Mackerel skies, white sun. High near 60F today --- cool but pleasant. And our new bed is coming! The frame won't be here till next week sometime, but our mattress and base arrive today, hooray hooray hooray. So we'll be camping on the floor for a few days, but camping in greater comfort. Got my new thermal-regulating pillowy mattress pad. Got my organic bamboo sheets. Good sleep is in the house --- or will be.
Otherwise, the usual. I really need to make some headway on this book review (and am glad I've turned down a few others lately). I really need to look in on the magazine submissions, because I haven't done that all week. It would be nice to write another essay, but I'm finished through next week, at any rate. Big essay on Wordsworth, smaller essay on Dorothy Parker.
Also, dog-walking, pilates, dinner prep . . . again, the usual.
Wearing today:
*Secondhand Sparrow/Anthropologie green merino-blend sweater
*Secondhand Flax purple linen skirt
*Secondhand WoolX men's blue base-layer tee (not seen, but there)
*Snag navy merino tights
*Xero Tari boots
I had bought this purple elastic-waist A-line Flax skirt just before Lent (one of my little penances is a no-buy for clothing --- a welcome respite, honestly, because I've bought a LOT of clothes in the last few months, and "Complete Purchase" had become a little too reflexive a habit, when in truth I have plenty of clothes to get by). This is her first outing, and I like her, especially in combination with the soft green sweater, so familiar to anyone who's been reading here for any amount of time. The shape is easy to wear, and I anticipate summertime combinations including the blue tee I'm currently wearing underneath, or button shirts, or knit dresses as underlayers, but especially the pink merino tank I bought a year ago as a base layer, but have wanted to wear simply as a top. I'm not, in general, a separates person, but the idea of skirts and tops has kind of grown on me again, as a variation on my normal "dress" theme. Anyway, I like this one, and she adds a wanted extra note of purple to my Lenten capsule wardrobe.
In these photos, this skirt looks a lot bluer than it is. In fact, it's a nice light violet purple. I'm loving it with this light green sweater today, but it'll go with much of my closet. While I don't feel especially gorgeous, this is the kind of outfit I crave at this time of year: warm enough for chilly February weather, but in delicate springtime colors. I suspect that this one will be a repeat throughout the season.
Getting another day out of my hair, since it's long enough again to pull back neatly. I like having fresh clean hair for Saturday night and Sunday, and I'd like to get back on my regular schedule of washing it Wednesday and Sunday mornings. Again, travel and then being sick have thrown off lots of my comfortable rhythms, but I will get them back.
AFTERNOON UPDATE:
The new bed is here!
The new bed frame won't be here until Wednesday, so for now our old Hollywood frame, which I'd forgotten was expandable, will have to do. I've bought a cover for the box spring, because I hate exposed box springs but also dislike bed skirts, but that won't be here till tomorrow. So things are not as tidy and tucked-in and finished-looking as I would like, but hey. We have a comfortable new mattress. We have fresh new sheets (I bought king-sized sheets by mistake, so ha, but at least they're not too small, and I can totally tuck them in). The matelasse bedspread still fits just fine.
Dora is dubious, but we are happy. I'm impatient for the bed frame to arrive, because I want it all to look finished and beautiful, but it's Lent, so having to wait will be good for my soul. Not that it wouldn't be good for my soul at any time, but in Lent I am particularly aware of these spiritual realities, as they present themselves unbidden in the course of my everyday life. Little opportunities for continual conversion . . . I should really be more grateful for them than I so often am.
Anyway, it seems churlish to gripe about anything at all when we have this nice new bed. And now back to work.
LATE-AFTERNOON UPDATE:
I haven't accomplished much actual work today, but I did work out.
These five 1-minute moves done as a sequence, repeated three times, with a 1-minute break between each sequence, certainly feel very effective:
*Wall push-ups (arms, chest, shoulders)
*Tree pose (legs, core, balance)
*Wall sit (quads, glutes)
*Wall Angels (arms, shoulders, mobility)
*Wall plank (core, whole body strength)
With warmup, cool-down, and three breaks, the whole workout took 23 minutes, not long at all. I did arms yesterday, too, so today I was already a little sore, but I got through this one just fine. It's been particularly gratifying to build some upper-body strength, and to see results in that area. I didn't really lose much, if any, ground last week when I was sick, but it's good to be back at it. I do not like to exercise (other than walking), but I can do this for 23 minutes, and when I've done it, I'm always glad I've done it.
Dora's glad I've quit acting like an idiot.
"I was so embarrassed for you. What if someone had come to the door?"