My Life is on Zoom Now

 

I'm still on Zoom just as much as I was in the early days of the pandemic. There was this time when everyone seemed to be over Zoom happy hours, but I don't think I'll ever be over them. I love getting together with Jennifer, Adrienne, and Louise over Zoom. We've been doing this about twice a month since the pandemic started. We all decide on a cocktail, and make the same one, and we always have so much to talk about. Last weekend we celebrated May Day with floral martinis.

Adrienne has been texting us pictures from her cocktail book for inspiration. This was what we were drinking (although Jennifer went rogue and made something with watermelon in it).

Also last weekend, I went to a cooking class on Zoom. It was a promotional thing for the new cookbook I just bought, Lukas Volger's Snacks for Dinner. We made a feta-jam tart (mine was dairy- and gluten-free), sriracha snack mix, crudites, and pickled mushrooms, which I served over hummus. Everything was amazing, and I can't wait to get the cookbook!

Then early this morning I took a drawing class from Megan Fatharly, a U.K. artist whose work I love.

We drew flowers in different exercises, starting with a 30-second drawing. I was drawing a bunch of Trader Joe's ranunculus.

One minute with the left hand (I could only do these chaotic lines).

Four minutes with the left hand, and I was really starting to see how you could capture flowers with energetic lines and strong shapes. The flowers were so vibrant and alive, and I wanted to get some of that in my drawing.

Focusing on the background.

And this was my final drawing.

Seven Years Later

 

Here we are, seven years after my last post. On our 19th anniversary, David and I were looking at the old blog, and I thought, "I miss the Voyage of the Bloomingtonauts. Maybe I'll restart it."

Life is very different now than it was in 2015. David, Malinda, and I are living in Claremont, California, where I'm working as the Head of Cataloging & Metadata at the Claremont Colleges Library. David left his teaching job at Florida State when everyone else was leaving their jobs during the pandemic. He's in school now, working on a certificate in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages).

For our 19th anniversary, we went to our favorite California botanical garden, the LA County Arboretum. We sat on a bench by the pond and watched a huge flock of swallows swoop and dive over the water. There were turtles piled up on a rock, and a great egret stalking across the shore. "I wish we could see a peacock," I said, because the Arboretum is famous for its gorgeous, shrieking peacocks.

Then this peacock swept into view and strolled right past us, posing for pictures as it went.

Christmas in Bloomington 2015

 After a few days in Hillsville, we drove to Bloomington. I went on a walk in these beautiful frosty woods.

Mom and I had a great time wandering around these woods by Lake Griffy.

Even though it was 13 degrees out!

I got to see some of my Bloomington friends while I was in town (although I didn't get a lot of pictures).

 David and I spent New Year's Eve in Indianapolis with John, Jennifer, and Rowan.

We had some delicious food and wore some very tall hats. None of us could figure out why David's hat wouldn't stay on his head. Except Rowan, who immediately reached into David's hat and pulled out a second hat that had gotten stuck inside it.

The first day of 2015 began with a delicious brunch.

And time spent with my family.

Christmas in Hillsville 2014

Every year I look forward to seeing the trees at David's parents' house. I think they were especially lovely this year.

 I love how colorful they are.

We wrapped our presents and piled them around the tree.

Kitty broke into her stocking before the rest of us could get to them. She was very excited to open a package of little tennis balls, and she played with them all day without stopping.

We had a delicious Christmas dinner. I roasted a cauliflower and served it with lemon-tahini sauce.

Then we opened all the presents, and it was wonderful.

We had such a good time!

John gave me a monopod (or "selfie stick") from Korea, and David and I took selfies with it.

Then we had a visit from David's cousin and took the traditional group picture.

Blue-Green Friday

The Friday after Thanksgiving, we went to Destin.

Destin is a town on the Florida panhandle, and people go there for the shopping and the beautiful beaches. It's on Florida's Emerald Coast, named for the clear green water of the Gulf, but it's really more of a blue-green than an emerald.

We thought our hotel room might have a partial view of the beach. But it turned out to be right on the beach with an amazing view of the Gulf.

 We spent a lot of time just looking out the window.

And hanging out on the balcony.

 This is what it looked like at sunrise.

I went for a long walk on the beach every morning.

The waves were translucent green in the early morning. The sea looked like it was made of glass.

I walked over to the park that was a couple of miles from our hotel. No one else was out there. It was a little chilly -- in the 50s every morning -- but the sun was warm.

Until a fog rolled in.

 But before long the sun was back out, and the sea was back to its amazing blue-green color.

We did a lot of Christmas shopping in Destin on Saturday. On Sunday, I went to this donut shop that I had visited the last time I was in Destin -- several years ago, with Jennifer.

 They still had red velvet donuts.

 Then David and I went to Henderson Beach State Park.

 We walked up and down on the white-sand beach and looked at the amazing Gulf.

 We watched birds and crabs.

It was the perfect way to spend the weekend after Thanksgiving.

The First Halloween at the New Place

We went to the same pumpkin patch as always. They have the best selection of pumpkins.

This is what we got. The big pumpkin with the lacy white, orange, and green pattern is a variety called "One Too Many." I think the orange pumpkin's variety is "Warts Galore," which is wonderful. The three little ones that look like toadstools, with red caps and white bases, are really acorn gourds. They are my favorites.

I got out the costume box to see what had made it over from the old apartment. We both ended up reusing some pieces of old costumes this year.

I wore the chiton (the dark blue robe) that I made for Julie's party the year that I went as Persephone and David went as Tantalus. I think this was our first Halloween together in 2001.

And I also grabbed the himation (the cloak that you wear over one shoulder like a sash) that David is wearing here for his Atlas costume. This was at Julie's party in 2002. I'm dressed as Rumor, because there is a line from the Aeneid describing Rumor as a goddess covered with feathers, ears, eyes, and tongues. Our friend Rebecca is dressed as the Roman empress Agrippina.

'

Inspired by the stars on the himation, I decided to go as the Greek moon goddess Selene.

This is a Roman depiction of the moon goddess. You can see that her cloak is supposed to be flowing over her head, but I decided not to attempt that part!

I wore this outfit to work on Halloween. Our department had a party with a costume contest, and I won.

One of my coworkers brought this incredible pumpkin that she had carved with the FSU seal on it. It must have taken her forever.

David decided to reprise his Halloween costume from 2007, which was Gilgamesh.

This year, we made the costume out of a couple of tablecloths and a scarf. Plus the crown and the sword from the original outfit.

I know it doesn't really look like it, but I used this image to make David's costume. It comes from this book, which is the best resource ever for cool historical/mythological costumes.

This is basically the outfit that Gilgamesh is wearing in this cylinder seal from 7th-c. BC Assyria. He's the one on the right killing the Bull of Heaven. His outfit is a tunic with one long shawl wrapped around his waist and another one tucked into his belt, then draped across his shoulder.

I did make a tunic for David's costume, but the outfit ended up looking better without it, so he just has the two shawls, the belt, the crown, and the sword.

David taught his myth class (on Gilgamesh!) wearing this costume. I cataloged books all day with a crescent moon on my head. Then we got ready to go to a Halloween party.

First, we handed out candy at our apartment. The apartment complex had these signs that you could put on your door if you wanted to participate in trick-or-treating. Or "tricker or treating."

We had so much candy! But we only got three kids. They were overjoyed when we told them they could help themselves to the candy tray. Later that night, when we were on our way to a Halloween party, we found out where all the trick-or-treaters had gone. We drove through this street near our apartment complex that was crowded with people trick-or-treating. All of the houses and yards were decorated, and hordes of kids were riding around in trucks and jeeps, which would stop in the middle of the street in front of each house. It was sheer chaos, like Mad Max if it starred a million tiny children dressed like Elsa. I've never seen anything like it.

David and I went to our friends' Halloween party. They have a really cool house on Lake Jackson, surrounded by gigantic live oaks. Their Halloween decorations were beautiful.