Category: Uncategorized

I went to lunch with Amy this week at this place called Shouk in which everything is vegan. It was great to see Amy, we talked about running – she is the most consistent of runners that I know. I ordered the classic falafel which is what I ate most days for lunch when I was pregnant with Vince and now he is a falafel lover (no not really). It was delicious and just in time because a vegan friend of Jeremy is coming to visit this weekend and Jeremy loves to cook and can do vegetarian, gluten free, keto, all without trouble, but he has a tough time with vegan. So we have some chickpeas (my favorite plant based protein source) and we’ll see how it goes.

We have a guest bedroom in relatively heavy use rotation, but you know, no one tells you anything is wrong with the bathroom because they are your guests. But my mother-in-law kindly mentioned that the shower head didn’t work that well and the drain plug was stopped up and so I fixed it all a few weeks ago and because of the weekend poop/diarrheal fiasco which embargoed the use of the primary bedroom’s bathroom for about 2 hours on Sunday afternoon, Jeremy took a shower in the guest bedroom and later that afternoon he said – you are killin’ it, the guest bedroom has the best shower in the house now. So he asked that I replace his own showerhead with the one I got for the guest bedroom. So I did that and on a whim (I’m a bath person) I went into the guest bathroom to check it out myself yesterday and discovered that the toilet flushing mechanism has given up the ghost. I really need to replace the toilet and asked Jeremy to buy a toilet for me (did he buy one for me for Valentine’s day? Perhaps. I do enjoy a good toilet install.) I will not be able to fix it before the vegan friend comes to visit which is a slight embarrassment. Not truly a problem because there are other toilets to sit on. I just don’t want her to forget that it isn’t working and then have to call for help after, you know, going to the bathroom. Gah. My life is so boring.

I’m listening to Sigrid Nunez’s book The Friend. I’m having a tough time reading/listening these days, nothing captures my attention for very long. I’m in a summertime mood. Hot and languid and kind of apathetic in a very positive way (I’m in a good mood these days). I’m trying very hard to lower the amount of advertisements I’m subjected to, so I’ve cut a lot of podcasts and youtube channels from my regular rotation (I read very little, I listen much more). This leaves me with audiobooks which sometimes I find too long or if I’m trying to do short form, I listen to New Yorker articles which can be fun, but also depressing in way because NYer articles are always about how something is bad. The medical system is bad, plastics are bad, sex can be good but also bad, etc. etc. Anyways, there was a quote in The Friend that I found fascinating about teachers and their students and the dalliances that they might have with each other. The quote is – “the thrill of bringing an older man in a position of authority to his knees.” In the modern era, it’s always presumed that it is the teacher (male usually) abusing the power dynamic to take advantage of the student (female usually). Which is often true, I do not dispute this situation. But I have thought that the power often lies in the female student because a man with such a strong desire to put everything in jeopardy for this seduction of a student, can be in a very weak position. Again, it depends on the parties involved and the exact situation – but there is, I think, a spectrum of stories.

On another, less sexy note, we gave up on Daybue on Monday. Sunday, we had a very expansive poop experience at the house in the shower. Isabella was handling Edda on Sunday and was – as they say – a trooper. So we held the Sunday night time dose and then on Monday, we went back to the previous weeks’ dose which was 40 mL hoping to hold steady at that dose for the summer (or at least use up the medication we have left in the fridge for goodness sake!). Monday at camp, Isabella was her counselor that day and the note that came back indicated that Edda might have spent about three hours in the bathroom and had the words “aggressive” and “foaming”. She had to miss pool time and Isabella was going to not be at camp for the next two weeks and we had a new counselor Maya and I didn’t want to subject Maya to such a literal shitshow. So I stopped it (or we stopped it, Jeremy and talked at length about all these decisions). And now it’s Thursday, Edda is still on Immodium because she’s still going like 2-3 times a day and so once her gut biome re-stabilizes well ease off the immodium. We didn’t see any noticeable benefit in Edda’s symptoms during the time she was on it.

I worked very very little this past weekend which is unusual for me. I often do put in substantial time on the weekends because my days during the week are often interrupted with camp drop offs/pickups, paddleboarding with Elka, seeing friends for lunch, etc. I’m quite lucky to have such a flexible schedule, but it does mean that I often don’t get into a flow state. I’m always interrupted and each day is different in the same sort of way, so it can be hard for me to reconstruct yesterday when I’m in today. Sometimes, the weekends are the quietest for me when I can get a lot done.

On Saturday, I went to see Past Lives (by myself). It was quite good, but I wanted it, somehow, to be better. I dunno. I think my attention span is now shot and I can’t watch movies that are just character and conversation based without getting a little bit bored. On the other hand, I watched that new Spider Man movie when Vince was home, and it was so hyperkinetic that it gave me a headache. I got a haircut and I ate lunch out and I came home.

I was expecting to work all day on Sunday, but I happily got a text from a new kayaking friend asking me to go kayaking with her and her husband on Sunday morning. Her husband is also a kayak instructor and I knew we weren’t going to do anything crazy. I did flip the boat at the end of the outing and I managed to do it close to a very stinky part of the river. I was hip deep in rotting silt trying to empty the boat of water and also to not lose my shoes 2 feet below the surface of the muddy bank. I came home covered in dirt and very very smelly.

Jeremy biked a lot.

Edda upped her dose to 50 mL on Friday night and there was poop everywhere on Sunday afternoon. Isabella was here to help, but man, it was something. So we backed it back down to 40 mL to reassess. I’m not sure where we are going with this. Jeremy and I don’t see any improvement with Edda’s symptoms.

Jeremy and I went Friday morning for a quick Elka/paddleboard training session. We headed to Riley’s Lock where there is a boat launch and a gentle slope into water that is not very deep. We did this for about 15 minutes. Goal was: to get Elka to sit on the paddleboard for any amount of time.

Elka does not know how to swim, so is a little nervous going into water deeper than her chest. She should be able to swim as she is part retriever, but she hasn’t had anyone show her that it is possible.

Photographic evidence that Elka did get on the paddleboard for about 10 seconds. We forgot to bring treats – our mistake. Next time.

Our dining room table (obtained from craigslist when we moved into the house) is getting sticky. The last time it got sticky, we did refinish the top ourselves, but it took months because we are not well coordinated and indecisive. And then after a few years of unsticky bliss, the finish got sticky again and this time, we turned the table 180 degrees and used the unsticky end until it also got sticky (we usually are only 3-5 people, so we usually sit at only one end). And instead of refinishing the table, I covered the entire thing in an old-school oilcloth tablecloth we can wipe down forever. Orange.

Elka so so much wants to be friends with all the deer in our hood. She gets pretty close a lot of the time.

Yesterday, I went to Alexandria with Megan to a cat cafe. What is a cat cafe? It is basically a very nice room in which you can pet about 15-20 cats who are all available for adoption. We paid about $20 a person for this privilege and had a very relaxing time. I had almost wanted to take a cat nap, lol. Megan’s been having a tough time and is a dedicated cat lover (3 cats), so I thought this would be a nice relaxing outing for the two of us. Though I had to make sure Megan didn’t come home with an extra cat. We both enjoyed the company of Sassafras who might not have enjoyed being handled exactly this way.

Megan was drawn, of course, to the special needs cat Pumpkin Shot who had three legs and was recovering from surgery. The cafe had about 15 people in it, but we were all quiet because we are cat people. It appears to be a popular idea for a first or second date because it’s located in the hip Alexandria downtown and there were two young-ish couples who seemed ever-so-slightly overdressed for the occasion and seemed to be awkwardly not talking to each other.

Megan and I had a long discussion about Daybue and so I do want to put a caveat on my pessimistic post before. We both agree that if there is a modest, but true benefit to Daybue, it quite possibly will be masked by Edda’s age. I know something is doing something in her brain because of the increased seizures during the first week of admin. I also think that if she is magically “cured” (like via gene therapy or some other method), that she will never recover fully and be like a regular 19 year old. It’s unclear to me that even with a full cure if she would be able to learn to talk or move well given that she has not practiced her whole life. If Daybue does anything, it would be much more marked in younger patients at the beginning of their neuroplastic development which there is not enough data to show if this is true or not.

Saturday night, we had Edda’s teacher, Mr. Pat and his wife, Teresa over for dinner and it was lovely and though he’s been Edda’s teacher for many years, we haven’t really had a chance to talk socially in a relaxed environment. He and his wife are so super cute together and she’s a special needs teacher too. It’s wonderful to have such dedicated and caring people in Edda’s life.

On Sunday night, we went to Eric’s for dinner and omg, it was the best Sunday night dinner food-wise in a long, long time. Eric made the most delicious shrimp paella and Claire Saffitz’s almond cake which Jeremy and I had watched earlier in the week and we were both like, OMG that looks delicious and when I went to Sunday night dinner and saw it, I was over the moon excited to try it. And it was amazing – so good, so almond-y.

At Sunday night dinner, we talked about the supreme court rulings, the gay website, affirmative action. I am interested in the affirmative action ruling. I have feelings about it, but they are complicated and nuanced as these things often can be.

And I bought a boat. I’m hoping to use it sometime. It pretty much negates all the stuff I’m decluttering out of the house.

I went on my last kayaking lesson yesterday. The air was still bad, but I went with my other intrepid students. This time, we kayaked along the part of the Potomac that hugged the part I’m most familiar on foot because we started where I often start my long runs on Sunday morning at the Old Angler’s Inn parking lot. Because I knew the parking would get bad close to the meeting time at 9 am, I got to the parking lot at 7:30 and read a book (I’m a paranoid nut about parking. I don’t like to go to things where the parking is hard and complicated and even in easy parking situations I’ll park way in the back of the lot. If you are a friend and don’t mind driving, I’ll ask you to drive every time, unless I’m also constrained by my other paranoia which is being stuck at something without an easy exit. Then I will balance the parking phobia with the quick exit phobia and see which one wins out.). Parking was not super easy to find even at 7:30 am.

I had a great day and I love it so much, I overcame my other phobia of social awkwardness and I asked for everyone’s phone number and I’m going to start a chat so we can all go kayaking together. (So that’s 3 phobias so far: parking, leaving a party when I want to and asking other people to be my friend – shall we keep going? Haha. No. There are many more.)

Vince had a great first week in lab, doing PCR, growing E. Coli, etc. His grad student (who seems great and super involved) gave him homework to learn to uncap and recap a test tube with his non dominant hand because you need to pipette hundreds of samples – so you hold the pipette in your dominant hand and uncap and cap the test tube with your non dominant hand so you can go faster. That’s what grad students are essentially – robots. Dani, his partner, came down to Irvine to see their family and Vince and the lot of them are traipsing around town showing Vince the good stuff – like hot Cheeto infused hot dogs?

We had a very social day today. In the morning, I went to see Kristen. We had planned on going paddleboarding, but the air was terrible and I actually preferred to go see the house she and her husband are renovating. During this visit to the house (beautiful! – she was self-conscious that it seemed not quite done and declared it a construction site, but it seemed more done than my house which remains, after 15 years, contractor white or as Jeremy said tonight just dirty white) I somehow ended up recommending a piercing place (Bethesda Tattoo) to her daughter and when I had to leave at noon to go back to work, they went off to the appointment and the daughter got two ear cartilage piercings. They, meaning Kristen and the daughter, are very enthusiastic about me getting an eyebrow piercing, but I don’t think I can do it when I’m dunking myself into the Potomac weekly.

At the same time, Jeremy’s friend Dan from Delaware came to buy one of Jeremy’s old bikes (the Surly Long Haul Trucker if you care), and they were going to ride, but the air was terrible and they spent a couple of hours chatting and fixing up some bike things and that was fun too. I’ve been working hard on getting rid of stuff in the house, posting on our neighborhood “buy nothing group” which I post things to give away everyday and people say they are interested and I pick one person and I leave the item on the porch and they pick it up and take it away – magic. Anyways, Jeremy did his part by selling his bike and because they are friends, they negotiated in reverse where Jeremy offered to sell at a low price to give his friend a fantastic deal and then his friend offered a too-generous price for such a used bike and after a few rounds settled in the middle. I know I’m a pretty dedicated exerciser, but the #1 thing I’m finding in the closet to give away are barely used exercise equipment that I get excited about and use for about a week and then give up on them. (gym rings, many types of balance boards, an aquajogger, etc., etc..)

Edda started camp on Monday. We love summer camp! It’s not without hiccups. I do the AM dropoff and Ginny does the afternoon pickup. Ginny has has some trouble with the afternoon pickup routines, we’ve already had a one-on-one counselor quit on us. But we are managing and Edda has been in the pool and has gone on field trips and – as far as I know – hasn’t had a disastrous poop incident. Whew.

We got to see V’s new accessible van – with a toilet and bed and it was very impressive and exciting.

Last night, I got to go kayaking at Little Falls. It was exhilarating and unbelievable and I felt so alive. I came home muddy and wet and with leaves settled into my sports bra and felt like I was a child exploring the world. This was part of my class, I would never ever do this on my own or even with friends that I didn’t know very well. There were about 6 students and 3 instructors each with decades of water experience. They taught us the line, they gave us pointers – keep going, keep going, keep paddling! I flipped the boat once and bailed and my boat and paddle went straight down the river, they retrieved the boat and the paddle and I got safely to shore and made my way back to the boat. And I made a friend! A young woman who is going to law school. I got her number and we’ll go kayaking together. The people in the video went when it was cold! No way no how am I adding cold temperatures to the adventure anytime soon. Summer air temperatures only. They also did fun controlled moves which I also did not attempt. I just went straight down as the water carried me trying not to flip over.