Summer Saturday...at long last

You know, if it were only me in the house, I would probably have all of those things in my fridge too. I tend to stock up with things that the majority of people will eat (this excludes JJ, since he doesn't like anything) and my boys are generally happy with the generic meat-n-potatoes type of foods. I've done my best to find the healthiest forms of those, causing M to coin his favorite phrase, "There's nothing normal to eat in this house." Fortunately, K and S are both adventurous and health-oriented, so we at least have our little girl-circle of good food.

I remember when you met C in Italy years ago, I guess I didn't know she went often and had it funded. That doesn't suck. I almost signed up for one of those trips to Europe a couple of years ago at school, where my entire trip would be paid for if I chaperoned 30 high school students through London for a week. In the end, the free trip didn't tip the scale for me. I wanted it to - I kept thinking it would be fun!, but then I'd go into class and there would be a crude drawing of genitalia on my whiteboard, or some student would comment on my sexual orientation and the whole trip-to-Europe idea would die. Quickly. (Did I ever tell you that story about the text message? It's the best.)

I have to say, reminiscing there for a moment on my "career" as a teacher, I am so glad I don't have to go back. It doesn't really occur to me except in flashes that I'm not getting ready for school yet - I just keep thinking it's still summer. In fact, last night I was booking a camping trip in May (because here in the PNW camping spots really do fill up a year in advance) and the Friday before Memorial Day weekend is always a snow-make-up day for us. In the past, I always had to be careful about that, since we usually leave for our trip on Thursday and sometimes we'd all have to cancel that day at the last minute because no one could get out of work. But this year...ha! Off I go! Stupid revelation moment, but it was nice. I signed up to help with the PTA (maybe the newsletter, now they're not sure) and Friday Treats, which is just selling popcorn and junk at lunch at Friday recess. JJ's very excited about this; I don't know if he thinks he's going to get free treats or if he's just still young enough to think it's cool if his mom works the booth, but either way, I'll take it. It's a few hours each Friday, not a huge time commitment, and it's pretty fun. Also, I think I'm going to try to take one of those writing classes at Pierce - I haven't decided which one yet. There are a couple of other classes in there that really sparked my interest too - one is in tour guiding. That's me! Julie the Cruise Director! It's sort of in the realm of party planning, which I would love to do if I could figure out how to get started on my own. Anyway, I'm going to check into it more once school starts; I don't think I'll take anything until after Christmas. So, as I was saying about not having to go back to school, it's nice to get to focus on stuff that I actually enjoy, that's all.

I thought I'd just say hello this morning before I head out to do some gardening on this lovely 80 degree day...finally. I'll be out there for less than an hour, I bet you, before I'm sweating bullets and whining about how f***ing hot it is. Which will mean that I have to stop working and find a lawn chair and some iced tea to recuperate. I can't stay out of the sun any longer....I even went tanning yesterday and took my chances. So far, no rash. But we're going away next weekend and I look like Casper, and that's not ok. I simply cannot get into a bathing suit when my skin would light up the night.

Hope your Saturday's going well so far...
Love, A

P.S. I watched the movie Gone Baby Gone last night. It was very good, but OMG if that wasn't the saddest ending to a movie ever. I couldn't even cry, it was that awful. I just sat there with what I imagine was a slightly nauseous, heartbroken look on my face ,while the credits rolled. The book was by the author of Mystic River, which, if you've seen that, is almost equally depressing. But worth the rental fee, definitely (both of them). Also I loved it because it took place in Dorchester and I got to listen to really authentic "Daht" accents for two hours. Ah, I miss Boston!!!!