I’ve got no focused thoughts, so you’re just getting random tonight:

1. I just (just) finished reading a novel about the challenges of making friends as an adult, Serena Singh Flips the Script, and I think I might send a copy to a friend (whom I made as an adult) with whom I’ve fallen about of touch. (It’s my fault; she sent me an awesome snarky Christmas mug and it is my turn to reach out.)

2. I’m going to my first baseball game in a year and a half tomorrow. I’m excited. And also nervous. My current personal mask guidance is that I wear one in indoor public places (whether required or not) and on my wrist (to signal I’m a good citizen and happy to put one on if you are wearing one) outdoors. This feels like a reasonable course of action given our current knowledge base.

3. Friday, we’re heading up to visit my parents. I’m over the moon to see them, but I’m starting to feel anxious about leaving Corey. He will have a cat sitter stop by each day, but I know he’s used to being with us all the time and will be lonely. (He’s currently sprawled across my lap, with his nose tucked into my elbow.)

4. Karen and I are also planning to see each other, but we discovered our favorite lunch spot did not survive the pandemic. I am sad for the owners and employees, who were always very nice, even when we snuck in just before closing time and for the residents of the town, who’ve lost a solid mom and pop restaurant.

5. A girl (fine, middle-aged woman just like me) Rudi and I went to school with makes glass-centric jewelry, and I’ve been lucky enough over the years to own a couple of her necklaces. Today she was having a sale on her rings, and … I splurged. There is absolutely no reason why I needed a gigantic signature piece ring, except that it spoke to me. I had even nicknamed it.

6. My apartment is still a mess. I wonder how (if?) it will get clean(er) between now and when we leave.

7. One of my volleyball teammates is moving away after this week’s game. Another after next week’s. We had been a dozen in the beforetimes, and now we’ll be down to eight. My heart is breaking a little bit.

8. I told colleagues I’d sent two emails out last week — and while I certainly intended for both things to go out, the fact that they remained undone was eating at me. (One was just a head’s up email, but to some important people, and the other was to a designer who had another project I’d asked him to finish first, but still. That’s not the point.) I got one email out this morning and the other out tonight, and I feel much less guilty.

9. I buy flowers at Trader Joe’s because they aren’t horribly expensive and seeing them atop my fridge is good for my mental health. Sometimes they don’t do well (nearly all the spray roses I bought last week quickly dried up, but they were pretty in their crinkly, crackly form, too), but the purple puff mums I currently have make me very happy.

10. I saw this on Twitter earlier this week, and it spoke to me so much that I promptly burst into tears. I share it with you in case you also need to hear that you accomplished something really important over the past year:

11. Corey and I want to go snuggle up with Rudi, so it’s time to sing our adieux.

Good night!