Most of 2022

So, it ended up being much longer than I thought it would be between posts. Ro has his ballet recital exit last June after school ended. I asked if he wanted to keep going but he said he was done. He had played a dancing apple and kept in time the best out of all the little apples. 

Between ballet and the summer camps, Ro had his first sleep over with his friend’s from his old daycare. Their mom was having surgery and so B and I offered to take her two kids while she and their dad prepared for her recovery. It was very loud, but it was nice to not have to entertain Ro all weekend. They want to have another sleepover soon, but my ears haven’t stopped ringing yet. 

Fresno Unified did a deal this summer where you could sign up for week long summer day camps for free. Ro went to Camp ALTA the first week — a STEAM-focused deal at the Fresno Boys and Girls Club where he sprouted seeds, played games, built bottle rockets and patted farm animals. Since it was for most of the day, Grandma Wanda picked him up after I dropped him off. B took the bus to work for that week and the next week. 

Brochure-ready multicultural photo posted on the Fresno BCG Instagram page

He spent the second week at Fresno State’s Young Engineers camp. The classes were only in the morning and held at the student rec center. They built structures to survive earthquake simulations, bridges, and balloon propelled cars. Since it was only a half day, I was able to drop him off, go to work, pick him up, and then finish the rest of my day at home. 

The third week, we had already bought Ro a place at River Camp. He was a little worried about being in an older kids group this year, but he really liked it in the end. Remember how I mentioned the crazy transportation schedule? They had to bus the kids from the River Center to Scout Island and back each day. If we had done this camp first, there’s a good chance he would have been much more comfortable with taking the bus from our nearer zoned high school without an issue. 🤦‍♀️

After the camps, we left the Saturday after River Camp to head north to meet up with Mom and Dennis in Oregon. We couldn’t plan ahead because B was in the process of replacing personnel and needed to make sure people were trained to work okay while we were gone. He was able to get the new person right away and I booked two rooms at a past minute place in Otter Rock. We had our room for five nights and I added a second room for another two nights. We really liked the place (we saw gray whales from the balcony) so I placed a reservation for a villa next year around Mom’s birthday since the timing is right for a Ro dropoff. 

View from our balcony

We didn’t make the trip too brutal for Ro. Since we weren’t taking the bikes this time, we just took our car. We spent the first night in Arcata and found that it was a comfortable stop on the way. Next year, we’ll try to spend a few days at an AirBnB in their downtown area. We had stayed at the Days Inn (due to last minute plans), but I wouldn’t stay there again. 

Me: Ro, don’t touch that chair over there. 

Ro: Why?

Me: There are gross stains all over it here, here, and here.

Ro: Over here, too. 

Me: So, do you see what I mean?

Ro: Oh. Ok. 

We were going to go to a blues show that night at Humboldt Brews, but it turned out to be a 21+ show. We had dinner at the restaurant instead and Ro said they had the best mac and cheese. He even came up with a mac and cheese song and dance while waiting for it, which may have influenced his judgement. We were so tired and hungry that their food was really good and we didn’t consider missing the show a total loss. 

We checked into Otter Rock the next day and spent the most of the week at the beach. There was a tasty seafood shack called Mo’s. I would just suggest avoiding the shrimp louie since it is just shrimp, cabbage, and mayonnaise. It looks and tastes like something you’d expect to get from Chippers in Streator. We also went to the pool even though it was in the 50’s all week. I think it was the first time I had ever spent time in the pool to warm up. 

We did manage to get away ever now and then. We spent one day to head up to Tillamook for lunch, souvenirs, and ice cream. Ro was happy when we got there but later regretted it because it “took too long to get back.” Then we went to Newport for the aquarium and the beach. 

Ro went with Mom and Dennis for the next two weeks and B and I headed home. We stopped in Chico and then renewed the HBO Max subscription for 30 days to finish the Sopranos before Ro returned. We finished the rest of the show and couldn’t find much else to watch. I started and finished “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency,” which I liked and it had the usual feel of a BBC show. I started to watch Key and Peele, but B didn’t seem into it. When Ro came home, we watched Teen Titans and Ben 10 until the 30 days were over. 

Ro’s school started up the Monday after he returned. The closest he had to downtime were the half-days during Young Engineer camp and the time he spent in WA with Mom. He did see Ev while he was there and they hung out. He hadn’t talked to her all year because the last time he saw her, Ev was stern with him about playing with her electric guitar and Ro got embarrassed/upset/mad. Apparently, they picked up with it completely forgotten and all was well. 

Oh, yeah. We also made it to Obon this year. Ro is dancing in front of his friend Evy, who he hadn’t seen since the 2019 Obon. We parents found our way to the grassy area in the middle during “half-time” to watch the Taiko drummers and then let everyone dance around us since Evy now has a baby brother who liked to get up and wanted off. He was less inclined when he realized he was surrounded by dancers. 

Yes, it is line dancing to Japanese music but in a circle. 

Ro has been having a strange start to school. His class is actually made up of half the kids from his old class because there are only four classes total and two are DI. So each of the DI and English classes just swap between the two classes of each category. 

He hasn’t been wanting to go. He’s been trying to talk me into picking him up early so he doesn’t need to go to the after school program. I told him that if I did, I would use up twice as much gas, put twice as much carbon in the air, and all the animals would die faster. He dropped it for awhile after that though it may be that we just don’t talk about it. 

He tried to fake sick one morning, too, but using his morning allergies. I called his bluff. B left for work without him. I told Ro that if he was so sick, he needed to stay in bed all day and rest. He revealed he was feeling ok and was worried because he hadn’t finished his homework the night before because he had computer work. 

I called an Uber to take Ro and I to his school. He was going to refuse to go, but I told him I had an errand to run there and I wasn’t going to leave him at home or I would get arrested and he would get taken away. He didn’t fight me after that. He got a tardy slip, but didn’t want to go to class. I asked for help with getting him comfortable with going to class so they called a mentor and he was able to draw and talk to the mentor for 45 mins before going. The mentor was someone who covered for the teacher when they had indoor recess (when it’s too hot or the air is too bad to play) and so he didn’t have any issues after I left him. I was then able to take a bus to pick up the car, pick up Ro’s new laptop from a school downtown, have lunch with B,  take the car to a carwash, visit a bookstore, and stop by Little Leaf for tea before pick up Ro from school and talking to his teacher. 

Now, this was only the seconds or third week of school. The teacher warned that there would be homework and growing pains, but they had effort grades so it wouldn’t be a big deal if there were hiccoughs. As it were, he didn’t have his homework done because we hadn’t upgraded his slow started tablet to the new faster laptop tablets, which was on us. Later, I also realized I recycled Ro’s math workbook that he needed to do his homework — so also not his fault. 

Ro was much happier when I picked him up. His teacher sent me a link to a website to communicate about classwork and the three of us came up with a plan for Ro’s anxiety. It was pretty much that he would tell us when he needed something, ask questions, and then we would come up with a better plan. 🤷‍♀️ Either way, he was happy to skip the after school program and catchup on his homework to Starbucks until it was time to pick up B from work. 

He meant the “Xtra Math” website to do its regular homework. 🤦‍♀️

Ro: Can I do “extra math”?

Me: Of course! 

*Me thinking about how smart Ro is and how wonderful that he loves math enough to do more.*

So far, he’s doing much better at school. The homework is still easy enough that he doesn’t have anything to do when he gets home.  We’re more working on better self-talk and not spontaneously combusting when we don’t get our way. (I think we’re both still working on that.)

With school starting back up, I thought Ro would continue with ninja lessons, but he decided to quit because he was worried about starting the next class for the next age group. I told him he had to pick something even if it wasn’t ninja class. So he chose golf lessons. Luckily, there is a place in Fresno that does cheaper classes and lets the kids borrow clubs. It turns out that he really likes it. It’s even improved his mini golf game. 

Speaking of which, Ro’s 7th birthday at home was low key. We had Taco Bell and stale Oreo cake. (It was the last one and I would have requested my money back, but Ro was super happy with it.)

We had arranged to meet Ro’s friends at Blackbeards the next Saturday after his golf lessons. B woke up feeling awful, but we were fine so we went without him. B ended up sick with a fever for the rest of the weekend, and we somehow didn’t catch or spread it to our friends.

Ro’s friends brought pizza for a quick lunch before mini-golf, laser tag, and kiddieland rides. Their mom and I joined for the mini golf and hung out in the shade with water for the rest. Ro ended up being scared of the rollercoaster but loved the climbing rope web and a few of the other slower rides. I wonder how they would like the Adventureland in Roeding Park when Ro gets a bit bigger.  

We ended the day out by picking up Thai food in Clovis. They asked if I was sure I wanted it spicy. I said yes and was surprised it was actually spicy. I heard from Mandy that they were one of the few places that had signs up refusing returns on food that was too spicy. It may be my new Thai restaurant when I’m in that area. 

Other than those happenings, work is good. They’re starting to have us go into the office once a week for team meetings and then two extra “floating days.” It’s not as fun as when it was optional. There is a good Armenian restaurant down the street though. The only bad thing about the job is that I keep having weird dreams that my ex-boyfriends started working for HSR. 😱 When Ro gets to that dating age, I’ll have to warn him that the best reason to not date until you’re ready to settle is that you don’t have to worry about running into ex-es in random places other than dreams like the airport parking ticket kiosk or the Amtrak station. 

I’m also back playing the trombone with the community band. It’s still fun, but the pieces aren’t as exciting as they were pre-COVID. The director admitted that he was trying to help us build back our skills. He may not be wrong since I can sense that I probably should be practicing more. 😅

B has been playing basketball more than biking lately. He found place where he like to shoot hoops, but he always ends up playing pick-up games more often than not. We joke that he’s pretty social for someone who wants to give off an anti-social vibe. 

I’m still biking. I haven’t run in awhile. Ro snapped the casing on my watch and I just got a replacement from Garmin. The dog can use a good run more often so that will start up again soon. I thought I broke him one time because he spent a week lying under the couch after the first 1.5mi run in awhile last month. He must have just pulled a muscle because he was back to being hyper after that rest period. 

I should measure my blood pressure more often, and I probably will to make sure. More than that, I should probably get back into eating salad and stuff. I feel like I did a much better job of being healthy when I worked in Reedley. I feel like the things I like to do to relax (like solving sudoku puzzles and hanging out with friends) isn’t really that relaxing for my body and the stuff that would be more relaxing are more of a chore (like meditation and exercise). 

Jane caught me up on the family stuff. I call when I can for moral support, but I try to wait until things are decided because it seems that neither of them can give me a straight answer on what’s going on, which ends up stressing me out. I can deal with uncertainty, but I don’t like getting my emotions yanked around from relief to heart surgery. 

I think I’m caught up on most of the stuff. I love you and miss you. Sorry, it took so long for me to post. I hope you guys are all doing ok.