The slow months 2026

Well, we made it through the slow months once again. January and February, otherwise known as the slow months, are my least favorite time of year. The holidays are over, depression reigns supreme and everything seems pretty bleak. This year it seemed worse than usual. I barely took any photos, which is a definite sign that I am not doing very well. But I got through it. It's March now and there are signs of spring popping up around us. Thank goodness.

But despite taking very few photos, a few interesting things did happen during the slow months. Not a lot, but some.

1. I had a New Year's breakfast with my cousin and aunt at Fox in the Snow. We started doing this last year around Christmas time. But this year it worked out to have our holiday breakfast in January. It was lovely as per usual.

2. I met up with my MCC colleagues who also live in Ohio. My colleague Rachel was kind enough to drive me (since we only have one car and I currently do not drive on the highway). We met up in a small town north of the city. (The main group was coming from the Kidron area). Once again this was a "Christmas" lunch, but it made more sense to wait until the new year to actually meet up. It was pretty fun to be with my fellow MCCers on a random Wednesday.

3. Blake and Brendan took Levent and I out for dinner at Cobra, which is one of my favorite bars in the city (despite being so dark and loud). They have great food and even better cocktails.

4. My mother-in-law had an art show with her friends on the campus at Ohio State. We attended the opening reception and most of Shirley's family came down from Canada. The following morning we had Turkish brunch with everyone and then Blake, Brendan and the "Canadian cousins" (which is how I usually refer to Alanna and Mariah) did some American shopping (aka Trader Joe's, World Market, etc). It was a lot of fun. Of course. I took like zero photos that weekend. 

5. This isn't a highlight, but rather just something that happened. The weekend before I was supposed to travel for work, our electricity went out. Turns out, it was just our house. And, turns out, the emergency line at the electric company was also not working. So we were out of power all weekend and it was so cold that weekend too. Thankfully in our apartment, we have a propane heater, but it was a bummer of a weekend all the same. On Saturday, Blake and Brendan let us come over to charge our phones and watch the KU game. And on Sunday afternoon, we returned to show and charge. So it wasn't all terrible. On Monday morning the power was still out. As we were getting ready to leave (I was going to go work at Blake's), the power came back on. We were happy to have it back on but it was a pretty frustrating weekend. The bright spots were hanging out with Blake and Brendan a little bit and then getting takeout to eat at home while we watched things on my tablet. Oh, and having a break from the dark apartment on Sunday afternoon and going out for coffee and a treat with my cousin Betha. 

6. The first week in February, I had to go to Akron, PA for work again. It's a terrible time of year to travel, but they make us every year. It wasn't the best, but I did it! We had our all staff meeting and then the following day the communication department volunteered at the Material Resources Center in Ephrata. (Where we mostly stacked 40 pound boxes on meat. Again, not the best). 

7. In February, my Aunt CB, Uncle Nate and cousins Sadie and Maddie came up to celebrate my cousin Betha's 40th birthday. I went over there for supper on Saturday and hung out with them. I hadn't seen Sadie in years and it was really great to be with them again.

8.. I did my annual semlor baking.

9. Mom and Dad came for their annual visit! We went on an ice cream run, had a Turkish breakfast, Mom and I went shopping at a bookstore and antique store, we went on cold walks, plenty of Olympic viewing, supper with Wilbur and Shirley, went on a pastry run, Trader Joe's with mom, the art museum and got takeout burgers. It was a busy and fun weekend.

10. Levent and I celebrated our dating anniversary (13 years!) by going out to eat at Indian Oven, which is an Indian restaurant very close to our house. It was a lovely evening together.

11. Shirley took me out for coffee (or matcha) in Westerville. We went to the very cute cafe there called Begin. 

So I guess that was quite a few highlights for these slow months. Maybe it just always feels like nothing is happening. Meanwhile, life still happens all around us. Oh well. I am glad we're moving on to spring now.