And just like that…summer is over. I went to the first choir practice of the season last night and it was kind of like the first day of school – seeing old friends that you haven’t seen all summer. And then doing something challenging and fun together.
But then I got home after 9 pm and couldn’t sleep well. Too exciting! And now I’m tired for today. But oh well.
I’m trying to figure out many things. Like how to fix Edda’s wheelchair.
I’ve been repotting my houseplants.
Ahhh, yesterday I had the entire house to myself and it was fabulous. It feels like that has never happened since January when Felix moved in. And then we went to Missoula with a bunch of people and the funeral, I bunked with either my parents (my mom snores and kind of yells in her sleep) and/or Chris. No alone time for Doris! (cry emoji). And then yesterday, Jeremy left for Sacramento and Edda was at day camp and I was home by myself. I want to do all these social things, but I do love my alone time where I’m responsible for only myself. I do enjoy making people happy, so it means that when I’m with people, I try to make it a good time which is both fun for me and very tiring for me. I do understand why a lot of people enjoy living alone. People are annoying. I read somewhere that being slightly annoyed is the price you pay for community. And yes, I know I’m annoying too.
Jeremy did bike in Missoula – his big ride on our last full day was cancelled because of the weather which was unfortunate. But he did see the neighboring mountains. I still can’t believe how great that vacation was and a big part of it was that while I did plan a bunch, everyone was super flexible and agreeable to my plans.
While I was gone in California, Edda was at her first week of day camp. A new coffee place opened in our neighborhood. Elka got to go inside. The night before we left for CA, Chris stayed at the house to make the morning ride to the airport easier. He came at dinner time to eat with us and then asked if he could do anything helpful. Jeremy asked him to take Elka on a walk and Elka proceeded to take him right to the ice cream store to ask for a cold pup pop. Elka did this by refusing to go in any direction except towards the ice cream shop. Now, Chris had no idea why he was standing in front of the ice cream store with Elka looking at him so expectantly. Apparently now Elka asks Jeremy to go to the ice cream store not only each day, but on every walk. HAHAHAHA.
We are navigating new transportation options for Edda which means using Metro Access which is both wonderful and annoying. Jeremy did a lot of this when I was in California. But here is the sprinter van picking Edda up.
Edda also had a cluster of seizures on Saturday and Sunday – all of which Jeremy managed without telling me. He kind of shrugged and said, it would have only worried you. And it was true, so I didn’t know about it until Eliana texted the group chat that Edda was having another seizure.
As we were wrapping up our vacation in Missoula, my cousin Arlinda called me and told me that her father Joseph (my dad’s oldest brother) passed away and that the service would be in LA the following week. My parents are in Portland for the summer so we started trying to figure out logistics of moving everyone to LA and moving around LA to visit people. Chris, who is spending the summer here in DC, flew with me to LA. My parents flew to LA from Portland and we all met up. I rented a car – over the span of 4 days, I drove over 400 miles, quite possibly a record for me. LA driving is not straightforward – the entire trip was exhausting, but actually great in a way. When someone dies at 90 years old after being sick for a long time, the funeral has a palpable sense of relief and we were, in some sense, happy to spend time together.
The first night, we had dinner in a San Gabriel Sheraton – here’s aunt Jane:
Uncle Robert:
most of us at dinner:
Cousins Chris and Andrea:
The next morning we drove to Malibu where we visited Carrie’s house which out of about 300 houses, hers is one of 40 left standing from the fires earlier this year.
We went to the third street promenade for lunch and then to my uncle’s Buddhist service. My cousins, his daughters are in the photo. Did anyone know Joseph was Buddhist? ummm, not really. But the ceremony was beautiful, gorgeous.
We burned lots of money and houses and cars for Joseph in the afterlife. Vince and Dani drove up from Irvine to attend the service and dinner and drove back after dinner.
The next day, I dropped my parents off at the airport and went to Westwood to pick up Chris – his parents were going to fly home to Texas and Chris and I were planning to spend a few days with Vince and Dani in Irvine.
At Irvine, I saw Vince’s lab (beautiful)
We had pho dinner with Dani’s parents and went to a dessert place so Asian…only mango desserts.
Saturday morning, I got to visit Keyla in Palos Verdes and the kids are doing so well.
And then back to Irvine to spend the afternoon at the mall with the kids and watched Superman and then had dinner with Dani’s family and then went to a sound yoga class with Dani’s mom. Then to bed and Sunday Chris and I flew home back to DC. Overall, a great trip. Got to spend time with lots of people and get to know everyone better. Loved being able to spend time with Vince and Dani and Dani’s family. Now back at home, Jeremy is leaving for California today on business. Nothing stops.
We flew back on Friday night to National from Missoula via Chicago. I don’t think I’ve ever flown into an airport on Friday night. It is a party happenin’ – people picking up friends, taking their time, music blaring – lots of Hiiiii giiiirrrlll! Interesting. Anyways, we got home very late.
Saturday we tried to pull the house together in some way, jetlagged and then starting on Sunday, we had festivities starting to say goodbye to Felix.
We went to weightlifting on Sunday morning where I practiced my lifts for my meet in two weeks. What the hell? I’m just hoping for clean lifts at any weight now. I’m not going to be able to practice very much between now and then, so it’s going to be what it is. Everyone at the gym is so excited for me, and in turn, I’m excited for myself. If a little nervous. I found a brand new singlet on ebay for 21 dollars – retail $150 baby! I’m ready. Felix came, though slightly injured and didn’t lift. I really hopes he finds a coach in Sweden, he’s a natural. Thomas (the guy in the green) is leaving for college in Florida as well. Thomas’s mom baked cookies for all of us. Yummy! This is the nicest gym ever, really.
Sunday night, we went to Sunday night dinner which was HILARIOUS. Sometimes they are and sometimes not, but I’m glad this one was. Chris was there too and it’s his last Sunday night dinner too. So here’s a good-bye photo too!
Monday morning, I dropped Edda off at her adult day program. I spent about an hour talking to them, doing some paperwork and telling them about Edda and she had a great first day! There were a number of friends from school and life that we were able to reconnect with. That was a lot of fun. It’s in a beautiful location surrounded by woods.
Then it was time to say goodbye to Felix. As I told him and his parents, I’m so proud of him. Though it was a slow start, he completely knocked it out of the park for his stay in the US. He made about $8K, way more than I thought he would and made friends and became very, very tan. He got health insurance and he got his driver’s license. All great things.
Jeremy is swamped at work, so I dropped him off at National and we shared donuts and blueberry muffins from Dunkin’ before he headed to security and I made sure he got through and we waved ferociously at each other from far away when things were cleared.
To celebrate Edda’s first day and Felix’s return home, I invited Megan over for dinner and to do a real celebration, we all went out for ice cream. Elka came too – she wouldn’t miss it. And we christened the new car with her dusty paw prints. We were going to go to Carmen’s, but it was closed to give the workers a day of rest, so we headed to ben and Jerry’s.
Hooray for ice cream!
We just came back from a week in Missoula, MT and it was a fabulous vacation. We met up with Mike and Scott from Topeka and the Tubervilles from Dallas. There were 6 adults (including Edda), 1 teen and 1 kiddo and 1 toddler. I picked Missoula out of thin air when a person I met at the yoga retreat I went to earlier in the year mentioned that her husband was from Missoula and it was a special place and it totally was. 10/10 recommend.
Mother nature also was very kind to us – traditionally there was no air conditioning in houses, but the past few years, it has gotten up into the mid-90s in August and there also has been smoke from wildfires, but we had neither and all of us from brutally hot summers got to enjoy cool mornings in the 50s climbing to the 70s-low 80s during the day and no humidity. Glorious!
Missoula is a college town, hip enough to have lots of great coffee shops and restaurants, but little enough that nothing feels crowded or rushed.
Let’s start off with the airport – newly renovated you can see the entire thing from the check-in gate. Hello bear!
We rented two houses, just down the street from each other, and they weren’t ready for a little while, so we went to a nearby playground and went on the very fast carousel.
We checked into the houses and then headed out to pizza with arcade games.
And then to ice cream at the place in town – Big Dipper. A place where a single scoop is actually two scoops.
Then next morning, Ning, Tristan and I went on a walk to find a beautifully tended neighborhood garden. We picked squash, kale and raspberries.
We went to the neighborhood splash pool which had a lazy river with floats, water slides and Edda enjoyed going around the lazy river a few times.
We had dinner twice at “home”. Jeremy cooked and we got dessert from a bakery including this very sweet sugar cookie made in the shape of montana with a heart for Missoula.
The next day, we went to a butterfly/inset museum and then to the county fair where I had my annual delicious corn dog.
These young ‘ens (Brian and Scott) rode all the rides.
And they got temporary tattoos – the three Moose-keteers!
We went down to the river during golden hour and had fun with local kids swimming and Tristan went skinny dipping.
We went “hiking” – really just walking about half a mile from the parking lot in gorgeous pine forests and over a bridge for this group photo.
Edda was a trooper – she was…mostly happy. But happiest at the water park and on this hike.
Wed afternoon – a subset of us went whitewater rafting. We were a little nervous about Noah maybe chickening out at the last minute, but he was brave and had a blast. We all had a blast – this was perhaps the highlight of the trip. We had a guide who took these photos and she was great. We tried rowing and all swam in the river at the end of the tour. Gorgeousness.
Last full day – it was rainy – we went to the library (newly renovated with amazing kid spaces) and bowling.
Arcade!
A quick stop at the bear at the University of Montana.
The last dinner together – while we were waiting for the delicious fried chicken, and we found this amazing vintage store with this perfect leather jacket for Scott – it was $500. A bit out of our budget, so you just get this photo.
And then we all lounged around on this crazy couch and then headed home! To DC, Dallas and Kansas City.
Jeremy drove the new car with me and Edda in it to the LAST day of Camp JCC drop off. The last day – meaning the last time ever. We have aged out.
Edda had a great summer (don’t let the grumpy face fool you) and a lot of it was because of her excellent summer counselor, Lily.
And many thanks to Eva who has run this camp for 40 years! We are so grateful for her enthusiasm and fortitude.
Friday night, my friend Lexi and I went downtown to see Riki Lindhome’s comedy routine called Dead Inside about her infertility journey. I had a nice time, it was funny and very NSFW and I was thrilled to go downtown on a Friday to see all the young people “hanging out”. I’ll include one of her songs. She’s like famous adjacent – this was backed by Ali Wong and Bill Hader and I found out she is married to Fred Armisen. She’s pretty much as famous as you can get without being super famous if you know what I mean? I mean, I guess someday she might get a Netflix special and I’ll get to say….I saw her in 2025!
And I left the most important thing for last! Pokemon Level 44 baby! Gotta catch them all.
So, with encouragement from my coaches Ward and Kevin, I signed up for my first olympic weightlifting competition at the end of August. I kind of can’t believe it. I had to join the USA Weightlifting organization and I signed up for the meet. For the meet, I could fill in my coaches names and the gym I’m a member – I’m repping the Central Maryland Gold Weightlifting club. Grrrr, if I can do it, you can do it. My weightlifting age is 53 and I’ll be competing in the 64 kg weight class. HAhahaahaha. This is the most ridiculous thing that I’ve done in a while. You have to kind of guess how much you are going to lift and I put 0 kg. My only goal is to lift one lift cleanly with good form. We’ll see how it goes.
All summer, Vince has been struggling with some issues (mostly mental) at grad school and I’m so proud of him for patiently working through them and really coming into his own at school. He’s much better now, though lots of talking and getting help and then getting more settled into his groove. He’s cultivated a really nice working relationship with his professor and it’s just nice to see after many months of struggle. I hope this trajectory continues and he has a run of feel-good times.
After many months of thinking about it and trying things out, Jeremy got us a new car! Do you know some people have facial blindness where they can’t really tell one person from the next person? I have the same thing, but with cars. I will live next door to someone for an entire decade and not know what kind of car they have. I will barely know what color their car is. So to me, Jeremy got us a red car. We’ve never had a red car before! No, it’s a KIA EV6, I think. Electric car, hatchback, slung low enough to fit Edda into it. I love it! I’m scared to drive it – I will feel much better driving it after it gets its first ding. Also, we have no charger for it yet – though we do have an outlet in the garage – so Jeremy is working on that. Thank you Jeremy for looking at all the options and going through all the numbers. Because of how the market is and how the rebates work, we LEASED this car, instead of buying it outright which is our usual modus operandi. I have no idea, we’ve never leased a car before – a new adventure every day.
A few mishaps: we had a fly infestation and a person who will remain nameless found DEET spray meant for skin application and sprayed it all over our windows. This spray had some solvent in it that melted a bunch of plastic things (like windows) and also slowly melted this poor orchid plant I was trying to revive. Maybe it will live? We’ll see.
Someone else who will remain nameless ran into the garage door (with the old car) and..no…we are not replacing it because it still works…mostly.
I found a cement plug while I was cleaning out a drain of leaves and I thought it was so weird. Weird enough that I called our drain guy and he dutifully came over and explained that he plugged up and old drain and had installed a brand new drain next to it. Which I could have discovered myself…by running water through it. I felt a bit stoopid waisting everyone’s time.
Had lunch yesterday with Claudinna – it is our mission to eat at every cheap eat within 2 miles of our houses. We at a French bakery that we’ve not eaten at before. They served sandwiches on a Cro’gel – a croissant shaped like a bagel. Delicious.
We did not partake of any of the delicious looking pastries.
Literally can not make this sad crap up, I came home from lunch to Jeremy telling me that a baby deer died in our backyard. I think the deer poked its head through a small wire square in our neighbor’s fence and then couldn’t get it out and strangled. We only noticed because the neighbor whose property is behind ours – their dog was going crazy after seeing it. Poor thing. Jeremy called the city and they came within the hour and got the dead deer out of our yard.
