The Summer Round Up of 2021

 I guess I'll call this my summer post, since it will cover the months of June, July and August. ;-)

June Summary:

• Ryan has started to participate in a few more sports - tennis, beach volleyball and spinning. All are helping to keep him busy during the times of reduced social contact, as karate is still on a reduced schedule, and running is less frequent thanks to his disabled mother.
• Rich and Ryan went on a nighttime manta diving tour, which Rich described as being one of the coolest experiences he's ever had!
• This should not be noteworthy- but it is, because I am closing in on fifty. We got a new sofa AND carpet. Both from Costco, so we are not exactly getting carried away here...but we splurged, and we are pleased. This is our fourth sofa since we moved here 13 years ago, which is perhaps, a hair much, but like our (simple) cars, we don't do so well holding onto things.
• After a month and a half of rehearsals, Rich performed as one of the Three Muskeeters in the play 'Two Musketeers.' It was held at reduced capacity, and was the first (and only) in-person play we've had in nearly 18 months.
• We tried to make sure Ryan saw friends at least 2-3 days a week, each week, as he's holding down the fort while we slave for the man (which means we try to limit his tech addiction). ;-)

July Summary:

• After cancelling three of the four last vacations booked, thanks to COVID, we finally managed a quick trip to Southern California. 
• In a nutshell, it was not like a normal trip, as we largely saw family and friends, but Ryan still managed to visit to theme parks (SeaWorld, Raging Waters, go ice skating and race car driving, tour a college campus (his request! UCSB), visit Montecito and Beverly Hills (he was curious), and experience his first escape room.
• We sold our fourth and final condo, which we found out on the day of closing, was also a drug lab. Oops. Fortunately, we closed hours before the DEA arrived. So our tenure as drug lab owners was brief, not profitable, and without our knowledge, of course.
• On the upside, I won one the cool prices of a statewide 'Go get immunized' contest - two airline tickets on Alaska. Super cool! We made the news (captured by a few family members who watch it nightly) and newspapers. Super famous now. Can't go anywhere!
• Ryan partied like a rockstar a few times with one of his favorite peer groups...his taiko group. He has a few different groups he hangs with- and this group might be the sweetest of the bunch. 

 

August Summary:

• Ryan and Rich saw their first in-theatre movie in 18 months- Jungle Cruise! 
• Ry's friend Sei brought over a poker set one day, and he enjoyed learning the game so much he invested in his own poker set, has been watching YouTube videos on strategies/bluffing, and had his cousins over for Poker Night. Buy in was $10 each, more if you lost...and it was not a profitable night for us. So we're cancelling the Vegas trip for now...but, I'm hopeful!
• I got burned by a laser on  both cheeks! Looked awful! I'll show before (happened in late June) and after (as of the first week of August) pics as it's being fixed by chemical peels and hydroquinone.
• We had to cancel a trip to Oahu and two birthday soirees planned (one with family, one with the BFFs) for my 47th last week, as we were exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID. So it meant staying home for five straight days, telling about 15-20 friends/coworkers who we'd been around, and getting tested twice, each. Super sad. 
• However, what made it super touching was about a half dozen friends stopped by with flowers, balloons, cake, gifts and fruit! Super awesome day in the end, even if it was solo with my boys! (Rich arranged for me to have Thai food for lunch and dinner that day, too.)
• Oh, and I got a salary adjustment- definitely made my birthday. Always nice to feel appreciated and validated. Very humbling to be recognized by such amazing bosses.

Post-burn in late June on both cheeks - the aesthetician used a strong setting/treated me prematurely.

This was after the first chemical peel - got worse before it got better, and looked frightening!

This was about a week or two after the peel. About 30% better.

This is about two weeks after that, with daily use of 12% hydroquinone. Legality? Questionable. However, that shiz works. About 80% better.

I have one more peel to go, and then Aunty Jolene is going to throttle back on the lasering for a bit. After over 25 treatments, I have decided I need to um...find something else to manage my melasma. No more burn-face! 

COVID birthday #2! When will these end? :-(

What's next?

Hmm. Good question. 

• Here is what's NOT happening. It doesn't look like we will be going to Japan in later fall/early winter as planned thanks to the explosion of cases on the island and Japan's delayed immunization program. :-( 

• We still haven't properly celebrated my nephew's high school graduation, my mom turning 70 last year, my parent's 50th anniversary this year, or my sister in law's graduation from university, and soon- the academy (she's been away at training for 6 months, pretty bad ass of her to do both in a single year). I would love to honor these super special events before the year is over, if we can.

• I need to lose the quarantine 15. I have been loving the new spin studio near mi casa and go regularly, but it is no competition for my appetite! Good gawd. Super embarrassing.

• After months of talking about doing it, I created a pineapple patch in my front yard that is now larger than my back yard. Annnd...we harvested our first crop of mangoes (& about a half dozen pineapples) this summer! We also planted our first avocado tree (that's been grafted). Exciting stuff for us folks in the sticks!

• Ryan is starting 8th grade, his last year of middle school. He's now a solid inch taller than me, and loves playing Minecraft (this has come back and replaced Fortnite, which he hasn't played in a year for the most part). He is still in karate, taiko and beach volleyball regularly...and gets bullied into spin/running. He recently hit 300 miles of running, and his desired reward was all new curtains for his bedroom (which has undergone a massive transformation this year, at his behest). His favorite things to do are shop at PacSun, play poker/video/board games, hang out with friends, ignore his mother, and making messes in every room of the house. He also loves to not brush his teeth without reminders, and never likes to put in his rubber bands (for his braces).

• COVID has made Rich's job, and mine, a lot more grueling. We put in many extra hours a week (me more than Rich, interestingly, although he works in healthcare). However, we continue to feel extraordinarily, and unfairly, really...blessed. We haven't done as good a job of paying it forward this year, but need to get back on the wagon.

• If I had a magic wand, my one wish would be to have the time to start our detached fourth bedroom. We've had plans for maybe two years now, and haven't started the project yet. It was partly a lack of time, then it was the 30%+ increase in lumber/materials, and now its back to too tired?