Hello Week Thirty-six. And goodbye to the life I’ve known for the past eleven years. This was the last week in which Brian and I lived together. It’s really quite… I don’t know. The feeling is indefinable. But perhaps that’s because at the time of writing this, he hasn’t actually left the final time yet. There has been trip after trip with his car loaded up. When he takes the final trip, perhaps then it will actually sink it. I think mostly so far it’s just been stressful. And that’s not his fault and it’s not mine. It’s just the way of it.
Sunday
Stacks! (Stax?) I’m not sure how you spell my neighbor’s dog’s name. But this is your friendly neighborhood bulldog who grunts a LOT, has tons of eye goopies, and bumps his butt up against you repeatedly so you’ll pet him. I love him.
Monday
I painted the living room and dining room, with some help from my mom and no help from Sam.
Tuesday
I’m grateful for my parents. They can be… difficult… But they’re always willing to lend a hand. When they came over to help with a few things and see the paint color, my mom and I immediately noticed that it looked good on my dad. This picture doesn’t do it justice, of course, but it’s a really good color for my dad to stand in front of LOL. When he’s over here on a day with better natural light, I’ll snap another pic.
Wednesday
The walls are now what we’re referring to as a “pistachio green.” In some light, in looks tan, in others it looks grey. And yet in others it looks very green in an almost hideous way that I absolutely love.
Thursday
I usually love setting up my classroom for the year… Actually, I take that back. I have a love-hate relationship with setting up my classroom every year because my OCD makes it a bit of a project. But I love when I’ve finally settled on the room arrangement that will best serve the students; I love getting everything in order; I love making it aesthetically pleasing — putting up new bulletin boards and colorful wall decorations. The space needs to be welcoming and comfortable, but also functional and conducive to learning.
This year the room arrangement is based solely on keeping students six feet apart. What a crazy time to be an educator… what a crazy time to be a human.
Friday
I stopped over to my parents’ house to switch cars (because I’m so close to my lease mileage, my mom and I play a vehicle swapping game). They weren’t home, but Bailey Boo was. We walked around the yard and saw the first of the ripening grapes on the vines.
Saturday
The bulk of my Saturday was spent walking. It felt good; I hadn’t really gotten out much this week. The week has been centered around school craziness and Brian moving out one car load at a time. But Aung wanted to see me, so we went for a walk through the switchbacks. I think we walked for about an hour and forty minutes. It was lovely, really. We stopped along the way to look at the “exercise stations” the city had set up (they’re basically just signs periodically telling you to stretch or do a push-up).
Aung bent over laughing at me after we’d stopped at one sign at the center of a U in the path. I turned back around and looked at the two paths before me and couldn’t remember which one we’d came from. I’m THAT directionally challenged. Aung is the complete opposite. The boy can get driven somewhere (not even do the driving himself) ONE TIME and he has no problem making his way back there without assistance. I need to drive some place about twenty-five times before I kind-of, sort-of start to remember the directions. But I continue using GPS until about the fortieth time, just to be sure.
In the evening, I met Kath at Sherrill Brooke Park, and we took laps while talking writing… and life in general. It was a nice way to spend a Saturday.