A Commoner Causes An Earthquake and A Hurricane

Don’t laugh.  The day this commoner goes to the mall and doesn’t buy anything is the action that put into motion a 5.9 earthquake in Virginia and a hurricane that tour up the east coast and vacated New York City.   This commoner has a shopping problem-remember the capris?  It had been a long time since I’d been to a mall and I had a lot to do. 

First of all I worked summer school to buy a Mac Book-and I was ready, so I wanted to go to the Apple Store and play with its wilderness and ask questions.  If I liked it my son Joe who works for Apple is going to get me a discount.  And don’t ask him any questions about the I phone 5-he gets really jittery and tells you he doesn’t know anything.  I think Steve Jobs owns his soul because he was lying and I knew it.

So we sauntered into the heaven that is the Apple Store and I bee lined for the glorious Mac Books.  But they can smell a window shopping commoner a mile away and not one-not a single one of those blue shirt wearing apple guys comes my way.  Well I’m a go getter and I march over and ask for help.  I asked a million questions-basked in the apple glory-and then walked away-because I get a family discount and now I know what I want.  First stop zero purchase.

Next, on to Macys.  I love Macys so much that my retirement plan is to work at Macys.  I love everything about it.  I love it because its form NY and the parade and the Santa are something I grew up with my whole life.  Its home.  And we have a great one in San Jose-the second best in the country.  But I’m in Monterey.

That’s okay-I love Style and Company-Macy’s own brand where prices are cheap and style is high.  I’m shopping with Rob-he’s a good sport and never tells me not to buy anything.  Plus I’m in full ammo for this –a $50 dollar gift card and a 20% off coupon.  I’m ready and I haven’t been to a Macys in MONTHS.  I march around the upstairs-looking and searching and finally found my section. It was small, it was feeble, it had only garish, flowery, and clothes that looked like tents.  I try some stuff on and I love nothing.  So I buy nothing.  

That was it! A trip to PF Changs to cash in a gift card from last June that this trip to the mall netted in a total expense of $25.  

I hope this doesn’t convict me to the world of reformed shoppers.  But just a few days later there was a 5.9 earthquake on the east coast followed by a devastating hurricane…..I’m just saying-never underestimate the power of a commoner.

A Commoner’s Guide to the Oakland A’s

 

I was so excited to get my third invitation to join my friend Efrain and his 77 friends and family members for their annual A’s Game at the Oakland Coliseum.   Every commoner loves baseball!

We arrived in Oakland at 1:30 for a 6:00 p.m. baseball game, because in addition to baseball, commoners love to tailgate!   It was easy to find the group.  First of all, we got there four and a half hours before the game started, so the parking lot was pretty much empty.  Also, as Efrain said,  “it’s a big, loud group of Mexicans, you can’t miss us!!”  And he’s right.  As soon as we pulled up to the easy ups marking our space, our good friend Efrain, and a friend of his who I’ve never met, came over to meet us.  She had apparently enjoyed some shrimp right before we got there.  Unfortunately, she’s allergic to shrimp and was having a reaction.  You know, one of those scary reactions where you get hives and your throat closes up and you can’t breathe?  Yep, that kind.  Luckily Chevron was having a pre-game event and had an ambulance on stand-by.  Although Efrain suggested she just,  “have a drink and relax”, we decided to rush her to the waiting ambulance where they immediately gave her an injection of Benadryl and took her off to the hospital.  “Should I go with her?” asked Efrain tentatively, hoping we’d say no.  After all, commoners are loyal to each other BUT he’d been drinking and we DID have a baseball game that evening.  We quickly said that of course he didn’t have to go, and sadly shook our heads as the ambulance roared off.

 

Back at the tailgating site, we enjoyed many drinks, loud music and tons of laughs.  George bbqd some great tri-tip.  Man, was it good!!  We had tri-tip, bread, coleslaw, salsa, salad, vegan mac and cheese and so much more.  It was wonderful.  While we were eating, I kept scanning the horizon for Sue.  You remember Sue, right?  She’s the friend who introduced me to the Stanford Theatre.  She loves baseball,  and also brought some yummy cookies, decorated in honor of  the A’s with yellow and green M & M’s.  Anyway, so I’m scanning the horizon for Sue because she decided to take BART (the train) over from the San Francisco area and meet us at the arena.  I’m guessing it’s cheaper than parking AND she can enjoy an adult beverage if she wants to.  Why doesn’t Sue just call or text me so we can meet up, you ask?  Well, she is phone-less.  No, she didn’t LOSE her cell phone, she doesn’t have one, YET.  I should mention, we live very near to Silicon Valley, technology central!   And still no cell phone.  After years of heckling and reasoning with her,  I think we’ve convinced her it may be a good item to purchase.  In fact, Sue found us and arrived intact, with about 2 dozen delicious cookies, which lasted just until the kids found them;  about 7 seconds.   I knew I should have hid them in my pockets!

 

So the game began at 6:00.  As usual we weren’t in our seats when the National Anthem was sung because I needed to stop for a margarita, which came with a cool shaker…all commoners like free stuff.   We also made a pit stop at the bathrooms;  those port-a-potties in the parking lot were pretty raunchy.  And also because Heather needed to explain to some salad holding strangers behind us at the margarita stand, what a vegan is.  She is a proud Vegan and is happy to try to convert you!

The game was a humdinger.  The A’s, who struggle most years, actually won!!  They beat the Blue Jays, well, I think it was the Blue Jays, 5 to 1.  Although Efrain loves his family he isn’t much of a baseball fan.  He stood most of the time and heckled the ump or cheered on the pitcher.  At first the lady behind us LOVED us and actually wanted to be an honorary member of Efrain’s family.  “You guys are soooo much fun!”   She even tried to set Efrain up with a GOOD person.  Don’t you want someone nice to come home to, she asked??   She told him of a bar near his job that would be just perfect for him to visit after work.  However, she changed her tune a bit when Efrain decided he preferred to stand than to sit!  

 

Somewhere in the middle of the game, probably the 5^th inning or so, we noticed a “rumble” happening to our right.  But wait!  We have 77 people in our party.  Could it be someone we know?  Security is being called, beers are being spilled in anger and oh my, that lady is SCREAMING at the man behind her.  Hmmm, I think to myself.  I’m pretty sure that screaming lady is the same lady who made the salad for our tailgating party.  OH BOY…FIGHT!!! And just like that, 77 people are on their feet.   Now, if you haven’t heard about Oakland, let me just say I recently saw an episode of GANGLAND which was filmed there, and it does not look like Mainstreet America.  It’s a little scary, especially for this commoner.  So, the 8 security guards and two Oakland Police Officers rushed over to put a stop to the screaming.  They basically said they weren’t choosing sides but to SIT DOWN and STOP.  Then they left and almost everyone sat.

 

Aye aye aye.  It wasn’t 20 minutes later when they came screeching back down the aisles, yep aisles, plural, on both sides of our seats, and told one guy he had to go.  Apparently they’d been watching from above and had picked out the instigator and hauled him off.  Hmmm, not sure where that punk went, but adios.  I have a game to watch here people! 

The game went along nicely.  Joe-Joe, a 13 year old in our group who was sitting 2 rows in front of me ended up with a foul ball.  We all congratulated him on his luck.  After the game when I got the story he said he didn’t even know what hit him… literally!  Apparently he was sitting there eating some super delicious nachos (I can’t believe he didn’t fill up on tri-tip and Sue’s cookies) when something hard slammed into his leg.  He was rather stunned and starting rubbing his sore leg when people began leaping towards him.  He figured out that it was a foul ball just in time to snag it from under the empty seat next to him.  WOOWOO He picked it up, held it up high and smiled this big huge smile.  Hope he put some ice on that leg!

 

Just about that time, security headed to our seats again.  I’m not certain, but I’m pretty sure they are rolling their eyes.  There’s an empty seat from where that punk who was hauled off was sitting, so one security dude with a mullet sat there to keep an eye on us, uh I mean them.  Luckily, we had no other incidents.  In fact the game ended with fans, including Efrain and myself, dancing  to “Celebrate Good Times, C’mon” or whatever it’s called.  About 5 minutes later, when there are no longer any players on the field, Efrain said, “Uh…did we win?”  I guess he thought it was just a dance break!!

 

Well we lucked out.  For $20 we not only got to sit in row 17 and enjoy a fantastic game, it was fireworks night!!  All of us fans were invited onto the outfield to sit and enjoy a fireworks extravaganza.  Wow!  This was as good as any fireworks show I’ve ever seen, not at all common.  And, hey!  We were sitting on the luxuriously soft outfield at the A’s Coliseum.  What a great night.  The fireworks were shot off to a medley of Elvis tunes:  “Jailhouse Rock”, “Blue Suede Shoes” and,  “Don’t be Cruel”, just to name a few.    You could hear the commoners oohing and awing at the colorful fireworks!  How cool!!

 

Then the lights came back on and we headed back to our tailgating.  Nope, not to go home, but to continue our party while the crowd cleared out.  As one of Efrain’s brothers said, “Don’t leave now!  We’re just getting ready to party it up!” and party it up we did.  We had music, dancing and oh boy more food!  No, no, no, not leftovers from lunch, that would be too common.  This time we had carne asada tacos with homemade salsa.  What a treat!   Unfortunately Efrain’s brother had to do the bbqing this time.  Can you believe our friend George, who bbq’d the tri-tips at lunch, was the PUNK who got hauled out of the game by the Oakland Cops.  I guess I better pay closer attention next time.

It was cold and we had a long drive ahead of us.  I was trying to coax my 2 friends into the car so we could leave.  They were having way too much fun partying it up with Efrain’s family.  However, then the motorcycle cop came over and said, “For your own safety I highly suggest you leave soon.  There’s a KMEL Jams concert ending shortly next door and I don’t want any of you to be victims.”  VICTIMS, I gulped!  This was my cue to hightail it out of Oakland and back to the safety of my hometown.   “C’mon girls, we’re outta here!!”

 

I love the A’s and never ever consider one of their games a common experience, especially not this one!  Can’t wait until our next outing in August 2012.  Go A’s!

Commoners Guide to the Stanford Theatre

If you’ve never visited Palo Alto, California you just have to!  It has a great mall, a pretty famous university, a world class hospital and the downtown is full of fabulous restaurants and shops. I counted 15 different ethnic restaurants in one block!  It’s great!  Oh, and there’s a world class, historical movie theatre there too!

I don’t know this for sure, but I think most of the people who live in Palo Alto are either students or professors at Stanford University, at least it seems that way.  For sure everyone here is super rich, and super smart, definitely NOT commoners in any way.

Recently my really good friend, Sue, who is the biggest movie buff I know and also really smart, suggested we go to the Stanford Theatre for the showing of two Buster Keaton silent films.  Silent films?  What do they DO in silent films I wonder.  Sounds pretty boring. 

Boy was I wrong.  We got to the theatre about 45 minutes before the first movie.  These films are so “great” they are only shown once.  This commoner is thinking “if it’s only being shown once it can’t be that great.”  So anyway, we get to the theatre with plenty of time to spare.  First of all, the theatre is the least expensive movie theatre I’ve visited all summer.  It was $7 to get in, and that was for an evening show!  I almost said, “No I’m not a senior or a student” but realized it was $7 for everyone!  I like that…usually I’m discriminated against because of my Commoner status…I’m not a student, child or old person so I get stuck paying full price.  Not here!  It was just $7.  I like this place already.

As we walk into the lobby you can’t help but look around in awe.  It’s a 2 story theatre, originally built in 1925, complete with upstairs seating.  Pretty rare in earthquake country!  There are old movie posters that must be 4 feet wide and 8 feet tall all over the place.  They’re hanging everywhere and I’m pretty sure they’re originals too, or at least that’s what I tell myself.  This commoner had fun checking them out!  Once I’d had my fill of old movie posters I sauntered over to the popcorn line with my $20 in hand.  Any movie theatre that charges just $7 to get in HAS to make their money in the concession stand, right?  Wrong again.  I got a HUGE tub of delicious popcorn (tasted like Grandma used to make) and a gigantic soda for $4.50.  Four fifty??  But I’m paying for the popcorn too, I thought to myself.  Then the nice lady handed me both of my treats and smiled.  I nearly passed out.  FOUR FIFTY?  I am totally coming back here.  Like most commoners, I love a good deal!

So we went into the theatre and sat in the 5^th row on the aisle.  Like I said, Sue is a total movie buff and has her favorite seat!  Luckily the one next to her usual seat was vacant!  So we spent the next hour or so catching up on her recent European vacation, and the end of my summer school.  It was great. 

Fifteen minutes after the show was supposed to start some guy comes out on stage and starts talking.  As my eyebrows raised, I can’t help but think how odd this is.  This would not happen in a COMMON movie theatre.  In fact, they discourage any talking at all in the movie theatres where commoners gather.  Then the strangest thing happened.  This man, the manager I think, announced that they hadn’t started the movie yet because the line snaked out the door and around the corner, and they anticipated a sell out crowd…and here’s the weirdest part…  the audience started clapping.   Not just obligatory…haha get off the stage type clapping…they were hooting and hollering because of the sold out crowd.  I guess they just love this theatre so much they are happy that others have found it too!  Or maybe it’s because the movie was late and they had extra time to read their newspapers.  I’m not 100% clear on that.

So while Sue visited the little girl’s room I took the extra time I had to look around the theatre and make up stories about the people sitting near me.  I do that sometimes.  There was one guy, we’ll call him Edward, sitting across the aisle from me and 2 rows back, who was there all alone.  I’m pretty sure he’s the president of either the university or some huge company like Ebay or maybe Edward runs NASA, which is just down the road too.  He was reading the Wall Street Journal.  Then there was Betty.  She was there with her daughter and 2 grand daughters.  She enjoyed introducing them to others in the crowd.  Pretty sure Betty is a widow living on the bazillions of dollars her deceased husband left her.  Maybe he was a wealthy land owner.  She was dressed to the nines including a jacket and skirt that looked like floral curtains, you know what I mean, and perfectly done up hair, which HAD to have been styled that day, or it was a wig.

 Just about the time I started making up a story about Lou, the guy wearing the white fedora, the man playing the organ showed up.  He was very happy to be there, wore a straw hat that was from the same time period as the Buster Keaton film, The Navigator, and had about 15 minutes of history about both the movie, and the Wurlitzer Organ.  Did you know this organ has 16 foot pipes?  That is pretty amazing if you think about it.  So after we learned about silent films, and some history on Buster Keaton films, he started playing the organ.  WOW!  It’s just like being at a commoners’ movie, only no screaming kids (no one in Palo Alto can afford small children) and no cell phones (who would deface this great old theatre by using a cell phone??)  I mean seriously… Bill Gates himself could have been here and even HE would have turned off his phone.  This was definitely not a common experience.  I loved it!

So as the movie began, people put their newspapers and cell phones away and we all enjoyed “The Navigator” and “The Cameraman”.    I will forever have fond memories of “Lou” guffawing during the slapstick comedy, like when there was an underwater sword fight with SWORDFISH and of Betty shushing her granddaughter who smiled up and said, “This is almost as funny as the last Buster Keaton movie we saw.”  The kid was like 7.  These are children of privilege…NOT commoners’ kids.

And like I said, it was beautiful historical building, with fun movies and the best prices all summer.  I hope you’ll visit this theatre next time you’re in the area…especially if you want an UNCOMMON experience.    www.stanfordtheatre.com

The Commoners Learn Calculus

Well I warned you that the commoners were going to a math workshop.  A one week long-bang your head against the wall because you are doing calculus –math workshop.  Now there are a lot of things about the workshop that are actually not bad.  You know I’m famous for my honesty-I say what you are thinking-so to be honest the best part is we are paid $1,000 dollars for the week.  Another good thing is that they feed you great breakfasts and great, outstanding lunches.  Finally the guy who runs this grant is hilarious-he’s a lot like Kristen and myself-but looks like Fred Flintstone-he’s also a revolutionary math genius and inspirational.

People love this guy and teachers all want to be the teacher’s pet (except us-we just wanted to survive the week without being called up to do a problem for the class-Holy Trinity alum does this sound familiar at all?)  People bought him food and cakes, jams and jellies, and someone even made him a quilt.  Would I lie?  I wouldn’t lie.

I was the one whining and complaining as usual because I didn’t want to go.  I had just finished 4 weeks of summer school and I don’t like calculus and really wasn’t all that sure that all this hocus pocus really made a difference.  I’m also the one in class anywhere who doesn’t always pay attention, talks too much, walks around the room getting coffee, and playing with my phone.  Yes –I’m that person.  And my attitude going in quite frankly sucked.  But I’m very competitive and couldn’t even consider having other third grade teachers get a leg up on me and then there was the 1000 dollars.  And truthfully?  I love the food.

Last year I made the mistake of sitting in the front of the room.  Now from my many years of catholic school I know this-you never sit in the front of the room.  But teachers actually like this and my friends chose to sit in the front of the room.  This caused Dr. Phil to be looking over my shoulder and seeing that just like in high school-I wasn’t actually doing the calculus problems.  So this year we sat in the middle by the door.  Where does Dr. Phil chose to address the room from?  Where you ask?  No not the front from a podium; no not the back where he could see everyone.  You guessed it –he stood right behind me right over my shoulder!

Dr. Phil not only stood over my shoulder-he stood over my shoulder and berated the whole group about general lack of effort and threats about coming in and taking over your classroom (please come take over my classroom master sir!).  It was horrible and did nothing to enhance my mood or general affection for what this week had in store.  Plus as everyone is looking at Dr. Phil they are really looking at me-because who wanted to make eye contact with a pissed off Fred Flintstone-no one.

Well then we were given our first assessment.  You take one on the first day and you take the same one on the last day.  You don’t put your name on it, just a 4 digit number of your choice.  I never pick my social security number because I figure they expect you to do that and can track you-I may not know calculus but I’m wise to the ways of the world.  Some of them are review and some of them are new-you’re supposed to get the reviewed ones right and then take a survey at the end.  Let me reiterate-they don’t know who you are.  So I breeze through not straining my brain too much-no problem for me.  Commoner Lesli is so caught up in every detail of every question and every survey question.  Lesli we tell her it doesn’t matter if you put down 10 or 15 hours of professional development-THEY DON”T KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!! But she’s the do gooder of us-it was all important.  So was getting every question correct and praising her math coach to everyone she saw.  We had to rein her in a few times-but she pulled herself out of that funk the next day.

This year I found myself not really doing any of the problems presented (except percentages-I can do percentages of any number in 5 seconds in my head because I love to shop).  I watched him work out the problems and kind of got them or not.  Rosa however not only worked out every problem she talked the whole time.  Sometimes about math sometimes about me -I know this because that is when she would talk Spanish to her friends-I would always say “Stop talking about me!” My grandparents would speak Italian when they were talking about me so therefore anyone who speaks another language in front of me is talking about me-right?  It’s good she took those notes though because we had a test at the end and I would have failed-or my code number would have…

So the week went on and the commoners sat through hour after hour of math.  It must have been Wednesday when we looked over only to notice that there was a woman at the table next to us who was sitting on a big red ball.  One of those balls you might use in the gym to tighten your abs.  Or one of those hoppers you may have had as a child.  And she bounced hour after hour day after day.  And when Dr. Phil would come over to our side to stand behind me-she would jump faster and faster.  We were all getting nauseous.  It was stupid.  See that- I said stupid.  Even our instructor was just a little tired of it; we caught him fake popping it!

Kristen became know to Dr. Phil as Damm Good Water.  He didn’t know her name and that’s what he called her by because last year she bought him a case of her brother’s water that he makes.  Well one day Damm Good Water bought us all produce from her own garden.  Beautiful summer squash for some of us and a huge, biggest I’ve ever seen zucchini for our friend Gabi.  We didn’t have to deal with Dr. Phil all day-all we had to do was wave the giant zucchini around and he shot out into the other direction toward the bouncing ball.  I have no idea why-maybe an allergy to zucchini?  Not sure.

My favorite aspect is the terminology.  I swear this guy makes up these words.  Decomposition is the practice of breaking down numbers so that you can eliminate them from equations.  I think of it as dead bodies rotting.  We spent a day working on mitigation.  Mitigation is the practice of taking an assessment and taking each wrong answer and explaining or showing an example of why the student made the mistake.  Mitigation sounds like what to you-does it sound like litigation?  Math is hard enough-I don’t need to feel like my body is rotting or I’m being sued-it doesn’t help me.

Last year I spent the whole week trying to learn proper syntax. Syntax is how your problem should look and it doesn’t look like the way the nuns taught me in school.  This was hard for me because I could hear the nuns yelling at me for putting my equal signs in the wrong place.  I’m getting better really at the fact that  there are many ways to do one math problem .  It’s all progress. 

But we got through the week and we really did great.  I gained 4 pounds.  Damm Good Water got a lot of publicity for her brothers and Rosa is ready to teach fifth grade.  I love the new math.  Let’s get at the new year and raise those test scores!  Zucchini any one? Bouncing balls?

The Commoners Teach Summer School

3 of the 4 regular commoners-will pretty much do anything (within reason of course) for a buck.  We're commoners and we need the money.  This includes miscellaneous workshops, classes, after school tutoring, and gasp -working summer school.  Summer school.  We worked it for many different reasons.  One of my main reasons was to keep from watching 18 hours a day of Reality TV. 

Now I'm not going to bore you with day to day stories of what went on in summer school.  Sweet stories about children learning and enhancing their academic careers.  No way.  I'm going to tell you about the things that happened to us while we spent exactly (no more-no less) than 4 and 1/2 hours a day in school.  The rest of our lives which were wound around that time frame.

For one month-the entire month of July actually-we trudged to work-enjoyed the lunch room-had fun Fridays-went out to lunch and returned home.  It wasn’t bad really-it was well run, the kids were easy, and the people we worked with were so much fun.  Every one of them.  Why can’t the regular school year be this great?  It can’t –that’s why.  And while we all did this; summer went on-and so did our escapades.

There were many common themes this summer amongst most of the commoners.  One of them was camping.  I’ve lost track of how many people were going camping.  Camping is something I really don’t understand and have never done.  It’s probably connected to one of my many phobias or my general dislike of nature. But people seem to really like to camp.  

Both Kristen and Rosa and our friend Maria were going camping.  That’s not really both but you know what I mean..  Camping seems to involve a lot of packing, prepping, driving, planning, long lost family members, and a few days off from work.  I hear it’s fun. That’s what campers tell themselves anyway.    Kristen spent several sleepless nights worried about bear attacks to which ever part of California she was going to.  Now I know this much-I stay away from bears and they stay away from me.  But campers-and in this case Kristen- were venturing out into bear territories.  She talked about pots and pans and spoons, bear traps, making herself bigger, making herself smaller, screaming, and being quiet-lots of remedies.  We were happy to find out that no bears attacked her-although she left a night early because she was freezing.  I think that sounds like a lot of fun-don’t you?

Relay for Life is a 24 hour event put on by the American Cancer Society as a fund raiser for cancer and curing it.  This happens every August and is a pretty big deal in Hollister.  Both Rosa and Kristen are on teams.  Kristen’s team has dozens of members and is the biggest team that raises the most money every year.  Rosa’s team is not.  Rosa’s team is her family and is gathered in honor of her father and his ongoing battle with cancer.  Rosa’s team is less organized, smaller, and doesn’t make quite as much money as Kristen’s.

So Rosa’s team had some catching up to do.  Luckily Rosa’s family is all about food and  that meant everyone was happy!  First we got to buy Pan Dolce.  Now people that know me know I was not raised exposed to this tasty treat-so every time I said I wanted to buy one of those cookies I got crooked looks.  Crooked looks are not dirty I want to kill you looks-they mean –what the heck are you talking about.  These are not cookies –they are bread.  Who knew? Not me-I just love them.  So after a game of how many calories in one Pan Dolce (because I had one and wanted another) I had downed two of these babies before the end of the day.  Rosa made 48 dollars because those cookies are great-KIDDING.

Rosa’s next endeavor for Relay for Life was tamales.  Now tamales are also foreign to me-I don’t really understand the corn husk thing-and I always figure the less food I like the less I will eat.  Anyway Rosa was taking orders and people were lining up for them and me? I just kept asking for those cookies.  These tamales involved her whole family gathering and assembling varied deliciousness for all who waited for them.  A lot of work but very popular.  Seeing how baseball Rob doesn’t eat tamales-and I didn’t need a whole dozen I skipped this offer and crossed my fingers that someone who bought them would invite me to dinner-hello-I’m still waiting!!

Now me?  What you may or may know about me is that I have trouble weeding out my closet.  I have clothes from high school and yes I still wear them.  I have taken up 3 closets in my house with my very organized closet and found out last year that I owned 37 pairs of Capri pants.  Now before you send for the producers of Hoarders  (please put the phone down!)  I actually have been working on this problem.  So the challenge for me for the 20 days of summer school was to wear a different pair of capris every day.  

I know that’s not very interesting-not very funny-and not very common-so I’ll give you the stats.  I made it except for 3 days.  For two of the days it never even got in the 70s so it was too cold to wear capris.  One of the days I couldn’t work because I came down with a fever.  Of the 37 capris 27 survived the cut-some I haven’t tried on, some may or may not fit.  My summer school principal almost gave me an award-but still a good stat.  This school year I’ll be working my way through the dress section.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Well that was our four weeks.  While you read this we are currently sitting in a math training that will take the whole week.  I’m not wearing capris, no one’s going camping, and I’m sure there won’t be any of those great cookies.