It’s 4pm, and my day’s been pretty good so far…I’m feeling much better. I did yoga. Got some work done. I’m on my 7th glass of water. Aaaand my eczema is back (ugh). I have a cold compress on my face to soothe the uncomfortable heat-rash-type-bumps-that-telll-me-my-skin-isn’t-happy-with-me-for-staying-out-in-the-saltwater-an-extra-hour-at-high-noon-yesterday-because-it-was-too-beautiful-of-a-day-to-not-bask-in-it, but other than that, can’t complain.

It’s now past midnight but wanted to share tidbits from my day and some random thoughts for this longer than usual post.

Working from home has been great

My “creative studio”, aka the spare bedroom, is now a fully functioning WFH office for me and my mister. We moved the bed into the closet over the weekend and the space feels so much bigger, it’s made a huge difference. We share the workbench we built years ago and have designated workstations for our tech and papers to sprawl out and get tidied up at the end of the workday. It’s amazing how compatible we are, even being around each other 24/7 for an entire month now. We don’t chit chat too much during work hours, saving the lovely longer conversations and any tea we can spill for lunch and happy hours on the balcony.

Bought cloth face masks

Around 1pm, I left the house to pick up a silk screen print order—my work got new rash guards and I had put together a design with our logos so the science team could easily be identified underwater—at a local print shop. There was traffic on the road, which baffled me, as if people were just getting off of work and picking up their children from school all at the same time, but clearly those things aren’t happening so I have no idea why everyone was out and about. I walked into the shop with my batik scarf wrapped around my neck, covering my nose and mouth. I noticed they were selling colorful cloth surgical-style face masks, and I thought about my initial aversion to them because CDC started out saying they were a no go unless you were sick or a medical practitioner, but now that CDC is saying “hmm, yeah maybe you should wear them”, I’ve been more into it. I haven’t even bothered making any at home because I have perfectly functional bandanas and scarves which I prefer, but these were cute fabrics, and I liked that buying their face masks meant support for a local business, and would show everyone not wearing a face mask (aka almost everyone outside today) that it’s cool to wear one. You know, because I have license to make it cool. I purchased two face masks for $3 each, and I’ll post a photo of it later after I run it through the wash.

Today’s portrait

Been itching to take more photos on my Sony A7iii but my inspiration is at level F for funky. I want to start a daily portrait project (we’ll see if I actually do it), so I snapped a photo of Ian and asked him to snap this photo of me. I love that whenever I ask Ian to take a photo of me, he instinctively knows to take about a hundred photos so I have options to choose from because 98% of the faces I make are total derp.

My Mr. Man

I thought I was having a decently productive day, but I got off a call right about lunch time and walked into the kitchen and Ian had just made bread… like, literal bread. He was proofing it, and before I could even say anything, he was on another work call. I was v impressed. He added basil, sesame seeds, rosemary, and some other goodness I don’t even know, baked the bread after work, and it was ready by the time it was happy hour—and let me just say it was diviiiine. He made two loaves, one for us and one for our neighbors. Then he cooked a delicious dinner of honeyed teriyaki chicken, stir fry veg, and brown rice. I mean, I don’t know what to say… he’s a mad man! I love him so much.

Movie night (almost) every night

There’s something so calming about our new iso routine. When evening comes, we are in relax mode. Happy hour is followed by dinner, sometimes outside on the balcony when it’s cool out, or if it’s unbearably hot we’ll move the party to the bedroom where we’ve got the A/C going and the projector filling up the blank wall. Tonight, Ian really wanted to watch Uncut Gems. He’d heard raving reviews on it and just had to rent it from Amazon Prime. Now for the record, I’d say my movie selections are usually spot on. Ian’s is hit and miss, hahah… yeah, it was pretty bad, or at least not in our taste. Adam Sandler’s acting was great and all, but his voice just got soooo annoying, and it was just a super stressful movie to watch. 

A Brief Intermission

In the middle of watching Uncut Gems, Jabs called to let me know the short film she co-created at the Native Slam film fest in Aotearoa last month was completed, and invited us to preview it at her house next door. We kept our usual +6ft distance and settled in while she set up her projector and described the work that went into creating the film. I’m excited for her to later officially announce the film, so I won’t say anything else about it yet except that she did an amazing job, and we’re so proud of her! 

Good night!