. I know some critics were put off by the fact that it was really a musical, but in this house, it got bonus points for that format. I really enjoyed it. It was so pretty to look at.

In a funk one evening, after a particularly bad news day, I was flipping channels and came across Gidget. Yes! The original 1959 beach flick with Sandra Dee. It was sweet, and charming and just what I needed. Then, on Turner Classic Movies, another beach movie came on, Surf Party so I watched that too.

Grateful for:

Good friends who check up on me when I get too caught up in politics or other nasty happenings on social media.
Really good coffee. To me, it’s a treat.
The three pound weight loss “nugget” I was tossed to encourage me in my quarantine weight loss efforts.

What is the one book you simply MUST read this summer?

Chatting with friends about books and life…