I'm on the fence about it

Update 8/31 – 9/6

Dawne and I took the pups to the dog park one night and as I was pulling out of the parking lot, I saw Zach pulling in (with a lady friend). 

Me (shouting from the car): Yo! Zach!

Zach: Oh great, can I borrow a dog?

Me: Casper, get out of the car.

Maureen has, ever since I’ve known her, rewarded her students somehow for doing really well on their AP’s.  In the last couple of years, she has promised a dozen Brookies for anyone who gets a 5 – and she send them to the students at college because she is a remarkable teacher.   Usually only a couple of students get 5’s because it’s hard to be perfect on such a difficult exam, so she’s been promising two dozen brookies.  Welp, this week, she ended up having to bake 48 dozen brookies!!

It was the first days back at teaching for Sleepy Hollow High.  Stacey and Mo teach math at the same high school, did I mention that?  Did I also mention that, while both of them are incredibly intelligent and caring teachers, they also have very different personalities.  They are also BFF’s.  Which is probably why, when they found out that they were sharing rooms, Mo was all, WHOA! WHOA! WHOA.  I think it was mostly because Mo didn’t want to anger Stacey with a clutter of coffee mugs.  I have enough best friends who are far more organized and clean than I am ( ahem, Dr. Rach, ahem) that sharing a desk or any other main space would freak me out too.  I’m just not neat.  My mom would use the word slob, but I think that’s too intense – true, but far too intense.  I hope they are still friends at the end of the year!

And for no other reason than ha!

I’m sure I did some stuff this week… I remember my lawyer sending my HOA a letter saying that I could finish up the interior of my place.  And I remember working a bunch which is boring.  So we’ll skip to Friday, when I met Kelly and her parents at the dog park.  When we got there, Kelly and her dad, we’re sitting on one of the fences waiting for me.

Kelly’s Dad: I was thinking about walking around today, but I'm on the fence about it.

Oh and Kelly found me a 4 leaf clover because she’s one of the magical people.  Her mom told me that Kelly, when she was little, would be sitting on top of a horse and would look down and say to her mom, “There is a four leaf clover.” And her mom, peering down at the spot, much closer than Kelly would search the ground while her frustrated little girl would say, “Mom! It’s RIGHT THERE!”

I had sent Zach and Kelly some trip options for this winter.  One of the trips included two days in China for an extra $200.  I got an email from Zach saying, “Can we go to Turkmenistan instead? “ I didn’t want to say no when I had never even heard of the country.  There were a lot of interesting, and a little bit scary, facts that I learned.  Mostly, I thought it would simply be too much to travel there.  But I also read that bottled water is frowned upon, so I was totally out. And I read that there wasn’t wi-fi so Kelly was out.  When I brought it up to her parents, he dad said, “You know, North Korea has wi-fi.”  After the dog park, we headed out for Mexican and Margaritas.  Zach met up with us and watched us eat.  It was swell. 

The following day, we went to the dog park and then picked up Zach to head toward the outlet malls.  Zach forgot his wallet.

Zach: I don’t want anything.

Me: Zach! Your parents are going to buy you anything you want!

Dawne: It’s true.  We will.

Zach: Remember in Smallville when superman proposes by crushing coal into a diamond?

Me: I'll never forget it Zach.

After the outlet mall, we headed up to Ray’s cabin to play some games.  We played a new one, in which I asked everyone to name characters from Halo, and other than Zach and Jordan knowing Chief and Cortana, no one knew anything.

Me: I would have accepted green robot! Why don’t you care about my life!?

Ashley: We care.  Please, tell me about this Halo thing.

We left after dinner because it is kind of a hike back to the house. 

Me: Are you okay leaving?

Zach: We were nature adjacent for long enough.

Kelly's mom refinished this awesome dresser and then Kelly put it on Craigslist for a profit.

Me: Your profit or your mom’s?

Kelly: I’ll split it with her.

Honestly, I’m not sure who said these things, but it definitely happened at Shana’s BBQ.  It was a really great time.  I got to see Alicia, Laina, Mo, Anderson and his Doctor parentals, and I got some awesome homemade jam from Jamie!

Person: I had a dream that I had a tattoo of a potato

Another person: Mashed or baked.

Shana?: Sometimes when I'm reading something sci-fi I put my Enya station on and it's magical.

And then the weekend ended, and so did this update. :P