Signs of Optimism

It appears someone in my neighborhood has some messages to share. I have been seeing these painted signs crop up around the area and it's confirmed that they are increasing by someone else's post on Next Door.

 I appreciate the signs for their optimism and randomness.  Each day I read about more people dying more stores and restaurants closing for good and I appreciate this stranger attempting to help us see some good in the world.

 Plus,  still more homemade window signs greeting the passers by and sharing a positive thought. 

Friday!

Its Friday! Even though I took a day off this week Friday was a much needed end of the week. I sat on many calls, again, today. Decided to try to do some constructive doodling to help me pay attention since my life has turned into one ling zoom meeting. The top is my first try at Zentangles which my sister in law introduced me to recently. I love the mini canvases. 

Then we had a mini shabbat dinner (complete with Mexican take out!)

I don't know what they put in challah, but I'm convinced its Jewish Crack. 

Off to the couch to collapse. 

Portland Spirit

I continue to be amused, affirmed and then saddened by the many efforts at connection, humor and positive its in our. Neighborhood walks. So many signs of encouragement.  So many funny gestures (see the dog and cat above). Glad Portlanders are keeping their sense of humor! 

F is for forest

 I decided to take today, April 28th, as a mental health day. I've been working a lot sitting at the computer more hours than I ever planned to in my life and I'm just plain burned out. There are weekends but often times I don't feel well one day and the other day I find myself sewing masks.

 Today I took A-day just for me. I woke up  practically giddy at the thought of going out for a hike in the woods. I went alone which felt good and peaceful. I brought my mask so I wouldn't breathe on anyone and any mountain bikers going by wouldn't be able to leave their droplets in my path. 

 It was so quiet the birds were singing and there were even birds sitting along the path which isn't usually the case. The temperature was perfect and the peacefulness was almost unnerving but mostly wonderful.

 The day continued with take out Indian food, a long hot bath and a self done pedicure. Not to mention time reclining on the patio and enjoying the sunshine. I think we all need to stop, take a deep breath and take care of ourselves. Even in quarantine there is often work to be done and things to do. Slowing down even one step further felt so important.

And still more masks

 As of today I've made approximately 45 masks. I know there are many people who have made hundreds but I'm finding that all I can manage is a small batch each weekend. That said, I'm super happy to have been able to provide some safety and support for people locally, people I know and even some people I don't know.

 Most of the people I don't know came from a lovely happenstance of a woman in South Bend Indiana who actually has a business of the same name, of The Stitch is Back. She was on TV talking about her work in South Bend and told people to go to her Facebook page. Well apparently they googled the name of her company and found my company and I had a bizarre blip in visits to my Facebook page and orders. I fulfilled some of them told many people that they're looking for somebody else because there's no way I could have filled all those orders anyway. And it didn't feel right to just take her customers. Last weekend was pretty funny because I started sewing like crazy after those calls came in but it managed to even out between masks I could make and sending people back to the right company. I felt very popular there for a few hours :)

Bok Choy Mystery

 I took on nice long walk this evening and was sure I would have plenty of time to get home before our grocery order came. There are beautiful steps and hidden places in Hollywood and I love this private staircase right next to a public one.

 I mention the grocery order because it was quite a disaster. All things considered everything's fine we have food to eat. But we accidentally placed 2 orders and spent a lot more on groceries than we had planned. Luckily we are fine financially and it wasn't an issue, but I wish insta cart would get its interface cleaned up.

 We ordered all the groceries from my husband's phone but somehow ended up with an order that arrived at 6:00 p.m. and order that arrived at 8:00 p.m. some with duplicate items and some with different ones. We also got $10 worth of bok choy that we never ordered. I'm finding that one of the frustrations of this time is not so much ordering things, but returning things you don't want like books we accidentally double purchased and yes 5 bunches of bok choy. Please send recipes.

 Never thought I'd say this but I can't wait till I can comfortably and safely go to the grocery store again.

OhNo Its Mr. Bill!

 Do you remember Mr. Bill? Mr. Bill is the portend of all things dire. I feel super old because I just realized hes from Saturday Night Live in the 70s! "O no Mr. Bill" is perfect sentiment for the day.

 I think this was from April 22nd you walk in the neighborhood and a local store had this tiny homage to Saturday night live and the current state of the world.

It was sad walking around the neighborhood that night. The homeless are more and more visible. They have no place to quarantine. No place to hide.  Oh no indeed. 

Six Feet

Just this. 

Trillium

Today we went for a drive. We needed to get out and move around, see new sights. We headed towards Forest Park, Portland's famous in city park.

I moved to Oregon for the nature and I desperately miss it when locked in my house. We didn't hike, but I did convince my husband to pull into a parking lot near a trail. We got out and just smelled the woods. It was earthy and green and marvelous. 

Then I spotted Trillium! They come out for a very short time each spring. They are delicate little flowers, and there they were at the edge of the parking lot. That absolutley  made my day. 

It amazes me each  time I head to the woods just how healing nature can be.   

Thank you Andrew Lloyd Weber

Andrew Lloyd Weber has given us a gift. Each Friday night he has made one of his productions free for viewing. Two weeks ago we saw an instant awesome production of Jesus Christ Superstar. It was modern, provocative and talent was oozing out of each cast member. 

This week, we saw The Phantom of the Opera. Another hit. Although live theater on a 2d screen is not my usual jam, its absolutely better than no theater. It's also very different than a movie. The cameras help you feel like you've got a great seat but also pull out for the long view

 This was an encore of the 25th anniversary performance in 2011.  I'll try to post a link at some point. Find it. Watch it. Be transformed for 2.5 hours. No covid anywhere in sight. 

Virtually Conferencing

April 14th. 

My headshot for the day. Today I attended,  and presented at, a virtual conference Healthcare Experience Design. I actually put on lipstick for the first time in a month and jewelry too!

 Our plan was to be enjoying Boston right now, enjoying a conference and making new connections. That Did not happen but the conference organizers really had it together and brought the entire conference on line in a matter of weeks. It went surprisingly well.

Kudos to MadPow

Missing You

Look  Carefully at the row of windows towards the top. These lovely teachers left a note of "we miss you" to their students. Every day I see messages of hope and connection, people trying to be there for one another in any way that they can.

Social Distancing

 The term of the year is social distancing. There is a magic number of standing 6' apart,  which I still I'm not sure I totally believe, but Hey it's something. Anyway is food cart was kind enough to put x's every 6' apart so people waiting in line for their hamburgers would have the less likelihood of infecting one another before they got their meaty goodness.

Why is this night different than all other nights?

 Wednesday, April 8.

Why is this night different than all other nights? Because we are stuck in our fricking homes,  away from  Our loved ones during an actual plague. It hailed last week in Portland and there are locusts in Africa. Mother nature is pissed. 

 The silver lining for me on this one was that it's probably the only time my family and my husband's family would have passover together albeit via a zoom call but Hey we were all together in a virtual space which is better than nothing.

Hang in there

People have started top put stuffed animals in their windows to give children walking by something to focus on that's happy. I don't have a teddy bear so I hung this sloth.  

Hang in there Portland!

As for the heart,  someone made it out of petals in my neighbor's driveway. It is a lovely and hopeful sign. Find beauty in small things today.   

Rear Window

 Windows have become an important. What we see out our windows gives us hope, connection and even shows us that Spring is coming. I love this 1st photo, the glowing lights at twilight showing my neighbors nearby. 

The 2nd photo shows a dusting of petals off of a tree near by and I love the way they landed on the car and the driveway just a sprinkle of confetti. 

Everything seems more beautiful and brighter the Spring. Maybe it's because we have the time to stop and look maybe it's because the air is literally cleaner. Whatever it is I am grateful for that.

Mask Maker

 Sunday come on March 29th. 

 Although I read many articles at the beginning of the pandemic that said homemade or hand made masks were not helpful, people seem to be changing their tune. 

I finally found a pattern that made sense to me after watching a lengthy YouTube tutorial and started to understand how important it will be for us to have face masks in the coming days if not weeks or months.

 This was sort of a turning point for me, realizing we are in this for the long haul and also realizing that I have a skill I can share. I've had to focus my sewing work to the weekends so as not to make my work days any longer than they are but it feels great to be able to contribute something.

Hand Sanitizer

 Today's rock was about seeing signs both official and unofficial. Today's walk was very real and the amount of stores with signs in the windows was rather unnerving. The neighborhood messages however were quite uplifting. As with many days to follow the messages are conflicting and my eomtions go up one minute and down the next.

 This Buddha felt important. It showed Spring is coming, it shows calm in the middle of chaos. it was really important for me to capture this stillness and beauty among everything going on.

Trivial Matters

 Friday the 27th. We've moved on from playing games on our own to  inviting friends. We zoomed with our friends Jen and Josh. We thought we each had a copy of Trivial Pursuit but it turned out they did not. So Philip and I just took turns asking questions and we went around the Room with each person answering the questions on an entire card. It definitely kept us amused for the better part of an hour and it was nice to connect with friends nearby but far away.

 It's been so interesting to watch everyone adapt to this new reality. It never would have occurred to me to use this video chat that I use so frequently at work to have a remote session with friends. I did inspire us to do additional remote connecting. We humans are very adaptive.

Upwords

 Thursday March 26th.

The board games came out again and this time we played Upwards. For the newbies, that's a 3-D version of scrabble. It's fun and different kind of twist your brain. We played while watching Project Runway so it was a little challenging. Philip won in the end, which is what tends to happen with this game. Apparently he's a better spatial thinker. 

 

The Barber of Hollywood

 Tuesday March 24th.

Philip gets his hair cut fairly frequently. Today he decided it would be a good idea if I trimmed his hair. He bought a clipper which took us a while to figure it out. Turns out it's a beard clipper but it works pretty well on his hair anyway.

 I watched a few videos on haircutting (cuz that's all you need, right?) and he gave me some pointers after having watched barbers for so many years.

I Started with great caution and trepidation, but once I got into it  it was pretty fun. He actually looked halfway decent. He offered to do mine but I don't think we're that bad off yet :).

Tiny Bubbles

 One of the most important lessons I'm learning in quarantine is self care. Work can completely take over. Life can completely take over when you don't have any external spaces to go to, any transition spaces, any variety and all. Some days it feels pretty intense and all you can do is hop in a bubble bath and try to let your cares float away.

 I realize I am among the lucky. I still have a job, we have not been ill and I have a loving spouse, a roof over my head and plenty of food in the pantry. But no one is immune from the over all fear and anxiety permeating our world right now.

Mr. Bubble  take me away. 

Grocery Distancing

 Friday March 20th. Whole Foods starts to ask all customers to lineup at a distance outside. They also keep a low headcount in the store to reduce the spread of the virus. I had not seen this yet and I know it's a good idea, but it still spooky.

Yahtzee!

 Thursday, March 19th. Like many people, we are tirning to ye olde fashioned  entertainment.  Tonight we pulled out the yahtzee Box and as it happened I killed at yahtzee. Lucky night. 

Fairy Tale

 This is just another delightful piece of garden art. The princess kissing the frog, the ultimate fairy tale.

 There are very few kisses now. Very few hugs. Hopefully that princess didn't get Covid from her frog.

I Have Half a Mind To...

 Our neighborhood has an endless amount of quirky things to see during a walk. Little gnome villages, little houses Built-in people's gardens, And this super cool head who someone decided to funk up with a pair of glasses.

 I don't know if the broken head is intentional or not. The glasses clearly are. I'm wondering if by now someone has put a mask on it as well.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

 We've started going on lots of walks at night. Tonight I walked alone. I'm giving a talk in a few weeks and I really wanted to get some photos of local gardens to put in it. The talk is about how  starting an accessibility program is like growing a garden. I didn't end up using any of these photos but have lots of beautiful garden photos from my walk.

The Little Things

 March 13th and 14th. Pandemic still in the brain. I appreciate the random comments throughout the neighborhood on signs large and small giving people hope. This is our beautiful neighborhood movie theater which as of now has been closed over a month. I wonder if it's had anything like this in its previous history.

 I really like the irony of the picture above. I kept this Box top to make a bed for my cat and apparently it would have been a better idea to make an emergency kit for my home. Too late now.

The Sistine Scarf

 Crafting is one of the better outcomes of a pandemic. The scarf you see above? We aren't even sure when but I think I started this scarf about 5 years ago for my husband. I'm not really sure why I made it so wide. Halfway through I ran out of yarn and had to get more. It sort of matched but not completely. He has been very kind and patient. I made it a goal to finish it by our 7th anniversary of the day we met. On February 26th I accomplished just that. Apparently this picture is on my phone out of order but posting it for posterity anyway.

CV day 4

In addition to a pandemic, we got hail. Yup, the plagues are starting.

Day 2 - I Think.

Started to stay home a few days before they officially closed our office. Some folks had been to Spain and came back coughing another person in the office had an ill spouse and I just didn't want to be around all that and my work is easily done remotely.

 Wednesday, March 11th I'm officially working at home and realize I can prop my laptop up on the elliptical. I actually pay better attention to webinars when I moving so I take this as a win win.

 You can also see that it would be a good idea for us to clean our garage during the quarantine :)

The COVID-19 Entries

I have been trying to take a photo A-day in an effort to capture the bizarre reality we are currently you been again with covid19. I'm going to try and capture each day here even if briefly and share a photo that exemplifies that day.

 I think this is the 1st entry. I stole it from Facebook and can't attribute who drew it but if anyone knows please let me know the author /artist.  Pretty much sums up life right now.

Lack of Vision for Accessible Design

NY Post photo of $41 million dollar library that is not accessible to all

Whether you are a parent with stroller, a person using a wheelchair, traveling on a loud plane or have your arms full of shopping bags, everyone has a time in life where they need some assistance. It may not be today or tomorrow, but at some time, everyone benefits from accessibility measures like closed captioning (on a loud plane) or curb cuts (for that heavy rolling suitcase). That accessibility is afforded by the researchers and designers around them.

This past week, I heard 2 fascinating instances of lack of consideration of temporary and permanent disability.

Case 1 – The news highlighted a brand new, $41 million dollar New York public library that somehow, over the course of 10 years of design, managed to ignore the fact that it might be difficult for a parent with a stroller or a person on crutches or in a wheelchair to access books in this new highly designed environment.

Case 2 – The new Amazon Basics microwave. At a conference this week, a speaker highlighted this microwave in a talk about the future of AI. Yes, it is unnerving to think of Amazon not only knowing when I bought popcorn and potentially when I made it, but a talking microwave? That is a tremendous asset for people with a disability.

Take a look at your microwave. Do you see the flat panel or the dial with no clicks? Close your eyes and try to use it. Not so easy. People with vision loss have to add their own bump dots to make these microwaves usable. So, what may be seen as a play for more data, actually ends up benefitting a portion of the population.

Both of these situations continue to highlight how much we, as a society, are still sorely lacking the attention in our designs to people who are differently-abled,

Next time you are doing design or research, make sure you ask yourself and your team, “Can I use this with limited vision?” “Can a person carrying a baby or heavy groceries use this?” “If I was in a wheelchair, using a rolling suitcase or pushing a baby in a stroller, could I access this space?” These questions, and more, can create a more inclusive world overall as well as reduce, lawsuits, public outcries and calls to customer service.