Inputs:
To Calais, in Ordinary Time by James Meek: At a time when everyone seems to be hitting their pandemic wall, I decided to read a book set during an outbreak of the bubonic plague. I don’t want to diminish the suffering of anyone who has been affected by COVID-19 but TCIOT did make me feel some gratitude that we don’t have oozing pustules to deal with on top of everything else. This book follows three people: an aristocratic lady fleeing an arranged marriage, a serf joining a company of archers, and a proctor (can’t say I’ve gained any insight into what a proctor is, exactly, but it didn’t really matter) on a journey from England to France in 1378. The perspective of each of the characters in written in language that reflects their station in life with varying degrees of divergence from modern English, and at first I thought one of the threads in particular was going to be very challenging to follow, but I was surprised how quickly I fell into each of their rhythms. It was also much funnier than I expected and had moments of great tenderness alongside, you know, pustules.
Outputs:
A very literal one, being that I am about six weeks out from having another kid. I’m very sorry if our relationship is such that you might reasonably have expected to receive this news from me personally. My excuse is that I am deeply superstitious about discussing early pregnancies, and since so few people these days see me beyond the confines of a Zoom window it became very tempting to tell myself “Just another few weeks, then I’ll say something” so I just…kept doing that, and now here we are. There are some things I miss about being fussed over the way you are when you’re expecting your first kid under normal circumstances; but I don’t miss the fact that when you’re visibly pregnant while out and about in the world, every single person you encounter is granted knowledge of some pretty intense and personal stuff going in your life. Then again, if that bothers me so much, what exactly am I doing now?
Condiment Corner:
First purchased in one of my last pre-quar Trader Joe’s runs just as our babysitter arrived from Brazil, and within weeks it was gone. At the time I didn’t ask what she was putting it in because I didn’t want to seem like I was hovering, but I was very curious. I recently re-upped, in part because it’s nice little extra something on top of biscuits or the crust of a chicken pot pie, but mostly because now that a year has passed in which we have spent far more time than we ever anticipated in each other’s company, our relationship has evolved to the point where I can just ask her what she is doing with it.