5.31.18 - May joy statuses

5.31.18 - Evgeny Lushpin paintings

Montmartre Spring

Rooftop Hideout

Seven Sisters

5.26.18 - Sam Horne's with Beth

Beth and I haven't hung out in months (busy semester) but we finally scheduled time to go to lunch. I got up really early for a Saturday and was clocked in at Starbucks by 7:30 a.m. Beth and I were originally going to meet at noon but she asked to push it to 1 p.m. because of an appointment for their puppy, Max, and that schedule change worked out well for me because I got a more solid work session in. I enjoyed my freebie venti java chip frappuccino (nonfat milk, light whipped cream) and processed construction hours, tracked utilities for all of Dad's properties, and started putting together a PowerPoint animation training module I'm already pretty happy with. Then I went home to feed Jane before heading to Folsom.

I enjoyed the drive there with no kids in the car, just listening to my music and daydreaming. I missed the Sutter Street exit but that turned out to be kind of nice because I crossed American River and backtracked by turning around and crossing Rainbow Bridge. Rainbow Bridge is a landmark from my childhood in Folsom. Once I even had a vivid dream about crossing the bridge in a car with on driver. Anyway I haven't seen it much less been over it since we moved away in 1995 (when I was just a kid), so it was a pleasant and nostalgic surprise to be driving across it myself on the way back to Sutter Street.

I found parking without too much trouble because I have no problem walking a meager two blocks (and not even huge city blocks) to get to the restaurant. I walked down Sutter Street in perfect weather (the heat is coming but it's not here yet). Beth was already there. I had mac'n'cheese with bacon and we split some soft pretzels and had really good conversations about her family, Clara's developments, where we want to settle, etc. We visited for probably about an hour and a half and it was a really nice time.

A Yelp picture of the exact booth we were sitting in.

Then on the drive home I got to talk to Julie for about half the way and enjoy my music the rest. Nice quick Saturday outing.

5.17.18 - Jack's pinning ceremony

The day was going to be a bit complicated because our apartment was planning to shut the water off from 10a-2p and the ceremony began at 1p. Jack showered the night before to be cautious. Merlene filled a big pot and some pitchers with water in case we needed it. Then it turned out they never actually shut the water off that day, haha. Well better to be prepared.

Jack had to run errands in the morning, including going to a ceremony rehearsal and printing parking passes for us (our poor old printer isn't working anymore). Merlene ran to the store and got food for lunch, then went by the hotel to pick up Julie. I was so glad for their help when they got back. Julie fried some tortillas and got fixings ready for lunch, including some perfect avocado Merlene had picked up. It was delicious.

At some point Jack returned and he and Julie got dressed up and left together to get to the ceremony early. Merlene helped get Clara and Jane ready and then all of us (Don included) took their rented minivan (which came in so handy so many times) to campus. Jack was texting me asking where we were and there was zero parking available at the first parking garage, so Don dropped us off and went to find parking elsewhere (unsung hero). We found the student union building and fortunately Jack found us because it wasn't that obvious at first where in the building the ceremony would be. Also there were students everywhere because this was all happending eary afternoon on a weekday and I guess classes aren't out yet.

Anyway so Jack directed us to the ballroom and we found seats in the back near the doors (for easy exits in case of restless children). It was not a huge room, though, so even from the back we could see the stage fairly easily, plus they had big projector screens both behind the stage and around the room that were even easier to see from where we were sitting. It was a good setup.

Ready to watch Dada get his pin!

The graduates entered to "Best Day of My Life" (American Authors) which was pretty cheerful. The whole group walked down the center aisle between the two big sections of audience seats and then they paused as graduates walked up to the stage two at a time (one for each set of seats on either side of the stage). Between the really cheerful music and people applauding and cheering as their graduates stepped onto stage, it was pretty exciting and moving. To my surprise I even felt a little teary eyed (Scheve tears), it was so happy. Clara saw Jack and immediately (and persistently) wanted to run to him, so we had to figure out how to distract her. I think ultimately Julie took her into the hallway to run around and burn off some of her excitement.

The ceremony consisted of speeches and specific acknowledgements and awards before the actual pinning. In particular the student speaker, Evan, did a great job. I was expecting the sort of classic and cliche walks down memory lane and somber calls to greatness, but instead his speech was funny and fast-paced and delivered enthusiastically and sincerely. Apparently he used to be a wedding DJ. In retrospect I wish I'd videotaped it; I still hope to get a video copy of it. Either way, though, it was very entertaining, particularly his made up sample HESI test question that barely sounded exaggerated. He delivered it rapid fire and had people laughing before he'd finished. Anyway his speech was a high point.

They gave out a bunch of different awards, not all of which I can remember now, and I didn't really expect Jack to win one because I figure he's been so overloaded with being a student as well as husband and father it would be hard to go over and above enough academically to get a bonus to the degree itself. But he did! He won one of the Men In Nursing awards--the very last award annoucnced and he was the very last (of 3) recipients announced. So that was a pleasant surprise.

While all this was happening Julie was letting Clara play in the hallway and with the drinking fountain, which kept Clara busy nearly the entire time. Jane did well in the ballroom at first but when she got restless Merlene took her to the doorway where Merlene could see the ceremony and Jane could see Julie and Clara, and that seemed to work alright.

I kept checking on her to see if she wanted to switch because I didn't want her or Don to miss the ceremony, but she insisted they wanted to make sure I didn't miss any of the ceremony, which I really appreciated. Throughout the entire graduation weekend I did feel not only really proud of Jack but also that we earned this together, as a team. Both are great feelings.

Then came the actual pinning. Actually "pinning" is a misnomer because they really pin the pin to a ribbon like a lanyard and then they put the lanyard over the graduate's head. But either way. They explained the symbolism of the pin and how it involves meaning both for nurses and for Sacramento State graduates. They had all the pinners line up in alphabetical order by their graduates' last names, so Julie and Jack's friend Melody were roughly in the middle. (Only RNs can pin graduates, and Jack chose Julie because she's family and Melody because she is Jack's former classmate and was a tremendous help to him during his last semester, giving him lots of guidance on the classes and projects she had completed only the semester before.)

Normally this portion of a graduation ceremony would be really dull for the audience because it would consist of hearing a lot of names you don't recognize back-to-back as you wait for your graduate to walk. However, for this ceremony it was pretty interesting, because all of the graduates had submitted photo collages of their friends and family (and pets!) and just people who meant a lot to them or who they wanted to thank. Then as each graduate was pinned the collage displayed behind them and on the projectors around the ballroom, and it really gave more depth to the ceremony because the rest of us got a little insight into who this person is and what's important to them (and their aesthetic when creating photo collages :-P). Some of the collages were really funny, some fun-loving, some somber. One of my favorites was a collage of only three photos in which the graduate thanked her past, present and future. The past was a picture of her parents, the present was her and her (presumably) husband, and the future was a picture of her children. It was a simple and very sweet homage. I had made Jack's collage for him a while back and included a top row of pictures of him studying while Clara climbs all over him. I wanted to really highlight the unique challenge of being a student parent, plus the pictures are kind of funny.

After everyone was pinned they showed a slide show of pictures of the class throughout the program. It was sweet but a little cheesy, mostly because they did the whole thing to the Israel Kamakawiwo'ole version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (a song I can never seem to fully escape, apparently). But they exited to "Can't Stop the Feeling" which I just now realized is Justin Timberlake which makes me like it a bit more. Also this music video is great.

After the ceremony we mingled for a while. I got to actually meet Melody, who was very sweet. Jack grabbed Jane and took her around to see people (he is proud to show his kids off). Several people recognized Jane and Clara from the Men In Nursing meetings Jack has taken them to. Then we headed outside in the beautiful weather and took some surprisingly successful family photos in front of a fountain Clara loved.

She was upset when we had to leave the fountain but I think she was just overtired. She passed out in the van about 30 seconds after we started driving home. 

5.16.18 - People arriving for Jack's graduation

I worked all day Wednesday rushing to get as much done as possible on the teach-in slide deck before guests started arriving for the weekend. Dad was absent from the office all day either trying to get slides organized or catching up on desperately needed sleep. I kept the crew running in his absense so we would still be moving forward. Jack was running around finishing up some end-of-semester odds and ends, so I picked up the girls too. Don & Merlene had arrived in town such that they would either already be at our apartment when I got back with the girls or they would arrive very shortly after. As I drove the girls home from the meetup spot, Clara and I had the following conversation:

Me: Are we going to go see Dada?
Clara: Go see Dada!
M: Aaaaaaand....we're going to go see Mimi!
C: Mimi...?
M: And we're going to go see Gpa!
C: Gpa!
M: Yeah!
C: Effweet!
M: What?
C: Go see Effweet!
M: Oh, uh..no, hon, no Everett. But Mimi!
C: Mimi!!

She is very interested in Everett, lately, haha.

Anyway, sure enough not five minutes after we got home Don and Merlene came in. Jane was very unsure about them and wanted to stay with me, but Clara was delighted and kept hopping back and forth across the living room with all her extra energy from how excited she was. I made us bacon spinach pasta for dinner and we all enjoyed some visiting time.

Julie was also set to arrive that night, but her flight out of St. Louis was so delayed we weren't sure if she'd make it out of Phoenix (her connection) in time to arrive that night. I was nervous because the main reason Julie was joining us was to help confer Jack's nursing pin to him at a ceremony early the next afternoon, and if she got stuck in Phoenix that might mess things up. I checked her flight tracker compulsively throughout the evening but happily she made it. Her flight out of Phoenix was also delayed so she didn't arrive in Sacramento until 1 am. I decided to go to bed at roughly my typical time (10:30p ish) and then just set my alarm to get up in time to go get her. (That was definitely the right decision, in retrospect, because this whole weekend has been very busy and I haven't gotten a ton of sleep).

I listened to my Indie playlist driving with zero traffic in the middle of the night to the airport. It was pretty peaceful. I parked right outside Departures and apart from one other car doing the same, there was no one around at all. Definitely no one to tell me I couldn't park there and had to circle. I watched the shuttle train head from the terminal to the gates empty and return full and I tried to see if I could spot Julie but it was too far away. Wasn't long at all before she found me and we headed home, mostly talking about work. I dropped her at her hotel, went home, and passed out.

5.12.18 - California loves

5.6.18 - Potato Latkes

Another recipe from the 5 ingredient Gluten Free cookbook:

• About 2 lbs of potatoes
• 1 medium onion, peeled
• 2 large eggs
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 3/4 c vegetable oil
• 2 medium zucchinis

Shred the potatoes and let them soak in ice water for a few minutes. Then drain them, then squeeze them out in a towel. They need to be as dry as possible.

Shred teh zucchini and onion. Mix those with the potatoes and egg and salt and pepper.

Heat about 1/4 c of oil in a skillet and add the potato mixture in pancake sizes. Fry on each side until brown (a few minutes). Let cool and serve with sour cream or ketchup or apple sauce.

I let Clara try a bite and she asked for more, so I'd call that a resounding success.

5.4.18 - Random joys for a random day in May

The last week has been rough, with yesterday particularly so. Jack's been really slammed at the end of the semester and I'm left to take care of a lot of different responsibilities mostly by myself. It's a bit overwhelming. Then yesterday Beth was sick and I had the girls. Couldn't get work done. The girls were fussy. Speech therapy didn't go well. By the end of the day I was very frustrated and exhausted. But that's when it started to turn around.

I decided to take one of my cheat days for my current calorie bet with Julie. Jack was on his way home so he stopped first to pick us up a ready-made pizza and a big bag of Reese's. By the time he got home I had (finally) gotten the kids to bed, so I could eat in peace. Man did that junk food hit the spot.

About to feel better in 3...2...1...

Also Dad was up late scrambling to put together slides for a last minute webinar CER had scheduled for this morning. He asked if I could help and I said sure. You'd think I'd be too tired to do it, but actually eating junk food and getting work done uninterrupted made me feel much better. It also helped that the work was mostly graphics-related, which I particularly enjoy, and that it was really immediately helpful to Dad, which I also particularly enjoy. Plus I was able to put to use some of the tricks I've learned more recently with PowerPoint, and it sure made my life easier. I wasn't too worried about the lost sleep because I knew once the webinar was over today I'd have time to take a nap. I can power through that.

I made this image and apparently it was really useful.

Then this morning Jack was able to drop off the girls for the first time in a week, which was a welcome relief. I got up early to help with the webinar slides. I did clock out to help Jack get the girls ready and in the car (and then quickly went and mailed our homemade (Grand)Mother's Day cards), and then got back to it. It was an enjoyable morning because I was very absorbed in the work so the time went fast. As an aside I also had a nice chat with Nathaniel while working on it. Social media really helps me feel connected even when I work from home and rarely see other adults in person. Oh, and I also basically had Reese's and very cold milk for breakfast, haha.

The webinar went decently. I worked on Photoshop graphics while listening to it. Another small joy is my increasing interest and understanding of the companies and technologies Dad covers. I mean I'm nowhere close to his level, of course, but as I piece more together it makes the work more interesting. And after the webinar was over Dad called and thanked me for my help, which he doesn't do that often. I don't believe I need a lot of thanks or validation, but it's still nice from time to time, and I appreciated it.

After the webinar I helped a little with post webinar work but for the most part the staff had it in hand, which is a great improvement from even a couple months ago. I don't have to worry about the transcript or any of the other post-webinar task list because they're trained and can handle it. That's pretty wonderful. Anyway so I did get to take a nap--a luxuriously long nap because Jack picked up the girls and took them with him to run one or two errands. So that was wonderful.

This evening has been great too. First of all it's the first time Jack has been home and awake for any length of time in a while. Even when he is mostly working on school work (as he was tonight) it makes a big difference having him around because I can ask for his help briefly while I do other things or because the girls will play contended in the room he's in even if I leave to do other things. That's how it went for probably half an hour while I video chatted with Mom, and it was a really nice visit.

Tonight I've also had plenty of time to goof around with the girls, including singing "Humpty Dumpty" and "Monkeys jumping on the bed" to Clara as she pretended to fall off our bed over and over. Jane was thrilled to be part of the action and kept bouncing on the bed herself.

After burning a lot of energy, I went ahead and put some videos on for them. For a while they both sat happily eating and watching videos. Then I switched to trains videos and Clara got very excited and ran into the nursery to bring back her toy engine. So I turned it on and set it to run in circles in the living room, and she ran in counter clockwise circles around it and said she was riding it. Jane watched the whole spectacle with a lot of approval. It was very sweet.

While they did that, I sat and worked on this entry and enjoyed the last bit of my 24 hours of calorie freedom by eating tortilla chips with salsa and sour cream and having a diet coke.

[Note 7/31/18 - I never finished this entry and can no longer remember what else I would have recorded, so it ends here.]

5.4.18 - working from home

5.1.18 - Spring books