A Heart's a Heavy Burden

After sleeping for only 4 and a half hours, I had to get up and start getting ready. I decided not to make homemade baked beans but instead buy them. The chocolate cake thing I made ended up lo9ing delicious, but I was worried it would be too bitter.

As usual I was running Kate somehow, I can’t even remember why. I might have been writing an entry? I got up at 9:30 and yet we didn’t get there until after 1. Oh! I was trying to finish my Mom's gloves that I never gave her for mother’s day, but I still didn’t finish, whoops.

When Steve and I arrived they had all finished eating, even though they’d texted me 7 minutes before we got there stating they were gonna eat. I guess they were hungry, lol. We listened to Name of the Wind, and again I started to get tearful. It’s just too good. I die.

The food was good, beyond beef burgers and chips and baked beans. After food we went outside and tried not to melt in the heat. Steve, August, mom and Paul played cornhole for awhile while Bethany, Jake and I talked. Then Bethany and I got thirsty so we went inside to get drinks, and we discovered they’d bought a two-person sauna?? Lollll. Apparently my mom’s doctor thinks she needs to sweat or something, so instead of going to the gym like a normal person, she shelled out over 3 grand on a personal sauna. So weird.

I joined in for a few games of cornhole, and Steve and I were beaten by Paul and August and then Bethany and Jake. We’re not good, lol. I don’t have depth perception!!!


It was SOOO hot so we all would stand in Clyde’s kiddie pool.

Steve, my parents and I think Bethany all loved the pie. August and Jake hated it, and Clyde actually thought it was good! He hasn’t had a lot of sugar so it wasn't too bitter for him. :)



We hung around until 5 or so, at which point it was definitely time to go. So tired.

Somehow even though we were both ridiculously exhausted, we ended up having our own fun for quite some time after we got home, until we were both extra completely worn out. What a good day.

So, the last few birthdays for Steve have been pretty lame. His birthday comes right at the end of the school year, and I’ve either been too busy, or too tired, or out of town every single year since I’ve been a teacher. Last year I was in Madison, the year before that I was in AVID training and getting ready for Ohio, and the 2 years before that I was ALSO either in Ohio or getting ready for Ohio. I owed Steve a good birthday, and I was going to make it AMAZING.

After a lot of consideration, I decided to do a Hearthstone themed scavenger hunt. He’d done one for me in the past, but this was going to be specific to the newest expansion. I spent a lot of time setting up, printing and placing the materials, and getting his presents ready. I was sooooooooooooo excited and couldn’t wait to surprise him. I had chores to do but I was so afraid I’d miss him coming home, so I spent the last hour or so before he got home just sitting outside reading. During that time, his parents dropped by after having lunch with Steve’s grandpa. They just said hi, commented disapprovingly on the tree growing out of the shrub by our house, said to tell Steve happy birthday, and left. Lol.

Soon after, Steve got home, and dopey that he is, didn’t notice right away that there was a scavenger hunt afoot. Gooood, he was surprised. He started the scavenger hunt, commenting on my dialogue (which I wrote in the style of the characters, including phrases they say and including stuff from their lore, like hero powers or cards specific to them.

Among other things:

He had to complete some puzzles


Had to hold down dog pose for 15 seconds


Locate something specific in these envelopes


Find items outside

It was all very fun and challenging, and I threw in red herrings and other silly things. The hunt culminated in playing Snipperclips with me. We played a bit, Steve got his presents (some really neat games - ryakugaki showtime and a dance game for the wonderswan, a funny meme shirt, an Eolian mug, tickets to a Final Fantasy orchestra show in the fall, and some puzzles). Then we decided to get dinner, but instead of Acapulco, we went to Los Ocampos, which was all right. The best part was when I was grumpy that a lady came out to smoke, and my back was to her, and Steve was like, “well, at least she’s HAPPY about it” and I turned to look and she had the frowniest face. It was hilarious.

The rest of the night was spent playing games and having some fun :) I’m so happy to make Steve so happy!

Today was a day spent working, working so damn hard. In the morning we were all asked to come to a meeting to say goodbye to those of us leaving. Parkway is experiencing a mass exodus as a result of all the turmoil, and Jocelyn had us say goodbye one by one, with other people speaking “honoring” the ones leaving, and then the ones leaving giving a small speech. There are like, 13 of us going. Lots of people cried. When it was my turn, Tealie, Jan, Corri and Jenny all had really nice things to say about me. Tealie told the story of the time we had that crazy class our first year together, when the kids literally could not move with purpose and at any given time people were wandering the room. We really wanted the kids to be able to move and do a gallery walk, and somehow came up with the idea to put tape on the floor for them to follow, and it WORKED. soooo funny. Corri and Jenny both talked about getting to truly co-teach and what they learned from working with a teacher who cares so much about kids and has so much patience, and Jan called me her work daughter and pretty much made my entire life because Jan IS my mom. She’s the mom I never had, and I love her so much.

I ran really quick to Vincente’s IEP meeting, and Brian told Vincente’s mom that I’m the one person that Vincente would do anything for because we have a special relationship. After that I spent the day trying to get all my files in order. I sat up in the work room with Jan, Brian and Andy, all doing the same thing. Eventually I asked Steve to join me while I finished my work at Parkway. I still haven’t started on my stuff for Nokomis, but that will have to wait.

He came, and I was surprised to find that I was basically at the end of stuff I needed to do! I hadn’t eaten since 8am so I was very very hungry. I suggested we go to Cossetta’s, and we were both really looking forward to it because we could sit outside. There wasn’t a line, which was awesome. When I got up to the mastaccioli, I asked the lady if I could get extra sauce, like I have done every single time I have been to cossetta’s. I said it very nicely, as I always do, but apparently it was the most annoying request in the entire world to this lady. She made a huge show of stopping, GLARING at me, and dramatically dumping the noodles out of the container. She very bitchily informed me that I was supposed to tell the lady NEXT to her, who was handing the containers as orders came in, so that she would know to put extra sauce in the bottom. As if that’s the only place sauce can go, and I violated a sacred rule. Let me remind you I have done this every single time I have gone to Cossetta’s, without issue. I felt the rage boil inside me as a black cloud of anger formed between us, but I remembered how Steve said I’ve been picking fights lately with customer service people, so I swallowed my DEFINITELY JUSTIFIED anger, and used the same tone as the lady when I responded with just an, “okay,” and hoped the biting contempt in my own voice got the point across to her. If I was anyone else, or maybe if I was alone, I would have asked to see a manager because her attitude was completely unnecessary and rude as hell. She legit talked to me as if I was a stupid child who ruined her day. To my surprise, Steve was just as mad as I was, and made a couple loud funny comments as we waited at the next section.

The food was delicious, as always. When we got home we watched the Sony E3 conference with Scott, and since I went into it knowing nothing about what’s coming out, I was properly entertained. Some of the games coming out look exciting and fun.

Last day of school. I was very late as usual. Brian asked me to either cover for him for something, or test Vincente. I opted for testing Vincente, which worked out best for everyone because Vincente loves me so much and would do anything for me. Testing reveals he does not have a learning disability. He is very smart, too. He was very good for testing, trying his best.



We went to the auditorium and had awards, which were adorable and fun. Then we had field day, which was also very fun. The kids did so many cute activities, and Malik only got mad when the girls won tug of war and he thought I helped them (for the record, I didn’t, I just told them I was going to). He got over that much faster than expected and we had such a fun time. We did kickball, three legged race, water balloon games, and of course the tug of war. As always, pics are clickable for higher quality.







I spent the rest of the day fielding Malik and Vincente and saying goodbye. Malik took my leaving well and said I could find him at the community center this summer, and Vincente kept saying I wasn’t leaving. I found my desk graffiti’d later in the day, which I 99% suspect was Vincente, that said “Leah is the best teacher”. He gave me like 5 hugs, and Malik let me squeeze his shoulder affectionately when I said goodbye. It was very bittersweet.

After all that emotion I had to race home and pack for Madison! That’s right, my day wasn’t close to over.

I downloaded Name of the Wind, our next audiobook adventure. Steve smartly suggested it after we finished game of thrones. If you haven’t read it, you HAVE to read Name of the Wind. It’s slightly slow as the setup happens, but that’s only for the first 3 chapters. Then it takes off, and it takes off fast. I’d say in every session I have teared up from how intense and powerful the book is. It’s amazing, one of the best of all time, Patrick Rothfuss is a ridiculously talented author. I should also clarify that I’ve read his books several times.

We arrived at Ben and Sean’s in time for a late dinner at Cafe Hollander, which Steve and I picked after they told us we are “honorary Madisonites” and are also now residents of their house because we stayed there when they were gone and fed the cats and watered the plants. So honored. It was chillier than we anticipated but we sat outside anyway. I ordered a veggie burger with what they called a garlic aioli but was actually a bad mayonnaise and did not hold a candle to French Meadow’s real aioli.

After dinner we walked around a little playing Pokémon go, and then it was time to head back to the house and go to sleep.

Ward 6 is this local hip place that serves amazing brunch food, located on a busy street on the east side of St. Paul (read: not a super great neighborhood). It was one of the catalysts to revitalizing the street, where several new establishments have cropped up and people want to spend their time walking up and down it. The problem with Ward 6 apparently was their business model: serve high-quality, sustainably sourced food from as many local places as possible while keeping prices reasonable. I guess they have been losing money for a couple years, and they’ve decided to close. Such sadness! Steve and I have gone there almost every Sunday for the last at least 2 years. I’m glad that we’ve been supporting the,, and they were always crazy busy on weekends, but I guess the same can’t be said for during the week? I went there twice for dinner and it was packed then, too.

It doesn’t appeal to locals; most of the people I saw there were white people of the sort you find in the suburbs (hi pot, it’s kettle - I have been trained to notice such hypocrisies I am a part of). That’s not to say PoC didn’t go there, but the food there again was to different tastes - whereas every weekend just across the street is a Hispanic family that sets up a roasted corn cart that seems more appropriate. What I mean to say is, everything at Ward 6 is catered to a white perspective of tastes, even if they have chicken and waffles and chilaquiles.

Still sad to see it go, it was bittersweet and only a week’s notice was given. They were out of many of the main items, of course, and it sounds like people who like the place have been pouring in. We enjoyed one last meal and said goodbye.

Picked up a few things at Mississippi Market co-op and then headed home. Because I have so many things I want to do, and so many things I NEED to do, I found myself in the classic Leah anxiety paralysis and ended up snuggling a ridiculous Nero cat basically all day while Steve played ITG and we watched Hearthstone. The cuddles were amazing and made me so happy, Nero was in the snuggliest mood and helped me feel better. I didn’t do NOTHING all day... I went to yoga right away in the morning after a quick cup of coffee with Steve. Hannah’s hot class yay! It felt sooo good to go again. Can’t wait to keep going.

Nick and Scott came over, and I tutored. Dinner was a homemade lentil soup, yum. The Office was watched, Nick continued Uncharted 2, Scott scrolled, and Steve continued Owlboy. I spent the rest of the night watching The Office and working on my entries for the previous two days because I’d fallen behind. I also spent a significant amount of time flirting with Steve over text (using my mac to type and send texts is so fun), which built a stupid amount of excitement and had a fantastic culmination after everyone left. Ehehe.

Sunday part deux. Got up a little later than I would have liked, a bit after 10. Other than the fact that I should be going to bed in 12 hours, I was mostly okay with it because I woke up SO MANY times with terrible heartburn. Damn you eating slightly before bed! When did I get so old that I legit get heartburn from so many things and from not following these damn food rules, like when you’re not supposed to eat within a certain range of your bedtime?! Hate it!

I made us morning smoothies again, but this time I used a bit less water, and that made the smoothies more manageable. I didn’t have to cut down on the other ingredients so that was good. One side effect of the whole more vegan lifestyle* is the pooping. I already poop more often than the average person - you can guarantee that if I have time, I will poop twice before I leave for work, once at mid day, once when I get home from work, and once probably around dinner time. And that’s at a minimum. You might be able to say that my two morning poops are part of the same poop, and I’d allow it; I don’t have time to sit on the toilet for 45 minutes while my body remembers to move the next bit along. The good news is, I don’t have anything blocking me up, but it’s time consuming and like CALM DOWN BODY. I have never really been the kind of person who gets either diarrhea or constipated. Only when really sick or traveling. But with going ham on the fresh produce, I feel like I can poop every single time I go to the bathroom! This is really getting out of hand. XD I think i would be far less happy withy situation if I didn’t have a bidet. Seriously, if you don’t have one, look into one, get one immediately. No more insane, inefficient wiping! Just a few seconds of water and pat to dry and you’re good to go. Ahhhh.

Uh, so where was I? Oh yes, after breakfast. Steve and I wrote our respective entries for yesterday, which was a good lead-in for the real part of the day: anniversary. We showered and decided we were gonna go mini golfing at Can Can Wonderland. Yay! At the gas station I decided to double check the directions, and I noticed Google say that they are closed. Whaaaat? Go to the website and sure enough: Monday through Wednesday there is no wonderland to be had. Damn! Steve and I looked into a couple other places, but they wouldn’t be opening until 3. In the meantime, we wanted to get that ice cream we were craving. And by ice cream I meant soy ice cream. So we headed over to J. Selby’s. Steve rightly suggested we actually eat there since I was bound to hangry if we didn’t. Being mindful of our goals, I ordered the house salad and Steve ordered the vegan fried rice. Now, when I said “house salad,” did you picture iceberg lettuce, a couple tomato wedges and cucumber slices, a little red onion, croutons and ranch? Well, that just means you’ve never gone to J Selbys. Please behold the J House salad in all its glory:




Not only could this salad legitimately feed a family grazing before a holiday meal, but it was so rich with yummy ingredients that I could not have been happier. The dressing I got was a house-made lemon garlic tahini, and the croutons for the salad were also housemade. I ate probably slightly less than half. I did this by literally making my own mini salads using the plate that the condiments had come on, so that I could appropriately distribute each individual ingredient to my liking. I was very pleased with the result and the leftovers.

At some point during the meal it began to rain a decent amount, and Steve made a comment about maybe it wasn’t a mini golf day. Not to be deterred, I suggested we simply go to Mall of America to play at their okay course and walk around. Thankfully, he was agreeable to this and we headed out. The mall wasn’t super packed, and that was nice. It’s SO MUCH more tolerable on weekdays than weekends. We had a couple of false starts with the golf course but would circle away when we’d see like, a family of four just buying their game or a huge line forming. There were not enough people at the mall or playing the course to justify waiting behind people the whole time. That just allowed for some decent Pokémon Go (of course) and just general meandering around the mall.

Finally we got to play mini golf and I slowly and steadily kept falling further and further behind. At least for the first half. I was surprised to find at the end that I was only two strokes behind Steve (three if you don’t count a silly TERRIBLE mulligan attempt), who was still several over par. Not our best day, score-wise, but definitely top two experiences playing the course. The pars for each hole have clearly not been updated as the course has, because there are some ridiculous par 2’s that I would love to see someone get.

After mini golf, more Pokémon Go. I was able to secure a Latias this time, though it was still super close - I had been down to my second to last Pokéball. Phew. I did it! Lol.

Home was dinner - potato soup for me, relaxing with Steve reading more of Ben’s book out loud while I knit or comforted Grim. Ever since the tree fell on our house in 2015, Grim has been terrified of loud noises, and is the saddest most miserable cat in storms. When his anxiety gets too bad he usually will go downstairs and hide in the bathroom, but today he laid stiffly against me, pressing into my hand and being curled up so tight. No shaking this time though and he’s still on the bed. Noah and I texted a bit today about MyFitnessPal, eating and exercise, because being healthier is way more fun with friends.

Made a little progress on Steve’s sock. I thought I was closer to the heel than I was, but I was glad that I could just knit round and round still. His feet are so much bigger than mine, I constantly think I’m making them too big around, and then I put them on his foot:




All in all, I’d say a super solid anniversary. Definitely grateful to have Steve in my life and him to let me be a part of his. What a good life.

*most things I cook are vegan, or barely not-vegan. I don’t use eggs in my cooking and I rarely use cheese. If I do, it’s small-farm and not-cow if possible. When I get coffee though, 99% of the time I’ll just get half and half cream, because most nondairy dreamers are flavored and gross. The brand I buy for home is NOT heavily flavored and is delicious.

It was a bit of a lazier day, getting up later but not too late, still before 11. Noah wanted to maximize his game time and probably ease the strain on his budget, so he requested a quick breakfast. They went out and got BK, and brought me home a bagel from Caribou. I really took my time easing into the day, reading PostSecret and journals/blogs, and getting my list for meal prep for this week. We agreed that beginning tomorrow we’re gonna tackle the correct eating HARD and I like to support us by finding delicious and not-too-complicated of recipes, though I’m still struggling to find enough food in a day to support a grown man vs an average-sized woman.

After I caught up on my entries, I went downstairs and joined the boys in the rest of the day of gaming. Steve continued to play random games, Noah continued to play Dragon Warrior 3, and I continued in Persona 5. Noah got to the almost end of his game, and I beat the second dungeon in Persona 5. We ordered a pizza a few hours before Noah had to go home, and Steve and I went to pick it up together. We of course then played a little Pokémon Go on the way. I kept my pizza consumption relatively low, 2 pieces of pizza and like 4 pieces of the breadsticks (they’re smaller). I always think about when I was growing up and we basically rationed our food - a Jack’s pizza with the fluffier crust would feed me, my mom and sister. Bethany and I would each get two pieces of pizza, and Mom would get 3, and if one of us was still hungry MAYBE they’d get the last piece, but we’d often either split it or Paul would eat it along with whatever he ended up eating. I think about how Mom was always only eating the 3 pieces and how I should also be fine with that many, not more, when eating pizza. Lol.

Eventually Noah randomly announced that it was time to go. He packed up his stuff, put the couch back where it goes, and we headed out. We stopped at Starbucks for some iced drinks (green tea lattes for me and Noah and an Americano for Steve) and hit the road. I finished the thumb on one of Mom’s gloves and spent the rest of the time telling the boys about memes and other things on my Facebook page.

We went to find a couple stops and a gym after dropping Noah off, because Steve had a Pokémon Go quest to spin stops he hadn’t before. That was fun. Oh hey, do you notice when my entries have the accent in the word Pokémon and when they don’t? That’s how you can tell whether I’m typing the entry up on my iPad or my work laptop - iPad autocorrects and the laptop doesn’t. :P

Steve and I talked a bit on the way home about how we’re feeling about the relationship, when Pat’s name comes up in conversation with friends and how it makes us feel, and what direction we feel like we are moving. It was a good conversation... we talked about striking the balance between moving on and not pretending like it didn’t happen, and how we are making the relationship stronger and some things we have noticed in the positive. I apologized again and tried to impress upon Steve just how much he means to me. We talked a little about how the other day he made some comments that I felt blindsided by and I had gotten really upset, and how we can handle the situation better moving forward.

Steve just notified me that he makes fun of me in his entry about being so hype for grocery shopping, so that’s cool, lol.

So after we got home Steve put on some Hearthstone and I entered in the recipes into MyFitnessPal. I also had been entering the food eaten this weekend and came up with 2400 calories per day for myself. Whoops. I should definitely be consuming between 1700 and 1900 per day, depending on if I’ve exercised. I KNOW I’ve been consuming at least this much on average, which would easily explain my weight gain. Not that I’m surprised in any way, and I’m sure there are plenty of days it gets even higher than that!

Seeing that info really helped me feel like it would be good to go for a walk. We didn’t take our whole route because Steve was getting some chafey legs, but we did about 3.5 miles. The local middle school just got a new playground installed at the end of last summer, and I’d only been there once with Haley and Steve hadn’t seen it at all, so we climbed the high tower and went down the slide, I pushed him in the fun slidey swing and we took turns on the rope swing. It was sooo fun. Then when we got to the field path, we saw the first fireflies of the season!!! Fireflies are so hype. They’re romantic and pretty and make it feel like you’re somewhere magical. In the peak of their season, the completely dark field (there are NO lights on in that area) is just lit up with sparkles. Steve showing me his firefly field is one of my most favorite memories of our relationship. Today it was like 10 fireflies, but they’ll get there.

I was more tired than I thought I would be once we got home, so we settled into bed after putting the groceries away, and watched Kripp play Hearthstone. All in all I’d say it was a solid day!

I spent this morning being stressed about work because I knew it was going to be a ridiculously busy day from start to end, and then we would immediately segue into Gamer Monday. Because I had gotten so much sleep during the day on Sunday, I wasn’t as tired as I could have been even though Steve tossed and turned forever, to the point that every time I’d fall asleep he’d roll over and wake me up, and then he tried to turn Hearthstone on his phone after having built a little pillow wall to block the light from me (this failed because I just woke up to his movements lol). Eventually he left for awhile so I could fall asleep and he could get tired. I assume he tried to sleep on the couch and when that failed he came back and I was sleeping enough to stay asleep after he got back into bed.

The morning was pretty similar to Friday - morning basketball with the boys, Josie as the sub, running various boys back and forth to reset and teaching Malik more 2-step equations patterns. Jane, the nurse, told me she visited with my Nokomis principal over the weekend (they’re friends outside of school) and Melissa told Jane that she was going to miss me. Aww. 2nd block was decent, again with walking through 2-step problems with the groups. Seriously, do you remember learning 2-step equations? Not only are they really fun and easy. Once you know the pattern, but they’re directly applicable to a myriad of real-life situations. I was in advanced math all throughout my school age years, but I did not internalize these concepts AT ALL when I was learning them. I really enjoy them now as an adult and I try really hard to impress the value of specific concepts like this that are valuable to everyday life.

Best part of my day: coming home to see Steve for 10 minutes as I grab food for lunch before heading to Nokomis. I cut up a giant apple and gave half to Steve and added the other half to some cantaloupe and took my Naf Naf leftovers. We talked about the rest of the day plans and professed how much we were missing each other. I did get to talk to him on the phone several times today while transitioning between schools and that was really great.

Nokomis was really busy, as Mondays are my busiest kid days. Any spare second I had was spent working on the evals and IEP for the afternoon. All too soon it was 2 and I needed to run back to Parkway to present my academic findings for Kee, one of Molly’s OHD students in her setting III ASD program. That went a lot better than expected and I was able to leave by 3. Elba, the assistant principal, and I walked out together and she put her arm around me and said she understood how hard it was to go between two schools and that everyone wants you full-time and you work so hard, etc. She’s never been affectionate with me before and it was really cute.

Okay, BACK to Nokomis and finishing up some last-minute things on Jeremy’s IEP. Jeremy’s parents are the cutest, and they were actually really relieved when we told them that Isabella doesn’t qualify for SpEd at this time. You never know whether parents will be happy or upset to find out their kid doesn’t qualify for services, because some parents see the benefits of SpEd while others worry about stigma, etc. But thankfully they were happy and we talked about how at the very least, Isabella has no delays and is in fact above average in some ways, but she’s young and immature and struggles with focus and it will be a good idea to keep an eye out for changes in the future, whether her attention improves or worsens. Jeremy’s IEP went well; he’s old enough that I felt confident speaking to his 5th grade year and beyond to middle school (and Jeremy has a sister that goes to Parkway so parents are familiar with it). By the time they left it was 5pm. Ugh, such a long day ;A;

Raced home to Steve, watered my plant, and we went to pick up Tyler for game shopping. We also played and talked Pokémon Go, did a Gengar raid, and Tyler opened my whole world up by notifying me of an app that rates your Pokémon’s IVs and potential. Weeeee! No games were found today and we only went to Level Up, but burritos were had and they were delicious. After we dropped Tyler off, Steve and I came back home. He played a couple arena games in Hearthstone and I wound yarn for a shawl I want to start. I got a tangle in one of the yarns right at the end of winding (I believe it started that way, lame) and that took forever to fix, so I didn’t actually get to start the shawl today, but maybe that’ll be a thing tomorrow. I’ve been really wanting to start one of my cool new knitting projects with the beautiful yarn.

I participated in a sock knitting contest, where you try a technique you haven’t done before and post it in the thread on Ravelry - it was aptly named the “Never Have I Ever.” It was super easy for me, having only knit one pair of socks prior to the contest, lol. I had a feeling I’d win something even though over 150 people entered (I am generally a lucky person with contests and such), but often times I get the Monkey’s paw when I do win. That’s a tad dramatic, but what I mean is, often I get the “worse” or lamer thing, and I would say I definitely DID win the lamest prize - a slipper/sock/foot covering book. But I haven’t actually SEEN the book yet and I could easily just be a crybaby because I ALWAYS want to win yarn, basically exclusively, lol. Anyway, it’s still exciting to win something and hear your name read over a podcast. Pretty sweet.

Saturday found us waking up a little later than we’d planned on, but not too much later. I was really excited to eat breakfast outside and enjoy the weather. It’s been in the mid-80’s for at least a week, and I thought it would be a really good start to our weekend. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans for us. It was gray, cloudy and chilly. Stubbornly I still wanted to go, as 59 degrees wasn’t SO bad and it didn’t seem super windy. I just dressed a bit warmer than I wanted to, and Steve still thought he should wear shorts and a T-shirt.

The plan was to eat breakfast at Birchwood Cafe early enough to beat the insane rush that happens somewhere in the mid morning. Birchwood Cafe is this amazing brunch place that is a little more expensive than you generally want to spend on a given early-in-the-day meal, but it’s priced the way it is for good reason. They work very hard to ethically and organically source all of their ingredients, and they make really good food, all from scratch. Ever since the ONE time we’d eaten there in the past, I was craving the savory waffle (sans bacon). So that’s what I ordered, with a side of potatoes (they season their potatoes with mustard seed and olive oil... sooo gooood. I really should start doing that. Lol. I know it’s not hard because I’ve done it several times following Blue Apron recipes). I also ordered a coffee. Steve ordered pancakes and we split the two meals.

We sat outside (again, stubbornly), but it was definitely not ideal. With my hood up I was actually pretty decent, but Steve got colder the longer we sat outside. The food was really good, per usual, though the waffle was crispier than I remembered, a little overcooked. While we ate, we watched more and more people show up, to the point where eventually the line was packed in and out the door. We did beat the rush, even on a crappy day. Sweet.

The reason we found Birchwood Cafe in the first place was a year ago when Steve really wanted to go to a new game store opening up called “Heroic Games.” When we went there, there wasn’t much to see, and it’s a really small shop. Since then, Steve has seen them pop up as a happening place, and he also sees the cool games they get in. SO, he wanted to check out the place again! I also was interested in checking out the yarn store where I bought most of my yarn from when I went to Yarnover, Stevenbe. It sounded really cool and it was also in Minneapolis, where we were. After checking the map, we were pleased to discover that the game store was actually on the way, and basically on the same street, as the yarn store.

The game store had more things than last time, and Steve did look up the prices for comparison on a couple of games, but surmised that the cool things he gets in and posts online must sell right away, so the remaining stock gets pretty stale. It was still a cute little store (I mean LITTLE, like, 10 people could comfortable fit in there if you didn’t expect more than 3 people at a time to be looking at things) and a cute thing to do with Steve. Soon after, we headed down the road to Stevenbe Yarns.

You guys. This yarn store is insane. First of all, when you walk up to it, it’s got this huge sign. And then there are like 4 different doors that lead into this place, but they want you to use one with a big gate. The doors are metal, like a warehouse. When you walk in, you’re immediately hit with a strong smell of wool. You find yourself in a foyer with crappy yarns on extreme clearance, and branded coffee and trinkets for the store. That opens up into this massive show room filled with bright yarns of so many varieties. They have kits everywhere and samples of items knit up with the yarns. It’s really neat. While we were perusing, I found myself a couple of long circular needles. I’ve been interesting in experimenting with knitting armwarmers and socks on circulars to reduce the stitch sizes when changing needles when using DPNs (double-pointed needles). I’ve increasingly seen more people do this. I bought some really short circular needles to try for socks, but I wanted to also try long circs for gloves. The shop owner informed me that there was plenty more yarn upstairs. HOW. HOWWWW.







There are about 10 steps that lead up to a landing, with “geek-specific” themed yarns and samples there. I don’t watch Dr. Who, but I was particularly impressed by this shawl and would definitely knit it if I knew someone in my life who loved the show and would wear a shawl.



10 more steps and you’re on the second floor. MOAR YARN. Not only moar yarn, but there was another big room, a side room, and a hallway filled with yarns. But wait! Another discount yarn ROOM. Holy crap. The upstairs had their “fiber” area, with unspun wool of various types, spinning wheels, carding machines and weaving looms. It was all very neat.





Once heading back downstairs, I hemmed and hawed for quite awhile around these gorgeous hand-dyes (who am I kidding? I will always want the stripey hand dyes) before finally settling on a skein that was beautiful and was under $30 (the needles I was buying cost over $30 together already)... my second choice of yarn was $61 and I felt too guilty spending $100 at the yarn store when I have so much yarn at home that I DO wanna knit.

After the yarn store, we headed home. The weather was still lame, but it wasn’t threatening rain or anything. There was a Pokémon Go event from 1pm-4pm for Charmander, and the legendary Pokémon Ho-oh also is going to be in 5-star raids starting today. Steve invited Nick to come Pokéhunting with us at the park by our house, and he came over pretty quick. We all walked over to the park and started catching Charmander. Within like 15 minutes, Steve and Nick had each caught like 2 shiny Charmander, and I hadn’t even seen one!! I was throwing a fake fit about it. Lol. While we were at the park, Ben contacted us via FB messenger and invited us to Mall of America (Ben and Sean are in town!) and hot tub + VR in the evening. After some conferring, we agreed the mall would be the best place to go.

Even though it was a Saturday, and a Saturday with a Pokémon event happening, I still found parking quite easily and we met up with Ben and Sean after stopping to catch some Charmander. They were in line at Carlos’ Bakery (from cake boss) and got some really tasty pastries. We didn’t get more than 12 steps before we ran into big Mike! WHAT ARE THE ODDS, seriously. He informed us there was a Latias raid starting in like a minute and we should go there. I had to wander away from the group to get the right GPS location to participate in the raid, but eventually we all got in and got to try to catch her. Unfortunately, none of us were successful.*

A lot more catching of Charmander was had over the next 2 hours, including lots of shiny’s, and Ben teased me about how much I whined about not getting any good shiny’s and I ended up with a pretty good one. Sean got overly excited about Raltz more than once, to the mock indignance of Ben. Much hilarity ensued as we circled the Mall. We got to participate in TWO Ho-oh raids, though I had to do a lot of wandering with the first one (again, GPS) and we all got yelled at by security because there were SO MANY people there playing Pokémon Go that it was clogging up walkways (like, no less than 100 people). On my VERY LAST throw on the first Ho-Oh raid I got him. Nick didn’t end up with any legendaries, Ben’s phone died during the first raid but it miraculously saved his spot when he plugged in Mike’s to-go charger and booted it back up, and Steve and Sean both got one. On the second raid, Sean got a shiny Ho-oh and EVERYONE was mad jealous. So lucky!! She was very happy and it was cute.

Soon after we had to head out because I had Cafetalk lessons starting at 6:30. We got BurgerBurger to go (the sandwich I ordered was requested no bacon of course, and while I got the veggie patty it had a crapton of bacon on it, which I discovered during my first huge bite). Haley was at our house doing laundry, and spent the next two hours pissing Steve off and making Nick uncomfortable with her questions. She’s been obsessed lately about the fact that women have hair on their buttcheeks and would not shut up about it. And other inappropriate topics. She left before I was finished with my second lesson.

Did my lessons and then it was 9. Nick headed home, and Steve and I went over to Ben’s parents’ house to try out BeatSaber VR. It was SO. FUN. Look it up if you haven’t seen it yet Exactly as I imagined it, though I kept accidentally pressing the menu button when songs got intense. It lines up really well and does sense you better than PlayStation VR, because it has two sensors for you instead of just the one and can track your movement better. The only downside is that it was on a computer and only the person playing could hear the music, so the room was quiet save for the swishing noises as you swiped, and the heavy breathing of exertion XD Hard mode is really fun, and I was unable to pass any expert songs (which I’m happy about - love a challenge). We all took turns playing to our hearts’ content. When I wasn’t playing, I was knitting on Mom’s gloves and fighting with one of the kittens to stop trying to eat my yarn and needles.



Sean went to bed around midnight and Mike left, and then Ben’s friends Kuh-San and Amanda (they’re married) came over. Kuh-San is one of Ben’s longtime friends, having lived just down the street from each other, and he makes a daily appearance in Ben’s “post-college pre-Madison” book, Corrupted Complaints. He and his wife were pleasant and nice. More BeatSaber, more conversation, and then hot tub. We spent about a half hour in the hot tub. Steve had been asking me what I liked about hot tubs, and I was having trouble articulating other than it’s warm and comfy and fun. Lol. Once we got in there, I realized it was because if you’re in a group, you just take the talking you were JUST doing, and add in fun warm water and artistically good sensory distraction, like putting your hands and feet in the jets, floating back and forth, and experimenting with how much of your skin to expose to the chilly air.

During that time we talked a lot about Disney World. Ben, Sean, and Ben’s parents JUST got back from a trip there, are going to go again in August, and planned for us to join them there in December (plans right now are the 1st-9th). I’ve been to DW once, for my little brother when he was 6 and I was 19 (so over 10 years ago) and I didn’t remember it being that fun. How can it be so fun for a group of adults that they go three times in a year?? I don’t know how you can want to go that much. Ben basically ended up saying that it’s just an excuse to spend a lot of time with the people you care about, in an easygoing place with a lot of access to comfort and luxury and unique foods and people. And of course, the Disney theme and fireworks. So I guess it’s something about not thinking you’re going to an amusement park, because it will never compare to Cedar Point or Six Flags or King’s Island, but more like you’re going for the ~experience~.

Soon after there was toweling off and Kuh-San and Amanda left, and then Ben laid on the floor of his living room and Steve and I sat on the couches and we talked about journaling, jobs, and other nothing topics that felt really good to just be hanging out. I really like Ben a lot, and he has a lot of thoughts/rants/etc. It’s really funny when he and Steve are talking, because Ben has such an analytical way of thinking (“process” thinking where he wants everything to be as efficient as possible and even though he doesn’t process super quickly, you can bet he will find a good solution) and Steve has such an analogical way of thinking. They’re both hilarious when talking, so it’s always enjoyable to be around when they’re having a conversation.

Oh, and I took a cute selfie.


Finally we got too tired to continue (it was well past 2am by this point), and Steve and I stopped at Taco Bell, not having gotten dinner (I just ordered a bean burrito), ate quickly and collapsed into bed, serenaded by Kripp playing Hearthstone.

Perfect end to a perfect day.

*Steve informed me, post-entry, that he lied to everyone and he DID catch Latias, but felt guilty that he was the only one and thus pretended he didn’t. HAAAHAHA omg he’s the best.

I got to work st a reasonable time today, which was nice. Not super reasonable, but before the bell. I wasn't going to be in first block for most of the time because I was testing a student for Brian. I also went to teach him how to do the ELL curriculum-based testing since I'm not going to be there next year and this is supposed to be the standardized/normed test for students who speak English as a second language, and I'm concerned he won't give it with fidelity. Lol. Even though I made this clear to him, he was still in and out of the room like 4 times... and then at one point, I shit you not, he BURST into the room to yell, "DID YOU GUYS SEE A MOUSE?!" a couple times, because apparently there was a mouse running in the pod outside of the classroom. I was literally doing a timed oral reading with her and she was in the middle of reading out loud. This is an adult man who KNEW what we were doing and we were the only people in that room so it wasn't like he was talking to anyone else. What I do know is that if the ELL coordinator was there observing, she would have lost her shit at him for like trying to ruin the test.

2nd block has been going really well, I pushed about a third of my kids into 2-step equations even though they continue to struggle with remembering inverse operations, and it's been going really well. I forget how much I enjoy teaching at the front of the room with a group, calling on each student in turn in order to give them all practice. In my first group I somehow got not just Ben and Kayly, but Ashawn and Konmeng too! It's like, I got so used to dealing with behavior issues and it being impossible to work with more than 1 kid at a time that I let it fall to the wayside. But I'm gonna keep pushing it toward the end of the year because it's so fun.

I finally did my cognitive observation on Jeremy's little sister, and she is really interesting. She doesn't qualify for Developmentsl Delay but I needed to get an observation on her. She just appeared to tune in and out when she pleased and was generally hilarious to watch. I got the cutest picture of her when I stopped to ask her wtf she was thinking about (I got a giggle and "nothing!").



I couldn't wait to get home to Steve, who is thoroughly enjoying his coasting to a week off. I told Tealie I planned to call in the Tuesday after Memorial Dsy so we could have a long weekend, and I'm so excited. Steve has never just had relaxed free time between jobs really, having only worked at Rainbow, and then Thomson Reuters, which he was laid off from (as has been a large percentage of the company by this point).

I was really in the mood to hang out outside for a bit, so we took Ben's book outside to read while I knit. It ended up being too bright for Steve, who, for no logical reason, refuses to wear sunglasses. He insists that the world is less vibrant and is tinted. I have tried to explain the transitions lenses... *transition*... so you don't notice the shift and it really isn't dark! But still, he refuses, and I ended up reading aloud for awhile until the sky became cloudier and Steve had gotten used to the brightness.


Remember the apple tree in our backyard? It's got beautiful blossoms.

Soon after we started reading, our neighbor's dog came outside. He's about a year old, and he's a Rottweiler, and people are really weird about dogs, so we haven't interacted with him much. But he seriously wants our attention every time he's outside. He huffs and puffs through the fence holes and stares intently at us for long periods of time in between bouts of exploring his yard. We've had bad luck with people like... getting MAD when their dogs come to us, so it's pretty safe to say we're wary. But today he started whining so pitifully that I had to chance it. I furtively started tiptoeing across our yard, CONFIDENT that the dog would start barking the second I got close. To my great surprise, not only was he silent as I walked up to him, but he IMMEDIATELY sat down in a submissive posture for me to pet his back and head, and then got soooo excited for me to scratch his head and neck and just really wanted contact. I talked to him about how I was so happy he was so lovey but I was afraid of us getting in trouble (not sure how our neighbor feels about his dog standing up against the fence), but I couldn't NOT give the pupper some of the love he was desperate for. Eventually I went back to Steve and the reading and the dog (I THOUGHT his name was Roscoe but I'm not sure about that) merrily went to play.

Dinner tonight was Naf Naf. Hummus bowl with couscous, falafel, all the fixins (including extra pickles because they have the BEST pickles), and Naf fries. Soooo gooood. While Steve was a darling and got that, I started playing ITG, dying out my new Fitkicks. Steve, Ben, Dmac and I are all "sock" ITG players. Many ITG players of course play in shoes, but those of us that have our own pads will modify them so the arrows are more flush as opposed to recessed in the pad, making it easy to play in socks. My problem with playing in socks is that my feet require a lot of annoying specifics, particularly when it comes to slipperiness. If it's too slippery I fly off the pads and can't get stable, and if it's too sticky I can't move fast enough. A lot of people in our ITG Facebook group love this type of kind-of-shoe, and they're cheap, so I thought it worth it to give it a try. So far my thoughts:
Pros:
-satisfying tapping to hear the rhythm
-good traction but not too much traction
-Steve and I can switch off because his pay doesn't affect the pad slipperiness with the shoes
-I can see theme being so much more consistent and so much annoyance will be reduced with trying to find the right socks for that day

Cons:
-I often rely on my socks for fast songs once I get going, and sort of fudge it. I've always known this wasn't the true way to play, but of course it's a hard adjustment
-kinda similar but different, because the soles are rubber, if I don't pick up my feet, the rubber will drag and it will fuck me up
-even though I bought the smallest size, supposedly for 5.5-6.5 feet, there's enough room that when I play, my foot slides forward and my big toe gets pushes super hard against the front. I eventually was able to play fine with two pairs of socks on, filling out some space in the shoe and also providing more cushion, but now both my big toes are throbbing and the toenails are sore. Boooo.

After my blood sugar settled, I had a decent ITG day, getting two new 98's, including one that had previously been a 95! Usually my improvements are small and inconsistent, so improving a song I'd been struggling with for so long with such a big leap really made my night.

The other thing that super made my night was brought to us by the amazing and lovely Steve. With me leaving SPPS, I have to turn in the computer I've been using for 4 years, as well as the iPad. Steve had suggested I get a tablet instead of a laptop and I thought it was a good idea. I was upstairs getting ready for ITG, and I couldn't find the shirt I wanted to wear. I saw my suitcase sitting on the bed, still mostly unpacked from when we went to Madison last weekend. It was put on the bed several times this week by Steve, and I just assumed he moved it when cleaning and would put it back on the floor when it was bedtime. Today I decided to dig through it to see if my shirt was in there. What did I find?? A BRAND NEW IPAD!! It's the 256Gig 10.5 inch 2017 version, which is precisely what I wanted. I'm sooo excited to get a keyboard case for it to turn it into a mini laptop, but I've been of course having fun with it, getting it set up and apps installed and whatnot. He wrote me the most adorable note to go along with it, and talked about it was an anniversary present but he just couldn't wait (our anniversary is May 29th). He was getting us food when I found it, so I couldn't attack him right away, but I might have gotten tearful with joy when reading the note and bursting with love. Definitely top 3 love notes. Oh man. This boy.