Back to School and August

If you can believe it, I have already been in school for 16 days with children!

My class is adorable again this year, and I have 26 children.

That's a lot of firsties.

We're on a new schedule this year too, and now I have to be at school by 7:20.

Whoa.

All is going well for me so far, and also for Genevieve in her new class.

Let's rewind a bit, shall we?

Mother and I took G to meet her teacher.  

I saw my sweet Singo at G's school.  Her brother is in Genevieve's class.  I would keep Singo in my class until she graduated from high school if I could!

G was most excited about her new princess backpack and lunchbox from YaYa and Bob.

I took a quick picture of her on her first day with her new friend, Ellie.

Ellie's older sister was one of my star students last year.  

After a whirlwind few days of school at the end of July, I really hit the rewind button when I attended my 20th high school reunion.

Meg and Ryan joined us for drinks on Mom and Dad's patio before the reunion.

It was just like high school again, except my parents were drinking with me this time.

I jest.

Everyone knows I was a wuss and never drank in high school.

Le sigh.

Regrets, people, regrets.

Ryan, Meg, and I got along splendidly in grade school, junior high, and high school.

We didn't really get super close until Meg and I joined forces at the Delta Gamma house at IU.

I worked on my bulletin boards and sometimes helped her with her Biochemistry flashcards.

Ha!

As if.  

I "helped" her by encouraging her to blow off her study sessions so we could karaoke at Mother Bear's.  

Now she's Dr. Megan, Gynecologist and Obstetrician, thanks to my support.

Look at Trinity.

Doesn't he look old?

He's the class of '94.

He got so lucky scoring a young chick like me.  

Meghan and I had lots of fun laughing at each other.  I transcribed our conversation to go with the pictures.  We said none of these things.

"Look at her... I bet she's not even a doctor!"-Betsy

"Hold me up...my laughter is making me unsteady!"-Betsy

"We are the coolest!  Do you think everyone recognizes that?  My skin and hair are still as great as they were in high school."  -Betsy

"Bets, why do you have an Adam's apple?" -Dr. Megan

She is way too nice to say that.  But seriously?  I really don't think I have one, at least I'll tell myself that.  After I shave my mustache.  

They had our class picture on display and it appears I have been closing my eyes in pictures for well over 20 years.  

I do hope that Gap plans to release my black v neck for fall.

Snarf.

T took G and I to Mallow Run to booze on a Sunday.  I tend to get the Sunday scaries at times, and nothing helps assuage them like wine.  

Our table was littered with toys and coloring books because that's what everyone brings to a winery.

A cat!

I swear one would think we had just sighted the elusive Yetti when we saw that cat.

On boozy Sundays I tend to wear leggings as pants and shirts that make me look like I'm the Hamburglar.  

Last weekend G wooed the big cat in the Kate Spade window.  

We babysat for Robby on Saturday night and slept over.  

G told me she was in charge and I was her assistant.  

Whatevs, G.

I am truly not blowing smoke up your rear when I tell you my nephew is the most perfect baby.  Not a single fuss.  

I could eat him.  

We had breakfast at Patachou on Sunday morning and I abstained from the booze. 

No scaries.

I was all zen like after time with that blissed out baby boy.  

I dressed them alike in blues and grays because duh.

I got in on that blue action too.

Plus my leg looks skinny here.  

It's the camera angle.  

I hope to post more now that I'm back in the groove of teaching, wifing, and mothering!

San Francisco: The Rest of It

So on Friday Trinity told me we needed to go and walk on the Golden Gate Bridge.  I was all like, "no. I don't want too.  It's Shark   Week and I want to watch that!  My calves hurt!"

He forced me to go and I was peeved.

I pretended to enjoy it since the weather was gorgeous and he really doesn't ask for much from me.

 We walked a little bit out on the bridge and he pulled out his phone and told me to read the poem that he had found for me.

I started reading it and it was really mushy and I turned around literally saying, "Trinity, you're so stupid and this is cheesy..."

And there he was, standing with an anniversary band in his hand.

The light doesn't show it very well, but it's a rose gold band that is the same ring as my wedding band.

I wasn't wearing my engagement ring on my trip, because I leaves the rocks I got at home when I travel.

I cried and said I was sorry for whining and making fun of my ever so sweet spouse.

Later that night we met Courtney and her friend to go to another Giants' game.

That plan fizzled and I insisted that we go to The Tonga Room, a tiki bar in the Fairmont Hotel.  

We schlepped it up there and I swear it was such an incline to get there that I felt like I was on one of those mountain climber machines that the Russian  trains on in Rocky VIIIX.

Remember, I don't understand Roman numerals. 

Mind you, we were dressed in full on Luon/Patmygonia , as we had layered up in yoga/running gear to neither do yoga nor run but to watch professionals play football.

We bounced into the bar and my man started moving.   

Courtney and I watched as two millennials stood by the water and seriously  selfied/boomeranged/snapchatted/flower crowned themselves and did not talk to each other for 10 straight minutes.

It was insane.

I read that millennials spend 30 minutes a day on Instagram.

I read that on Instagram.

I'm kidding.

Alexa told me.  

So we took our cues from them and coordinated a damsel in distress scene that took roughly 3.2 seconds to pull off.

"We're being held captive by pirates!!!"

Post it to Instagram!

We can get at least 29 likes on this one!!!!

Things we did do:

Ordered a $45 drink to share 

Tried to get someone to bring me a piece of coconut pineapple cake on the dance floor so I didn't have to pay a $20 "sitting at a table fee."

Things we did not do:

Fall in the pool

Oh, true love.

"This drink tastes like sour fruit and tanning oil."

I turn up my nose at you... awful drink.

We acted like goofs and loved every minute of it.

On Saturday morning Court retrieved us again and drove us out to Muir Woods so we could all commune with nature.

The number of people there was insane and parking was a nightmare.  Court dropped us off and told us to text her when we were finished.

The trees were beautiful and enormous.  There were ferns everywhere, which always makes me think of dinosaurs.

Intriguing, right?

So we realized quickly that we had zero cell service in that remote area.  I started to flip out that we would never find Courtney again. Ever.  Since I'm an alarmist. 

We started to walk to the entrance of the park while I was wringing my hands and fretting about who we would have Genevieve live with, since we were clearly never leaving California.   

Trinity said, "Wait... is that Courtney?"

Um, yes.

She could be homeless but those shoes were too nice and her legs too recently shaven (like 2 weeks prior to this sighting).  

I nearly fell over.

Court is nothing if not the a total problem solver.

She found a parking spot, hiked around a bit and then realized there was no hope of reaching each other with our phones, so she did what any normal person would do.

She napped on a park bench.  

We happily reunited and had a lovely dinner at one of Court's former colleague's homes near the woods.

It was gorgeous.

I told Trinity to look pensive as I pretended to be Diane Keaton.  

The next morning the two fools set off to run the San Francisco Half Marathon.  I dropped them off and was charged with parking Court's car near our hotel.  Now keep in mind this was Sunday morning at like 8:00.  

Finding a spot was a nightmare and I had this windshield to contend with-

Courtney regularly cleans it with a Baby Ruth wrapper.

She was also out of wiper fluid and the glare was horrendous.  Every sign in San Fran reads something like this:

Limited Parking

no parking between

7 a.m and 6 p.m.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

On Fridays parking is available 

between 10-10:34 a.m.

you can only park here if

you have a compact car

or recently were diagnosed with Hepatitis C.

There was also a lot of traffic.  I finally found a spot and then collapsed back in my bed to watch Michael Phelps race a shark, which was seriously disappointing when I discovered they weren't in the water at the same time.

Then I got this-

They are so fit.

That evening I enjoyed a $19 glass of bubbly from the hotel bar and some dark chocolate before drifting off to sleep on our final night.  

We had a wonderful trip thanks to Court's travel guide skills and our general awesomeness.  

San Francisco Days 1 and 2

Sweet T and I spent five nights out in San Francisco for our 7th wedding anniversary.  This was our first visit to the city and Northern California.  The weather was fabulous!  It was sunny and the temperature was in the upper 60s during our entire stay.

We took a super early flight on a Wednesday morning and arrived in San Fran at 6:30 a.m. local time.

This was not smart.  We had been up since about 4:00 our time, and  we had about a 4 hour direct flight there.

Our first day in the city was LONG.

We dumped our bags the Sir Francis Drake hotel, which was our home for our stay, and headed to Chinatown.

It was charming and mostly deserted at about 7:30 a.m.  

We decided to walk to AT&T Stadium for a Giants game.

We walked a ton in San Francisco, which may have been my favorite part of the trip.  It was just so easy to get everywhere.  The hills were crazy though.  Hello calves! Trinity paid $7 each for our nosebleed seats that were in the shade.

This is definitely my new favorite ballpark!

The view was incredible.  

There was a splash hit during our game.  Someone hit a home run into the water.  The crowd went nanners.

I was content to eat my garlic fries.

We got back to the hotel, checked in, and enjoyed a recovery nap.

We dined that evening at Leo's Oyster Bar.

The decor was so chic.

The oysters were great, according to my husband.

I don't eat those nasty things.

That is the face of a happy oyster eating man.

My seafood was delicious and my champagne cocktail was called "The Bubble Bath."  

I felt like Doris Day sitting in a tub full of bubbles in a pink bathroom while arguing with Rock Hudson about the party line use on my pink rotary telephone.

I really should have lived in an earlier era.

We ate an early dinner (still 9:00 Indiana time) and then were in bed not long after.  

We woke up at a decent time and walked to Mr. Holmes Bakehouse for donuts and cruffins.  A cruffin is the love child of a croissant and muffin.  

Duh.

They were amazing!

We took a boat tour ofAlcatraz Island where we sailed around the bay.  

We walked from the pier to Fisherman's Wharf and had a traditional lunch of clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl.  

I claimed that I was painfully full until I got closer to the Ghirardelli chocolate shop.  

Then suddenly I was ready to eat more.

We shared a $12 hot fudge sundae.  

A $12 fudge sundae??? 

San Francisco doesn't fool around when it comes money.

You need to bring it and be ready to spend it.

Or go home.

We went home after 5 days. 

But before we did that we met the "$10 dollar... founding father without a father..."

HAMILTON!!!!!

It was beyond description.  

Trinity got tickets for my birthday and it was the best gift.

Courtney actually procured the tickets with her American Express early access, since she is fancy like that.  

We likey the musicals.  I credit Court for playing the soundtrack of Miss Saigon to me and starting my love affair with Broadway musicals at about age 10 or 11.

It was a cassette tape.

At least it wasn't a record.

We attended the play with some of Court's friends and Trinity practically had to arm wrestle people and throw his bony elbows to get a picture of us in front of the sign.  

After he got us all lined up some kind fellow music nerd offered to take his picture too.

Which one of these is not like the other ones?

Which one of these does not belong?

He's a gem.

His only other play experience was Phantom of the Opera in the late 80s.  

This play was better.  

Although I have to applaud Christine for showing kindness to her mask-wearing stalker.

That wraps up our first two days.