Not a Wasted Word

Gah! I did not mean to be away so long. I even took pictures for a “photo every hour” post on Saturday but then I had no time to put it together. I drafted a “seven on Sunday” post in my head but that also failed to materialize. I’ve been so slammed that the choices have been “sleep or blog” and of course I always pick sleep. I guess my first silver lining will be that I have been able to sleep. I never take that for granted.

Right now I’m on the bus, hoping I can get a post written on my phone before my stop in 15-20 mins. It’s a post about silver linings, which I’ve been trying to identify lately when things don’t go as planned. {UPDATE: Trying to finish this on the bus again Wednesday (I started it Tuesday). Wish me luck!}

On Friday I meticulously packed up my expandable folder with my two 1B class’s assessments and then left said expandable folder on the counter by my desk. I noticed when I got home, and realized I had to drive back down that evening to get them, because the alarm system isn’t working right on the weekends. So I dropped Son at the dojo and booked it back to school (my husband offered to pick him up for me.) Driving all the way back to work at 5pm truly sucked, but there were two silver linings. 1: I was inspired to see if Listen for the Lie was available for the drive and it was and I started listening to it and loved it. 2: I was guaranteed to grade the tests after I spent all the time going back to get them.

I ended up finishing the audiobook by Sunday afternoon AND I graded the Listening Reading, and Writing portions of both class’s assessments. Woot!

Saturday I took a rest from the dojo to let my shoulder heal, but there weren’t many classes because of a big party later that evening. I was able to take my son to swimming and give my husband some much needed rest (he wasn’t feeling great).

Saturday my stationary bike was knocking and squeaking and it was driving me crazy, but I Tunde had put up a Bike Bootcamp 50/50 class that started on the bike, then spent the whole second half of the class on the floor (usually you go back to the bike), which was exactly what I needed to the workout I had planned for myself. It was literally the first bootcamp programed that way, and it allowed me to avoid my noisy bike and get in the workout I wanted. (I really liked it too).

Sunday I missed two buses and was running for a third to meet my friends at a movie theater when they passed me in their car. They were also running late (that’s why I was on the bus and not with them originally), and I’m so glad they saw me and called my name so I could ride with them.

Tuesday I had my sports medicine appointment for my shoulder. It has been feeling much better, and I probably would have cancelled it except I wanted to meet the new doctor and also talk about my back (to let her know I would make another appointment for that – I was not trying to double dip). But when she walked in, I immediately saw she was very pregnant and knew she would not be available for another appointment in the future. I was super bummed out, but it spurred me to finally make an appointment with a new chiropractor (who also does Active Release Technique – ART) that comes highly recommended by a friend. The reality is I needed to just make that appointment anyway, and if I hadn’t felt like the Kaiser appt was a dead end I probably wouldn’t have done it (she is super expensive, but at this point I just need to commit).

Finally, and this one might seem silly but I swear it’s not. The other night my husband went to bed super early which meant I didn’t get to use the whole bed for my accupressure mat. There isn’t enough space on my side to lie down with my legs straight, so I had to prop my feet up and together on the pillows, which opened my hips more and provided them with a deeper release. I never would have tried that if I didn’t have to make do on my side of the bed; and now I’m releasing my hips that way most evenings.

Bonus dumb luck: I wasn’t sure I should stay for sparring last night but I did and my shoulder felt fine AND on the way out my friend casually mentioned I was teaching the Teens class the next day, which I did NOT have on my calendar. If I hadn’t stayed she wouldn’t have mentioned it and I would have missed it and been MORTIFIED. I’m so glad I stayed and she said something. (I have since checked the schedule and added all the classes I am teaching to my calendar.)

And I made it to the end of this post, as I walk up the block to my house! Hooray!

Oh how I needed a three day weekend! I am so, so grateful we had today off.

It honestly felt even longer than a “long weekend” because we got out at 1pm on Friday, and I ran and hit up Costco before I got home, and then got to stay home because my son didn’t go to the dojo that day. By Sunday afternoon it already felt like a luxurious amount of time away. Today was the cherry on top.

Saturday morning I was at the dojo early to lead warm ups for the adult general class. I was supposed to teach the teens class but there was a kids test going on, which means we didn’t have enough mats for the two other classes, so the teens were invited to the adult class. I was not sad to miss teaching and gratefully took over the 30 minute warm up instead. I stayed for sparring, which was super fun (all blue belts and above!), but definitely exaggerated my shoulder injury. It both looked, and felt, worse after sparring, so I skipped the other two classes and went home. I also decided I won’t go back to sparring until I’ve been seen (next Tuesday) at the sports medicine department. (Update: my shoulder feels a lot better today. I’m still going to skip sparring until I see someone, but I’m less worried than I was yesterday.)

The other reason I skipped the two later classes was because my husband needed a couple hours of coverage before he took our son (and his friend) to the Giant’s game. Son and I walked to Grocery Outlet to buy some cheap snacks for the baseball game. It was a great way to kill 1.5 hours – the weather was beautiful and we talked a lot!

They left around 4pm and I started watching The Fall Guy (Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt) while I worked on that planning document for work. I got through a lot of the movie (and finished half of the document) before I had to pick up my daughter and her two friends and bring them to our house. My intention was for them to have free reign of the upstairs since Son and Husband were gone, but they ended up staying in Daughter’s room painting the whole time. This meant I got to finish the movie (and almost 3/4s of the planning document!) and start watching something else. I meant to finish that planning document today, but it hasn’t happened yet. Maybe this evening… (I’m thrilled with the progress I made so far, so I’m not complaining).

By the time Son and Husband got home – and I had taken Daughter’s friend’s home – we were all pretty wiped. Husband and I hung out a bit, but didn’t try to watch something. It was nice to have that time with him.

Sunday I took both kids to meet my parents at Great America for the last weekend of the water park. The weather wasn’t super warm (76* and very breezy), so we didn’t do a ton, but we had a good time and, most importantly, we killed eight hours of the day. That was the main purpose of the trip, and it absolutely delivered on that.

By the time we got home there were only a couple hours until kid bedtime. I did a little workout (because I had to shower anyway) and then put Son to bed. Daughter came out as Husband was putting on some weird movie that I was less into than Daughter, so we decided to watch it today with the whole family. I’m really curious to see what we all think. It looked SUPER strange when we started it.

Instead of that movie, Husband and I watched something else, which was fine. We’ve been struggling to choose movies because all the ones we want to watch are 2.5+ hours long and we never have that kind of time after both kids are in bed. I wish we had a show to watch right now…

Today (Monday), I decided it was time to tackle the clutter that has been accumulating all over the house. I spent several hours picking up, and while I was not very efficient in my efforts, the house does look better. Our bedroom unit especially is improved, which I appreciate because it was starting to stress me out. I had shit out from the very first camping trip in mid-June sitting around downstairs, and pretty much every surface was covered. I hate when our room looks that way, so I’m glad I took the time to declutter that space. Both kids’ rooms look better too, even if they could use more work.

Husband and I had a long talk about the kids’ college contributions and upped both so that we’ll hopefully have two full years of UC tuition + room/board saved for each kid before they start. (State schools are cheaper than UCs, but room/board in California dwarfs both in terms of cost).

We also looked at September, which is a very busy month for us, and added a bunch of events to the kitchen white board calendar. There are some fun things – we’re seeing Pulp in a couple weeks! – and some less fun things (I’ll be the only parent attending Son’s school camping trip the last weekend of the month, because Husband will be out of town).

September’s photos are of our trip to Universal Studios last October and I’ve been thinking about how I vowed to travel way less this year. I definitely don’t want to go anywhere in the fall, as our summer travel just happened, but I do wonder if by November I’ll want something to look forward to. Maybe a long weekend to the snow would fit the bill. I absolutely believe I need to do less in terms of travel this year, but I also know I need something to look forward to. Maybe just I can go somewhere, since my husband is traveling some again this year (not as much as last year, thank goodness). It’s something I’ll be thinking about for winter or spring…

And my time on the elliptical is over, so I need to sign off. I hope you all had some weekend wins and that September looks like a reasonable month.

Short, but sweet, updates on life.

Work: First few days were fine. I was prepared for Wednesday, but NOT Thursday or Friday. Both days were unpleasant enough that I am determined not to make the same mistakes next week. My classes are a smidge smaller (29-32 instead of 32-35) and I’m glad for it. I have my 1B classes back to back (with my prep period in the middle) which I think will help me achieve my goal of making my 1B curriculum really solid this year. I’ll probably won’t have two 1B classes again for a while (maybe ever) so I want to take advantage of this year.

Kids: My kids had good first weeks at school. Son is doing well walking home. Daughter is feeling comfortable at her big high school and making new friends. She finally got put into Spanish 2 and is staying in Orchestra (violin). Next week their activities start up again (martial arts for son and swimming for daughter). Next week is my first full week with students. Next week will be the real test.

Home: House is a mess, but I’m trying not to let it bother me. Husband has been really underwater at work, which means I’m doing more of his chores, which means fewer of my chores are getting done. At least the refrigerators are moved! And the gross one is not in the way, so we have time to figure out what to do with it.

Exercise: Monday: Taught Basics at the dojo. Tuesday: 45 mins on the elliptical + CG’s Dead Bug workout + 10 minutes arms and shoulders on Peloton. Wednesday: 5 mile run (my first since Hawaii?! It felt weirdly rough). Thursday: 45 minutes full body strength on Peloton. Tomorrow will be Sparring + High + Forms at the dojo. Sunday: 30 or 45 minute bike boot camp.

Fun: I took my son to the new indoor mini-golf spot last Sunday. I didn’t love the new course, but I had fun with my son. I had dinner with my daughter Wednesday and she talked and talked and talked. I’m so glad she still wants to talk to me. I finally finished my slog of a Spanish book right when a bunch of library hold audiobooks came available. I’ll probably watch a movie with my husband tonight. I’m seeing my girl friends tomorrow evening. Sunday I’m taking the kids to swim at my mom’s friend’s house. Next weekend we plan to hit up Great America for the last weekend of the water park.

RIP summer break!, as my daughter would say. Tomorrow I’m contractually obligated to be at school, participating in professional learning. It’s always a rough day, but I’m thankful for it, because I wouldn’t be very productive on the first day back anyway, so I might as well flail about in a bunch of meetings, instead of when I have time to do things I actually care about.

The first day back also is a reminder of how bored our students are on their first day back, which is why I always plan games for the first couple days.

I can’t really believe summer break is over. I feel like I really wasted this past week. My house is in shambles, my classroom is a mess, I didn’t even manage to get the kids’ rooms in decent shape, despite them being home this week. It definitely feels like I failed, and I fear I’ll really be regretting my lack of effort later. But honestly, I could not seem to muster whatever was required to get shit done this past week and half, so I guess I just have to hope that the repercussions are not too dire.

Anyway, I am soooo glad that I had a week and a half of re-entry time between Hawaii and returning to work, because ho boy did I need it. I can’t remember a time when I was less productive than last week. My brain really did feel broken, and all the articles about dementia floating around (I think a study came out linking impaired sight and hearing to dementia at earlier ages?) were not helping.

But tomorrow I’ll have some time to put my “working” hat on, and hopefully I’ll even get a few things done before 3pm.

After 3pm, I’ll be borrowing my friend-from-work’s truck and taking it to another friend’s house to load a refrigerator into the truck bed. Then I’ll be driving home, and hopefully getting it upstairs so we can see if it will work in our kitchen.

I have to admit, I’m VERY ambivalent about this fridge. I’ve been actively NOT committing to it for years, (yes, you read that right, years PLURAL) but my friend was finally like, I NEED to get this out of my house and since it’s free, is a little bigger than our fridge, has a bottom freezer, and (almost) fits in the very restrictive spot our kitchen has for a refrigerator, I feel like I can’t pass up the opportunity. We’ve been worried our fridge would bite the bullet many times, and buying a new one is so uninspiring because the only two that fit are basically the exact same as what we have. This one is different – bigger and nicer – and it has a freezer on the bottom (which I’ve wanted for a while), and measuring suggests I’ll only have to cut about 3/4 of an inch from the bottom lip of our cabinet for it to fit.

I feel like I used to be ALL about taking advantage of a situation like this, but now all I can think about are the things that could go wrong. What if we can’t get it out of the house, or into the truck, or out of the truck? What if it still won’t fit, even if I cut the cabinets? The freezer door opens outward and the trays pull out and what if that design annoys me? What if the extra 2 inches of depth is really annoying when we’re opening the doors? What if I move everything out of the old refrigerator and we can’t even get the new one in the spot!? And then I have to put everything back into the old refrigerator and then move the new one downstairs to the very back of the house. (This is the only reason I committed, because the downstairs fridge is truly heinous and we have plenty of space down there for a bigger one, so we will be using it regardless.)

Ugh! I really don’t want to be doing this, but I’m worried I’ll regret it later when my fridge dies on me and I can’t find anything else that will fit there except the exact same boring fridge we already have, and it will cost $800 to boot.

Blerg. I really do not recognize myself here. I used to be so gung-ho to attempt stuff like this, but right now I’m freaking DREADING the whole endeavor. At least we’re getting the first really hard part done tomorrow, so it’s not looming and amplifying all the other back-to-school anxieties.

Speaking of back-to-school anxieties, we’ve been managing some REALLY big feelings around starting high school these past few days. Today, I asked my daughter to go through some of her larger books, and she made a pile with all her books about dragons and fairies, and then she promptly started sobbing and I realized I had picked exactly the WRONG day to be doing any of this. We did a lot of snuggling in front of the fifth episode of Good Girl’s Guide to Murder afterward, which almost made up for it, but still, it was an unforced error I’m definitely regretting. Luckily the teeth cleaning appointments and ADHD meds/sports clearance appointment went fine. Her pediatrician even called me in the morning and asked if we’d like to take a newly opened spot to see her instead of the random guy, to which I very appreciatively said YES! The pharmacy even had her ADHD meds in stock! A miracle!

Tonight I went to the dojo and I was able to SIT ON MY KNEES! Like fully and for a couple of minutes. It didn’t feel great, but I wasn’t in agony and it was absolutely the first time I’ve been able to sit that way since my injury in February. I’ve been working on knee flexion again this past week – after taking the summer off – and I was starting to wonder if I’d ever be able to sit on my knees again, so this felt phenomenal. Later, I was able to sit cross legged for the meditation, which was also a first.

Of course, when I stood up afterward, my knee felt kind of awful, and kicking felt precarious, but I”m hoping it will pass quickly and that I can keep making progress toward full flexion in my injured knee. My knee always feels pretty stiff and sore after I work on bending it, so I’m not surprised that it felt especially stiff and sore after today. I can’t really believe that I was able to sit like that today. I honestly got hot eyes, and almost started crying I was so happy.

And this post has been all over the place, just like my brain these days. Here’s to hoping tomorrow at work is not awful, and that we can at least get this refrigerator up to the city without too many issues. If anyone has any refrigerator-moving advice, I will definitely listen! Please share!

First of all, seeing Chappell Roan at Outside Lands was phenomenal. Her performance was amazing, the crowd was INSANE (the largest crowd ever recorded at Outside Lands), and we all had the best time. I am so, SO glad that I got to go.

And now, some other wins, both small and not so small, that I’m trying to appreciate right now.

• Our Gap order came really early, which means I was able to start the returns for my daughter’s jeans (too big) and my son’s school shirts (too small) today, AND order replacements while the sale was still going on. Luckily, the only thing that did fit was my pair of $10 final-sale vegan leather black pants. Woot!
• I was able to set up a new cell line on my daughter’s old Apple Watch. Sure, my husband had to get the number changed from a Philadelphia area code (WHY?!) to an SF area code, but otherwise, I managed it. I’m really bad at stuff like that, so I’m considering it a win.
• I was able to return a pair of Nike’s I bought for my son in mid-July (but we hadn’t opened yet because they are WHITE), so he could pick out his first pair of Air Jordan’s today. They were on sale but still VERY expensive. He better not have a crazy growth spurt in the next few months.
• I was REALLY bummed out that I forgot to bring my friend’s birthday card to the dojo on Saturday so I could leave it in her locker, but it ended up being a nice to have to walk there this afternoon. We even dropped the Gap stuff off at UPS on the way into the Mission. It was sunny for the whole (4+ mile) walk and we did a nice combo of listening to our audiobook (sharing my AirPods) and chatting. Oh, and that is when we got the new shoes.
• At the end of the walk, my son practiced walking home from school by himself. I walked about two blocks behind him, and could see him most of the time. He did a great job, and feels confident that he can walk home by himself next week. (Right now he’s on the wait list for three afternoons a week at aftercare, and I will admit I kind of don’t want him to get in, so we can stop paying them at all. My husband feels differently. We’ll see what happens.) I can’t believe how mature my youngest child is now. We’re entering a whole new area.
• I got my allergy shot this morning, followed by my bi-annual pap smear. The two appointments were at two different Kaiser buildings, but the timing was perfect for me to drive from one to the other. Oh, and my ADHD medication was actually refilled last Friday when I ordered it. That hasn’t happened in AGES. So it was all ready for me to pick up this morning. Hooray!
• Speaking of appointments, two teeth cleanings opened up this Wed morning, the literal last day of my summer break, so I can take the kids in together before school starts. I had to cancel their cleanings in April and the rescheduled appointment was in October, which was basically six months after the one I cancelled. I’m glad we got in before school starts.
• I was also able to get an appointment for my daughter Wed afternoon to be checked so we can refill her ADHD meds AND get her high school sports form filled out. We won’t be seeing her regular pediatrician, but it’s the guy who saw us while our regular Ped was on mat leave so at least he’s not a total stranger. ( We just saw our reg Ped at the start of the summer, to get a camp physical filled out, so it’s not such a bummer to miss her this time.)
• I remembered to text my friend before her medical procedures today, and to text my other friend on her birthday. I also texted two other people with birthdays today (three birthdays on the same day!) It felt good to actually remember to show up for people, even in small ways. I’ve been so scattered and distracted lately, I was worried I was going to forget.
• Tomorrow (Tuesday) I’m taking my son to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk because we don’t have anything planned and I we need to use our value season passes once more to make them worth it. The value passes don’t work on weekends, so a random Tuesday before schools starts it is!

And now it’s technically Tuesday, so I’m going to put this bad boy up. I’m sure I’m forgetting something (I’m ALWAYS forgetting something these days), but I’m determined that actually pressing “publish on this, will not be what I forget.

{I almost forgot! I went to upload the photos to WordPress and then got distracted and was heading to bed when I realized I never hit publish! This is my life now. My brain is seriously broken.}