Weekly New's, Weeks 24, 25, and 26
Needless to say, I've fallen a little behind here. This is due to a combination of genuine business and moments of turpitude in the (small) interim periods. Also, I've found that being busy isn't necessarily the same as doing new things (or at least not discrete, notable new things), so I feel like there isn't as much to write here as I'd like.
Week 24:
My friend Rachel moved in with me. She's just crashing here for now, but we've also been using this month as a trial period to see if we might want to live together long-term, after she gets back from Massachusetts in August and starts her grad program at Cal. So far it's working really well - better than I'd expect, honestly, given that I've had to make the emotional/pragmatic shift from living on my own to living with another person. She and I work well together in terms of schedules, lifestyles, messiness levels, food habits, etc. Aaaanyways, she taught my how to infuse alcohol, which apparently her parents do all the time (which makes me like her parents a whole lot). We made ginger-peach rum, which is now pondering life in the back of my pantry. It was super easy to do and looks super tasty. Looking forward to making tons more, perhaps as gifts and perhaps for personal consumption, in the future. Rachel and I are both collecting useful bottles in preparation :) Also, it was the last week of school! Yay summer break (sort of... see below)!
Week 25:
Monday was our one paid work day to clean out our classrooms, put together information for our students cumulative files, etc. Usually I spend several extra days cleaning and organizing my room at the end of each school year because that's what I need to do in order to feel "grounded" before leaving for the summer. However, this year that was not possible because a) I was going to start a 2-week professional development session on Tuesday morning, and b) my room was being used for summer school, and chances were the new teacher was going to be coming in to set up as soon as I got out of there. Sooo... I cleaned what I could, threw a bunch of stuff in boxes, and got the hell out of Dodge. It's not ideal (I'm going to have to head back early to sort through all of the crap that I threw in boxes), but I got it done. I'm pretty proud of myself, honestly - I always do everything slower than everyone else, and it's good to practice doing things quickly and "well enough."
I then went to this really awesome professional development session at this gorgeous charter school (hey, look what happens when schools get both public funds and private funds!) and learned a ton about science and literacy integration and did a bunch of cool activities and experiments and stuff. I feel like there was a lot of learning and new experiences involved, but it's too difficult to tease apart for my purposes here.
That weekend, I jumped into huge piles of foam at SkyHigh (another trampoline place out in Concord) with Peter and his friends.
Week 26:
I went to Lawrence Berkeley National Labs with my professional development group. That place is huge and has unbelievable views. It sort of made me want to become a scientist, just so I could work there (my bike commute to work would be phenomenal). It also made me a little jealous of my brother, who does work there (and with whom I got to have lunch).
Also, this past weekend I drove up to Donner with my family and learned how to survey! My parents bought a lot on Donner Creek about 15 years ago, and we're hoping to finally build on it next summer (my brother's and my Father's Day present to my dad was effectively a kick in the pants regarding this). My dad is apparently a registered surveyor (who knew?) and has all of this awesome old-school equipment that looks like something out of a Jules Verne novel. I learned how to use his transit (although figuring out the angle was tricky, largely because it is maddeningly specific - Dad literally has to use a magnifying glass to determine which lines match up with which in order to get to correct measurements). We surveyed the creek edge so that we can place rocks to prevent erosion, then surveyed out the corners of the proposed "cabin" (I don't think a 2,500 square foot structure counts as a cabin, but what do I know?). We also got to meet pretty much all of our neighbors, including the guy who just moved in next door and apparently knows my godfather (small world syndrome). My dad seemed so happy and excited. He kept talking about it all the way back home on Sunday - working out details and planning out next steps. I'm really glad we're finally moving forward on this.