The painted ladies

Recognize these houses? Popular family sitcom during the 90s? Three dads, three girls, set in San Francisco? If you guessed Full House, good job. Actually these houses are known as the painted ladies, as I learned this weekend during my trip to San Francisco. It took of quite some time to find them, as we had the wrong directions at first. We new that they were supposed to be across the street from some park, but unfortunately we found the wrong park at first...Anyway, after a phone call and some re-navigation through the city, our trusty tour guide B got us there. It was really quite humorous, as we kept seeing different houses that sort of looked like "painted ladies" but not quite like "the full house" set, and we kept asking, "is that it, is that it?" We finally found them as evidenced by the picture. I think the quest itself was more fun than the two minutes we stood snapping a picture :) Always an adventure.

Friday at the Beach

I'm hear visiting my friend B, who is getting her PhD in micro biology at Stanford..and even though I'm on vacation, she is techinically supposed to be working. So I hope I haven't been keeping her from her duties too much, but she did take a long weekend with me starting Friday. After sleeping in, we headed to the beach, somewhere between Santa Cruz and Montery Bay I think. It was a little windy, but the sun shared its rays a few times while we were there. I was determined to sun bath in my actual bathing suit, but B was bundled up in her sweatshirt for most of the time :) Anyway, we spent a few hours there, chatting, reading, and snoozing (not swimming as apparently the water is rarely warm enough in northern CA and also shark infested??). It was nice to lay out and relax, but we headed back aroun 4:00 to make it back for happy hour with B's bio department. After meeting several of B's friends and colleauges (and a very cute mormon boy who really likes to talk about himself and his dating escapades...), we had a nice dinner at Chevy's - very similar to Don Pablos - where I tried flauta's for the first time. Yum. A little while later we headed out to some English bar, the Rose and Crown, but I was pretty worn out and ready for bed after my extra large English Cider, which B helped me finish...

Greeting from CA

I just arrived in CA today to visit with one of my best friends from college. I always get nervous about flying, especially flying alone, but I am proud to say that I managed to navigate three airports with no problems! I had been warned that CA was in the middle of a heat wave, and it is pretty hot...So to escape the heat, B and I walked around the Stanford mall, played with makeup at Perscriptives, and had a great salad at Pluto's - amazing!! Anyway, I'm not really too worried about the heat - at least its not humid like at home.

Draw me close

Draw me close to You,
Never let me go.
I lay it all down again
To hear You say that I’m Your friend.

You are my desire,
No one else will do,
’Cause nothing else could take Your place,
To feel the warmth of Your embrace.
Help me find the way,
Bring me back to You.

You’re all I want.
You’re all I ever needed.
You’re all I want.
Help me know You are near.

~Kelly Carpenter

Literacy Institute

I just got back from DC, where I attended the Literacy Institute sponsored by National Geographic. This past year, I have been working with a team of teachers to create a new class, Advanced Academic Literacies, for this coming fall semester. By "create," I mean develop the concept of the class, write the curriculum, plan the calendar, design the materials, and write the lessons. So far the class has been quite an undertaking, but perhaps that’s a blog for another day...Anyway, my school sent me and my friend Mary to this literacy conference to check out the new research and to explore options of presenting our class in the future. The conference itself was a mixed experience - some good presenters, some very, very boring presenters. Honestly, even my sophomore public speaking students would know that it is never good to “read” PowerPoint slides to an audience!! I was also disappointed that many of the sessions pertained much more to the primary grades than to high school. Mary and I were able to glean many applicable ideas for both our class and some other projects we have in mind, but I was frustrated not to have more direct applications. Overall, DC still provided a good learning experience, among many other types of “experiences”… After watching several of the more competent and passionate presenters, I am more and more convinced that I want to write and research. I could be up there presenting my findings. I could be speaking at an upcoming literacy institutes or writing seminars. I have so many ideas…Now I just need to follow through.

A week of firsts...

First "Irish Pub" encounter
First Free Massage at Brookstone
First Winnings in AC
First Inhalation Room experience
First Train to DC
First Appletinis
First Dinner at Morton's Steak House
First 2 AM phone call at the Beacon
First Literacy Conference
First Crab Dinner
First Time jumping a metro toll booth
First Kalua and Milk
First Missed train
First Express train to Philly
First Time pushing a car in a parking garage
First Time jumping a car in a parking garage
First Time at a loss for words or categories...

Driving!

So much for driving efficiency…

I thought I had the weekend so perfectly synchronized as to maximize my quality socializing time and to minimize my tedious driving time this weekend during which I was scheduled to visit 5 different groups of people in 48 hours. However, due to an unfortunate, though typical, forgetful episode, I added an unplanned detour and yet another unexpected, though welcomed, visit. I will explain…

Saturday marked the end of a three day visit with my good friend C, who had traveled to see me via the scenic route 611 all the way from Philly. Before we headed back to Philly on Saturday, we first stopped by JMK’s acceptance to Med School cocktail party. Jess always knows how to throw a good party, and once again she did not disappoint. Good food, good drink, good people, great conversation. An added bonus was that I did not even have to do the driving afterwards, as C was looking for some more driving experience. (Good job with your first highway driving BTW!!) We made it to Philly in time for a great dinner at Le Beau Monde – amazing crepes…mmmm…nutella :) - where I met up with some high school friends and C headed off with her beaux. From there I was off to Cirque de Soleil (Quidam). So amazing what people can do with their bodies! I always walk away from these types of shows wishing I took dance lessons or gymnastics or something. Anyway, after the show we all parted ways, and I headed to the suburbs of Philly where I was helping a college friend baby-sit another mutual friend’s son. Fortunately my directions were good, and I had no problems navigating through the city but I must admit that I got nervous a few times. I have never seen so many cops out in the city before! Apparently there was some type of fraternity Greek night, and let me tell you – the streets were hopping! And it was in between reading my directions, checking street signs, and praying that my car would not break down in the middle of the festivities, that I suddenly realized that I had left my train tickets to DC (where I was attending a conference later that week) at home on my dinning room table. A lot of good they would do me there considering I was supposed to drive directly from Philly to AC where I would catch a train to DC. Uggg, frustrations!! Anyway, I did make it to my friend’s house safely a little before midnight, I had a nice catch-up chat with my college friend L, and we successfully made it to church the following morning. And fortunately, I made arrangements for the next babysitting shift, another college friend S, to come a little early, so that I could drive back towards my house to meet my roommate (who brought the train tickets) at our college and career group later that evening. Confused yet?? In the end I got my tickets, I got to see a bunch of friends from church at bible study, and I still got to visit with S the next day before I headed to AC. So it all worked out pretty well, minus having to drive the extra two hours...Like I said, so much for driving efficiency :)

(July 8th and 9th)