I'm going to see some Giants!

In a few days, Mike and I are flying to San Francisco. Land of the Giants. And the Tanner family. Mike has to go for a conference, and I'm tagging along because work is really wearing on me. It takes a lot out of a person having to come to work four days a week and occasionally make tables in Excel. I need a break!!

In truth, this vacation is making me a little anxious. First of all, we have to fly. That means airports, which I love (they're so bright and open!), but it also means airplanes, which I'm just okay with. This will mark flight number three for me, ever, because I am a sheltered person who's never been anywhere you can't get to by car in a reasonable amount of time, although certain bus drivers and I have very different definitions of what that amount of time is. I'm not afraid to fly by any stretch, but I'm not wild about having to sit and entertain myself for more than a few hours at a time. My other flights were only 3 hours, and it was only about an hour into them that I started to split my chewing gum in half and chew half on each side of my mouth, and if that's not a sign that you've run out of ideas, I don't know what is. And I may well be the last person in the US who has a portable music player that sits empty on my nightstand because it's too daunting to operate.

Second of all, did you know about time zones? I'm going to be waking up at 6:30 like I do on weekdays, ready for breakfast, only it'll really be 3:30 (please let that be right) and there won't be anyone to make me waffles. Do you think my carry-on luggage can be a cooler full of frozen waffles and a toaster with a strap that I use like a purse? Also, it's our first trip to the West Coast! I don't even know if it should be capitalized! We have no idea what it's like over there, but I get the feeling that if there was such as thing as the opposite of South Carolina, California might be it. So if you have any suggestions about anywhere we should go while we're there (just for a long weekend), I'd love to hear them. But you should know that my friend Johnny has already told us about the guy at Mission Dolores Park who sells the ganja treats.

Sustaining lives is so complicated.

On Monday night we made dinner at home. An undertaking which has become exceedingly rare as of late, possibly because we've quit going to the grocery store. San Jose is on the way to the grocery store, and we'll get home too late to fix dinner, so let's just go ahead and eat first. Yum tacos. Uhhhk. I am too full to move please don't make me go in that grocery store full of foods I need to lay down. Does this happen to anyone else? Is it just because it's summer? Maybe it has something to do with me being at work for an extra 2 hours every day and not having any energy left to open the refrigerator door when I get home, let alone prepare a meal and clean up afterwords. Luckily my hours will change back come fall, but then I'll also have to go back to working Fridays. I tell you I don't know how moms do it. I can barely get myself fed.

Cooking and eating at home was a very welcome change from what we've been doing lately, that is for certain. We fixed chicken and twice baked potatoes and brownies AND we made banana bread. As far as the east is from the west, was this banana bread from my last dreadful attempt. And all I did differently was barely help at all while my mom did the work! Evidently that's the trick. In order to make tasty things, I need to not really play a role in their production. There isn't a show on the Food Network where somebody does that, so I believe I may have stumbled onto a million dollar idea here.

Then yesterday my friend Johnny came over and we ate at home again. This time there wasn't a lot of culinary investment, since Mike and Johnny just ate sandwiches, and all I did was boil some noodles and heat up frozen chicken. But it was nice not to have to drive somewhere and pay money to eat. If I go back through my bank statement, almost every entry is money we've spent at restaurants. Not exactly a wise investment. And probably not a healthy one either. So from now on I'm aiming to have more meals at home. It isn't that challenging if we can just slap together a meal plan and shop on the weekend for what we'll need all week. Fairly simple, in fact. But someone else will need to do the grocery shopping because every time I try, I only come home with a stomach ache. Which you can't bake or freeze for later.

What do I, run places?

For the fourth, my parents and Emily and Mike and I went up to Mike's parents'. We had much tasty food and hung out at their pool all afternoon, and then we went up to Simpsonville for an outdoor symphony concert and fireworks display. It was really fun and enjoyable to be with our families. Said everyone in attendance. Boy do folks like to take their kids to outdoorsy summertime festivals. And it makes them all so HAPPY! And they are so cute when they dance! And find a cricket and put him in a bag with some grass and name him Silly and ask their dads to take pictures of Silly the cricket! It almost made me want to go home and dump a bunch of quarters in the Polly Pocket jar.

But only almost. Because shortly after Silly's photo shoot, I saw the funnel cake booth and desperately threw all my quarters at them instead. I couldn't believe they wanted five dollars for a funnel cake, but you better believe it was worth every penny. And now I'm going to run the whole way home to burn off all the calories!

Which, if you were to picture it, would make you laugh very hard if you know me at all.

Seriously, how does anyone ever stay in shape? Do they not KNOW about funnel cake?

Also this weekend I saw Away We Go, and at one point Jim makes Maya promise that she will love their daughter whether she is fat or skinny or short or tall or anything else so long as she is happy, and at that point I wondered whether it is awful of me to hope my children are skinny. But if they are I will probably just be jealous and feed them pies.