Neighbors

I didn’t know I had so many neighbors. As the weather gets lovelier and lovelier, they’re out on balconies, catching rays of sun. We all need our Vitamin D!

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I literally never see any of these people ever! But now that we’re quarantined… I wave at them wistfully. I wish we had the 7 p.m. NYC tradition!

Cheery tomatoes [sic]

In very early March the cherry tomato plant I’ve been nursing started to pop out little green toms, looked as hard as chickpeas and not very appetizing (brilliant Fannie Flagg novel notwithstanding.) Finally, a full month later, some of them are starting to turn red. I’m not saying we’ll be able to make tomato sauce out of this harvest, but still – it’s a wee ray of hope and glory:

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Cleaning activity continues apace

Today while cleaning in my office, Ramon said, “Que cruz me ha caido,” roughly translated he’s complaining about me! Apparently he found a dorito under my desk:

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Gratiddendum

Here are two great laughs:

Christopher Walken reading Where the Wild Things Are

The Family Lockdown Boogie

In addition to those two, I have some gratitude today for Ibrahim, the man we hire as a driver on frequent occasion (less frequent right now, of course). Today he came by to pick up big empty water bottles for us and then is headed to secret stores that he can’t show to expats like us to find hidden needed items! Fingers crossed… He also regularly brings gigantic bags of veggies, inspiring some of my better cooking during this lockdown, like quiche with chard and fresh shelled green peas, or my infamous West African Peanut Soup (wish I had used the chard there – by the time I made it, I only had beet greens left, which made for a very unappealing-looking pink soup. Still tasted great, though.)

Three cheers for Ibrahim!

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