Rainy with a Chance of Adventure

Ermmmm…it’s been a while. This seems to be a recurring theme here in Measure of Calm land. The writing well just seems to have been pretty dry the past few months. There have also been a collection of relatively minor stressors in my life lately that, taken collectively, have left me a bit drained:

• I’ve been 100% back in the office since September 30. I’m actually glad to be back, but it requires a different type of energy than work-from-home, and that can be a little tough on an introvert such as myself. The more time I spend in the office, though, the stronger that “muscle” gets.
• I got into a fender-bender a couple of weeks ago in the parking lot of an outlet mall. It was the other driver’s fault – I won’t go into the details of that, except to say that my insurance agrees that it wasn’t my fault, but now we have to deal with the other guy’s insurance. Over the last two weeks I’ve had to get an estimate, arrange for a rental car, pick up the rental car, drive to the body shop, pick the car back up from the body shop, and drop the rental car back off. I got a voicemail on Friday afternoon from the other guy’s insurance, wanting me to call back. I’m fairly certain they are going to try to get me to say that there’s the teeeeeeniest chance it wasn’t 100% their guy’s fault. 
• Sam’s been interviewing for a position that would be a really great start for him. He’ll find out in the next few days, and my mantra lately has been, “Oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please.” It’s so hard to see your little chick try to launch themself into the big bad world. 
• Chris has a month-long job in London with a 5 day break in the middle of it. We decided to make a mini-vacation out of it. In late September Chris said, “Oh by the way, have you looked at when your passport expires?” I thought, “Oh it won’t expire until ages from now – I just renewed it!” Then I checked it and saw that it would expire on October 26. Yiiiiiikes! I ran around like a crazy person, getting an appointment to renew, getting my new photos, paying every conceivable extra fee to expedite the heck out of that thing. Up until last Monday I had my plane tickets but wasn’t sure if I’d actually be able to USE my plane tickets. But my passport did arrive, and the next time I write to you I will tell you all about my adventure. I will have to get what the UK government calls a “Day 2 Covid test”, which I’ve scheduled on the day I arrive (you have to show proof that you’ve paid for this test before they let you into the country). I’ll be exploring London (my favorite city) on my own for two days while Chris works, but then we’ll drive down to the southern coast for a couple of days before coming back to London to hang out. This is all contingent on my Covid test being negative, which stresses me out a bit and has made me SUPER cautious about what types of risks I expose myself to, and makes me freak out a little inside every time I hear someone at work cough (we’re required to wear masks in common areas, but still).
• Pokey’s had some little behavior issues that we’re trying to iron out. We’re having Zoom meetings with a dog trainer (I’m amazed at how much training can be accomplished this way) and I have faith that Pokey’s troubles will be resolved. 

So as I said, these are all relatively minor things – no life-or-death issues. It’s just amazing how the cumulative weight of all these things can drag a person down. 

The weather here has been mostly cloudy and rainy these last few weeks. Today we did see the sun for about a half hour, but for the most part it’s been pretty gloomy. I’m still getting out for my walks/hikes when I can, and my strength training is going well! I hit the gym M-W-F at 6:00 in the morning. The weight room is enormous and there are usually about 5 or 6 of us there at that time. The gym requires masks and as of tomorrow they will require that everyone working out is fully vaccinated. I had been going to the gym six days a week, Monday through Saturday, doing cardio on T-TH-Sat, but due to the number of people who feel free to take off their masks while they’re huffing and puffing on the elliptical or treadmill, I’ve decided to take a break from that until I return from my UK adventure. 

A friend recently mentioned a post I wrote about poetry back in May of 2020. I couldn’t remember the post so I went back to read it, which lead to me reading every single post since I started this blog back in February of 2020. I feel like my posts early on were less “catching-up-on-my-life” and more “delving-into-the-substance-of-life.” I’d like to get back to more of those types of posts, but I need to get back into the right headspace in order to do so. I’ve just been a bit preoccupied over the past several months with the minutiae of life, I think.

I’ve started setting aside my fiction reading (although I am ADDICTED to the Chief Inspector Gamache books by Louise Penny) a few times a week to read more poetry. There’s just something about reading my favorite poets (Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry, Rainer Maria Rilke, Billy Collins, among others) that makes me think more about Life-with-a-capital-L. I’m going to be spending a lot of my alone time in London walking and thinking (I’m planning to spend most of Saturday in Hampstead Heath), priming the pump for some future posts. Watch this space! 🙂

Love, 

Michelle xoxo