Happy Father's Day.

Because it deserves its own post, I'm double-posting today.  I want to wish a Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers in my life.

Of course, first and foremost to my own father who taught me about love, compassion, generosity, loyalty, and the importance of family.  To this day, there is no one who's advice and wisdom I value more.  Thank you, dad.

To my brother who has been an incredible father to his two little girls.  While I always knew that he had hogged all of the math skills in our gene pool, it is clear now that he also got the lion's share of the patience and parenting prowess.

To my father-in-law, who has known me for going on half my lifetime now and who has made me feel like part of his family from the get-go.

So, even though I'm halfway across the country from my favorite fathers today, I hope that my virtual hugs can make it over there.

The Move (Part 2).

I had every intention of following up with another post much sooner than I did!  Hopefully, I will still be able to have some kind of coherent narrative despite writing about something that happened a couple weeks back.  Still, I definitely want to capture it here -- just to remember this milestone some years down the road.

Jamie and I left DC in our big yellow truck filled with all of our worldly possessions.  Or should I say: we attempted to leave DC.  The city seemed to be conspiring against us and blocked our path out with road closings or vertical clearances.  In the end, the extra 45 minutes of driving through the city was actually a nice way to say goodbye to the city that had been our home for nearly a decade.  We said goodbye to the monuments and memorials, marveled at the sheer number of Harleys in town for the rally, and slowly lumbered our way away from the city.

Originally, Jamie and I had planned on splitting up driving responsibilities -- that is, until I saw the sheer size of the truck.  22 feet long + a trailer for our Prius.  It was terrifying to even sit in it while it was in motion, much less be responsible for the well-being of the people inside it and the other cars.  Jamie drove that whole thing to Minneapolis.

That truck went through a LOT of gas.  The first fill-up was something like $120.  Not long enough after, we stopped for our second tank.  We were pretty pleased that it was an even $100 to fill it up.  What are the chances!  we thought smugly to ourselves.  Then, on another gas stop, we hit exactly $100 again.  Pleased as punch that we hit it again -- it softened the blow that we were going to spend over $700 in gas by the time we were through.

It wasn't until we hit $100 the third time that we realized that it wasn't a coincidence: the gas station capped the charge at $100.  That makes sense. It also meant that we were stopping for gas much more frequently than we needed to.  D'oh.

Still, we made it to our destination after 18+ hours of driving, plenty of gas stops, some caffeinated drinks, a Home Depot stop for a new lock, and the the fastest motel stay ever.

Here is the moment our big, yellow truck first crossed the Minnesotan border.  We had some hired college guys meet us on the other end and they unloaded our truck at super-speeds.  By the next day, this is how our new (temporary) home looked:

It felt like home pretty quickly over here.  (The cats agreed).

                        

                                                                              

The Move (Part 1).

It has been an eventful week but we are emerging from the other end of it as Minnesotans.  It was a pretty bumpy ride though (literally and figuratively).

Through this move I learned quite a few things:

1) Always check your flight information as soon as you get to the airport.
Jamie attempted to fly to DC on Friday evening after work.  His flight was scheduled to make it in around 12:50am.  Sadly, that late hour turned out to be much earlier than he actually ended up making it into town.  Perhaps it was the fact that he wasn't traveling with me, but he took a much more laxed approach (I tend to be a bit of a worry-wart).  This meant that upon arriving to the airport early, he grabbed dinner before checking the gate information for his flight.  (Edited to add: Jamie wanted to make sure I let you all know that we had checked his flight status on the way to the airport and it was on-time -- lulling him into a false sense of security)  By the time he arrived at his gate, he learned that the flight was delayed an hour and a half and that they had been calling him to board an earlier flight direct to DC.

This turned out to be the first of many bumps in the road.

Jamie figured that with the delay he would miss his connection and would therefore be stuck in Chicago.  Instead, he booked a flight to Newark (the only other flight going to the East Coast) and I rented a car for him online.  This would get him to DC around 4am.

We later learned that the flight from Chicago was also delayed and he would have made his connection and gotten in a few hours earlier.  Sad times.

2) We are leaving behind some pretty generous people in DC.
Working off of only a few hours of sleep, we got started packing and loading our house bright and early Saturday morning.  Our friend, Leah, had been graciously holding a ton of our stuff in her extra bedroom and Scott agreed to meet us there.  We were joined for some seriously heavy lifting/packing by Dan, Garth and Andrea, Katie and Matt, and Dave and Tracy.  Needless to say, we could not have gotten it all done without all those extra hands and big hearts.

Scott actually was with us for a marathon-esque 16 hours.  (We got a little loopy around dinner time.)

That crazy amount of devotion and lifting/packing/organizing more than makes up for his part in the next bump in the road...

3) Never ever leave the key in the lock.
Around 1am we put the last items in the truck.  The sound of that door sliding down was music to our ears.  The latch closing was even sweeter.  We awaited the satisfying click of the padlock...but it never came.  Rewind several hours earlier when Scott told us casually that he left the key in the lock so that we wouldn't lose it in the chaos.  Strange, I thought, did he mean the house key?  Sadly, that question was answered when we didn't get the satisfying click.  In the time since that the key was left in the lock, the sliding door had been opened and closed a few times, breaking the key off in the lock in the process.

We were stuck, at 1am, with no way of locking our truck with all of our worldly possessions contained inside, in the middle of the District of Columbia, and no means of purchasing another lock that would fit our truck.

We hit the internet looking for solutions, we WD-40'd and banged that lock, we broke out the needle-nose pliers.  No luck.  Instead we just had to laugh at how ludicrous the situation was after so many hours of labor.  To me, it was the perfect way to end our time in DC with Scott.  Scott who -- let's be honest -- is the hardest part about leaving DC.

Jamie and I pushed our air mattress up against the open window so that we could hear if someone opened the truck and took turns getting out of bed to check on it throughout the night before our 7am departure.  In the end the truck was fine and the next day, Jamie and I hopped into our GIANT moving truck and set off for Minnesota.  We learned a few more lessons along the way...but I'll save them for the next post.

It's a weird perspective, but this is Jamie's last time walking down our steps...

A Different Kind of Love Story.

Yesterday, Cody fell in love with a bird.  This bird, to be exact:

Bright and early morning, Cody and I were woken up by a loud thud.  And then another.  It was this robin flying repeatedly into the bedroom window.  Cody was immediately intrigued.  So he watched the bird all morning...

...and all afternoon.  I left the house for a meeting and sure enough when I came home hours later, he was still watching that bird.

The bird was being a big flirt and would periodically fly into the window.  At times, hard enough that the person I was on a conference call with could hear the sound...over the phone...coming from my bedroom...across the house.  It was intense.

In the end, I'm sure the bird was just trying to impress his own reflection in the window and Cody was simply a sad Echo to the robin's Narcissus.  When I woke up this morning to the loud thud of the robin returning I immediately threw open the window and yelled it away -- there is only so much repeated thudding one person could take, and I didn't want Cody to waste away watching that damned bird for another day.

When I left for work this morning the bird was gone, but the evidence of his love affair with our cat remained right below my bedroom window.  

Arijit.

I'm currently flying back from Phoenix, AZ after spending time with good friends and celebrating the remarkable life of our friend, Arijit.  The truth is, while there was the obvious undertone of grief to the gathering, there was also a lot of laughter and, of course, love.

Everyone had stories to share about Ari and his antics.  What struck me most was the sheer volume of stories -- where I may have a meager handful of "crazy" experiences/coincidences/etc. that could be told about my life -- Ari had heaps of them.  He truly grabbed life by the cajones.

I am not nearly a good enough writer to be able to say much more other than: my heart is full.

Hot Minute.

So it's been a hot minute since I posted.  While I don't really have enough time right now to actually give this blog the attention it deserves, I do want to get back into regular updates.

This is especially important because today this appeared outside our home.

Man Boo and I are moving away from our home of the last 9 years.  It's sad, it's scary, and I am worried that I will not find the same kind of friendships that I found here in D.C.  That said, it is also exciting, full of hope, and I am so grateful to be sharing this next chapter of our lives with the man I am sharing it with.  I hope to stay connected to the friends I have made in this great city

I will be updating some of the happenings from the past (almost) year soon.  Of course, I will be starting with  updates about the BIG MOVE.  But for now...I just have this.

Not in Kansas Anymore.

I started my new job on Monday.  It is very different from my old job.  But, here is the wonderful thing: it's still working towards the same goal and vision of opportunities for great education for all children.  As I meet the team, learn more about my responsibilities, and attend meetings I am finding myself so energized and confident that I made the right choice.  It feels good.

I won't go into all of the differences, but I will share two of my first discoveries that made me realize that "I'm not in Kansas anymore...":

This.

The bathroom has MOUTHWASH and hand lotion.  And the toilets are not teeny-tiny and made for 3 year-olds...of course, I never used those ones, but I wanted to drive the point home.  

I was fixated on the mouthwash discovery -- I don't remember, but I may have even called Jamie to report on this -- that I wasn't prepared for my next discovery.  The common space has a free soda fountain with Coke Zero.  FREE!  In order to limit my intake of Coke Zero I am only allowing myself to visit it a few times a week and will have to take the 8 flights of stairs up to it.  But FREE Coke Zero!  Glorious day!

Small pleasures, friends.

Oh!  And Happy Fourth everyone!!!

Damn Nature, You Scary.

That was a pretty big storm we just had.  Apparently, there was even a gust of 70mph at National Airport.  

Yet, by some stroke of luck, we still have power.  Huzzah!!

So Long DC Prep.

I have been meaning to post on this for a long, long while...but life happened -- as it usually does.  Sorry, friends.

Anyway, the big news is that I left DC Prep.  I had actually been planning on leaving Prep for a bit now...realizing that I need to try out new things in order to best prepare for future endeavors...wherever they may lead.  Plus, it is exhausting work.  Totally worth it.  But exhausting nonetheless.

I finished up the year taking over a classroom for one of our teachers who resigned mid-year.  While I was nervous about going back into the classroom after so many years out of one, it turned out to be a great way to reconnect with students and the whole reason I got into teaching to begin with.  I have a few backlogged stories (with photo evidence) in my pocket to share with the blog later.  But I'm going to try and stay on topic for now.

It has been incredible to be a part of the DC Prep family for the past five years.  Building the school from scratch and being a part of its growth into the successful establishment it is today.  It has been a true learning experience and I know I have made life-long friends.

Turning towards the future, I have joined another organization that is making waves called The Achievement Network.  I have been fortunate enough to work with them through Prep for the past few years and attribute a lot of our success in the upper grades with their work.  It's a really great opportunity for me to do some of the things I love: (puts on nerd glasses) like data analysis, consulting with school leadership, and really pushing teachers to think critically about how to improve their instruction.  I'm especially excited to be able to work with many schools throughout the District.  It will definitely be another learning experience.

So, last week, I wrote up my exit memo, finished up some projects, and took on the task of cleaning out my office.  I gave away so many years worth of books, materials, etc. since I'm pretty certain now that I will not be re-entering the classroom.  By the end, my office looked like this:

Trust me.  It hadn't looked like that in a long, long while.  It was sad leaving my office last Friday.  And I will not lie...Sarah McLachlan was playing in my head (I Will Remember You...natch!) when I turned off the lights on my office.  Specifically, the last scene from the first season of Felicity (you know what I'm talking about, D) -- granted, I didn't have Scott Speedman or Scott Foley waiting for me -- but I was thinking about it anyway.  (I should note, I was going to find a clip, but I could only find one that included the 7 minutes leading up to the scene...and also it was in Italian.  What did I say about staying on topic??)

Anyway, on that last day of DC Prep, I had a visitor that was very fitting.  He (she?) always came out around this time in the summer.  In fact, I spent a good amount of time looking for a post about him (her?) until I realized it was much more likely a Facebook post.  (Yep.  It was June 24th, 2011.)  But my little friend came out to say one last goodbye.

This guy was missing a couple of his one MILLION legs which made me feel a little camaraderie with him (her!) as that's how I feel after 5 years of some of the most difficult (but rewarding) work.  In the end, I let this little guy climb up the wall and out of sight -- free to terrorize the next occupant of that office.  

And then I left.  We'll see what's in store for me now!

Nawlins.

Did I mention that Jamie and I had our 5th wedding anniversary last weekend?  As it was the first wedding anniversary where we were not attending someone else's wedding, we booked a flight and made it over to New Orleans.

Interestingly, on the flight over we ran into a friend from high school also going to New Orleans...Jamie had actually known her since elementary school.  It was great to catch up with her...and be given the opportunity to apologize for how disgustingly schmoopy we must have been in high school.  In the tradition of Jamie knowing everyone in DC, we also ran into two other couples he knew on our flight.  Such a social butterfly, that one.

We arrived in New Orleans on Saturday morning and it was already sweltering.  Fortunately, our hotel was wonderful and centrally-located so we were able to explore the French Quarter while still being able to retreat back and get a much-needed AC break.

Our first day there, we noticed there wasn't much of a line at the famous Cafe du Monde and stopped in for some beignets.

We also ventured out to the bayou and got to see some Louisiana wildlife up close.

We did lunch a Commander's Palace -- somehow, forgot to take pictures -- and stopped by the Lafayette Cemetery.  

Before I managed to evaporate in the heat, we did get to walk around the beautiful Garden District and see some of the famous homes.  My favorite was the Benjamin Button house.

As one of the ways to duck out of the heat after walking around the Garden District, we took the trolley back to the French Quarter and stopped in the Audubon Aquarium.

There are so many things that I didn't manage to get pictures of.  There were Po'Boys, Jazz on the streets and in clubs, Bourbon Street debauchery (not mine), so many excellent meals, and of course, lots of time spent with Man Boo.

Despite the 5-hour delay getting back, I wouldn't have changed a thing about our trip...

Celebrity Twins.

So much work needs to be done right now, but I had to  post this.  Because it's awesome.

My nieces are famous.  It should also be noted that I totally bought them those onesies.

Lima.

Yup.  Man Boo and I went to Lima, Peru.

It had been 7 years since we last went to Peru and it is incredible how much has changed.  The economy there has been doing great and it is reflected in how clean the streets are, the free WiFi in the parks, how many restaurants have sprung up, and how many more cars are on the road.  Apparently, Lima has more Pinkberries than Los Angeles...go figure.  And I'm sure the American Pinkberries don't sell Lucuma froyo.

Of course, Jamie and I had changed too.  The last time we came to Peru, my dad cornered him in a bar (I was not invited) and had the whole "what are your intentions with my daughter?" talk.  A few months later we were engaged.  Needless to say, I have fond memories of our last visit.

This time, we only had a week to spend, so we stayed in Lima.  And had a blast.  Here are a bunch of pictues (in no particular order)...