Where did July go?

Tim and I went on a date to the California State Fair! Riding the ferris wheel brought back such tender memories of when he proposed to me on the ferris wheel at the San Diego county fair four years ago! 

 I truly can’t believe it is almost August! Exciting things are happening in August like my 27^th birthday and the start of my law school career. August also means that summer (what semblance of a summer we had) is over and it is time to, as my dear friend Ed Pogue says, hunker down. Gone are the relaxing summer days of unpacking boxes. Gone are the evenings refurbishing furniture in the 100 degree central valley heat. Gone are the afternoons spent reading insurance policies, calling banks, changing addresses and finagling other first world necessities. Ahh, how I will miss those summer days…..Okay, yeah, so our summer wasn’t exactly traditionally relaxing. But we did get a lot done in a little amount of time!

We are moved in, almost completely, to our new house. Tim has completed two weeks of teacher orientation and professional development at his new school. Today was the first day that the students arrived! His school starts very early for high school (that’s part of their no nonsense, inner city charter) and so he was thrown right into teaching again! I am so amazed by all the work he has done in the last month. In the span of four weeks, he applied to over 15 jobs, got interviewed at one, was hired, went through orientation, taught himself the California standards for teaching 10^th grade English (which had changed over the last two years), planned for his first few weeks of school, cleaned and set up his classroom, and started teaching! He is resilient, strong, courageous and wonderful! I am SO proud of him!

I think it is good to a certain extent that he will be so busy at this demanding school since I will have my hands full learning how to be a law student! We will both be working hard in our parallel lives and I think that together we will help each other find balance and stay strong without burning out.

I start my school orientation next week and I am excited and nervous. But mostly glad that I will be dusting off my academic brain and relearning how to be a student. I have homework already and today I read and briefed my first case. It took me 3.5 hours for two pages of reading and note-taking. The assignment is just to practice reading and briefing cases and it certainly takes more time and effort than reading silly novels, like Harry Potter, which I was all the reading I did in the last two years! I know that with practice I will get faster at this but I am starting to see that I will have my work cut out for me, especially at first!

In the meantime, I am enjoying the last week of freedom by visiting and reconnecting with my dad’s side of the family; specifically my cousins (well second cousins) who are conveniently close by in Modesto and San Francisco! I never had the chance to spend much time with them growing up so we aren’t very close but we do stay in touch over the interweb. In Guyana I learned to place a higher value on family and connectedness and so I am making it a priority and am truly looking forward to getting to know them better, meeting their children, and being more involved in each other’s lives! I can’t state enough how happy I am to be closer to my family! 

Here’s to the last days of summer! 

My desk (where I will be spending a lot of time in the future!). The office is finally set up and feels very good!  

The built-in is one of my favorite things in the house.  I am enjoying decorating it with art, bowls and pretty things I like.

I took a walk downtown on Sunday while Tim was getting a haircut and look where I ended up! The Governor's Mansion! It is hard to believe that this is where I live now!

On the same walk, basically just around the corner I found myself at the Capitol building! Sacramento is hot in the summer, but it sure is the center of things in California. I forget that sometimes!