I swear I had shit to write about and then I finally sat down and… tumbleweeds. I’m even letting myself just write random paragraphs (instead of a slightly more structured Five on Friday post) and still… crickets. Ha! I just wrote the title. 😉
Last Friday my parents took us out to a fancy new Mexican restaurant on the far side of the city (Maria Isabel at California and Presidio) and we had the most incredible prix fixe dinner. Six courses, each more exquisite than the last. I haven’t enjoyed food that good in a looooong time.
On the way home from dinner we listened to the Valkeryies sweep the Aces in overtime! It was the most incredible five minutes! I’m so excited to watch them play in their first WNBA finals game against the Atlanta Dream this Saturday (sadly I will be watching it on TV).
Sunday of last weekend I hosted book club, and can I just say that I HATE hosting? Because I do. I hate cleaning for it, cooking for it, actually doing it, and cleaning up after. I really, REALLY don’t enjoy even one aspect of hosting. I keep thinking it will get easier and I will enjoy it more but NOPE! I was so glad it was a long weekend, because. swear I needed an extra weekend day just to decompress from hosting.
Speaking of hosting… Today is the almost-13yo’s birthday party and I am DREADING it. Last year was so awful, and I really just want it to be over. There are only five other kids going, and we’re taking them to a go-kart spot, but still… I’m SO GLAD the husband is coming this year. Hosting alone last year was a huge mistake. Wish us luck!
The husband leaves for his first of two back-to-back, week-long trips on Saturday. I’m not looking forward to ending each day in the kitchen, doing dishes, preppting the coffee, and wrapping things up. Starting each day AND ending each day in the kitchen is exhausting, but it is what it is. I AM looking forward to sleeping in the middle of our giant California King bed, to the sweet, sweet sound of… NOBODY SNORING. Ah, silence! Well silence behind the sound machine, which will absolutely still be on.
The almost-13yo’s actual birthday is next Thursday. The husband will still be out of town. His friend birthday will be over. His family birthday will be a few days away. He just asked if he could play video games that afternoon and what a great idea! I love that we NEVER let him play video games on week days, so giving him that will make his day special, when it won’t really be in basically any other way. I’m so glad he thought of that. (I haven’t officially said yes yet, but I’m definitely going to let him do it.)
The 16yo made it to the virtual interview round of Marina Mammals. I’ve been a little nervous about her hearing from them, because I was the one who helped her submit her application questions. There are several warnings that not answering certain parts of questions or submit answers in certain ways would mark the application “incomplete” and I knew that if she didn’t make it through the first round it would be for that kind of reason – which would feel like my fault! She has so many other things going on this year that she’s not nearly as stressed about it, but she’s definitely excited to have made it to the second round.
It’s been (characteristically) warm this month; beautiful mid-70s temps in San Francisco, but much higher (mid-to-high 80s) down by work. I’m SO GLAD they got us AC two summers ago. Seriously, I NEVER want to take it for granted. I haven’t minded making my warmer weather wardrobe stretch, but now I want to start wearing my Halloween leggings and most days it feels really hot for them by the afternoon. I just hope it’s not super hot on actual Halloween, when I have to wear a fleece onsie to school…
I made a last-minute decision to get rid of a rather large, four-drawer filing cabinet that I’ve had since I started teaching 23 years ago. It’s followed me through MANY classroom moves, and has original and copies in it from so many different teaching eras. I found my Grade 8 Math syllabus in there! And 7th grade History! (I’m so glad I don’t teach that stuff anymore.) I also found SO MANY transparencies. And I salvaged a HUGE stack of page protectors. Everything else, I recycled! I was very proud of myself. I haven’t touched anything in that file cabinet for years and I only kept it in the storage closet connected to my room out of laziness. Still, it was crazy to look how many different things I have taught in the past, and how much time and effort I put into teaching them. I wrote and illustrated so many of my own stories. I designed so many tests. That filing cabinet held YEARS of my life, my time, my energy, my commitment. Wow, I have really dedicated a lot myself, and my effort, to teaching over the years.
Part of why I wanted to get rid of the filing cabinet is because I decided to bite the bullet and get a set of KALLAX shelves from IKEA to organize my boxes of costumes. I found one on Craigs.list for $15 and went to pick it up yesterday afterwork. By some miracle I fit it in my tiny Chevy Bolt and I can’t wait to switch it out for that super old filing cabinet.
We got a small cat tree to replace one that was shedding twine all over the hallway. The first one I got was way too big, but luckily the 16yo’s friend wanted it for a bedroom revamp. The second one I got was just right! Serval agrees.
I guess I found a couple things to write about! Ha! And it was fun throwing in some pictures, just to keep things interesting. I have a couple stand alone posts with actual topics I want to cover… maybe next week, though I probably will have less time when I’m the only parent at home. We shall see…
