Summertime fun

During the school year, it's very hard for me to go out of town to visit anyone. I love my job, I give it my all, and it wears me out. On the weekends, I need to go grocery shopping and do laundry. I need to recover from the last week and prepare for the next.

Maybe it will be different for my second year of teaching, but just in case it's not, I'm making sure I see all my favorites this summer. My "favorites" are my best friends -- my three bridesmaids, all of whom have lived with me and laughed with me (and cried with me and drank wine with me...) and all of whom live unfortunately far away from me. First up, was my sister. We lived it up California style for a super-packed week (we were all exhausted by the end). Second? My best friend Sherrie. She's a librarian in Virginia, and after a little break following California, I drove up to the mountains to visit her and her husband.

She's lived there (three hours from me) for five years, and I've never visited her. Her family lives about an hour or so from where I live so she pops by when visiting them. I finally decided to repay the favor (and sleep on another air mattress -- this one was surprisingly comfortable as was the one in my sister's apartment). We spent a couple of days thrifting like crazy, watching movies, eating some good food (her husband made me a "cheesie," which is toasted bread with avocado and tomato and lots of delicious melted cheese) and listening to live music.

I mostly thrifted books, and I might have gone a little overboard! I'm teaching all of TD literacy next year, and I want my kids to have a lot of options of what to read. These books were $1 at the most and 25 cents at the least (most were 50 cents), and it's hard to beat those prices! I've cut myself off though. No more book buying for me! (Allegedly. So I'm claiming.)

I'll visit my third bridesmaid/favorite later in the summer. First, we have weekends with family planned. It's a packed summer, but I'm trying to make sure I also have time to chill out and relax and watch too much "Murder She Wrote" (Oh how I love Jessica Fletcher). Last year, my free time scared the bejesus out of me and I overcompensated with over-scheduling. There's no way I'm letting that happen again!