Turns out that cold I had been fighting since late September was in fact pneumonia so the break is a bit foggy. Details are limited but here is what I got:
We went to Nevada City for a mountain bike race.
We had a few nights in Dunsmuir where the kids and I took down the wallpaper in the back bedroom, they swept up the leaves and Martin took the kids on a few bike rides and hikes.
Friday was German Reunification Day so the kids had the day off of school. With Martin supposed to be gone I had planned a trip to Monterey. And even though Martin turned out to be home, he opted to take advantage of the empty house for two days and decided to not join us.
Although only 2 hours away for only two nights, it was an adventure. I picked the kids up from school and got to experience the daily hustle that Martin experiences weekly: getting the kids from their school in the Castro to Oskar’s soccer practice in West Sunset at 4:15, then Alva’s gymnastics practice 10 minutes away at 4:30, then back to soccer after gymnastics ended at 5:25 before everyone was picked up at 5:30.
From the daily hustle, we started the drive south with a pit stop for snacks at CVS, In n Out for dinner and gas for the drive. This was followed shortly with another pit stop just south of Santa Cruz for Oskar to poop (like clockwork) and add more oil to the car (which I turned into a teaching moment). We didn’t get to the hotel in Monterey until 9pm, and before they saw anything, the comments began that they liked Monterey.
Friday morning we enjoyed the standard breakfast buffet and juice bar and then made our way over to the aquarium. I am not sure they learned anything but I think they had fun. And after four hours Alva was done so we called it a day and headed back to the hotel.
With all of us still not feeling 100% (the house had been struggling with colds since the beginning of school) we spent a few quiet moments on the bed reading and drawing followed by some hot tubbing and pool time.
The day wrapped up with s’mores at the hotel fire pit, lawn games and finally pizza on the bed watching our family’s favorite movie Around the World in 80 Days.
Saturday morning we had a few final snuggles in bed before driving home for Oskar’s soccer game.
Weekend dad, divorcee dad and now Disneyland Dad. I have been called them all and I have embraced my status as the parent who typically doesn’t “show up” until the weekend and, when left alone, all rules are out the window. I am not sure if it is because of my tendency to go crazy that Martin doesn’t feel comfortable leaving for long periods of time or the fact that he doesn’t normally leave for long periods that I go a little crazy, either way it doesn’t really matter.
Martin was going to Norway for 10 days so we were going to go crazy. He was going to leave on Friday morning (September 26), the kids had the following Friday off (October 3) and the only thing other than school that we had to do was a soccer match on Saturday (October 4) that Martin would aim to join after his flight landed. This meant I had potentially two weekends to plan some fun.
I crowdsourced my colleagues and leveraged ChatGPT for suggestions and landed on Monterey Bay Aquarium for the second weekend (it would make for an easier drive to the soccer game on Saturday) and I was trying to figure out what to do for the first weekend. And I hate to admit it, but Disneyland was top of the list… we could fly down Friday night or Saturday morning, have a full day in the park and be home Sunday midday to prep for the week ahead. It sounded feasible and somewhat “affordable”.
I didn’t want to plan too far in advance, so this was going to be a last minute decision. Little do the kids know, but a comment they made on Wednesday before Martin left changed everything. We were talking about Disneyland and the Incredicoaster. Alva was super excited since, with shoes, she was now tall enough to ride the roller coaster (hence my idea to take them to Disneyland). She was even more excited to take her first ride with Martin and specifically said so over breakfast.
With her wishes stated, I couldn’t in good faith take them to Disneyland without Martin. Thankfully I hadn’t booked anything. And in a twist of fate that made me grateful for waiting until the weekend to announce my plans, Martin ended up having to cancel his Norway trip… it would have been a very bad look if Martin cancelled and we turned around and left him for a weekend at Disneyland.
Apparently my last post was a bit depressing and alarming for those that have been here for awhile. Let me be clear, I am still carefree and still like to participate in my fair share of shenanigans. So while I won’t be to the levels I was in my 20s or even 30s (which is probably a good thing), I still know how to have fun.
For example, Redwood City hosts an Oktoberfest every year and I have made it a point to host a finance happy hour at the event each year. After a year of building up my professional reputation, this year I felt I could cut loose a little more... I danced the chicken dance in front of my team and came in second place (out of 12) for the beer stein holding competition.
But even more telling, I enjoyed a very hard and long laugh when my Assistant Controller Angie snuck the following two pictures into my 40 plus person All Hands meeting that I hosted the morning after the party. The chicken hat was purchased courtesy of Angie and my SOX director Nancy.
