2002 caught up with me at the gym

 

Me, high school teacher, circa 2002

In 2002 I was a high school history teacher.  I was still pretty new and still figuring things out.  And, perhaps most importantly, I was still very young.  I was 23-24 and my students were 16-17...there wasn't much of an age gap there.  Every year that I taught high school, there were always one or two young men who, for whatever reason, be it the way I taught, the things I said, the music I played, or because I tended to wear tight sweaters,  took a fancy to me.  It was always easy to spot the kid with the crush.  He was always in my classroom before or after school.  He wasn't the best student, but did okay in my class.  He tried to hangout in my room while ditching other classes.  He figured out when my birthday was and gave me a small gift or note.  He tried to call me by my first name instead of my formal "Ms. Petersen".

Anyway, in 2002 there was one of these boys.  He fit the bill and was sort of a shadow.  He struggled a bit, was sort of a Gothic wanna be without much of a crowd of his own.  Nice kid though.  Never one to assume that I was high school boy crush worthy, it was obvious by the way he'd look at me, the occasional inability to finish a sentence when talking to me, and the hand written notes in a book about slavery that this kid liked me.  The truth came out though at spring parent teacher conferences when he came with his mom and she looked at me, looked at him and said, "Oh, this is the teacher you think is hot!"  He turned purple.  His mom smiled.  I pretended not to hear.

Anyway, fast forward ELEVEN YEARS!  Monday night I was at the gym, working my way through the circuit my trainer had given me for the week.  Yes, I have a "trainer" now, but that's another post.  Anyway, over by the free weights I saw this kid staring at me.  Really staring at me.  It took me about two minutes to realize that, though he was bulkier than in high school, it was this kid.  The kid with the mom.  Now, because I'm an awkward social weirdo, and because I don't like to talk to people, and because he was a former student, once I'd realized I knew him, I made a beeline for the other end of the gym.  Complete avoidance was my goal.  But, out of the corner of my eye, it was obvious that not only was he still staring, but he was sort of following me around the gym.

There was no way to escape.

As I finished on one my last machine and headed to a treadmill, headphones blaring looking at the floor, I walked past him.  He jumped up behind me and grabbed me by the arm.  I could tell that he knew who I was and that playing dumb wasn't an option.

We had a conversation.  It was awkward and a little uncomfortable.  He looked at me, even with me being sweaty and zitty and no make-up on, just like he had in high school.  He asked, "Are you married?"  "Yes, very happily for ten years with three boys!" I replied.  He asked if I still taught, if I lived near the gym, ("Do you come here often?  I've never seen you before.", he said) what my husband does for a living....you know, small talk trying to sound grown-up.  He told me about his life - he's a police officer at the jail, lives alone with his dog, but that he has a girlfriend....

Who is 34. (about my age.) Then he said the kicker....."If my girlfriend knew I was at the gym talking to my old high school history teacher, she might come find you and beat you up."  Um...huh?  That either means that his girlfriend is a man,  that she's very protective of her boyfriend or that he has talked about me and that she knows who I am.

After about 10 minutes of awkward I bowed my way out of the conversation and ran a mile on the treadmill to clear my head.

I'm not sure I want to go back to the gym.

#siblingagogo13 :: Food

I grew up in burgers and fries family.  I am still a burger and fries girl.  Probably, if it wasn't embarrassing or strange or super unhealthy, I'd eat a hamburger every day.  My husband is a ham sandwich and pickle person.  He likes deli's and all that stuff and when we go to Crown Burgers, he gets chicken kebab's and rice, not a burger and fries.

But, throughout our marriage, food has become just as important part of a vacation as the location and the company.  That being said, I cannot tell you the last vacation I went on where I intentionally ate at a big chain restaurant.  I like to keep it local and new.

On our way to the ocean, our first stop was "Swig" in St. George for dirty diet cokes and sugar cookies.  My first experience with a dirty diet coke didn't win me over...there was too much coconut, perhaps?  And not enough lime that I could even taste it?  And, the after burn tasted like what sunscreen smells like.  I'd be willing to try it again, but with my own ratios.  The cookies though?  They were pretty great.  We each got two, sugar and chocolate chip, and snarfed them down pretty quickly.

Next up was the food highlight of my trip.  Raising Cane's in Las Vegas.  I know, it's just chicken fingers but until you try them, and go back for seconds and thirds, then don't mock.  There are about 6 Raising Cane's in Las Vegas and we hit one on the way to the ocean and one on the way back home.  Divine.  Melt in your mouth.  Tastes like real chicken.  And, the Texas toast is heavenly.  I would actually be willing to drive to Las Vegas just to gorge myself at a Raising Cane's.  I would even eat there twice in the same day!

By the time we got around to being hungry in California on Friday night, pretty much everything was closed.  It was late.  But, the manager of Johnny Rockets (who was closing up) told me of a small local burger place just a few blocks over on Huntington Main Street called, "Bomb Burger".  It was excellent.  I got a bacon BBQ burger and the skinniest, cutest, tastiest french fries I've ever had.  It was, well, the bomb!

On Saturday morning, thanks to the recommendation of my friend Erin, who used to live in Huntington, we had breakfast at the Sugar Shack.  Breakfast really isn't our thing, but this place was awesome.  Giant pancakes, great bacon and amazing hash browns.  Locally owned and operated since, like, 1967, the kid that was our server looked like he came to work straight from surfing, and was a pretty authentic beach bum.  The service was fast and it was tasty.

Our final real food destination of the trip was a pretty regular spot for us.  Ruby's Diner on the Huntington Beach Pier.  We love Ruby's.  The food is yummy.  The atmosphere is cool and they bring your milk shakes BEFORE you food!  Who doesn't like that.  I got a salad, Willie a grilled cheese, and Haley a burger.  We each got laughing to hard during dinner that our waitress came to ask us if we were okay.  And, we made Willie put dinner on his debit card.  It was the first time he had ever done that, and the first time he had to calculate a tip.  We were so proud of him!

#siblingagogo13 - the ocean

My mom, brother and I have a fascination with the ocean.  I could sit on the beach all day long and watch the waves, the surfers, the kids in the sand.  Hunting for seashells is one of the most relaxing activities around.

My sister, she doesn't love the ocean so much.  She and I share an irrational fear that if we get much wetter than our ankles, a shark will jump out of the water and eat us.  But, she humored us, and spending hours sitting on the beach, had a great nap and read on of the first books she's read in years.

The whole point of our road trip was to see the ocean.  Willie wanted to play his ukulele on the beach.  I wanted to sit somewhere beautiful without anyone asking me for anything.  I think Haley wated a nap.  And she got one.  Our hours on the beach were excellent.  In all the trips to California I've taken in my life, I've never been able to spend some time just hanging out at the beach.  Isn't that crazy?  The beach is wonderful.  In my lawn chair, with my diet coke, my shells, and my brother's ukulele.  The three of us hardly talked on the beach, we were just there.  We took turns guarding our stuff to walk through the surf and watch the surfers wipe out.  The beach is a pretty good place to watch people.  A good place to relax.  A good place to have your hair go all frizzy crazy and never look back.

And a pretty good place to get sand in your toes.  If getting sand in your toes is what you're after.

And a beach sunset?  That's a pretty spectacular thing.  Even if you almost miss it while trying to find the beach again and have to get your sister to stop, dump you out of the car to go and watch it while she circles in a parking lot.  A good sunset and a good sister.

 



#siblingagogo13

I got an e-mail from my brother back sometime in October.  He asked me if I was feeling adventurous and wanted to fly with him to see our favorite band, Guster, perform in New York City some special commemorative concerts, over Thanksgiving weekend.  He said we could fly, see the show, and then just sleep in the airport and head back home on the next available flight.

At first, I said sure.  But then after checking the price of airfare, trying to find tickets from third parties for the sold out shows and insisting on staying in a hotel it was obvious that the plan wasn't going to pan out.  So, I e-mailed him.  I told him that I'd give him the weekend and asked him where he wanted to go.

He said: The Ocean.

After a week or so of plotting, we told Haley about our plan.  After a little more convincing, she was in and #siblingagogo13 was born.

Haley and Willie met me at my house at 6:00 am (I'm so thankful for punctual siblings!) and we were off on our adventure.  With as few stops as possible, we made it to the ocean on Friday night, just in time to see the sun setting.  We stayed at the Shorebreak Inn right off the pier on Huntington Beach and with our balcony door open, could feel the ocean air and hear the waves crashing on the beach.

It was one of the best trips I've ever been on.  I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard, or sang so loudly to the radio.  I love my sister and brother so much.  They are two of my bestus friends and, especially with Willie leaving in a few months for Lithuania, the timing couldn't have been more perfect.  It's funny how, when the three of us are together, we just sort of flow.  We all like enough of the same stuff, and enough of the same food, that there aren't a lot of questions.  We just get up and go and everything worked perfectly.  We couldn't have asked for a better weekend - weather, traffic, company, food, surfers.

So much fun.

Quinner :: 15 months

 

Hi Baby Boy!

 

Big news this month?  Well, you broke my Digital SLR camera a while back.  The fix-it-shop couldn't fix it so now I have a broken camera and my phone.  Sufficed to say, there hasn't been that much documenting going on lately.

 

 

Let's see what I can think of.

 

You are really good at using a spoon and a fork.

You like to eat pizza and pears and  three scoops of ice cream with crackly syrup and get mad when we cut things up to make them smaller....you only want big kid sized pieces.

 

More animal sounds, however subtle, are coming out of your mouth.  Dad, Grandpas, and Uncle Willie are all "Dad", and the girls are pretty irrelevant.

 

You are pretty much walking.  If holding someones hand, you could walk a mile really really fast.  On your own, it's limited to about 12 steps before you give up and start crawling, but, you can do it.  Yeah!  We are proud of you....we just need a little more bravery. 

 



 

Basketball season has started for the Runnin' Utes and you have been a bit of a bear at the games we've been to so far, but it's okay.  I'm not sure if it's harder to carry your 30 pounds freestanding or you in your bucket car seat like we did last year, but you seem to like the games because there is a lot to look at and all your favorite people are there for you to hug and climb on.

 

You love to fight light sabers with your brothers and chew on toothbrushes.  Lately, your favorite game is to have Elliott and Wyatt copy everything you do and it's pretty amazing the stuff your one year old brain comes up with.  I've tried to get it on video, but once the camera turns on, the action stops.  But, it gets us all laughing pretty good.  The facial expressions and noises you make have always been pretty entertaining and as you get older, they seem to get funnier.

 

Besides stealing all my diet coke, you are awesome and life is moving along pretty splendidly.  Just wait until you see what you are getting for Christmas.  It will blow your mind.