What Is And What Should Never Be

Today we've lived in Edinburgh for exactly years. If the first year was about adventure/adjustment, and the second was actively settling in, then year three was actually being settled.  For me this was the year I stopped being homesick for DC. Not that I don't still love it there, but I rarely think about or compare the two anymore. The streets here are starting to have so many memories of their own. Each one reminds me of moments from different seasons I've had here and the different people I've been here. Craig says for him its the year he realized he wanted to stay. Not that we know if we can find a way to stay, but still. Its been a significant academic year for him too, and this next year will be more so.  Unfortunately we were not in the most celebratory mood this morning. I don't know about you, but five months of relative isolation is where I hit a wall. I'm very much wired for the aloneness, but the lack of activity, adventure, and direction is wearing ...

On March 16th I cancelled all my appointments for the rest of the week (because the government wasn't doing it yet so I had to take matters into my own hands) and caught the bus home from Queensferry. Now its 139 days later if I counted right and I haven't been back to Queensferry or even on a bus since then. The furthest I've been is Corstorphine Hill which we walked the five miles to and then back.  Stuff started to get cancelled pretty immediately after I got home that day in March the UK went into lockdown. At first it was like you can go out for groceries once/week and for exercise once/day. Now we're in Phase 3 of easing restrictions which means shops and restaurants and museums can open with safety measures in place. You can sit outside and be out of your house for any amount of time and even meet up to 15 other people from five different households (physically distanced) and travel too. We sort of all know the phases of lockdown we collectively went through--the...

To celebrate two full years of living in Edinburgh we went to visit Edinburgh's first working distillery in almost 100 years. Holyrood Distillery is in our neighborhood. If you are visiting Scotland but have to miss the Highlands/Islands, you can now get a whisky tour in anyway! They had just opened when we toured, are in the gin phase now, but whisky coming in what... three years? I think it was our 9th ever distillery tour (counting whiskey and gin) and 7th in Scotland. We liked this one because of the flavor profile room, where you guess the different notes you are smelling in a fun interactive way. I also liked that because it is a short walk from our place it was a very chill visit and low-key activity to mark the end of another year here and the beginning of our... wow... third! In our 2nd year here we went some new places, tried some new things, and made some new friends. But mostly we settled in. We cozied up our house, found a haircutter we both like, and institute...

This spring we got overwhelmed, as if we were casually splashing and bobbing in the ocean and an unsuspecting giant wave came up and took us under. This spring I worked so much overtime and took on so much more at my jobs while my bosses/seniors had to step back. This spring I lost my voice and turns out that was a virus that lasted like a month. This spring Craig got sick again. This spring I had to quit volunteering at New Leaf which I'm still not happy about but I needed the margin in my week. This spring I watched the first three seasons of Queer Eye twice because it was just the right medicine. This spring also came with flowers, which was nice, and a birthday hike and an Easter walk, a visit from friends, a completed/passed board review, a quick lead in to a very good summer.

Fall time really flies by. One minute its summer, then you blink, and its winter.  Maybe the time is moving so quickly because our plates are so full. I keep telling Craig to quit picking up other stuff--publishing book reviews, editing drafts of other publications, assisting his prof with research, plus church stuff, etc.--and just focus on his PhD already. But I'm doing a million things as well. In addition to continuing writing for an online curriculum resource, I've got my church job, my after-school club job, and I've picked up regular hours for Ministry Architects, which has been great. I started volunteering at New Leaf Coop, my favourite (natural) grocer. Recently Craig rejoined his rec-league basketball team and we started running together on Saturdays. Sometimes we have friends. We've also watched tons of NBA and even most of Arkansas' comically bad football season. We make chili every weekend. We tried three new coffee shops and discovered the bes...