Again, I got the idea to attempt a photo-every-hour from Engie last week. I did post it, but it wasn’t super complete. Now SHU and Coco are sharing some DITL posts, and I thought today might be a good day to document with photos, as it’s a good mix of planned activities and downtime.
I’m sure I took this in the 8am hour but I was up by 7:30am and since I wasn’t planning to write this post then, I didn’t take a photo right when I got up. But this photo was taken early in the morning. Usually on the weekends my husband gets up before me. He feeds the cats and plays video games with our son. He also plays video games by himself. Or with a cat on his lap. 🤣 I love Panther’s face in that photo. So salty. She does not like to be bothered during quality lap time.
I spend Saturday mornings shaking out the rugs, sweeping and vacuuming. Oh, and doing laundry. And this fat cat loves nothing more than a bag of warm laundry. When it’s clothed I try to keep him out, but I let him luxuriate in the towels.
This morning I didn’t have as much time to do my chores because my son has a new 9:35am swim lesson and after that today he has his belt test. I only pulled this load out because it had his gi (karate uniform) in it.
We’re at the swim lesson, at the Stonestown YMCA. I spent HOURS here before the pandemic while my daughter tried to get into the pre-swim team group. She was about to make it in March of 2020, but well, you know what happened. I haven’t been back since and it’s weird to be back now.
Getting into swim lessons in the city is crazy hard. SF natives are notoriously bad swimmers, because swimming is just not part of the culture in a place where it’s windy, foggy and cold all summer. I grew up swimming in Hong Kong all year and then in St. Louis all summer because those places are humid and hot. I want my kids to be able to swim. But in a place like SF that takes way more work than you might imagine.
I’m starting this post while I wait. Then it’s shower and change into gi pants before we head straight to the dojo for his belt test. I’m hoping to be there in time to get my “fire stripe” on my belt from last weekend’s test.
After swim O realize I forgot my son’s lunch so we drive a little out of our way to Noah’s for a “good” bagel. Then we drive across the city from the Sunset to the Mission. Parking is always hard by the dojo but this morning it’s especially rough. Then a truck leaves as we’re waiting for a light and I absolutely make an illegal three point turn to snag his spot, which is right in front of the dojo.
I get my fire stripes! All that work for two little pieces of red tape.
My son’s belt test is today. I stay in my uniform to assist toward the end of the test. But first they have to do line drills and forms. My son’s rank form is hard and the last time he tested it, he made a few mistakes. This time he practiced a lot. Last night we got into a little tiff because I made him practice the end until he could do it without messing up. And today he tests it perfectly.
There are five high belts testing so they call me out to be my son’s partner for arm bars and weaves and take downs. He hip throws me. And then I return the favor.
I used to always take my son to Mitchell’s for ice cream after a belt test. I’m not sure why we stopped doing it. But he has too free scoop coupons for selling raffle tickets at school so we use them both. He eats the cone but the cup ends up in our freezers.
We get home around 2:20, and my husband, daughter and I head out immediately for a Youth Art Exhibition where they will be showing a short film she made in her Media Arts class. Unfortunately, there is a scheduling snafu and we leave after 30 minutes without seeing her video. But we do see her teacher, who is thrilled that we came. She is the only student from the Media Arts class to show up.
When we get home I lie down on the couch and both cats come to sleep on me. It’s nice to have a reason not to get up again for a bit.
When I finally do I catch up on all the chores I didn’t do in the morning. Then I get ready to work out.
I stall for a full 30 minutes before I finally get on the bike to do a 30 minute Upper Body Bike Bootcamp with Jess Sims. I love Jess Sims. She is my spirit animal. I finish it up with knee rehab exercises (Bulgarian split squats are no joke) and the 12 minute dead bug workout video that Jenny recommended.
I shower and head up for dinner around 6:45, but I don’t get a photo in the 6pm hour.
My daughter is at her grandparents house so after dinner my son, husband and I watch Police Story. It’s my favorite Jackie Chan movie. The stunts are nuts, and it’s filmed in Honk Kong in the mid-80’s, which is when I lived there. It’s a small island and I recognize a lot of areas.
My son has never seen it, but he loves it. We watch the original with subtitles. It’s awesome he can follow a movie that is fully subtitled now. He also very much appreciates the fighting sequences, which are incredible.
We’re still watching Police Story, but I’m also working. Le sigh. I worked for 1.5 hours last night and I’ll work more tomorrow but I need to eke out at least an hour today. I’ll be so glad when the free reading program is over.
I put my son to bed. We snuggle while he listens to a Headspace Sleepcast. I start a load of laundry and pour myself a drink. Then I sit down to play some Two Dots. Please don’t look closely enough at that photo to see how long my daily streak is.
My husband and I end up watching a movie – Passages – that I am not a big fan of. The main character is awful and I want to punch him in the face the whole time. But I do make myself furikake popcorn which is delicious. We head to bed right before midnight.
I love the pic of your cats sitting on you, ours also does that to my daughter and husband, rarely on me unless they are not home. Did you adopt them together? we are thinking about having another cat but not sure if they’d get along.
Yes, we got them as a bonded pair. They aren’t siblings, but they were raised together. We had only one cat before, and she seemed fine as a solo cat, but these two are way more active and we’re glad they have each other. They can def get into tiffs, but we know how to tell if they are playing (they pause and then go at each other again, they stop while they are chasing each other, but then keep going) so we know they aren’t really as mad at each other as they sometimes sound. I have not heard a lot of stories about families having one cat and then adopting another cat and them being super close, but I’m sure they exist. 😉
I am always so blown away by all you do in a day. And I see clearly how very little time you get for sleep. Yet you still function and have energy.
Makes me stop and think really really hard about what I did at your age. And remembering I acknowledge the differences age makes. That I need to be kind to my self because I really am able to do lots (through pure luck, maybe genetics too but that is hard to know) than many in my age peer group. I need to remember comparisons are always inaccurate.
Loved all the cats happening and how clearly your children are increasingly independent and growing up into nice people. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
I spent 4 years living in San Francisco after college, and your photos made me nostalgic. I lived in the Sunset and then on Portola Avenue. And now I want Noah’s for breakfast.
Swimming is hard in places where pools aren’t accessible. We’re in Scotland, 10 minutes from the beach, but the weather isn’t super accommodating and kids only get their 30 minute a week swim lesson practice (if you can get off the lesson waitlist…).
We did a 2 week summer swim intensive in Portugal and I had hoped T would be swimming capably, but he’s still working on it. I think it is the lack of practice.
We spent two weeks in La Paz, Mexico at an AirBnB with a small but deep swimming pool. My son couldn’t touch the ground and we swam every afternoon for hours. I swear I saved $2K in swim lesson during those two weeks. He had to learn to doggie paddle and float or he couldn’t really hang out in the water. It was awesome.
Satisfied cats always look pissed off. It makes me laugh.
This day looks exhausting to me! Better you having to do all that than me!