🌷 March 2021 🌷
We live near a school which shut down last year. I like to walk Miso there. It feels safe, and strange; through the glass, you can see piles of chairs, desks abandoned. The campus is empty, save for interlopers like me walking their dogs, skaters taking generous loops in the parking lots. The student apartments, too, are empty. While there are PRIVATE PROPERTY signs and chains draped over some areas, for the most part, these are ignored. On warm days, picnickers stretch out on the grass. We share this not-public-but-public space, fleetingly. I wander through, gazing at this winged insect stuck in amber, and the plants that grow unchecked, unaware of such human tidings.
I often think about artifacts, and the last time anyone touches something. I wonder if it’s intentional or if it’s just, like so many things, not even a consideration. These unbroken strings of inactivity: the last time I wrote in my journal, the last time I cleaned this place, the last time we saw each other. It’s not a grand exit or a finale, just: I didn’t do this thing, followed by days of not doing this thing, and at a certain point, that means I stopped.
Vaccine feelings, like voting:
Vaccine selfies of you or your card.
Proof of life.
It’s wild that we are finally here.
I tend to walk Miso in loops. I don’t want to be too far away from the house should anything go wrong; J is the opposite, going far past whatever invisible parameter I’ve defined for myself, crossing several high-traffic streets. Maybe because he’s a runner or because he likes to court a fair amount of danger or because it’s natural to take a linear direction. Miso doesn’t seem to care either way.
I’ve been:
- Listening to Every Single Album: Taylor Swift by Ringer Dish
- Making pan-fried tofu (두부부침양념장), strawberries and (coconut) cream pops, raspberry-blueberry ricotta cake
- Buying flowers for myself and tending them (Most recently: sunflowers, chamomile, tulips, daffodils, and gerbera daisies from TJ’s)
- Pressing flowers, drying flowers, drying eucalyptus
- Weeding (FUCK U DANDELIONS!!! I know you nourish honeybees, but can you not spread like acne over my yard)
- Using a lot of stickers in my A6 Hobonichi Techo
- Obsessively riding our Peloton, which we got earlier this month and is maybe my fav purchase during the panini (s/o to J and Affirm)
- Watching Curb Your Enthusiasm which daily makes me shout at the TV but I finally understand why it’s very good
- Not always playing music and being very lazy about playing guitar but still really enjoying it when I do
- Spring-giddy. Wow. I really love this time of year.
I hope, wherever you are, that you’re seeing spring too.
P.S. I got a PO box! You can write to me at:
Deborah Kim 〰️ PO Box 11651 〰️ Portland, OR 97211
🌷🌷🌷