Hi, friends.  How goes the social distancing?  I’ll be honest – as I took stock of my bookshelves sagging under the weight of all my unread books; of my fully stocked tea cupboard; of the new containers of cocoa powder and bread flour in my baking pantry, I thought – I’ve been preparing for this moment all my life.  Fellow introverts!  It’s time for us to lead the people!  If only I didn’t have to figure out a way to get work done with two kids knocking around the house for the next few weeks, this would be a piece of cake.  Mmmm, cake.

So – yeah.  It was quite a momentous week in the world, huh?  It was pretty momentous for me personally, too.  About that: I started the week preparing for a huge project to come to fruition.  (I’ve been vague, but I guess I can actually tell you without divulging anything confidential: the big work thing that has been keeping me chained to my desk for the last month is a federal jury trial – my first, actually.  We rarely try cases, so this is a major source of work and nerves.)  But late Monday afternoon, we got word that the trial is indefinitely postponed, not actually because of COVID-19, but for unrelated procedural reasons.  It was welcome news, although I still found myself in the office, meeting with the trial team until after 9:00 on Monday night, just sorting through this new development.  So instead of spending last week getting ready to start jury selection this morning, I was catching up on other work.  Then toward the end of the week, the news started coming fast and furious.  On Thursday, I was notified that I am being promoted (not entirely unexpected) and that a bigger promotion (definitely unexpected) may be in the offing.  And then while I was still reeling from that surprise, my phone pinged with an email from the kids’ school notifying us that they would be shutting down effective today.  We were scheduled to go on spring break on the 20th, so they decided to close a few days early – we had no snow days this year, so I guess it was doable – and then revisit opening on March 30, when the kids would have been heading back.  They sent everyone home with distance learning packages just in case they’re not able to reopen, #gulp.

And that just gets us to Friday.  Wowsers.  Thankfully, the weekend was much more uneventful than the week.  We are being good community members and practicing social distancing as recommended by our Virginia health authorities, so we barely left the house all weekend.  On Saturday, I did walk to the library to pick up two books I had on hold, and Steve took the kids to run off some energy on the soccer field half a block from our house, but we were all careful not to touch anything and to stay several feet away from other people, and to wash our hands thoroughly when we got home.  (There were actually quite a few people out walking in the neighborhood, which surprised me a little bit.)  On Sunday, we stayed even closer to home.  Other than an hour with Nugget on a mostly deserted playground, I stayed in all day.  The kids watched movies and played games, and I cleaned and then baked up a storm in the kitchen (read on).  It was actually sort of relaxing, if you could forget for a minute why we had to stay home.

Reading.  My reading time tanked, rather, because my first concession to COVID-19 was to stop riding the metro a week ago.  I love taking public transportation, not least because it’s an hour and ten minutes, every day, when I just read.  But given that we have documented community spread of the virus in the D.C. area, it seemed like too big of a risk, so I’m either working from home or driving to work until things calm down.  That’s meant a dip in my page totals, and both of the books I read last week were on the longer side, so this is a short list.  I spent most of the week over The Priory, by Dorothy Whipple, and LOVED every second of it.  Review coming soon.  Over the weekend, I made it about three-quarters of the way through The Mitford Murders, first in a series by Jessica Fellowes (niece of Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey).  It’s a lot of fun, and I’m enjoying it – I’ll finish it up today and then be on to the next thing, which will probably be Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernardine Evaristo.  (It was one of the books I picked up from the library holds shelf this weekend, and there’s a long list of neighbors patiently waiting their turn with it, so I’ll have to prioritize it.)

Watching.  Not too much.  Frozen II again, of course.  (Benefit to a deserted playground: Nugget can belt out the songs while swinging to his heart’s content.)  That’s about it.  The kids watched some nature documentaries but I was in another room, so I missed out.

Listening.  The silver lining to my loss of commute reading time is: more listening time.  I started a new Great Courses audiobook (The Art of Reading), listened to a few episodes of The Book Riot Podcast, and sang along to The Book of Mormon while sailing down the GW Parkway.  But the highlight was The 46 of 46 Podcast‘s first installment in a new “ADK Campfire Stories” series, about a kayak fisherman who was stalked by a Bigfoot while camping on the Sacandaga River.  Shiveringly spooky!

Making.  So pretty much all public spaces are shutting down one by one, but do you know what’s not closed?  My kitchen!  On Saturday I baked a loaf of chocolate banana bread, which is already pretty much gone – the whole household loved it.  Sunday was the big cooking and baking day of the weekend, though.  I made my first attempt at baguettes, which turned out fairly well; a big pot of butter bean soup with vegetables; and a loaf of sourdough sandwich bread.  Between the butter bean soup and the sandwich bread, we’re set for the week’s lunches.  This bread-baking hobby that I’ve been working on is a huge source of comfort.  When times are weird and scary, it feels good to do something analog and tangible – like knead dough.

Blogging.  Another bookish week, of course!  I have a fun quote about spring cleaning, from indifferent housewife Shirley Jackson, on Wednesday.  And on Friday, March’s installment of Themed Reads.  (I’m excited about the topic.)  Check in with me!  And wash your hands!

Loving.  This week on social media, I stumbled across Subpar Parks – how had I never seen these hilarious travel posters before?  If you’re as clueless as I was, here’s the concept: artist and graphic designer Amber Share was astonished to find one-star Yelp reviews of our country’s most beautiful places.  But once she shook off her shock, Share turned the park-panning reviews into funny posters, quoting some of the worst.  For example, Capitol Reef National Park: “Somewhat Bland.”  Zion National Park: “Scenery is Distant and Impersonal.”  Joshua Tree: “The Only Thing to Do Here is Walk Around the Desert.”  And the crowning jewel – Grand Canyon: “A Hole.  A Very, Very Large Hole.”  There are a lot more, and the art is great, so do check them out and buy a print, a sticker or a postcard if the spirit moves you.  (Share is planning to design a one-star poster for all 62 national parks, so I’m waiting patiently for my backyard park, Shenandoah National Park, and then I will probably buy a few.)

Asking.  What are you reading while social distancing?