Matt

I woke up this morning at 8:35. I usually get out of bed a lot earlier, but I was up extremely late last night watching the Olympic Trials for USA Women’s Artistic Gymnastics and then attending a virtual live show for the gymnastics podcast I listen to. As a Suni Lee stan, it was a big night for me.

On a regular Monday I would’ve already been at the gym, wrapping up my work-out and getting ready to grab a coffee or a bite to eat before starting my workday. Yes, I work from home on Mondays. Yes I still “commute” to my office to go to the gym and then come back home.

But for today, it was a quick english muffin with peanut butter and a stovetop espresso [Moka pot pictured below] as I checked my correspondence (Twitter) and got ready for the day.

I bought this Moka pot in Milan in April. It has been used nearly every day and could clearly use a trip to the spa

I’m a litigation paralegal by day. We’ve got a pretty giant wave of filings due today, so I spent the morning revising and editing documents, hopping on calls with the attorney I work for, and pulling exhibits. I also did the dishes at one point, because sometimes you need a break and sometimes that break just ends up being cleaning.

While I worked, I listened to some potential repertoire for a recital I’m planning to give in the fall/winter. In the past 6 or so months I’ve rediscovered my love of the French horn, which I hadn’t really played since college. I’ve now been taking weekly lessons and played nearly every single day this year.

My “office” set-up when I don’t want to sit at the desk in my room or at my tiny kitchen table

I took my lunch at 12:15 and sat down to start this entry. I also grabbed a shower and went on a little walk in my neighborhood. I didn’t get out enough this weekend for my liking, so I’ll take any chance to get fresh air that I can.

The Tony LaSalle gallery on 10th and Pine. This is a staple on my morning walks.

In perhaps a philosophically strange turn of events I had some fake chicken and an egg for lunch. It was quick and easy and that’s all I needed at that point.

I logged back on for work at 1:15 and was on the phone with my boss until 5:15, simultaneously editing documents and going over exhibits and cite-checking. A friend sent our group chat a selfie of her with her cat on a call at work. I took the below when I was an hour and a half into what I didn’t know at the time would be a four hour call.

Aforementioned selfie

I’ve been at this job for a couple months now and I am just starting to settle in. I’m not sure I ever settled in at my last job, so this is a very welcomed change. I happen to enjoy the quick pace of this kind of work and the almost tedious nature of constantly making little tweaks–whittling in some places and building up in others until we’ve got the perfect filing.

I stayed on for another half hour after I got off the phone with my boss. He was going to Ireland. I had to file the documents we’d spent the day and the better part of last week preparing.

At 5:45, after I logged off, I took a walk. Whereas my lunch-time walk was centered around Wash West, I did my usual evening route–13th and Spruce to the Schuylkill River Park, a lap around, and then back the way I came. I had to catch up on my podcasts because, unfortunately, they haven’t invented a way for me specifically to listen to podcasts while on the phone with my boss. This route has been my go-to for the past two-ish years. I do switch things up every once in a while, but I like routine. 

Tonight I listened to a playlist I made when I was freshly out of college that was meant to memorialize my college experience and capture the several in-betweens of that moment. It’s so pretentious. I know that. I promise I know that. (It still makes me emotional sometimes).

When I got back to my place, I had dinner. Leftover roasted real chicken with potatoes and brussel sprouts. (I was a vegetarian in college and have been eating meat for a couple years, but I’m now slouching toward mostly plant-based. It’s a give and take.) I would hardly call myself a meal prepper, but this is an instance in which I had made several discrete portions of the same thing on Sunday night…so maybe if the pyrex fits.

After dinner, I practiced the French horn for about an hour. I’m currently working on a piece that I’ve loved since I was about 14, but have never played before–Poulenc’s Elegy. It’s devastating and complicated and beautiful. When I was younger, I might have been able to play this 

technically better than I can now after some time off. But I don’t ever remember connecting to the pieces I played when I was younger. Once the pressure was off and I started playing for fun and for myself, something clicked. Funny how that works. I’d also venture to say maturity and life experience also have something to do with it. In any event, after about an hour I warmed down. Enough Poulenc, enough bothering my neighbors. It was 8:15 or so.

My makeshift studio with the view of the city

I migrated from my “studio” (my desk chair and French horn stand) to my couch. A nice breeze licked at my legs. I thought about what else to say. I checked Twitter. I checked Instagram. I checked my texts. An ex-something is back from France and wanted to see how I am. I’m fine. Maybe I shouldn’t have engaged. Maybe I should have blocked him by now. I texted him some one word answers and watched and episode of the Bear.

And then according to my browser history, I spent the rest of the night reading Tweets about gymnastics, reading about what actress Mia Sara is up to, googling the difference between a frittata and a quiche, googling hawk tua (still don’t know who or what that is), and googling the pronunciation of the Irish name “Aiofe.” After a whole lot of nothing, I fell asleep around 11:45. 

Here’s three other photos I took today:

Matt is a paralegal and writer who lives in the Gayborhood. You can find him at the Ritz seeing pretty much everything that comes out, at Philly Queer Book Club at nearly every meeting, and on Twitter @whatupwithmatt (don’t expect too much).