#We all like.. went to an outdoor party on a hill ( think like... fourth of july? People were there. But nothing was really happening

[crumboat]

Whyyyyyy is it so earlyyy

[longlistshort]

Silver Jews- Random Rules

I first heard about David Berman and his band Silver Jews a while ago, as they were one of those bands you heard about if you were a Pavement fan. But sadly, I never got around to listening to them until now.

Stephen Malkmus and David Berman went to the University of Virginia and later moved together to Hoboken, New Jersey. There Malkmus, along with their other roommate Bob Nastanovich, played with additional bandmates as Pavement, and together with Berman they formed the Silver Jews, although Berman soon remained the only constant member of the band.

When I discovered that David Berman had passed away and read the many quotes from his songs posted online by friends and fans, I finally spent some time listening to his music. There are just so many great lines in these songs. For instance, from Random Rules, posted above- “In 1984, I was hospitalized for approaching perfection/ Slowly screwing my way across Europe, they had to make a correction”. It’s a funny opener and the whole song is filled with quotable lyrics. Towards the end are the lyrics “I asked the painter why the roads are colored black/ He said, ‘Steve, it’s because people leave/And no highway will bring them back’.” So many of his songs are like this, the humor mixed with the pathos.

Silver Jews disbanded in 2009 and Berman quit making music for awhile. In 2011 he started a blog. In May, ten years after he stopped making music, he released the album Purple Mountains. The lyrics to the songs on this album, including the one below, are poignant, made even more so after his death. In a recent interview with Exclaim!, he discusses each song off that album.

Purple Mountains- All My Happiness Is Gone (song starts 2:06)

He also wrote poetry, and this poem, from his book Actual Air, is just so incredible I’m presenting it in its entirety (via poemhunter).

Self- Portrait at 28

I know it's a bad title but I'm giving it to myself as a gift on a day nearly canceled by sunlight when the entire hill is approaching the ideal of Virginia brochured with goldenrod and loblolly and I think "at least I have not woken up with a bloody knife in my hand" by then having absently wandered one hundred yards from the house while still seated in this chair with my eyes closed. It is a certain hill the one I imagine when I hear the word "hill" and if the apocalypse turns out to be a world-wide nervous breakdown if our five billion minds collapse at once well I'd call that a surprise ending and this hill would still be beautiful a place I wouldn't mind dying alone or with you.

I am trying to get at something and I want to talk very plainly to you so that we are both comforted by the honesty. You see there is a window by my desk I stare out when I am stuck though the outdoors has rarely inspired me to write and I don't know why I keep staring at it. My childhood hasn't made good material either mostly being a mulch of white minutes with a few stand out moments, popping tar bubbles on the driveway in the summer a certain amount of pride at school everytime they called it "our sun" and playing football when the only play was "go out long" are what stand out now. If squeezed for more information I can remember old clock radios with flipping metal numbers and an entree called Surf and Turf. As a way of getting in touch with my origins every night I set the alarm clock for the time I was born so that waking up becomes a historical reenactment and the first thing I do is take a reading of the day and try to flow with it like when you're riding a mechanical bull and you strain to learn the pattern quickly so you don't inadverantly resist it.

II two I can't remember being born and no one else can remember it either even the doctor who I met years later at a cocktail party. It's one of the little disappointments that makes you think about getting away going to Holly Springs or Coral Gables and taking a room on the square with a landlady whose hands are scored by disinfectant, telling the people you meet that you are from Alaska, and listen to what they have to say about Alaska until you have learned much more about Alaska than you ever will about Holly Springs or Coral Gables. Sometimes I am buying a newspaper in a strange city and think "I am about to learn what it's like to live here." Oftentimes there is a news item about the complaints of homeowners who live beside the airport and I realize that I read an article on this subject nearly once a year and always receive the same image. I am in bed late at night in my house near the airport listening to the jets fly overhead a strange wife sleeping beside me. In my mind, the bedroom is an amalgamation of various cold medicine commercial sets (there is always a box of tissue on the nightstand). I know these recurring news articles are clues, flaws in the design though I haven't figured out how to string them together yet, but I've begun to notice that the same people are dying over and over again, for instance Minnie Pearl who died this year for the fourth time in four years.

III three Today is the first day of Lent and once again I'm not really sure what it is. How many more years will I let pass before I take the trouble to ask someone? It reminds of this morning when you were getting ready for work. I was sitting by the space heater numbly watching you dress and when you asked why I never wear a robe I had so many good reasons I didn't know where to begin. If you were cool in high school you didn't ask too many questions. You could tell who'd been to last night's big metal concert by the new t-shirts in the hallway. You didn't have to ask and that's what cool was: the ability to deduct to know without asking. And the pressure to simulate coolness means not asking when you don't know, which is why kids grow ever more stupid. A yearbook's endpages, filled with promises to stay in touch, stand as proof of the uselessness of a teenager's promise. Not like I'm dying for a letter from the class stoner ten years on but... Do you remember the way the girls would call out "love you!" conveniently leaving out the "I" as if they didn't want to commit to their own declarations. I agree that the "I" is a pretty heavy concept and hope you won't get uncomfortable if I should go into some deeper stuff here.

IV four There are things I've given up on like recording funny answering machine messages. It's part of growing older and the human race as a group has matured along the same lines. It seems our comedy dates the quickest. If you laugh out loud at Shakespeare's jokes I hope you won't be insulted if I say you're trying too hard. Even sketches from the original Saturday Night Live seem slow-witted and obvious now. It's just that our advances are irrepressible. Nowadays little kids can't even set up lemonade stands. It makes people too self-conscious about the past, though try explaining that to a kid. I'm not saying it should be this way. All this new technology will eventually give us new feelings that will never completely displace the old ones leaving everyone feeling quite nervous and split in two. We will travel to Mars even as folks on Earth are still ripping open potato chip bags with their teeth. Why? I don't have the time or intelligence to make all the connections like my friend Gordon (this is a true story) who grew up in Braintree Massachusetts and had never pictured a brain snagged in a tree until I brought it up. He'd never broken the name down to its parts. By then it was too late. He had moved to Coral Gables.

V five The hill out my window is still looking beautiful suffused in a kind of gold national park light and it seems to say, I'm sorry the world could not possibly use another poem about Orpheus but I'm available if you're not working on a self-portrait or anything. I'm watching my dog have nightmares, twitching and whining on the office floor and I try to imagine what beast has cornered him in the meadow where his dreams are set. I'm just letting the day be what it is: a place for a large number of things to gather and interact -- not even a place but an occasion a reality for real things. Friends warned me not to get too psychedelic or religious with this piece: "They won't accept it if it's too psychedelic or religious," but these are valid topics and I'm the one with the dog twitching on the floor possibly dreaming of me that part of me that would beat a dog for no good reason no reason that a dog could see. I am trying to get at something so simple that I have to talk plainly so the words don't disfigure it and if it turns out that what I say is untrue then at least let it be harmless like a leaky boat in the reeds that is bothering no one. VI six I can't trust the accuracy of my own memories, many of them having blended with sentimental telephone and margarine commercials plainly ruined by Madison Avenue though no one seems to call the advertising world "Madison Avenue" anymore. Have they moved? Let's get an update on this. But first I have some business to take care of. I walked out to the hill behind our house which looks positively Alaskan today and it would be easier to explain this if I had a picture to show you but I was with our young dog and he was running through the tall grass like running through the tall grass is all of life together until a bird calls or he finds a beer can and that thing fills all the space in his head. You see, his mind can only hold one thought at a time and when he finally hears me call his name he looks up and cocks his head and for a single moment my voice is everything: Self-portrait at 28.

There is only so much time to read, listen to, and see all the wonderful things people have created. David Berman made work well worth spending some of that precious time on.

Rest in Peace.

[morningnews24h]

How Biden's inauguration will be affected by COVID-19, Trump's absence

The inauguration could resemble the largely virtual Democratic convention.

December 6, 2020, 10:16 PM

• 9 min read

While running for president during the coronavirus pandemic, President-elect Joe Biden took his campaign online, scrapping large, in-person gatherings and most travel in favor of remote and socially distant campaign events.

On Friday, the president-elect said his inauguration would follow a similar model, telling reporters it could resemble the Democratic National Convention this summer, rather than the typical celebration that regularly brings hundreds of thousands of people to Washington.

“There probably will not be a gigantic inaugural parade down Pennsylvania Avenue,” Biden said. “But my guess is you'll see a lot of virtual activity in states all across America, engaging even more people than before.”

President Donald Trump's ongoing refusal to accept the election results -- or say whether he'll attend Biden's inauguration -- could also reshape the traditional celebration of the peaceful transfer of power.

Biden formed his inaugural committee early last week, adding several more staffers on Friday. Under normal circumstances, the organization is tasked with raising tens of millions of dollars to help organize inaugural balls and the parade down Pennsylvania Avenue from Capitol Hill to the White House. It also generally works with Congress on the program for the swearing-in ceremony.

"The inauguration presents a challenging timeline for any new administration under normal circumstances,” said Emmett Beliveau, who was the executive director for President Barack Obama’s first inaugural committee and went on to serve in several roles in the Obama White House.

“Now it's exacerbated not just by the pandemic, but by the delay of the acknowledgement of the transfer of power by the Trump administration,” he added, pointing to the fact that Biden’s team was established roughly two weeks later than Obama’s inaugural organization, due in part to the General Services Administration's refusal to formally acknowledge Biden’s victory for several weeks.

Questions around a traditional program

Construction crews have been at work around Washington preparing for the inauguration since September.

The expansive stage being built on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol for the swearing-in ceremony typically holds 1,600 people every four years -- including former presidents, members of Congress and the Supreme Court justices.

It’s expected to hold far fewer people next month to account for social distancing during the proceedings, according to people involved in preparations for the event.

Biden said Friday he still expects some sort of ceremony outside the Capitol, and he has previously said he wouldn’t wear a mask during his swearing-in.

A spokesperson for the House-Senate committee that is organizing the Capitol Hill swearing-in ceremony told ABC News that planners, working with Biden’s team, plan to implement a “layered” health and safety approach, which will include masks, social distancing and testing for COVID-19. The group is considering mandatory testing for anyone on the platform near Biden.

While many House and Senate offices have begun soliciting requests for inaugural tickets from constituents, organizers have not yet decided how many of the 200,000 tickets for access to the Capitol grounds will be distributed, or if any crowd of ticketed guests will be allowed.

The weather could also create headaches for Biden’s team. Every president has been sworn in on the Capitol’s West Front since 1985, when President Ronald Reagan was forced to take the oath of office in the Capitol Rotunda, the backup location, because of poor weather. An indoor ceremony during the pandemic would almost certainly include fewer people than a scaled-down outdoor event.

Without adjustments, the typical inaugural parade -- which brings together participants from across the country -- and inauguration interfaith prayer services could wind up facilitating the spread of the virus.

Concerns about what the state of the pandemic will be in January are keeping some of Biden’s biggest supporters away from the celebration.

“If there’s ever a super spreader event possibility, that would be it,” said John Morgan, a prominent Florida attorney and longtime Biden donor and supporter, about deciding to forego the inauguration.

Congressional organizers still haven’t made a decision on whether to move forward with the traditional post-ceremony luncheon held in the National Statuary Hall in the Capitol.

It’s the same space where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was scheduled to hold a dinner reception for newly elected House Democrats in November. After social media backlash, that event was canceled, and incoming members were given takeout boxes instead. (House Republicans, who have been criticized for holding indoor gatherings on Capitol Hill during the pandemic, moved forward with their own event.)

“The importance of the inauguration can’t be underestimated in terms of how it brings folks together and focuses on the challenge of governance,” said Patrick Gaspard, who served as White House political affairs director under Obama and was involved in planning both Obama inaugural events.

Biden’s team could also look back to past inaugural balls for inspiration. Several of the inaugural balls in 2009 were organized in conjunction with television networks, allowing viewers across the country to take in the speeches and performances without traveling to Washington.

Events with proper safety precautions, while lacking the traditional inaugural trappings, could present Biden with an opportunity to focus the nation’s attention on the coronavirus pandemic and the importance of public health guidelines.

“Even in the performance of this kind of inauguration that’s socially distant, that has a heavy virtual component, that models the effective use of [protective equipment] -- that actually puts the pandemic forward in a way that is prescriptive and brings folks together,” Gaspard told ABC News.

The convention blueprint

Biden accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for president from Delaware on Aug. 20, after a three-day virtual convention that was kicked off in Milwaukee, produced from Los Angeles and featured a nationwide roll call and several live speakers in different cities across the country.

After speaking indoors in an arena with no crowd and a handful of socially distanced, masked reporters, Biden moved outside of Wilmington’s Chase Center to gather on stage with his family and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to wave to packs of supporters honking from cars in the parking lot.

Democrats gathered at small or socially distanced watch parties across the country throughout the week, and official television programs regularly cut to images of supporters cheering from their living rooms or backyards.

“I think the convention we put on really opened up avenues that we never thought existed,” Biden said Friday, noting that he doubted there would be another Democratic Convention exactly like it used to be. “I think we can include more people. People want to celebrate. People want to be able to say we’ve passed the baton, we're moving on, democracy has functioned.”

Trump won't say if he will attend

Outgoing presidents usually play a prominent role in inaugural proceedings, hosting the incoming president at the White House in the morning, riding with them to Capitol Hill for the ceremony and, in recent years, departing the Capitol after the swearing-in via helicopter.

But President Trump has refused to acknowledge his loss. His legal team has spent the weeks since the election unsuccessfully trying to contest the results in several key states. Trump has even pressured state GOP leaders to overturn the election results in their states, and he has been supportive of an effort to challenge the certification of the results in early January.

The Washington Post reported Saturday that Trump called Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, in an effort to convince him to get the state’s legislature to overturn Biden’s victory in Georgia.

Trump has said he will leave the White House on Jan. 20, but he has refused to say whether he’d attend Biden’s inauguration.

“I don’t want to say that yet,” he recently told reporters.

If Trump skips his successor’s inauguration, he would be just the fourth president in American history to do so, according to Jim Bendat, an inaugural historian and author of “Democracy’s Big Day: The Inauguration of Our President, 1789-2013."

Presidents John Adams, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Johnson did not attend the inaugurations of their successors, which would make Trump the first president in more than 150 years not to take part in the ceremony.

“It's been a long time since an outgoing president didn't participate, but Trump wouldn't be as unique as perhaps his supporters think,” Bendat told ABC News.

Biden told CNN on Thursday he personally would not care if Trump does not attend the inauguration, but he said his predecessor’s participation in the event would be “important in a sense that we are able to demonstrate, at the end of this chaos that he's created, that there is a peaceful transfer of power with the competing parties standing there, shaking hands and moving on."

ABC's Averi Harper and Trish Turner contributed to this report.

https://albahuth.info/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2036-how-bidens-inauguration-will-be-affected-by-covid-19-trumps-absence.jpg https://albahuth.info/?p=2036&feed_id=770 #world

[djseaward]

a year of life & travels: 2017

today is new year’s day and it’s time for a recap of last year! it was another great year of being based in southwestern czech republic, feeling like home both here and back in my home country (and realizing that “home” is just a construct), and going to some magical places.

let’s revisit them, shall we? i changed the title of this year’s post to “life & travel” because, as i learned last year, travel isn’t everything and it is also important to capture what else was going on in one’s life. although for this post, it still remains the focal point. (don’t worry) so without further ado....

in january, we had the coldest and snowiest month that i have ever experienced with low low temps that froze over all of the ponds in south bohemia. you know what that meant? checking off my life-long dream to ice skate on a frozen pond! i ended up getting a cold promptly after that day, but it was so worth it. now i am too much of an ice skating elitist to ever skate on anything man-made ever again! (kind of joking, but...)

i also cooked a several course vegetarian dinner for burn's night! (why? we are hopeless "scot-ophiles” who love any good excuse to drink an islay malt and celebrate the the works of burns on a cold, dark winter’s night) that veggie haggis was definitely worth coming back to this month... ooh, i hope i can remember the recipe. it was actually make-again delicious.

in early february we took the first of what would be many many days in the big city (prague). we brought ferdie for his first ever trip on a train, he stayed with a dog-sitter while we saw the vaclav havel exhibit at dox, and generally had ourselves a perfect holešovice day, trudging through slush to get to our favorite cafes and enjoying brunch near the marina. (did you know holešovice had a marina?) i feel like i know the district quite better now!

we also had a very memorable valentine's day tea at born in london and i introduced my favorite students to the british tradition of pancake day -- what better than a lesson where you're making pancakes?!

in early march, my mother-in-law came for her first ever trip to europe and we were so excited to travel with her and take her to all the best spots in prague, český krumlov, and crossing the border into germany to visit bamberg! i had been in bamberg ten years ago during my studies in germany and it just does not disappoint for a low-key trip with excellent food and beer and historical sights. we may have brought two kegs and a few bottles of rauchbier home with us....

april first is always a strange day as the weather is usually quite wacky -- sure enough this year it brought our first forays into summer temperatures, if you can believe it. we marked that day by visiting the beautiful terčino údolí right here in south bohemia - a valley full of blooms, trails, a waterfall, and loads of other cool things to explore. we ate schnitzels while sitting on the terrace of a chateau, because we are in europe. and it was grand.

in mid-april for our long easter weekend, we rode the train into the šumava mountains to the train station with the highest elevation in the country! there we spent our time in a cozy mountain-style house, hiking and relaxing. we couldn't believe our little ferdinand walked 22km in one day! i think this trip is when we realized hiking with him (off-leash) is one of our favorite things to do.

glorious may brought beautiful cherry blossoms, garden parties, and outdoor festivals. i spent my birthday in český krumlov, staying the night there for the first time in over ten years and realizing how magical the town is by night... and how we miss out when we go back home to budejovice before dusk falls! it was brilliant to do all those tourist things like take a coffee in the square, walking around with an ice cream, and doing a bit of shopping in shops i don't usually even bother to set foot in. with our sweet accommodation south of the center right on the river (above), i truly never wanted to leave.

we spent a nice day in june in prague's vinohrady and vršovice districts to celebrate our wedding anniversary with the best mexican food in the country and doing all those big city things. sometimes it's just nicer to avoid old town altogether! (although sometimes i do quite the opposite - there's a time for everything)

at the very end of the month, we shrugged off the long spring and school year with a night in mariánské lázně - a beautiful town in the hills of northwest czech republic that is well-known for its spas and hosting many a famous guest over the past hundreds of years. we danced to jazz in the colonnade and took a hike the next day in the rain... because when you only have a limited time in a new place, you're not going to let a little rain dampen your plans!

at the beginning of july, we woke up and found ourselves in karlovy vary again for our fourth film festival. this time we took it way easier than in past years by staying directly in the center of town and felt so extremely spoiled! it was a great festival, albeit a bit cooler in temperature than every other year. when we got back, we stayed for a weekend with friends at a cottage deep in the wilds of sobo (erm, south bohemia) to have a nice rest before summer camp ramped up.

at the end of the month, we bid czechland goodbye and said hello to chicago! what a city -- i planned to do so much and ended up doing none of the things i thought i would, but instead discovered a whole new side which ended up being one of our favorite parts of our united states trip.

we were in michigan at the beginning of august visiting family and attending a wedding before flying to portland and staying with my dear friend, megs. i can't tell you how good it felt to have landed in the northwest after so long! i felt so at home immediately in that airport terminal. we rented a car and took off for central oregon to be based out of bend for the wedding of another dear friend, julie. we floated the deschutes river, visited many local breweries, and just generally enjoyed that central oregon high desert vibe.

the second half of the month was spent back home in washington -- i was so pleased to make it to my brother's birthday party at his new house as well as a family camping trip near mt. baker, much-needed karaoke nights, hikes, and of course, visiting all the beaches and eating seafood whenever possible... i even learned how to shuck an oyster! we enjoyed our time so thoroughly that it was almost as though i forgot i had to leave again...

(but i missed this little guy quite a lot)

the beginning of september was a bit rough going, but there are so many fun things happening right in budejovice that it is hard not to enjoy being in south bohemia. we spent some lovely, lazy afternoons in český krumlov, our first czech wedding, and then at the end of the month took a "wine vacation" to south moravia -- znojmo, to be exact! staying right on the square in a spacious apartment and hiking through podyji national park to a winery was a highlight, as well as checking off another thing on my "life to-do list": drinking wine in a vineyard. 

we even moseyed on down into austria for a morning (as it was just across the border from znojmo) and hiked up to a famous windmill as well as toured a huge underground wine cellar. it was a beautiful weekend!

the weather was absolutely gorgeous here in october. we popped off to prague to spend time immersed in the beautiful old town as well as stop at some farmer's markets and get the obligatory annual pumpkin spice latte. we walked to the very end of the street we used to live in (in malá strana) which leads directly up petřín hill -- a fine time of year for a walk amongst the changing colors of the leaves, clear views, and good weather.

november was about "home" in south bohemia if i had to give it a theme -- we focused on home improvement -- we got a new couch, as well as other appreciated upgrades and went to two big dinners: our first st. martin's dinner as well as hosting thanksgiving for the second time. 

on the first of december, we found ourselves in prague yet again for a farewell party of the last of our fellow TEFLers still left in the country -- i can't quite believe that we are the last ones still here of our group from five years ago! it was an emotional time but it's was so good to reconnect with our prague buds. i visited some of the christmas markets there including an attempt to visit old town square, but y'all -- the tourist situation is out of control compared to five years ago (when it was still quite heavy). although there is something special about the market there during advent time... i will probably continue to return despite the crowds!

for christmas, as you may have read, we were in southeastern bavaria (near the austrian border) in the heart of the bavarian alps -- a fantastic and memorable time.

the top five most popular posts on adventurings this year...

-- what i've learned about language learning after +4 years-- best tips & tricks!

-- slow pace or rat race? -- reconciling the relaxed south bohemian lifestyle with what i think i “should” be doing

-- back from the usa + 10 things i love about home -- i was a bit homesick, could you tell? 

-- the expat's guide to christmas away from home -- so many tried & true tips and ideas here

-- musings on identity and being an american -- what i've made of my national identity after five years away

these happened to also be my favorite posts i have personally written this year. funny, that.

i also posted two delicious recipes: a deliciously autumnal pumpkin miso soup, the perfect springy weekday cake, & i shared my fool-proof meal planning strategy.

so, where will we go in 2018?

i am so excited that we are planning a real, actual vacation this year! not a trip. just a lay by the pool somewhere beautiful, visit wineries, eat bread and cheese from a local market, hike and bike ride through the beautiful countryside... this is likely going to take us to provence, france. i think a week or so of living the provençal life will be just the thing, and perfect timing after the school year finishes. (time to brush up on my non-existent french!)

i am also pleased to say we’re planning to head to berlin for a month this next summer! it will be the longest consecutive time i’ve spent there for ten years, and i’m looking forward to greatly improving my language study (actually being in the country should sure help!) and finally doing some berlin things i haven’t yet managed in the past decade. ‘tis time.

everything else is up in the air, so we’ll see where the year takes us! i feel oddly optimistic and ready for this new year. how are you feeling about it? where are you headed this year? if you have any provence tips, i am really all ears.

thanks for being around this year! i have loved & appreciated your comments, shares, connecting with you elsewhere, and the fact that you are here reading this right now. happy new year!

keep up with me in 2018 on bloglovin, twitter, instagram, or facebook.

this post is part of the january travel link-up.

ps, you might like ‘year of travels’ recaps of past years: 2016, 2015, & 2014.

[riotkvica]

Life In and Out of the Bubble

As a single mom with aging parents who are neither fit nor available for full time child care and extended family that is either very far or going through various hardships, I have been playing musical chairs with my bubble the entire summer with the goal of being able to work uninterrupted a few hours a day. In March and April before the concept of a bubble became a thing, my daughter and I were 100% socially isolated and welcomed the opportunity to recover from our 2 hour daily commute and to bond.

It took two months of scheduling acrobatics to admit to myself that I couldn't get my work done while caring for a three year old in a one bedroom split level apartment. When my manager also woke up to this fact, I took a month off and collected CERB. Mid May with the introduction of social bubbles and seeing that I was about to be replaced at my job, we formed a bubble with my parents and by mid June I was ready to go back to work.

(Things were not as smooth as all that; never one to run from complex scenarios and starved for adult conversation, I tried to bring my boyfriend in my bubble, and after being repeatedly turned down by him I looked to make new friends which brought bubble contamination issues. I met one new friend outside but we were not always six feet apart. When I came clean about this, my parents declined child care. My boyfriend spewed righteous and ego-hurt indignation at me. I ate humble pie. I got three tests to prove that my daughter and I were negative.)

Slowly things went back to the new normal. We celebrated my daughter's birthday mid June with a walk-by party: a cooler of popsicles, hand sanitizers, individually wrapped cupcakes, and loot bags for friends and neighbourhood kids to pick up as they passed by and waved happy birthday to my daughter. She wore a unicorn dress her aunt sent from Ottawa and she glowed with happiness. It was worth it even though when her best friend showed up, the two girls embraced and held hands for two hours. The socially distanced adults turned a blind eye.

Three days later my brother was found unconscious on an off road biking trail in a Richmond Hill park. We watched him hooked up to a ventilator, feeding tube and every kind of life maintaining machine in the most critical level of the ICU for two weeks unable to open his eyes and slowly thinning away while doctors told us that they could not predict much with a brain injury. I was expected back at work but no longer had child care as my mom sat up all night despairing about her son.

I reached for the magic ball of Facebook and pulled out a contact of a woman in the neighbourhood who a year before had advertised providing occasional child care to busy parents. Miraculously she was available and still providing this service. Between her and my mom I scraped together three hours a day of alone time in front of my computer. But this changed and grew my bubble considerably; it now included my daughter and me, my two parents, the babysitter and her son, plus another little girl she was looking after and the girl's parents and, according to the babysitter, no one else. I took her word for it. I got tested for the fourth time and my daughter started visiting the babysitter three days a week. My boyfriend let me share his bubble which included his son, his ex, and some other eight people on his ex's side. As a joint bubble, we were well over the limit of 10 but accepted it temporarily under agreement that we will keep each other informed of any changes and test at the first sign of symptoms.

I enjoyed the bliss of working uninterrupted for the first time since the pandemic started. In three weeks I established and launched online services for my program using a slew of online apps. I gained a measure of control over my online work space and set myself up to be productive and efficient. But my bank account did not reflect my newfound sense of optimism. The babysitter bills pushed me further into the red and made working for a paycheque look like an exercise in self defeat. For the first time in my relatively privileged adult life I felt the whirl-pull of social policies dragging me firmly in the direction of very limited choices and toward a cliche of a poor working single mother.

I took stock of my resources and made a new plan: I enrolled my daughter into full time private childcare next door to our home. This gave me a tax deductible child care expense for next year's income tax (versus cash I was paying the babysitter) and a few extra hours a day to start building a side business. It also freed my parents from child care responsibilities, made them more available to my brother during his recovery, and reduced my sense of being in a vice grip.

But what of my bubble? All these changes required constant calibrating and calculating of my bubble. I informed my boyfriend's side of the bubble of the changes I made and was silently expelled once again from the shared bubble. The last time I saw him was over two weeks ago; we wore masks indoors and so did our two children. Between this and the preexisting difficulties of being on two sides of the city, having ill-fitting schedules, and single parenting, our romantic relationship is heading to a slow smoldering end. But the story of my bubble is far from over.

As schools are poised to reopen, I realize that I need a strategic and single-minded bubble to help me stay afloat when responsibilities of child care, work, and homeschooling once again fall on my shoulders in the midst of flu season that will doubtlessly send my child home from school. I expect to see my parents much more infrequently if at all during the school year in order to protect them from the many unknown vectors introduced by the classroom. If, or rather when, my daughter gets sniffles, she will be sent home to... me alone. I think this is ultimately the reason that even two parent households are considering keeping their children at home and joining forces with other parents to form virtual learning pods. I am surprised that there isn't a readily available template online for a social bubble contract that would help two or more households discuss, spell out, and sign off on (!) various issues and decisions regarding their bubble - from the size and composition of the bubble, indoor and outdoor health and safety practices that to be followed, to schedule of adults overseeing distance learning, steps to take if someone develops symptoms, the duration of the bubble, and etc. This type of intentional bubble - not necessarily based on existing relationships but on the need to gain a measure of control as we try to both slow the spread of the virus and continue with life - would reduce the chances of virus transmission within the bubble, provide children with the opportunity to socialize safely, and allow adults to carry on with adult life responsibilities in the new normal.

Having figured out the ideal scenario under the circumstances, I put pen to paper and try to construct my daughter's learning pod and our bubble. It would have to include children close to my daughter's age, so JK to early elementary grades, in order for the socializing aspect to work and, frankly, for me to be able to provide learning support. Since I still have to work at least 4 days per week and have only one day to give to the learning pod as the adult on duty, the pod would require four other adults all putting aside one day a week in order for it to work. How realistic is that? And then it hits me - this only works for parents who can hire a nanny to be the main caregiver and overseer of distance learning while the parents go on giving 110% to their employers.

[docandprof]

And So It Begins...Again/Part 2

Good evening my most esteemed man!!

Oh man how I have missed you and this. It feels weird doing this, but a weird like that feeling you get when you go home after not being there for a while or revisiting something from your childhood. I also feel bad as I write this because I have been so active since getting back to my home in the South that I just haven't gotten to reflect on all of it with you. But man, has it been a crazy time already. What has it been, a month? Month and a half? Guess I got a bit of catching up to do.

So move in went well, love the house, I can’t wait for you to come in again (hopefully) and see this. Meet all the guys you didn't last time. I know it is probably better over there with you and our fellow hermit in your cozy apartment you guys have all to yourselves. I guess the first big thing that I did here was go to Live on the Green downtown where I saw Portugal. The Man and Spoons. Nothing beats live music. I am loving most of my classes, even Orgo isn't as bad because I am kindaaaaaa getting it. I did pretty well on my first exam!! Favorite class is by far my military history class because the professor is very laid back and isn't too serious. He makes funny little anecdotes and tells us cool things about history and battle. It’s kinda like I'm back in a high school history class with our amazing social science department. I have already read like four or five stories in my Spanish lit class that we read senior year, so that class is going well. I'm even getting more confident in my Biological Clocks class and raising my hand to answer questions in class. I wouldn't say that I'm thriving, but I am definitely improving a lot from last year and I think that you would be really proud of me.

Socially, I have started my rush events for BYX, the Christian fraternity I am joining. First event was a date event to the Tennessee state fair. I asked a friend to be my date since I didn't get to see the one girl I wanted to ask out. More to come on my love life, as always. All the guys are awesome and it feels nice to be meeting this new group of guys by force. It also helps that I have a couple friends who are rushing with me, so I'm not gonna be the only sophomore amongst freshman. The Dog House is doing well. Go follow our facebook page to see pictures and updates on what we up to and upcoming events. We did some volunteering at the Nashville Dog Days fair a couple weeks ago and then we just co-sponsored a social event where we made puppy chow as a house and brought some dogs on campus in addition to what the other groups were contributing. This Sunday we are having our first educational talk about service dogs, the first of what we are calling the Canine Convos series where we invite a guest speaker to come in and give a little talk about whatever the topic of that one is. I'm pretty happy with how things are coming along and where we are headed.

Fun fact: I am now a model! At the dog day fair that we volunteered at, there was a face paint stand that needed someone to model a new sugar skull design for the upcoming taco festival. So I agreed to do it and I will now be the face of the taco festival! I can check one thing off my bucket list now!!! And now onto the part you've been waiting for, the love stuff. As always, I'm super complicated and always thinking. BYX has really been forcing me to ask out girls to these date events, and I AM gonna ask out a girl properly to one of these, not just one of my gal friends. It has really been all about timing, not if I'm gonna do it. There is even a date bowling event tomorrow night, but I couldn't find anyone to go with me, even my friends because they have tests and dance practice and another option we will get into. So rest assured I'm on the offensive and not sitting back like I have before. But my mind got all screwed up over the past couple weeks because I met this AMAZING girl that I really like. But there are a couple things wrong. ONE: she is NIdhi’s best friend from home. This poses two problems, long distance since she doesn't go to Vanderbilt (but she is only like 2 hours away so it isn't like we would never see each other) and then there is Nidhi. She is one of my best friends here at school and I think I have feelings for her but since we are friends I don't wanna have what happened to Katie and I happen this time or something else. So there is that. TWO: she came to visit a couple weeks ago and we took her to a BYX party along with our friends and had an awesome time dancing and shotgunning CapriSuns and just being goofy. But I didn't get to say goodbye before she left and my one friend who is rushing BYX with me asked for her number and they have been talking a little bit. So I don't wanna be a jerk and undermine what he is doing. And THREE: I still really like this Rachel girl, I just haven't seen her at all this year to ask her out. But then there is the flip side. OH MY GOD! This girl, her name is Jaynie, is like the perfect girl! She gets EVERY SINGLE reference that I make whether it be SpongeBob, Monty Python, Nacho Libre, or any other weird thing. We think so very similarly! There are way too many things that I thought I was the only one who thought like that or did something a certain way, but I come to find that she is just like me!!! PLUS, this girl is studying Outdoor Recreation and Wilderness and likes to hike and be outdoors. This weekend, she was a volunteer at the Chattanooga Ironman, where she was stationed in the swimming part of the triathlon in a kayak and making sure the swimmers were ok. And this was on Sunday, her birthday. So Nidhi, Jake, and I drove out there to surprise her at lunch when she was with her family and she freaked out because she was so happy to see us! Sidenote: her family is awesome and just some of the coolest people ever. Her dad is from Chicago and knows where our hometown is! But they were so cool, they let us take her back to school and we spent the day with her and went to this awesome place in the hills where we sat and looked over a lake and nature. I even asked her if she wanted to be my date to this bowling event and she said yes! But she already had tickets to a concert that night so she couldn't come. But like I'm thinking she likes me, I like her, but I don't know what to do. She is even coming camping with us over fall break for my birthday! As you can see, I'm a mess and I need help. Maybe you don't even know what to say, but I thought I would just dump this past month plus of romance stuff on you. What’s up with you?! :)

Last story, promise. Last week I went to the MIsterwives/Smallpools/Vinyl Theater concert and had a blast. We got to like the fourth or fifth row from the stage. Nidhi and I got money thrown at us by the lead singer of Smallpools, and Jake got the guitar pick thrown at him, which he proceeded to pick up and keep. And to cap it all off, we got a picture with Vinyl Theater. So funny thing is, when we were taking the picture, I was standing next to the lead singer and we all did the arms around each other’s shoulders thing. But my hand was in an awkward spot and I ended up accidently holding his elbow. After the pictures were taken, he was like, “Ok who was holding my elbow?” and I was like, “Uhhh, me sorry.” And he just laughed and said it was cool and it was awesome how chill the band was! Now I'm getting geared up for The Head and the Heart concert this Friday, which Jake and I secretly bought Nidhi a ticket to as a surprise, so that is gonna be fun!

Sorry this was soooo long, just had some stuff I needed to say. Good to be back. Recommendation of the week: go to wrvu.org this Tuesday, and every Tuesday, and tune in from 9pm to 10pm for The Bedroom. It is a radio station that John Mark and Emmet do for the school and it is really chill music that is good for studying and sometimes I make guest appearances. If you search the site, you can get the live video feed of the studio and see us! Shoot me a text if you tune in. I think you already know my question of the week. But in addition, how are you liking your classes? Thanks again bud.

Love,

The Lovelorn Doc

[beainitaly]

Cisternino

Hello everyone! Still on the mission of getting the blog updated fully….. we’ll see! So, we have arrived in early May. May was a strange month, at least for me. There was a LOT of school work as prep began for the final exams (the last two weeks of May and the first week of June). I did some baking projects with were pretty fun and delicious (chocolate crinkle cookies, scones)

 and I worked on trying to grow a tiny little plant starter that I had purchased in Firenze on the school trip. It went very well! Unfortunately while I was away during my next trip, to Cisternino in Puglia, it pretty much died.

The first of May here in Italy is a holiday, like Labor day, but it’s just called Primo Maggio (like we say the Fourth of July). This meant we had no school! YAY! There was a little music festival happening in a park in Rende, so I went with my Intercultura friend. The day was beautiful, even if the music was a bit uninspiring. We sat in the shade and enjoyed the breeze and the trees with popsicles and hamburgers. In the afternoon, we walked over to the mall which is also in Rende and had some fun window shopping and making fun of ridiculous shoes that we saw (have you seen the kind that are covered in those sequins that you can flip up and down??). Also, we stopped at the McDonalds in the mall and I was shocked to see that they had an espresso bar with little tiramisu and different mini desserts you could buy? It was super fancy with like real ceramic espresso cups, and sooooo not what I was used to seeing at a McDonalds.

Anyways, just a week later was actually my friend’s birthday! We had an afternoon lunch party/barbecue with this adorable cake.

Finally on the 18th of May, I departed for Cisternino! This was a trip that I organized myself to go visit Ursula, a friend of my first cousin twice-removed (I think that’s the right name!) who we found through her amazing networking skills. Ursula partially owns a Trullo (a type of traditional Puglian house) in Cisternino, Puglia, and she vacations there every year. She was kind enough to host me there for four days and show me around the nearby sights and cities! The trip was absolutely fabulous and I can’t thank her enough.

Ursula and me!

To arrive, I took a bus from Cosenza at the insane time of 4:55 AM…. let’s just say I tried to sleep on the bus but was unsuccessful….. so when I arrived in Taranto, Puglia at 8:15 I was a bit tired. I met Ursi there, and we had a quick breakfast and went straight to the Archeological Museum of Taranto. It was fascinating, combining historical information about the change in population, culture, and ruling groups in the area with an astounding number of artifacts, organized and shelved very professionally. This was actually one of my favorite things that I saw there! Here following are a few of my favorite objects from the museum.

Below: a cool mosaic design that looks like it could be modern, actually from ancient roman period of occupation

The gold work was amazing. There were a lot of these in all different designs, stunning

Little birb in mosaic

I would wear these

An owl statue

Afterwords we went on a walk through the historical center of Taranto, which is on the water as it was historical a very important port. 

We stopped at the Cathedral of Saint Cataldo with this cool (byzantine?) mosaic of a camel on the floor and some beautiful inlaid marble work in one chapel. 

From there we drove an hour to Cisternino where the trullo is. A trullo is “traditional Apulian dry stone hut with a conical roof. Trulli generally were constructed as temporary field shelters and storehouses or, as permanent dwellings by small proprietors or agricultural labourers. The golden age of trulli was the nineteenth century” according to Wikipedia. Our trull was made up of 6 or 7 conical “rooms” connected by low doorways. They also had a lovely garden, outdoor seating area, and some farming of fruit and olive trees in the field.

Above: the trullo, Below: the valley of Cisternino

That afternoon we went into the town proper of Cisternino, where the architecture looks very haphazard due to a kind of “add on” history. When a family decided they needed another room, they just built one, even if it didn’t quite fit, or it was on the second floor and jutted over. And everything is painted white. It was very quaint and pretty!

The next day we took a guided tour with a group of (I’m gonna be honest here) elderly people. It went and visited little churches carved out of the sides of valleys around the ninth century, which were a way for the order who built the church to hide and escape persecution. They were also popular sites for pilgrimages. This is the Church of Saint Nicholas in Mottola.

Details of paintings from medieval times preserved in the church:

Ceiling carved to look like wooden beams:

The mini valley (more like a ravine, it gets deeper the further in you go) in which the church was carved

We got lunch at a nearby town, and then began our drive to see the Grotti (caves). However on the way the biggest thunderstorm I have ever not been inside a building for came down. The rain was falling so fast that the water was at least 3 inches high on the streets, and over half a foot in the gutters. Cars were sliding, and then the lightning started. Then the hail came. We pulled over on a bit of a hill, trying to escape the water, but I was a bit scared tbh. Luckily it let up in about 10 minutes, and then there was a rainbow!

The Grotti are a system of caves with spectacular stalactites and stalagmites, some of them given a brilliant white color by the types of minerals in the water. Photography was forbidden, but I did get this one picture of the original, biggest cave that shows the hole that leads to the surface level. It’s hard to describe the scale, but I think it was a couple hundred feet tall at least.

On the last day, we visited the town of Alberobello in the morning. This town is a UNESCO world heritage site because it is the only town in the world made up of trulli. Trulli are normally scattered throughout farmland, but in this case they are all lined up in little streets and it’s amazing! The town is mostly a tourist trap now, but interesting none the less.

In the afternoon we took a quick stop by the beach, where the wind was insane and the windsurfers even insaner (I saw one guy jump over 30 feet in the air and do a double backflip!!) before continuing on to visit the town of Ostuni. 

Below: Ostuni. Very picturesque, and I bought a tiny little owl statue there (I saw and heard many owls during nights at the Trullo, so it felt appropriate)

The next morning, I returned home to Cosenza again by bus but at a more reasonable time!! The trip overall was fantastic, but I came home to a pile of work to do to prepare for exam season….

Above: new olive tree on piazza Bilotti in Cosenza

I had exams in every material, kind of like the ones in January but more. Physics, Math, Latin, Science, Italian, and Art History. In one of my proudest achievements to date, I took a 10 on the Art exam. Also for my science final exam, I made a presentation about the circulatory system in two hours the night before, but let’s focus on the art exam, yeah?

Best Wishes. -Bea

P.S. don’t worry my science teacher likes me and I took a 8.5 on that presentation :)