Small accomplishments

About 3 weeks ago, our communal mailbox was vandalized. The postal lock was damaged, parts were bent and my box's lock was broken. It didn't appear that any theft happened but how someone could've gotten in and why they did the damage were confusing to all of us. Our front lobby door closer was fixed months ago. The door into the lobby from the garage has a lock and it was not damaged. 

While this was a frustrating situation, the worst of it was yet to come. It took several calls, a few visits and a lot of conflicting information for us to figure out what we had to do with our mail service until we could get our box replaced. 

Finally, this weekend, I found a handyman to remove the old box and install the new one that I found. 

The saga is not over, as we still need to wait on the Post Office to install the new postal lock and there is no ETA on when they will receive one. Sigh. I really want to be supportive of the USPS but they just make it so hard. 

Glimmer of normal?

This weekend, the weather started to warm up. While it doesn't get very cold here and we're certainly not dealing with the terrible storms hitting Texas and parts of the midwest and east coast, temps still drop and our homes are not well insulated.

After Sunday morning ballet class, Gigi and Yuki asked me to go with them to a local coffee shop that was around the corner. We got our coffees and sat at a curb just to chat. 

Afterwards, I felt a lightness that I hadn't felt in almost a year. And I realized that it wasn't just meeting and catching up with friends. It's also the spontaneous nature of our coffee meeting. Those kinds of get togethers are the small but vital activities that we lost in the pandemic. 

As we start to see the light at the end of this long dark tunnel, and as we mark 500,000 deaths in the US, I hope we can get back those small things as much as the big ones.

Pandemic birthday

Last spring, I felt bad for people having pandemic birthdays. I thought I had just gotten mine in last February and assumed things would be back to some semblance of normal by now. It became clear shortly thereafter that COVID would be with us awhile so here we are, my turn at a pandemic birthday. 

So, it was a day like any other pandemic day, except for taking the day off work. I hung with the cats and watched them nap.

Did my grocery errand today instead of Saturday and hung out with my neighbours with a mini cheesecake they got me. Not a bad way to spend a birthday under any circumstances.

The best news happened for the cats: they have a new cat momma! I met with Azar via video a couple of days ago and she seems like a real cat person. I'm so excited for Grubs and Roly to find their forever home.

And it turns out Azar is a neighbour! She lives about 10 min from me. I love knowing the boys will be close.

End of an era in the White House and at work

Well it's was a traumatic, stressful, rage inducing 4 years. 

I'm completely obsessed with the wonderful young poet Amanda Gorman. Her poem was amazing and her performance of it, from her choice of outfit & jewelry to her hand gestures to her voice, transfixed all of us.

On a sad note at work, we were informed that Mike Mason is being let go from the company as of the end of February. No one (aside from the decision makers) understands this decision and those of us on the project are devastated.

The kitties are finally getting comfortable around me. 

Even Roly will hang on the bed with me. Such beautiful boys!

New cat visitors & a traumatic week

What happened this week at the Capitol is a wholely predictable travesty and tragedy. Also potentially terrifying. No more from me on that.

The kittens from December had to go back to the shelter during the last week of December due to needing medications for parasites. Candy corn was not going to be having any of that and let me know it. 

I found out a week later that they were being adopted. I was so thrilled for them but so missed them. They were so cute.

I picked up two new cats, this time 1 yr old orange tabby brothers. They are gorgeous cats but extremely skittish. Grubs, the short hair has been out playing with their toys and has even gone so far as to sniff my hand but won't let me near. I barely catch a glimpse of Roly Poly as he's dashing away between hiding places. 

They are amazing jumpers though! Grubs got himself into the tiny window ledge.

Roly stayed in the crate for quite awhile, although now he's mostly under the bed. I did catch him jump onto the top of my 5' cabinet in the bathroom! 

I hope they warm up soon, otherwise this won't be fun like the *corn sibs.

Ends and beginnings

The whole idea of the new year as we celebrate it in the west is fairly arbitrary. I mean, why not on the solstice? What meaning does this particular day have tied to anything going on in the real or natural world?

As has been the case for the last several years, our company was mostly shutdown between Xmas and New Years. Because we are being switched to new email addresses, we received new laptops and new phones just before the break. Not surprisingly, the instructions we received for switching over were pathetically inadequate so I did spend some time on the phone with tech support staff. Still lots of problems so that's going to be fun to deal with on Monday.

Xmas was spent alone. I ordered a meal from Casa del Mar/Shutters which was delicious and the family Zoomed in the morning but it was even more depressing than other years when I have chosen to stay home for whatever reason. 

I did plan an excursion with Ferreby to Huntington Garden which was supposed to be Monday, then was rained out by torrential thunderstorms! She worked a miracle to get us in on New Year's Eve. Ferreby has been a godsend over these past months. When people I thought were close friends have never bothered to reach out (despite my doing so), she's someone who has consistently found ways for both of us to get out safely and spend time together. The Garden was beautiful and the weather was perfect. We mostly stayed in the Chinese Garden, which had recently been expanded and reopened. While the plants in Winter are muted or dormant, they still add a beauty to the paths, water, and the backdrop of the San Gabriel mountains.

During the week, I saw an article about things to do on New Year's Day and it mentioned a horse ride through the Hollywood Hills. This was something I always thought would be fun but didn't really ever get around to. Perfect time and perfect excuse to get myself out of the house. Our group was just me and another couple. Again, the weather was perfect. The skies were really clear all the way to the ocean. Lots of people were on the trail, but most everyone wore masks plus being on horses, we were well above people's breathing zone and they also kept us safely 6' from each other. 

We rode up to My Hollywood (with a view of Griffith Observatory) and also right under the Hollywood sign. Although my butt is still sore, it felt really good to get outside this way.

The bonus of heading to this part of town is being a few minutes from Steven and Rob's house. I stopped by after and because they have a beautiful wide sliding door, we could be inside and still have an amazing cross breeze to keep us all safe. We still kept our masks on. I so thoroughly enjoyed just hanging out, no agenda, catching up with old friends. It really made for a nice start to 2021.

While I have no illusions that much will change by the turning of an artificial calendar, I do hope that with a new administration in DC we will at least start to have sane, scientific responses to this pandemic and that we will eventually, slowly (and maybe with some backsliding) start to find our way to our new future, whatever that may look like.

Fostering kitties

Last weekend, I took in two sibling kitties for fostering until they can find their forever homes. 

They are the cutest!! I kept them in the guest room their first day but they seemed pretty curious by day 2, so I let them check out the digs. The neighbours met them in the hallway that afternoon.

They have very different personalities. Popcorn is the male white and orange. He is more bold and took to me right away but he's also kind of feisty and prefers to play with his teeth. I'm trying to train him out of that but it's challenging.

Candy Corn is the female calico and she was more cautious but is super affectionate when she wants to be. She tends to enjoy pets and likes to sleep right on me or next to me. 

While I'm working, she will tend to sleep in the guest room with me, he will be on the sofa. They're pretty good eaters. They like playing with the felt dangly toy they came with. He's better and using the scratching box, she doesn't seem to have figurdt it out yet. 

He figured out how to climb the Xmas tree but hasn't done it again. Litter box duty is a pain. I'm still keeping them in the room when I'm out. Luckily, I don't get out much due to the pandemic. 

They can sometimes sleep in the most uncomfortable positions. I'm enjoying them while they are here, but it will be a lot less work when they are adopted. 

Pandemic Thanksgiving

In a weird year, Thanksgiving is going to be different. I didn't travel, which I haven't done in a few years but I had always had friends to share the meal with. I had to figure out what to do on my own and I wanted a proper meal. It turned out to be challenging to find places selling single meals instead of for 4 to 6. 

As I was feeling fairly sorry for myself, I saw a note from my friend Tricia about volunteering as a Thanksgiving meal driver for Project Angel Food. I decided that I needed to help others to remind myself of what I have to be grateful for. 

Shortly after signing up for PAF, I found a menu from a highly rated and fairly new restaurant that I hadn't tried before. Pasjoli was selling individual meals and their dessert was a pumpkin Basque cheesecake. Perfect! I don't much like pumpkin pie. 

As Thanksgiving approached I was pleasantly surprised by the organized and informative emails I was receiving from PAF. Many non-profits fall down on this front. In the morning, I headed to the meal pick up location. After some initial confusion approaching the location, I got my car into the line. First stop, make sure they have the paperwork they need (waivers, DL, insurance). Second stop, get the address list and a paper with the number of meals on my windshield. Third stop, get the meals loaded in my trunk. 

Before heading to the first stop, I pulled over to check the locations on the list. They are all clustered together in Koreatown and mid Wilshire. Aside from some parking issues, three of the deliveries went smoothly. One person was not at home. I left their meals with a neighbour who didn't speak English but looked like had at least one child. It took a couple of hours and I walked more than I anticipated. 

In the afternoon, I hopped on a Zoom call with Wilson and Ming and Mei's family. It was nice to see them all, Penny and Oliver have grown so much.

I had made arrangements with my neighbours Jasmin and Michael to eat together down by our fire pit. They canceled their travel plans last minute. About a half hour prior, I heated up the oven to warm up the turkey, stuffing, potatoes gratin, and green beans. Truffle gravy and cranberries warm up briefly in the microwave. Rolls get heated through in the oven, everything gets tossed on a plate. 

I brought down a bottle of 'FU Twenty Twenty' rose to share, which turned out really delicious! And the meal, so good! I definitely need to add Pasjoli to my takeaway list. They have a Xmas and a NYE menu as well. Need to think about that.😁

I finished with the pumpkin cheesecake with creme fraiche and caramel sauce. 

Seriously, why does anyone eat pumpkin pie? This was creamy with balanced flavours, absolutely perfect. Worth every calorie.🤤

Turns out, it was a pretty great Thanksgiving and I do have a lot to be grateful for. 

Lockdown again

CA and LA County are going back into lockdown. The COVID positive test rate is sky rocketing again. Curfew is in effect from 10p to 6a. Restaurants will need to close outdoor dining starting Wednesday. 

Meanwhile millions of people are traveling for Thanksgiving despite the fact many of them probably are carrying the virus but are asymptomatic. 

The amount of anger I have towards people who are not behaving for the good of the community is unspeakable. 

I'm taking the week off because work is exhausting and I won't be able to have a proper vacation this year. 

On Thanksgiving morning, I will drive to Project Angel Food and pick up meals to be delivered to people who are too ill to feed themselves. In the afternoon, I will heat up my to-go meal from Pasjoli, a fancy restaurant that's fairly new, was getting a great rep but I didn't have a chance to try before the pandemic started in March. My neighbours M and J had to cancel their trip to see family. So we three will meet down in our back area with our individual meals and share thanks for having good people for neighbours. 

Hallelujah!

The election result was announced on Saturday morning. 

Some of us celebrated last night with some bubbly. 

New Fridge!

Two weeks later, I have a fridge again! 

It took two stores (Best Buy, Home Depot), some soul searching to focus on what is most important for me in a fridge (side-by-side, white, ice/water in door, adjustable shelves), dealing with some friendly but not so knowledgeable staff, a long wait on hold with the delivery company, two additional trips to the store and finding the one guy who knows everything, and a pre-emptive call again to the delivery company because their automated call wasn't early enough for me. 

When the guys did arrive, they did quick work of pulling out the old fridge, installing the new one, removing all of the annoying protective plastic and disposing of the trash. Bonus: the fridge space floor has never been so clean.

I'm thoroughly enjoying the ice cubes and water, I've added some freezer organizers (at suggestion of my neighbour) and shelf liners and slowly building back my food stash. 

Pandemic silver linings

Here's my latest Bucket of Blooms project. 

First the bucket:

You can see the colours and different shapes and textures. The florist's skill is in putting the flowers together.

The florist used a wider shorter ceramic vessel whereas I used a taller skinnier one so I adapted the lesson to my vase's different shape.

I love the contrast with the silver of the vase and the asymmetry of the arrangement. I love this new thing I'm learning.

My neighbours stumbled on a fire pit for our back area and it's perfect! Several of us hung out on Friday enjoying the warmth of the fire in the slight evening chill of an LA autumn. 

Your most precious appliance is your refrigerator

So apparently, refrigerators are a hot (😂 see what I did there?) and rare commodity right now. Sadly for me.

My fridge (which was here when I moved in) bit the dust. It died overnight with all of my freezer items pretty much melted in the morning. I had a repair guy come and look at it but there was no hope. 

When I tried to find fridges available to be delivered in the next few days-nothing. I thought I had some options but even those disappeared the next day. 

I was able to borrow space from a neighbour for a couple of days. I found a mini-fridge at Best Buy late on Thursday. Crossed my fingers that they actually had it and I could pick it up the next day. And they came thru! Thank you Best Buy!!

So now I've got the few things I could salvage from my fridge stored safely. A few things remain in my neighbours freezer for the duration. I took the weekend off from fridge hunting, I'll pick it up again this week.

One thing I found online that has been a wonderful salve for the soul is the LA Phil's Sound/Stage series. They are a series of 1/2 hr online concerts, filmed at the Hollywood Bowl in August. The musicians are spread apart on the giant stage, wind players behind a plexi screen. No audience. There have been 2 so far and they have been incredibly beautiful and poignant. 

Almost normal

There was a lot going on this weekend, after a rather exhausting week of work. It started with learning of the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She made my life as a single woman possible. This is a huge loss and many of my friends and acquaintances are feeling it. 

And yet, so many almost normal things happened this weekend. My friend Amy had returned from summering in Minnesota and we planned a 'spontaneous' safely distanced afternoon meet up at Superba. I haven't seen her in real life since March and it felt so good to catch up and not have a screen between us.

I also figured out how to change out my air filters. Just one of those home maintenance chores that I had no understanding of and took forever to Google what to do. But with the poor air quality from fire smoke and the amount of time I have on the weekend to figure stuff like this out, no better time.

I almost messed up my Sunday morning ballet class booking but learned last minute that I got in, but even more special was that Gigi was coming to class for the first time and Yuki would be there as well! We haven't all been in class together in ages. Prior to the pandemic, our class schedules were just not the same. All three of us promised to have Chiyako in our thoughts during class. Ballet is the one thing that gives us a sense of our full selves. Aside from the masks, we have to work just as hard in class and focus just as much. It's such a gift. I think we all appreciate it more now than ever before.

After class, I hopped on an IG Live sale of crystals for a designer who I was introduced to via a work friend. I started out just wanting to lurk but it turned out to be super fun. By the end, some of us were chatting over the live comments and joking about doing a WLA meet up. 

Finally, the pandemic Emmys was Sunday night. It was a strange broadcast with everyone at home and some random bits happening in the studios. (Alpacas are cute with their moptop hair, but that was a lot of work for an Al Pacino joke.) I'm thrilled for Schitt's Creek winning so many and landing all 4 acting Emmys, and for the Watchmen wins. Schitt's Creek helped get me through pandemic spring and I'm so thrilled for this talented group of Canadians.

California burning

The west coast is on fire. From Washington state down to Southern California. A few days ago the ash was so bad in the Bay area that the skies turned red during the day. 

It wasn't as bad here although the sky was very overcast but with a sepia tone to it. It felt very ominous.

On a brighter note, the Bucket of Blooms for the month was a lesson in zhuzhing an orchid plant. It really made such a difference to a simple store bought orchid to put it in a nice pot with some succulents, change out the plain plastic clips and add some moss.

Labour Day

Long weekends during the pandemic are surprisingly sad. There's nothing much to do with your extra day vs every other weekend. Plus we have a heat wave here with record temps in the hotter parts of the valley and fires all around us. 

I managed to catch a cool astronomical sight with Mars being visible very close to the moon. The sky is a little strange due to smoke from fires and I think that's why the moon looks so red in this photo. Mars always looks red, which I find fascinating since outer space always seems very black and white. 

One of the things I've managed to accomplish lately (since my balcony and railings were painted) is to tidy it up a bit and fill the planters I inherited from the previous owner. Earlier attempts at plants failed so I went to the local garden center and picked up a succulent. They have a large variety of them, including a ton of echeverias and some of them are blooming. They are just the right size. Now pray to the garden gods that I can keep this one alive. 

The other balcony has a baby agave that I picked up free from a swap online. It turned out to be too large for the original purpose so I'm hoping it does well in the planter.

My herb cuttings that accidentally rooted are now in makeshift pots on the windowsill. I had to scrounge around for pots that would fit on the narrow sill. Again, fingers crossed that they survive. 

It feels good to be surrounded by plants. In addition to these new ones, I've got my decades old jade on the balcony, a new spider plant that I'm hoping will thrive from a baby, my avocado that I grew from a pit, and my orchid that never blooms but just put out a new leaf. 

End of summer

Hard to believe that Labour Day is approaching already. As with much of time passing during this pandemic, it seems equally that summer went by so quickly and also dragged on forever. 

This past week was my first Bucket of Blooms monthly delivery after the event that was organized by my vendor friend. This one turned out to be gorgeous with roses, thistle, dahlia, clematis and campanula. 

It was a great decision to do this, it gave me an hour to create and learn, and will provide a few days of beautiful display and scent of roses. I'll continue to do this while our outer lives are so limited.

Over the weekend we all learned that Chadwick Boseman had passed away from colon cancer. In addition to the sadness from losing a talent so young, we learned he was battling the disease while producing amazing work. Such strength. 

On a cheerier note, my neighbour's older daughter celebrated her birthday. Her dad made chocolate souffles for her and did a few extras for some of us. 

We enjoyed a beautiful Saturday night in our back patio area, talking and enjoying our desserts as the night cooled.

And to end the weekend, I finally got my act together to try a pita recipe that I'd found. The one I used is a whole wheat version. I used my pizza pan instead of direct on the grill grates (which just seems like a bad idea). It turned out to be pretty easy but relatively labour intensive since the bake times are short, meaning you stand by a hot oven making each one of the pitas individually. The place still smells like pita this morning. I'll try one later and see if the pockets formed. 

Rest in peace, Chiyako.

Yesterday, Gigi called to tell me that she had recently learned that Chiyako had passed. All she knew was that she had been hospitalized for pneumonia and had been poorly of late.

This was shocking news to all of us who knew her. It's been 10 years since she'd returned to Japan and it had not been possible to really keep in touch. She would drop a note for holidays and birthdays but I could never get a correspondence going. 

We originally met at Westside Ballet taking class with Aimee and then Joan. We, along with Yuki, shared a birthday month and year.  This picture was from a gathering at Joan's house in 2006, around Christmas. 

Nature as a restorative

I took a half day on Monday and met Gigi at Huntington Gardens. It's been so challenging not being able to think about or plan travel so I was excited when Gigi suggested the Garden which had recently re-opened. The Library and other indoor spaces are still closed. 

It was a hot day in San Marino but I so needed the time in this beautiful garden. One of the silver linings from this pandemic is that open public spaces are more sparsely populated. The gardens are still beautiful despite the terrible disease ravaging humanity and the ridiculous way that the federal government is NOT handling it. 

It was nice to have extended time with Gigi to just chitchat and shoot the breeze.

This is an art piece by Lita Albuquerque in the bamboo grove of the Japanese Garden.

Abundance within a restricted life

Monday was my chance to go to the office to pick up some stuff from my desk since we will not be working at the office for the balance of the year at least. They had some strict protocols in place to check we were healthy and had approvals. While I was there, I took a video of my walk to my desk and also a picture of the Second Century construction site. The giant cranes were put up and they are quite impressive.

This weekend was my 3rd Hello Fresh box and I've definitely been enjoying my meals. This weekend's delivery came on time (although the driver left it outside of our lobby door-luckily they text you and I could run down and get it 🙄). I've made the barramundi, and the zucchini tagine. Both were really delicious. The recipes tend to use a lot of butter and salt. I tend to reduce those ingredients. The fish was the first time I've ever cooked it at home and it was super easy and I really enjoyed it. There has been a commonality in a lot of the recipes: liberal use of lemon, garlic, onion. It was a good decision to start one of these services while our lives are so reduced. I really needed the inspiration.

The other main thing bringing me joy these days is taking ballet in the studio. Since studio 6 has the giant garage door, they are able to continue holding class there. It makes such a difference, gets me out of the house and out of my head, makes me work harder than when I'm at home, and usually Kelly and Joyce are in the Sunday class so I get to see them if only briefly. 

Friday was Ma's birthday this year and Mei arranged to have a special call with some of the extended family dialing in. Shen Shen, Shu shu, Gugu and Da Bo Mu all joined us. Al did a cameo, and Ching joined us late. It was great to see everyone and here how they are all coping. 

My latest pandemic TV is Schitt's Creek. I didn't think I would like it for quite a few episodes but now I'm a fan and I'm watching all the old videos on YouTube of the cast doing talk shows.