Exxopolis

On my birthday this year my sister agreed to go with me to see the Exxopolis exhibit in Grant Park, in LA. It was the last week that it was going to be there. We got there about 10 AM and were the LAST 2 people in line. The worker had to keep moving the sign behind us. It was also the hottest day in September and we waiting in line for over 4 hours! Exxopolis is this giant inflated art sculpture. There were so many rooms and they are all filled with natural light. It was very cool!

Kids are the Best!

One of the very many wonderful things abut being a teacher is getting weekly little gifts from students. I love getting little notes or pictures or crafts my students have made. I have a little area near my desk where I display all their pictures to me. 

This note says "I think that you are a really nice teacher and you are a very pretty, talented, funny, loveably and sweet teacher. You are so nice that I want to squeeze you but I won't and I don't. You're are the best teacher in the world". 

Here is a tea pot with a poodle and an Eiffel Tower. 2 things I love.

A duct tape wallet. 

In an envelope I received 3 (used) bracelets (that I wear!) a picture and a note. "I love being learning with you and it feels like I am in sixth grade but I am not. I am in fourth grade and its fun being with you."

This guy!!! He still sits on my desk and we call him the class mascot. 

Hired!…..the day before school started!

This year I was hired to be a teacher the day before school started! At about 1:00….I went in for a long term teaching position interview, and then 2 hours later was called back and offered my own classroom! That meant that I basically only had time to rearrange desks and put books into them!

Did I mention it is a 4/5 combo class! Yikes! Here are some before pictures on day 1..

 Ancient computers that don't work!

 My mom is a creative genius and the biggest help in the world. She created this amazing 3D tree in my "Reading Nook".

 Yep! Still have a chalkboard!

 Our Writing Wall.

 Before….

 After!

Pitts to the Burgh

I had a red-eye Wednesday night from LAX to Washington D.C., and then a connecting flight to Pittsburgh.

This is the tiny, miserable plane I rode on from D.C. to Pitt

And yes I am on a moving walkway. One of my favorite things about airports.

In the airport. Come on.

 I was picked up from the airport and taken directly to the church, where I was put to work!

Here is the bride working  on her banner.

Friday was more decorating. The rehearsal dinner--outside and it was so cold. My one pair of jeans was a very poor choice. It also rained off and on Thursday and Friday. After the rehearsal dinner we had a little bachelorette party for Becky. It was a lot of fun. I knew quite a few of her friends from different stages of her life which was fun.

Saturday- the big day! I woke up with the worst migraine of my life. Naturally. We had the bridal brunch at Phipps Conservatory, which is beautiful. I spent most of it in the bathroom. Luckily after this we headed over to the church and I was able to lie on the floor for a few hours before the wedding. Another bridesmaid told me I looked homeless while I was lying there fighting back nausea with my blanket and using my purse as a pillow.

The Wedding! It was a great wedding. They got married in an Anglican church, so they had a full church service. I was a chalice bearer so I got to pass out sips of the wine. The after party was a ton of fun. Becky's brother was the emcee, and he was hilarious. There was dancing, an impromptu limbo contest, dance offs, and group dances.

 

 

The Church was beautiful. The aisle I had to walk down was as long as Westminster Abbey. Basically. Call me Pipa.
 

Backtracking to April Fool's Day

AKA my grandma's birthday. 
My grandma turned 90! this year! Which is pretty amazing.
  Growing up I was lucky enough to live only 30 minutes from each set of grandparents. This grandma (Anne), my dad's mom is my only grandparent still living, and has been since 1996. 5 years ago my dad and aunt realized that my grandma needed help, she was becoming unable to live by herself any longer.              

My grandma has Dementia. Which is very sad, frustrating and confusing. It can also be entertaining. My sister and I usually visit her together these days because she now lives over an hour away. My grandma usually remembers me, sometimes my name prompt helps. She often calls my sister by the wrong name, which hurts. We usually take her to 2nd breakfast (she eats at her assisted living place really early) and then sometimes we walk around Target-and she tells us every time that she has never seen a red shopping cart before. When it is time to go she always hugs me and says, " I love you very much" which I usually feel pretty good about.

Years ago my grandma used to tell some of the same stories over and over again. My favorite was about the first time she had flank steak. The butcher gave her a piece to take home and try and told her how to cut it and marinate it. I loved this story because I love flank steak and I like to think this is where my dad learned to cut the diamonds into the flank steak. I have not heard this story in a few years.

My current favorite story is about when she was growing up in the valley. Her house backed up to the wash. It was the time of the Great Depression and food was scarce. Her family had chickens in the backyard and "tramps" would come up from the wash and try to steal eggs. They would leave the dog outside to scare the tramps away. Tramps. Gets me every time.
I also find it entertaining to watch her steal sugar packets.
At Mother's Day lunch she was opening packages of sugar under the table and quickly shooting them into her mouth.

 

Marriage

     I just got home from Pittsburgh where I was in my 5th wedding as a bridesmaid. Always a bridesmaid never a....killmenow. I don't enjoy weddings. I smile, and cry when appropriate and I feel the love, but I do not enjoy them.  Maybe it's a little of my own bitterness for not being married, but after 5 weddings I have learned that I don't want a wedding. They are a lot of work and a lot of money and all that attention, i'll pass.
     For a long time I wasn't even sure I wanted to get married. It seems so boring (based off observations, obviously). Like what do you do? Watch TV together, surf the internet sitting next to each other?  These are all things i'd rather do with mom, who is way more fun than most of my friends.
Again, this is mostly likely said because I haven't met a guy that I am interested in that level of bored intimacy with yet. More on Pittsburgh later...it was fast and fun 72 hours.

With that being said I will be eloping.
Does eloping still count if it is pre-meditated?

Our Dear Neighbor

Our dear neighbor passed away this year. She had been sick at home, and then sick in the hospital for a few weeks. She was supposed to come home to hospice the morning she passed away. Her funeral was lighthearted and filled with love and laughter. She would have loved it. I wanted to share  this at the funeral but I was unable to.

       I have lived next door to Sumi and Wes my whole life. As neighbors we all share very similar Sumi stories. She was our very own Neighborhood Watch, filling us all in with all the latest neighborhood news. She was our homemade pomegranate jam and teriyaki sauce supplier. The caul-de-sac authority on when we should start planting our vegetable gardens and of course of very own seamstress.
       We share similar Sumi stories and we all have our own. I grew up taking leaves from Sumi and Wes's Mulberry tree for my silk worms. Rollerblading down their driveway thousands of times because they were the only ones in the caul-de-sac with a smooth driveway. When I was old enough to drive I would drive Sumi to doctor appointments and the craft store. When I lived in New York for a year I would occasionally send postcards home to my people. My parents, sister, grandma, and Sumi and Wes. Sumi was the only one to ever write back--AHEM mom! She was like a grandmother to me. My sister was Sumi's personal physical therapist- her words. And my mom was her weekly market companion so long as it wasn't too cold or raining.
    I think I can speak for all of us when I say that Sumi will be forever missed and our little caul-de-sac will never be the same.

Life

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.

Robert Frost