Sunday, March 30, 2008

Last Weekend

was a quite a story. Thursday, March 20, to Wednesday, March 26.

It involved:
  • the birthday of Reija!
  • grading 28 3000-word term papers
  • some sleep
  • a rock-paper-scissors tournament (best two of three) that I lost, alas
  • making and helping to decorate approx. 60 cupcakes and 60 miniature cupcakes
  • Melville's hosting of a one-hour cupcake/birthday party for Reija, with lovely guests and tulip-ed/tiered cupcake display
  • missing the Friday midnight deadline for my journal work
  • some sleep
  • a Saturday (early) morning temple session with roommates
  • a breakfast at Southern Kitchen with roommates, at which we all ordered biscuits and gravy and the original hot chocolate with sprinkles (among other things)
  • getting an extension on my journal work (blessed ABCW)
  • a lovely trip to the park
  • realizing that our friends hiking in Yosemite were going to be late to visit us
  • beginning to copyedit and bluebook four journal articles (approximately 200 pages of legal academic text)
  • temporarily "stealing" three folding tables and sixteen folding chairs from the institute (thank you, thank you, BC and JS)
  • realizing that our friends hiking/backpacking in Yosemite still hadn't contacted us and were going to be really late visiting us
  • calling the park rangers at Yosemite
  • a late-night Saturday trip to Safeway, in which, as expected, I saw other Mormons (in this case, three)
  • some sleep
  • Easter!
  • the birthday of Michelle!
  • a lovely birthday morning for Michelle
  • calling the mothers of our friends missing in Yosemite
  • teaching Relief Society about fruit (fruit in the scriptures/fruits of the gospel/Christ as "firstfruits") with the help of Ashli, our resident sage/arborist
  • exchanging phone calls with the park rangers at Yosemite, as they found our friends' car and began to make flyers and search plans
  • making 10 lbs of mashed potatoes, 16 cups of apple juice-rosemary-cream chicken gravy, 12 lbs of chicken, one pan of roasted garlic cauliflower
  • finally hearing from the missing friends (no longer missing!), who'd gotten lost in the ice and snow and who'd fallen down an icy mountain but were, in all long-term ways, fine
  • overseeing the making of 5 lbs of sweet potatoes, fruit trays, tomato wedges, 2 lbs of asparagus
  • eating the most unbelievable oatmeal-date scones
  • eating such beautiful torte-type desserts and pear-ginger pie
  • chatting with such delightful people
  • 100% avoiding doing the dishes (thanks, JW and BC and KT)
  • a trip to Emeryville to rescue a returned (and tired) hiker
  • a late-night tour of campus and Palm Drive
  • some sleep
  • a breakfast of more scones, bananas, English muffins
  • the beautiful half-shade of a Palo Alto morning
  • a rock-paper-scissors tournament (best two of three in best three out of five) that I totally won
  • lunch for four from Pluto's
  • a lovely, perfect trip to the park
  • some experimental explorations with Woody, a plastic figurine with a parachute
  • a night tour of campus
  • a failed trip to The Counter
  • a typically marginally successful trip to Wahoo's
  • a typically mad rush to the airport
  • eating in a booth (man, I love booths)
  • some wrong turns back to the parking lot
  • a midnight return to Melville
  • missing even the extended deadline for my journal work
  • some sleep
  • a 4:30 am wake-up to finish my journal bluebooking and copyediting
  • the grading of 156 finals (well, only two questions of the final)
  • the giving of 28 final grades
  • meeting my noon grading deadline (thank goodness)
  • more trying to finish my journal bluebooking and copyediting
  • a lunch of leftovers (such great leftovers)
  • more trying to finish my journal bluebooking and copyediting
  • a dinner of leftovers (SUCH great leftovers)
  • super fast and wild packing
  • a late-night trip to the airport (ah, RM and JW--thank you)
  • some practice flirting with the ticket agent, who told me he would "work [his] magic" to get me out of a middle seat
  • unexpectedly landing in an empty row on a 100% full plane (note: practice flirting may have paid off)
  • finishing my journal bluebooking and copyediting at 1 am, PDT, approximately 30,000 feet over the earth
  • stretching out on my empty row and, with coat as cover, getting some sleep
  • an early am arrival in NY
  • hugging my cute and late-to-school family
  • an early am uploading of my journal bluebooking and copyediting (finally, finally, unbelievably done!) (ish)
  • and then, Wednesday morning, finally, some recuperative, happy, post-end-of-quarter sleep in my sister Rachel's soft and brightly colored bed.
It was--it was a great weekend. Such a great weekend. Also--no, that's it. Just a great, great weekend.

1 comment:

Levi Smylie said...

SLO--the plane wasn't 100% full if you had empty seats next to you. And I LOVED seeing you yesterday. Looking forward to everything...