But, it went great - I managed to stay on the bike, not get hit by any cars, and I made it up the ginormous hill in Fort Mason without walking. YAY! Simple victories... I'll have to post a picture of the hill sometime, it's really quite impressive. Just when you think you are at the top, the road turns a corner and, alas, the hill keeps on going.
The real victory of the bike-commute, though, is that I left work at 5:10 (still working the bike-timing out) and got home at 5:23!! YAY! Let's see, with the bus, I left work at 5:00, waited for the bus until 5:07 (or whenever the bus decided to show up), got off that bus around 5:15, waited for another bus until 5:20 (or whenever the bus decided to show up), and got home around 5:30 - 5:40, depending on when the buses decided to show up. So I have a net time savings of about 17 minutes. Cool.
So now I'm sitting in my reading nook, with G&T in hand, all the windows opened so that it feels like I'm sitting on my "deck" (the library also doubles as deck in this house) and writing a leisurely blog. And I would have been arriving home from the bus ride right about......now! Ahhhh.....
Perhaps you can tell by my flowery prose, but this has been a really good week so far. But, I'm getting a little ahead of myself. I should talk about the WEEKEND first. Because...wait for it....I GOT TO GO HOME!!!! It was FANTASTIC! I left on Friday at 8:20 and arrived in Portland at 10:05, got my rental car by 10:20 and hit mom and dad's house at 11:15 - I think that's a record or something. Everything went off without a hitch. Even in the dark, it felt so great to be back in familiar territory - with roads and lights that I recognized.
Then on Saturday, as I mentioned previously, it my sister and her boyfriend's birthdays, so all family arrived for the celebration. Unfortunately, it was raining, so not the best weather to enjoy the beautiful fall colors of the Northwest, but still nice to see the trees and grass of the country. You get tired of concrete jungle after awhile, you know? Does anyone know if trees change color and lose their leaves in San Francisco, or do they just always think it is summer? Lila also arrived after a little bit of car trouble with my BABIES!!
They are so so precious and I missed them so much - it almost hurt to see them just to know I was going to have to leave them behind again.But Lila is taking great care of them and has actually taught them a basic "come" command. If anyone knows my dogs, they only come if the food is rattling in their dish and the word "dinner" or "breakfast" has been uttered. Amazing. So I got some great big kisses from Swarley and little dainty kisses from Lola. I had to take tons of pictures and videos of them for Neil, since he couldn't come. In fact, when I looked back over the pictures, I neglected to take hardly any family pictures. I don't have one single picture of mom or dad. Hmm... I'll have to fix that next visit.
Isn't my little girl precious? :)
I also got kisses from my favorite Nephew, who informed me at one point, while we were decorating the cake, that I was "his best friend in the whole wide world". I think he was trying to get me to let him eat the frosting. It worked. :) It was so fantastic to see him again and listen to him - he is hilarious. Here is playing with his favorite GG (great-grandma), who is was also wonderful to see!So we had presents and dinner and cake and a lot of time just to talk. It was just what my soul needed.
It's amazing how much relationships matter in life. It's those personal connections that make life worth living every day, and I think that God has blessed me with some wonderful family and friends! Although I am fantastic company for myself while Neil is at school here in S.F., it is nice to have someone to talk to besides me, myself and my blog. :)
Finally, we all got to spend some more time with my sister's boyfriend, Sean. We all just think he is great and are so glad that Chelsea and he found each other. He's a lot of fun and fits into the family perfectly. You always worry that your siblings will pick a dud that is no fun to be around and it disrupts the whole family. Sean is not a dud. YAY! Isn't my sister beautiful?!Everyone had to leave, but Lila stayed the night so i could spend more time with the doggies and she, mom, dad and I had a really nice talk Sat. night. I feel like I really got to spend time connecting with the family and with the move to San Fran, it's been awhile since that has happened.
The alarm went off at 5:00am (ungodly hour) on Sunday and I headed to the airport. It was kind of a melancholy ride. I had such a good time, but it was over so fast, and I missed Neil a lot and I was just glad to get on the airplane and fall asleep. Neil picked me up in a Zipcar (he realized he doesn't like Toyota Matrix's at all) and I took a four-hour nap when we got home. I guess family tires me out. So, to sum up, best trip ever....For now...
Mom, Dad and Lila have plans to visit us with the doggies in October and we made all the hotel reservations and got everything planned during the visit, so now I have that to look forward to.. Chelsea, Sean and Devin are planning a trip down sometime this fall. There is Thanksgiving in November and Christmas in December, so we will have plenty of visits to keep the homesickness at bay. However, after the new year we have NO VISITS PLANNED! Any takers? As you can see, our time fills up fast, so get your reservations in early! :)
So, now for this week's news. I think I need to start posting more often - these are getting ridiculously long. Work today and yesterday was really good. I really feel like I'm starting to settle in and understand stuff. With the accountant out, it is a perfect opportunity for me to really get my finger on the pulse of the organization. Things are really in a flurry right now, too, because their big annual fundraiser is happening this weekend, so there are plenty of last minute glitches that need taking care of. So that feels great.
Also, in other news, I started running again yesterday, and maybe this is why I'm feeling so giddy - runner's high? Not possible when I'm running at 15min/mile pace, right? I'm back on the triathlon training wagon, although barely! :) I'm trying to ease into it. I ran yesterday, biked to work today and tomorrow I will bike, then run. I'll try to add in an actual bike workout next week and swimming probably the week after that. But it feels great to be starting a routine again. I think I really thrive on routine - because then I can make plans, and I love to plan more than anything else in the world, I have learned. In fact, I think the thing that bothered me the most about not having an income was that I couldn't plan! I couldn't budget, couldn't forecast my savings and credit card payments, etc. It drove me CRAZY! So now I can plan away to my heart's content. If anyone needs help planning for anything, I am ready and waiting -bring it on! I love it!
Well, I think that's all for now. If anyone reading this is wondering if Neil still exists, because of the lack of the mention of his name in most of these posts, the answer is yes. The reason he has been so absent is that he has basically been totally consumed by school. And now that he has a studio outside of the house, I really hardly see him any more, it seems like. When he was painting in the house, he used to pop into the living room or kitchen all the time and we could talk, but now he doesn't come home until 7:00 or 8:00 at night, and he's usually exhausted. All that knowledge, you know... But I really think he's going to get great things out of this program - I already can see him questioning and challenging his painting and his thought process. It's a very exciting time for him, and I'm so glad that we had this opportunity.
I'm off to Trader Joe's for groceries - the excitement continues!!!!
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