museletter #9

covid, freya, old timey crafts

Author

Sam Nelson
May 28, 2024

hi! this week I had covid! also my old college roommate is visiting me! but I haven't been able to interact with her much at all because I’ve been busy quarantining in my room! rather inopportune timing. alas.

how have I been spending all this time ill and alone? by pretending I’m an invalid victorian woman withering away in the spare bedroom. I’ve been working on my embroidery, listening to folk songs by women sad and scorned, coughing, peeling the paper off my walls.

I did not have the energy to write a good poem this week. here instead is a limerick about my situation.

sick spinster

there once was a spinster named sam
who caught covid and got quite ill - damn!
but locked in her chambers
she enjoyed handicraft labours
and to old-timey tunes she did jam

freya can have a verse too:

healthy houseguest

sam has a good friend named freya
who's visiting her in malaya
but with no local guide
to walk by her side
all alone she took bus and subway-a

I made freya this bookmark of snails in love to try and make up for not being able to hang out with her

bonus craft: with all the time on my ~hands~ I brought spring to my nails. they are somehow still totally unchipped a week later! this is an ad for olive and june’s super glossy top coat.

in other news,

once I was mostly recovered freya and I did manage to have some joint escapades! there is a chance I may still have been infectious but I took many precautions to protect my community so please nobody be mad at me (being outdoors whenever possible, double masking with an n-95 when not, social distancing/limiting speaking around other people).

we went to the zoo, where freya wore my hat and bonded with the reptiles

and got stuck in an exhibit

sketching animals at the zoo

this was in the gift shop

freya at kiztopia

returned to our alma mater. it’s like we never left

no caption necessary

freya blatantly breaking the law

my shoes decided to completely fall apart. as it was raining outside. so i walked 20 mins barefoot in the rain. wet but kind of freeing.

we went to a harp concert where they played respighi. his orchestration was so extra: there was a random mandolin solo halfway through, and also both a xylophone and a glockenspiel playing simultaneously‽

books

I somehow did not read any books or watch any shows this week! headache rendered me temporarily illiterate, and anyway I was too busy hyperfixating on the history of crafts in the 17-19th centuries. here are a few texts I sent about that.

sent as I was doing my embroidery while watching one of bernadette banner’s fashion history videos on youtube. also I was myself wearing a white smock in an attempt at spinster cosplay, and of course spilled a tiny bit of something on it

freya asked me what old-timey-now-defunct job I thought I wished still existed as a viable career path, and it seems I really took this question to heart. (freya would be a potions maker and surround herself with little tinctures)

if you know of any ancient amateur crafts please send them my way

music

some songs I have on repeat:

  • terrapin station medley - the grateful dead
    this is the only grateful dead song I know. it is 16 and a half minutes long. when I was at peak sick in bed, I put this on repeat to give time the illusion of passing faster. three hours is only 11 terrapin stations.

  • sexy to someone - clairo
    first clairo song in three years! it has a really good mellotron part. (the mellotron is maybe best known for playing the intro of strawberry fields forever)

  • wedding dress - the a’s
    an appalacian folk song reimagined in two part harmony as a lullaby

as always you can reply directly to this email! please do so if you have any inclination.

Reply

or to participate.