May 31, 2024: Welcome, welcome to our May cocktail hour! I’m so happy you’ve dropped by. It’s the perfect time of year to have drinks on our screened-in porch, although we’ve had a lot of rain in May. Also, the humidity is starting to set in now that we’re reaching into the summer months.
I can offer you some chilled Prosecco or Cava, or any wine of your choice. Mike can make a delicious Hugo or Aperol Spritz. Or we can offer a Michelob Ultra or Hop Slam. I can also offer sodas or seltzer water of various flavors. Salud!
How is your year going so far? Have you read any good books, seen any good movies, binge-watched any television series? Have you planned any adventures or had any spring getaways? Have you dreamed any dreams? Gone to any exotic restaurants, cooked any new dishes? Have you been surprised by anything in life? Have you enjoyed the simple things in life? Have you learned anything new, taken any classes or just kept up with the news? Have you sung along with any new songs? Have you undertaken any new exercise routines? Have you marched or otherwise participated in political protests?
In May, I continued rowing, walking and doing yoga. On one of my walks, I took a nasty fall on the mud-covered paved Glade Trail, where I came down hard on my back and tailbone, both of which have continued to plague me. I was halfway through my walk and people must have wondered what on earth happened to that mud-covered woman trudging through the forest.
We needed to take care of some housekeeping issues, so we had our Oriental carpet cleaned in our family room (finally!). Sadly, we had to fire our housekeeper of 20 years because she had been becoming increasingly undependable and uncommunicative. We hired a new housekeeping service, which at least has given me a day and time slot every two weeks. We started talking to a contractor about renovating our two upstairs bathrooms and had to spend time looking at bathroom cabinets, tile, and fixtures ; none of this is fun as we are doing the renovation for the purpose of selling our house sometime in the next year or two. After a trip to a tile and cabinet store in Alexandria, we ate Mexican food at Los Tios Grill in Del Ray. Again, after another bathroom-shopping expedition in Sterling, we ate dinner at Ariake to reward ourselves for the drudgery of making decisions and looking at bathroom accoutrements.
I had lunch at Kalypso with my walking friend Poonam and met Mike at bartaco one evening for margaritas and appetizers.
I had multiple doctors’ appointments (I don’t know why they’ve now all piled up in May of each year!). This drudgery only added to an already murky and rainy May; the rain is necessary but makes for a rather depressing atmosphere.
Mike and I went to Richmond where we rented an Airbnb and spent the weekend belatedly celebrating my daughter Sarah’s 40th birthday. We all went on a “Sarah shopping spree,” with Mike sitting patiently on a bench and reading the newspaper and Sarah sending me to and fro to fetch outfit options. In the evening, we went out to eat at Midlothian Chef’s Kitchen, which we all felt fell short of the gushing recommendations from Sarah’s friends. On Sunday, we went to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to see the Japanese woodblocks of Kawase Hasui (1883-1957), strolled up and down in Carytown, and enjoyed lunch at Ginger Thai for Mother’s Day.
We wished Adam and Maria a happy one-year anniversary on the 13th. We were thrilled to welcome another new grandson into the world: little Michael Christopher Dutchak Hernandez was born on Wednesday morning, May 15, at 6:10 a.m. in Nicaragua. We finally chatted with Adam on the 18th; the new family was exhausted and a bit overwhelmed.
We wished Alex and Jandira a happy anniversary on the 18th. They’ve been sending us pictures of little Allie, who is now 7 months old. Apparently, she’s growing up a storm and is in the 98th percentile in weight and height for her age. We can’t wait to visit them in Atlanta in June.
We went to see the Japanese movie Evil Does Not Exist at Cinema Arts and we felt baffled and annoyed by the ending. It asks questions of us about how much we can tolerate development at the expense of nature. In the end, we have no answers except violence to both nature and humanity.
We were finally able to see the exhibit “Bonnard’s Worlds” at The Phillips Collection in D.C. We had tried to go on February 24 before our trip to Latin America, but found when we got there it didn’t start until March 2. We loved how Bonnard’s subjects were of his everyday life, but I can’t say I was crazy about the murky figures of his wife, other people and his dog in his paintings. Mike, on the other hand, loved how the artist included the figures of his beloved family in the paintings.
There was also a much smaller exhibit “Up Close with Paul Cezanne” that we looked at briefly.
We enjoyed a lovely dinner at Rasika, a modern Indian restaurant that is always highly recommended by Tom Sietsema, the food editor at The Washington Post. We sat out on the patio on a lovely and breezy evening.
On Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, we went with our friends Karen and Michael to Bleu Frog Vineyards, where we shared bottles of wine, ate lunch, listened to music, and caught up on our respective family stories. Karen and Michael always have a lot of tall tales to share about their family and are soon expecting their first granddaughter.
On the 30th of the month, Donald Trump was convicted by a New York jury of 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election. Adding to the twice-impeached, once-defeated, constantly lying, and divisive ex-President’s other long list of “accomplishments,” he is now the first former U.S. president convicted of a crime. His sentencing will be on July 11, but it’s unlikely the convicted felon will see any jail time since he’s a former president. People in power never have real justice served to them.
Sadly, even if Trump is in jail, he can still run for president and can still become president. I can’t even imagine the sh*tload of trouble this country will be in with a convicted felon at its helm, and what kind of havoc this horrible human being will wreak on the world as a whole if he is elected. Something is seriously wrong with both our justice system (with our highly-compromised Supreme Court – the majority of whom were appointed by Trump and other Republicans) and our political system (in which a convicted felon is allowed to run for the highest office in the land). I fear our democratic experiment could very easily come to an end.
The best of news: He’s convicted. The worst of news: He could still become president!
I finished 5 books this month to bring my total to 19/52, my favorites being Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami and Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan.
I hope you’ll share how the year is panning out for you, and what plans you have for the summer.
~ wander.essence ~ 
It looks like a fabulous month, Cathy! Will you be selling your home to downsize, or move elsewhere? It looks like a beautiful place. Happy June to you! 🤗🩷
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It was a very busy and fabulous month, Jo. June has been great so far too. As for selling our house, we hope to downsize and move to another area, if only we could agree where. I’d also like to have a small place out of this country, especially if Trump gets re-elected. Possibly Mexico, with its new woman president. It would have to be in the highlands because I couldn’t take the heat in other areas. Happy June to you too! I know you’re having fun in Brittany.
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Just home and seated in our little local restaurant. Too tired/lazy to cook 🤣🩵
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I get it. I’m always too lazy to cook! Sadly, I still have to do it….
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🤭🩷
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Congratulations on another grandchild! You have had a lovely month of family events. Looking in from the outside, I can’t help thinking Trump is going to get elected again. What will it take to put people off him? It all seems inexplicable.
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Thank you so much for your congratulations! As for Trump, it terrifies me that he might get elected again. I can’t believe the people in this country will elect a fascist after we lost so many lives fighting the fascists of Nazi Germany! What a bunch of idiots live here! Also, the stupid electoral college doesn’t help. Somehow it can be finagled to give him a win, with all the super red Republican states. He’ll never win the popular vote, because most people hate him; others are too disengaged to vote. I’m eyeing Mexico as a retirement home; at least they have a woman president now!
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I can’t believe it either. I look on in disbelief – but then I turn my gaze to some of the racist fascists here and it seems much closer.
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I was surprised by the EU vote that ended up with more right wingers. At least the center seemed to hold, right?
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Up to a point. Will be interesting to see what happens now France is having an election too. Here we look to be heading for a Labour landslide, not because anyone is really inspired by them, but just because the outgoing lot are so awful.
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How exciting to have another little person to cherish, and little Allie is growing so fast.
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Thank you, Carol. It is very exciting for sure. Little Allie is developing quite the personality too! 🙂
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