Happy birthday Matthew

Nathaniel (who was my special buddy two years ago) is talking to me finally! He was shy for the first two days but I broke out the big guns today with a glow-in-the-dark shark puzzle and the next thing I knew, I was the bedtime story reader of choice (he chose me over Shannon) and three stories later, we were still going strong talking about Star Wars figures.

Matthew also turned three today. He is super cute. He talks now - a change from two years ago. His favorite present was a Cars 2 LEGO set. He was sooo excited.

Hannah and I did part of our piano practice together today so we could quiz each other on the skill spots the Japanese teachers assigned yesterday. It was much more fun than practicing by myself. We even played the K.545 a few times in extra high and low octaves so we could play on the same piano at the same time. The standard piano keyboard isn't quite big enough to fit all the notes, but we had a blast anyway.

First rehearsal, walks, sports and rattlesnakes

Hannah, Lindsay, Shannon and I took a morning walk beginning about 7 A.M., in which we enjoyed watching for bunnies on the side of the trail and telling stories. Hannah did most of the talking. ;) Shannon showed us a rocky place where Lindsay almost stepped on a rattlesnake, Hannah told us about her "wonderful" dream last night and then shared her own snake stories, and I (not to be outdone) described the scare one of the moms from Graig's orchestra had recently with grapes and a black widow spider.

After breakfast, Hannah and I prepared for our first 10 piano rehearsal around lunchtime today. I thought the group practice went pretty well and even enjoyed it. The teacher assigned to my piano only had to correct me about a hundred times, and there was only one time when I was the only one to make a mistake. Hannah, on the other hand, said the practice was worse than she thought it would be (she was a little nervous going in). As piano 10, she's apparently responsible for keeping the rest of us in tempo. I told her they picked a good person for the job; she just shrugged. It doesn't help that it hurts her to play piano because of a painful cyst on her wrist (rhyme unintended), which is why she wears a black wrist brace most of the time (whenever she's not playing piano).

The afternoon and evening ended with a big water fight complete with water balloons, sand volleyball and tennis. I'm pretty worn out.

Drapers!

There was a moment in the plane above the world when I had misgivings about traveling to California. It's been nice being home. Then I considered the difficulty of going back after going to all this trouble to get to Cali and thought of the Drapers, and the moment passed.

Incredibly, my bag was the first one off the plane, I met the entire Draper family (minus Scott but plus Hannah) without mishap outside the baggage claim, and we've already picked up where we left off two years ago. I love my "real" family, but El Dorado Hills is definitely my second home.

Playing Slap Jack

(Hannah, Tyler, Lindsay)

Lindsay waiting for her turn in Around the World

Hannah celebrates after swishing a basket

Playing Ninja

The airport/ air travel experience

5:21 A.M. --SALT LAKE CITY AIRPORT--

Things I have learned already:

1. When traveling with a laptop, you are supposed to take it out of your bag and put it in a tray with the rest of your miscellaneous items
2. 3:30 A.M. is REALLY early

6:25 A.M. --TAKEOFF AND FLIGHT--

We headed down the runway slow, maybe 30 MPH, and for a moment I wondered why we weren’t going faster. Then we made a wide turn onto the real runway and accelerated steadily until we were past freeway speed.

You can feel the moment the wheels leave the ground. It’s like an invisible hand pressing on your head, pushing you into your seat. You sit back and watch as the buildings below grow smaller until they’re nearly out of sight – when you’ve reached flying altitude.

Then you get to amuse yourself – by reading a book, or looking out the window like I am now. You marvel that something as big and cumbersome as this plane can be so light in the air. You’re sitting there, marveling at it all, when a flight attendant stops by your row and asks politely,

“Would you like something to drink?”

I guess only first-time fliers like me are so intensely interested in staring out at the clouds and sky, watching the sun come into place, suddenly, in the east behind the tail, enjoying this new perspective above mountains. Above the horizon.

Oh yes, I’m enjoying this view.

CALIFORNIA OR BUST!

I'm so excited! Draper family (and Hannah), here I come!

The wallet-purse

Mom had a Look on her face when she picked me up at the bus stop after work yesterday. It wasn't guilt, exactly, but I knew something was up. I'd seen that expression before.

"I bought you something," she said as I got into the car. Immediately I thought of a conversation we'd had the evening before in which she criticized the size of my wallet bulging in the pocket of my shorts.

"Is it a new wallet?"

"No." She concentrated hard on the road. I sensed I'd hit close to the mark.

"It's not a purse, is it?" I watched her carefully. I will not lower myself to carrying around a purse. It's so much more practical (and fun) to cram things into your pockets and criticize the near-useless "girl pockets" that are so much smaller (and shallower) than the pockets of guys' pants.

"Nope." She grinned. I had a distressing thought.

"Did you get me a fanny pack?"

Now she laughed. "Hmm. I didn't think about that."

I laughed too, but inside I was relieved. A fanny pack would be more annoying than a purse - maybe even more humbling (read: humiliating).

When we got home, she showed me what she had bought. A small bag, sort of like a camera case in appearance, basically a purse but with too many little nooks and crannies for me to resist. As soon as I'd cleaned out my wallet into the little bag, Mom picked up my wallet, said in a solemn voice, "You have served Jessica well," and threw it away.

I christened my new Thing a wallet-purse, because you have to carry it around like a purse but it's too small to warrant full purse status.

I still carry my phone in my pants pocket. Mostly.

It still hasn't quite sunk in

My friend since third grade got married yesterday, only 19. Her new husband looks even younger in real life. Kiera, Dad and I were still having a hard time believing Summer is married even after we went through the line at her reception and gave her a big hug. She looked really pretty. He just looked really young (would you have believed he's 21?). At least they both looked happy.