Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts

One of our school groups is having a toiletries drive for a local homeless shelter and my students were in charge of bringing shampoo and conditioner. They decided it was too much trouble to bring the supplies themselves and just collected money for me to do it. I have no problem at all doing it, especially since I have to stop off at the store for something during the week anyway, but I just found the whole things amusing.

Sawyer and I are going to Yosemite next week for three nights, as we always do during spring break, but the weather has been really unpredictable. I’ve been watching the forecast like a hawk and changed our reservations but a few days, but then back to the original ones. All of this changing ended up in some huge changes price wise, which I really debated about paying, but since this might be our last trip out of the area for awhile I decided to just do it. On a whim last night I decided to write their customer service department, explain the issues and they kindly reverted all the charges back to the original ones, saving me a few hundred dollars. It was a good lesson- sometimes you just need to very nicely ask. The Tenaya Lodge is fantastic if anyone ever visits the area.

Sawyer has a performance at his school on Friday and has been practicing the songs for weeks and weeks. He is so excited and his classroom looks amazing, yet I am terrified that my little mischievous social butterfly will go rogue and, like start moshing with his friends to “In the Jungle.” I’ve already planted the seed of ice cream afterwards if it all goes well, so hopefully my subtle bribing (which will probably become less subtle as we get closer) will work.

I’m reading Zadie Smith’s Swing Time right now and it’s so different from everything else I’ve read by her. It’s just so… accessible. She’s usually an author I really have to concentrate on, but not this novel. I don’t dislike it, but it’s just such a departure from On Beauty and other essays I’ve read by her.

I tend to listen to more audiobooks than Podcasts, but I’m waiting on my Audible Credit right now (I need to go get a library card so that I can actually just use the library for more audiobooks…), so I finished listening to the Elizabeth Holmes one, The Drop Out (crazy!) and have been listening to the episode of The Armchair Expert with Gwyneth Paltrow. I know people love to hate her, but she’s really intelligent, articulate, and she’s said a lot about things like control, fear, and parenting that have really resonated with me. Sorrynotsorry.

Long ranty story short, I have paid on my federal student loans for twelve years without ever missing a payment, but because of how I consolidated I will not be eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. I have no issues with loans or taking them out; I borrowed responsibly, I knew this was part of the process, and I have about 25% of the original balance left. I’m upset by how ridiculous the government is being and how loans that would be eligible under one condition aren’t in a slightly different one.

Over the weekend Sawyer and I went to UCLA to see their last home gymnastics meet of the season and it was EPIC (and I’m not one to overuse that word). There were two girls who received scored of ten on floor exercise, including their viral sensation Kayla Ohashi. The head coach, “Miss Val,” was also celebrating her last home meet as she prepares to retire, so there was a huge celebration in her honor, complete with a dance routine performed by dozens of alumni gymnasts from the school. It was amazing, and, even better, only $12 per ticket! Afterwards we walked into Westwood so I could relive my glory days, getting cheap pizza from Lamonico’s and cookies from Diddy Riese. I can’t wait to go back next year!