Not Very Focused

Those of you who follow this blog can probably guess why my concentration is all over the place today. To my surprise, I actually slept last night, and while I didn’t sleep very deeply, and woke up a few times, I don’t feel like a total zombie either.

My lizard brain hasn’t caught on yet – every time I get up and walk away from my computer, I catch myself walking down the hallway to check on Fritzchen. I swear I can hear her distinct „Eeow“ all over the apartment… I know this is just me processing, and I also know it will stop, eventually, if maybe never completely. What will change over time is that after a while thinking of her will make me smile, rather than feel the cringe-y sensation of loss. This is not yet how it is today.

Trouble is, I have a really urgent website translation I need (want) to submit by end of the week. It’s for one of my long-time, dear clients, a renowned portrait photographer who also has a few prestigious advertising clients. (Good for him, because obviously, all of his shoots are cancelled for now.) So, writing about luxurious, beautiful handcrafted leather goods. But since my attention span is like a teenager’s today, I thought I’d pop over here and chat every once in a while.

So, we’re all socially isolating ourselves like good little citizens, right? Right. How is that going for you guys? What are your coping strategies? I imagine it must be truly painful for the extroverts among us – some of the people from the entertainment industry I follow on SM are posting regular gems, sprung from their need for contact. It’s really touching to see how they tell us about recipes they tried, chicken they burned, or the correct way to clean a pan after they did (hot water ;-)!). Skincare tips, pet videos, admonishing the public to #staythefuckhome. I watch Jamie Oliver’s IG videos, which are always inspirational.

It may sound weird, but my own everyday life has not changed all that much. Really! I do miss seeing my friends, but for now, I’m actually quite content living in the little bubble of our nuclear family. It’s more people _all the time_ than I’m used to, after all, what with my husband home officing and my kids being home from school. And I have work, so I’m lucky.

Walking Charlie has been a welcome respite from all the noise at my house. Cabin fever would be a problem, sooner or later, and I sympathize with people who want to be good about sequestering but have tiny apartments where it’s virtually impossible to stay out of each other’s business… domestic violence is real, and while I certainly don’t condone it, I can see how it would spike under these circumstances. Add impatient young children, or alcohol, to the mix, and bam, it’s not hard to imagine the fights erupting. So, I guess, #staythefuckhome is important, but #gothefuckoutside is, too?

It’s my first spring with my own dog, ergo taking daily walks and literally watching nature wake up a little more by the day is new to me. Shrubs and trees budding and blooming, and the green of the moss gradually being outshone by the chlorophyll-laden explosion on the tips of the branches … it’s a gift, enjoying that with my four-legged lil buddy.

Home schooling has been happening, and I confess I’m more than a little surprised at how well it actually works, considering how new and different it is. My 6th grader is attending tel-cos with team mates and teacher twice a week, and my 12th grader is working on assignments by himself and with classmates, submitting papers and solved math problems via Email. Maybe experiencing mom working her butt off from home has set a good example?

The extra cooking was one thing I did not look forward to – providing, like, two cooked meals a day, in addition to dog duty and work? It scared me, and I said no, not happening. So the kids are getting smart. My son can do really good French Toast. My daughter has successfully graduated to frying eggs all by herself. Of course there have also been trips to the Kebap shop, and a few instances where lunch consisted of a burger and sundae after a walk by the dog lake, and of course lots of yogurts, bowls of muesli, carrots and apples and avocado sandwiches in between. We’re adjusting.

I’ve been assigned a new book, for a publishing house I applied to more than a year ago – and I’m greatly looking forward to this one, because it’s about outdoorsy, escapist people living on the fringes of society: Live-in vans, Winnebagos, houseboats, Tiny Houses – the works. Surfers, bloggers, drifters, environmentalists. Of course, they all have their own ingenious solutions for just about everything from bio degradable toilets to storing food, interior design, solar showers, and finding electricity when needed. It’s amazingly topical, and I applaud the editor in charge for choosing such a book in a time like this.

So, I have managed to translate a few pages of luxury leather items. Some of the nerdy terms I already learned (and forgot, because who needs to know the difference between pit tanned and vegetable tanned cowhide, on a daily basis? Not me!) when working for Manufactum more than a decade ago – their business is popular in the UK, also, and I was in charge of translating this particular product range for their catalog for a few years. Funny how this stuff came back like a boomerang so many years later. Still, my mind is like a bag of fleas today, so it’s been slow going.

My husband and daughter are on a mission to catch her up on James Bond – which is happening next door in the family room. She seems to like Pierce Brosnan, who definitely was my favorite of all the 007s, even though Daniel Craig may be the most unusual actor who ever played him. Here’s an odd story. I stopped watching the franchise after Casino Royal, after leaving the movie theater both shaken and stirred (sorry, could not resist). For the first time, James Bond had a soul. The beautiful love story ended in tragedy – and then, I didn’t want to know any more. They lost a customer by making an unusually good movie, how absurd of me, right?

While grief-binging Star Trek TNG yesterday, I managed to knit half a color block sock. I’m using daffodil colors for this one, a very spring-y color sequence, chosen by my daughter, la Chefesse de la Couleur:So far, I’ve made three pairs like this, four if you count the tiny ones that stayed with baby cousin K in Frankfurt.

They’re fun to make, and perfect for binge knitting because you don’t have to pay a lot of attention to patterns and such. Also, temperatures have not gone back up yet, so I’d say we’ll need them for a bit longer.

Thank you for reading this rambling post about everything and nothing.