Recent Small Joys

In no particular order, here are a few things that are bringing me some small amount of joy and levity these days, as my household looks ahead to the daunting prospect of continuing to observe fairly strict social distancing for the indefinite future. NYC's relatively favorable COVID-19 numbers are continuing to hold steady, so the mostly outdoors activities allowed to us do feel quite safe. (Though we should all continue to exercise caution by wearing masks while outside the home, of course.) But there remains a lot of uncertainty for everyone here about whether any significant new indoor activities - including in-person schooling - can safely resume in the foreseeable future.

1. // I've been working on a pro bono litigation project that's part of the larger fight against police violence and racially discriminatory policing in NYC. I'm very grateful to have the opportunity to contribute directly to these efforts. 

2. // I'm really enjoying the loose leaf tea I got from Blk & Bold. The passion fruit black tea is delicious, it smells lovely and the taste of passion fruit works perfectly with the black tea. Their jasmine green tea has a subtle jasmine fragrance and flavor that makes it a good "everyday" sort of green tea. (That's different from the dragon pearl jasmine and Yin Hao jasmine green teas I get from Harney & Sons, which have an extremely assertive jasmine taste that might be a bit more polarizing.) Sadly, both teas are currently sold out from Blk & Bold's website, so it may be a while before any new customers can try it.

3. // K and I binge-watched all four and a half currently available seasons of the Showtime show Billions in extremely short order in recent weeks. We really enjoy Billions, it's fast paced with highly creative storylines - to the extent where the legal and courtroom drama side of it is completely, absurdly unrealistic, which is typical for just about any legal drama on television, but Billions is just a bit wilder than most - and some really hilarious writing. While the various legal storylines are mostly quite absurd, there are occasionally some very on-point jokes about our experience of the legal profession in NYC that K and I really appreciate.

Though I should note that the main characters in Billions aren't very likable, and definitely aren't especially moral or ethical in their behavior. (Given that one of the main characters is a billionaire hedge-funder and the other is an increasingly corrupt prosecutor, this is not especially surprising.)

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4. // I'm still completely enamored with my new fountain pen hobby.  My current favorite inks are Pilot Iroshizuku Ku-Jaku (a gorgeous teal shade), Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo (a deep blue-gray color which looks particularly good on the pale blue paper contained in Smythson notebooks; this color is actually supposed to have a hint of teal, but not in my experience with any of the finer nibs I've tried with it), and Sailor Shikiori Oku-Yama (a nice, moody dark red with a surprising amount of complexity).

Keeping this post relatively light and brief today! Work has gotten a lot busier for me recently, which is a good thing - particularly as my pro bono work is a significant part of it - but I find that it's hard to feel like I have any work-life balance when there's so little separation between my "work" space and "home" space.