For this month's prompts, I took a look back at the prompts from September 2020, which I found in an unpublished draft. The last couple of weeks in 2022 have included a lot of soul searching, and I intentionally picked September 2020 to see what I was doing/thinking during another challenging time. Most of the 2020 responses could easily apply two years later, but I also came up with some new ones for 2022, apropos of the 'soul searching' bit above.
 |
| 1st trip back to National Portrait Gallery in a long time |
appreciating - (2020) social connections.
(2022) Still so true. I've had two recent happy hours with longtime and former colleagues, and we had friends over for dinner for the first time in a long time at the end of August.
anticipating - (2020) The changing of the seasons and cooler fall weather. I'm sure I'll be complaining when it gets too cold and dark way too early, but for now, I'm looking forward to any changes in temperature that permit wearing something other than shorts and tank tops.
(2022) Some big changes, like taking a sabbatical from work and using the time to move across the country and travel. Most of the details are still to be determined, but after meeting with my supervisor last Tuesday, I started telling people (including my family!) about it last week.
collecting - (2020) left blank
(2022) I'm adding to the collection of books from high school and college that I'm re-reading now, nearly 20 years later. Recent re-reads have included Fahrenheit 451 and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. The descriptions of the talking walls and constant search for distraction in Fahrenheit 451 felt eerily accurate to the social media landscape of today, and I'm trying to remember how old I was when I read Roll of Thunder for school. This time around, I was really struck by the racist violence, and it's fair to say that most of it went straight over my head back in the day. It's excellently written, and is one of the best books I've read this year.
starting - (2020) left blank
(2022) To figure out the details of taking time off work, moving across the country, traveling etc. One thing we would like to do before we leave is a week-long bikepacking/camping adventure from Pittsburgh back to DC on the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal. There's not a lot of time to train, but I can definitely be more intentional about getting more rides in.
finishing - (2020) A couple of books. After tearing through Where the Crawdads Sing on vacation, I've managed to keep the streak alive at home with a few books collected from various Little Free Libraries, including Kitchen Yarns (memoir) and Postscript (fiction). I'm also most of the way through Drinking Coffee Elsewhere (short stories).
(2022) - Finishing out summer by enjoying the bounty of produce as long as possible - peaches, corn on the cob, tomatoes, etc. We're really going to miss our weekly CSA when we move, and we will have to seek out another farmer's market after we get settled in AZ.
