final sessions and old friends (wait. who's calling who old?!)

i am a light sleeper-not bragging...it's just a fact. that said, i did not sleep well tuesday night...but then i usually toss and turn anyway, trying to adjust to a comfortable position (back issues), this was no exception. breakfast came early. i made my way to the hotel 'restaurant' (using the term loosely), and partook of the eggs, potatoes and baby waffles...the main course: coffee. always coffee.

again, alicia led the trek to the campus garage, and we found the building that we would start in with the preliminary meeting of the minds. basically just getting together to debrief...prebrief...chit-chat about how to tackle the day. joyce and i went to find our classroom-easy, it was about 20 paces north. prime real-estate, we were two lefts from the women's bathroom, and one left from the diet dr. pepper machine...like i said: location, location, location. if it were a musical, i'd have been singing this line: "i could not ask for more"-thank you, edwin mccain (skip the love lyrics, and just keep that line)... each room we were stationed in had a different audio/visual presentation set-up...and they were progressively getting more...rudimentary as we went. not complaining...this was good for me. technical issues will always be THE issue-so might as well get as much experience as possible, right?

the first session went off without a hitch, and then we proceeded to our next building, the last session. we polled the audience and 98% were bilingual teachers! my kind of people...joyce dominated with our fearless facilitator (whom we affectionately dubbed melissa) answered all of the district-level questions, of which there were many. what i loved was that in each session, there had been teachers who had piloted the program, and they were able to speak into that a little, with a bit of tweaking about how they would be moving forward with the roll-out this year that would make their lives even easier. i'm sure they will appreciate the automaticity of the monthly ISIP.

and so we ended our last session in a timely manner, and we were thinking we were the first ones finished..not that it's a race, or anything, but nooooo...we got to the parking garage, and julie and randi had beat us (but it's not a race...unless we'd gotten there first). once everyone was there, we bid our farewells to jami and got a quick group pic before going back to the hotel.

the group went to maggiano's that night for dinner, but i was going to be meeting with one of my former college friends (not a former friend..still a friend...formerly in college-you get it). so once everyone took off, i had about an hour and a half to kill, so i took off to explore the neighborhood. as i was making my way up zuni, i felt like someone was following me. no worries, just a girl with a yoga mat. not a threat. it really was a neat neighborhood-older buildings, being revitalized, lots of restoration happening.

neighborhood art-i'd just had this conversation with a friend the other day about loving to see graffiti in different neighborhoods!

i should've gone to see if there was a historical marker or not...beautiful church!

when stacey arrived, we didn't even have to go very far to find the cute little highland area to eat. parking...there were some interesting parking signs with very interesting instructions. i'm sure the city thought they were explicit and clear, but when we pulled over and it took 5 minutes to read the sign, and 2 additional minutes to decipher it...we realized that we indeed could not park there, because it was not a monday through thursday before 5 p.m, even though it was not the third thursday of the month, had it been a saturday or sunday, we MAY have been able to park there...but alas, 'twas not. so on with our search. we decided on one of the first places we saw: three dogs tavern. it looked like a good bet (something to tell the boys about when i got home). great burgers and sweet potato fries (every time..i'm a sucker for the sweet potato fries).

this one!

i could handle meeting up with friends more often!

we had a great time catching up and playing the live trivia game-which neither of us wanted to win, because we truly did not want the prize. after dinner, we checked out that neighborhood-hoppin' even for a wednesday night. very dog-friendly, there were water-dishes everywhere; stacey may or may not have practically stepped in one (dangerous things, they are)! but it gave a good reason to sit on one of the benches, and she got to share a track she's been working on. stacey does open mic nights around town-very talented vocalist and guitarist. took us back to college days when we took a road trip to nashville to visit my brother and we got to record a song she'd written in the studio he worked at on campus. fabulous trip, fabulous memories! oh, nostalgia. how i've missed this one-we were known for our crazy antics.

when i arrived back at the suite, my roomie was already in bed--we really didn't get much quality bonding time, but i'm sure there will be other opportunities. i went upstairs and packed it all up, so that come morning i'd be ready to go. another restless night...some heavy sleepers sleep much more heavily, and hence have a heavy breathing pattern, so i ended up playing my classical music (yo yo ma cello), but still from 12:30 on, i woke up hourly, so finally 5:30 was upon us, and i gave in, took a shower and went to breakfast. upon my return to the suite, my roommate had left for the airport leaving a sweet note-i was sad to have missed her, sabrina and julie because i didn't get to say goodbye; i'd bid joyce and alicia farewell the evening before, knowing we wouldn't see each other in the morning.

final unexplained activity: back to brian's room. strangely when he returned to his room, the murphy bed was down...i suppose it could have been let down by the house-keeper, but why? i mean who would leave evidence of sleeping on the job? (apart from someone who was being paid for sleeping/dream studies...)

fortunately when we got to the airport, the security (please join me in saying it like bon qui qui and if you're not familiar, you MUST watch the entire video-find it!) nothing too exciting on the flight-apart from the fact that it was delayed by a lot, due to the southwest issues the day before. so when i got back, i went to pick the boys up from joanne's-they said they had a great time, and i got a great report on them, as well. they got to meet all of the principals from her feeder pattern, and they were on their best behavior. smile. when we got back to the apt, i felt like a freaking sherpa carrying all of my travel crap and the boys' necessities up to the third floor. #mymounteverest i swear, they have more travel needs than a baby...just different.

home will always feel good!
julie