I thought I knew what the title of this one was going to be….

… but I forgot.

It’s been that kind of a week, meetings, like the one on Thursday talking about are we going to Fall conferences or what; getting our AFS student registered for school and starting running; grad student problem emails; updating syllabi … wondering what the hell is going on, both weather-wise, and pandemic-related.

I keep getting these headaches in the afternoon, that make it almost impossible not to eat sugar. I don’t know if they’re from too much caffeine or not enough. Gummy bears help, but I can eat too many of them with shocking rapidity then suffer feelings of regret. And, I could’ve just let the bears run out – we were almost there – but when I went to pick up my prescription at Walgreens on Saturday, they were on two for $5 again, so of course I restocked.

On Tuesday morning I volunteered stocking the food pantry for the first in-person shopping day, and then on Friday I volunteered at the last grocery giveaway since it was the last day of kids’ summer programs. After, I biked downtown and met Mark & Maja at VO5. Jane got a cool pic of the governor at the show.

We biked home and got wood fired pizza and salad for dinner.

I can’t even remember what we had for dinner on Monday; looks like I had PBJ for breakfast, though.

Tuesday I made this eggplant curry that was one of my found recipes for CSA – and I thawed out some flatbread that I made for our 4th of July backyard party. It was good, but somehow unsatisfying, and I resorted to bears after dinner, and felt miserable and bloated by bedtime. Wednesday was a better dinner even though it was leftovers, stuffed peppers and zucchini parm, and even the last slivers of apple tart and peach & pear crumble (that I ended up throwing away more of than I liked) topped with the last dabs of pastry cream.

Thursday I went to campus for my book sale volunteer gig, and treated myself and my peanut butter sandwich and iced coffee to lunch on the Memorial Union Terrace.

Saturday when we woke up it was rainy, and I think I was all ready to have a quiet stay inside & go nowhere kind of rainy Saturday, but of course the rain stopped by 10:00 and errands ensued. Library books, pick up prescription (and gummy bears, as mentioned), etc. etc. etc.

I hung out in PJs Saturday morning, and made plum cake, 2021’s version of the cake I make every year, and then changed into yoga clothes did virtual yoga class, and stayed through the whole class. Happily it was one of the times when I actually felt like I was getting into all the poses, and it felt good – not just slumping on the couch listening to my teacher and playing with my phone.

For Saturday dinner, I finally made the chicken and squash and crouton and mushroom sauce casserole I’d been plotting for days, from my Pittsburgh Great Tomato Patch Cookbook, that I used to make for the kids at the co-op dorm where I cooked when that cookbook was new, in the mid-’80s. It’s supposed to have stuffing mix and canned cream of mushroom soup, which is why I make it with croutons and mushroom sauce. Good thing, too, the pattypans I made it from, from my last CSA almost 2 weeks ago were about to go squishy. We ate it with watermelon, that we bought at Whole Foods on … some night – maybe that was Monday, and why I can’t remember what dinner was. (oh, wait maybe we had chicken salad sandwiches and cucumber tomato feta salad on Monday ….) Anyways, happily the watermelon was seedless. Everybody liked the salad we got from the pizza place Friday, which was greens, Parmesan curls, and simply dressed with good Balsamic and good olive oil. So I bought said good Balsamic and good olive oil, and some Reggiano Parmesan as one of my Saturday errands mentioned earlier, and recreated.

Sunday morning was really the all star meal, though. I made a zucchini gratin, with tomatoes and onions, and herbs from the back deck.

And we ate it with watermelon and cantaloupe and toast, 3 kinds of bread – homemade honey wheat and some long-rise no-knead that I made earlier in the week, to which I added some sugar and oil, and it came out coarse and bubbly and sweet, and store bread: slices from a loaf of Cathy Clark country white that I got at the pantry on Tuesday – and bacon and the plum cake.

I kinda love this New Yorker cartoon, Godzillas & hot dogs. I wanted to post it as a photo comment on Tim’s Instagram, but couldn’t figure out how.

I watched some of concert for NYC, that sadly, cancelled, during Barry Manilow, and before Patti Smith.

It really feels like we are on the verge of apocalypse.

I also listened to Patti last night with Anderson Cooper, and she reminded us all to stay positive.

Stay positive. Not completely in my nature, but I will try.