Our long time family friends Tonie and Kurt asked me to dog/housesit for them while they went to visit their son, Nick, in India for three weeks. It was perfect timing! I was planning on making my way back to California anyway! They picked me up from the airport on Tuesday night, on Wednesday we caught up and they oriented me to the house, and then I dropped them off at the train station where they would start their journey by way of San Francisco (where their other son, Ben, lives). Within minutes of sending out texts that I was back in town, I had a gym date with my sister, and a bike riding date with my Auntie Sisis.
We rode bikes along the bike path that runs next to the river, had a great lunch at Matteo’s and then rode back through the neighborhoods so we could see the big houses.
Later that afternoon, Sonny and I were walking home and we saw some turkeys crossing the road.
As one does.
I wondered if they knew how close it was to Thanksgiving.
I sent Tonie a picture and she told me they’re always walking around the neighborhood.
I’m right down the street from Vick’s ice cream where I used to get ice cream cakes as a kid. It’s very tempting.
This is Sonny. She wants me to throw her ball.
This is Sonny helping me write this blog.
I also got a chance to catch up with my Uncle Harry and Aunt Diane. Harry and I got off the freeway at the same time– he is very conspicuous with his little sports car and personalized plates.
Land Park goes out of its way with Halloween decorations
Tonie and Kurt have season tickets at Capital Stage Theatre, and gave me their tickets while they were out of town. There was a Q & A before the show in their adorable patio.
The show was fascinating. It was one of those stories with two strong points of view. Though it means to not have a good guy and a bad guy, I found that those roles would be designated through the audience member’s perspective. A social worker who had been abused as a child was trying to prevent that happening again. An Evangelical Christian was trying to provide a good home for her granddaughter and sometimes looked the other way when she didn’t like what she saw. It was an emotional roller coaster.
Later in the week, I got a pedicure with Wendy and Phyllis and then joined Phyllis at her yoga class and a picture-worthy seafood dinner.
With appropriate plates!
One evening, I went to meet Megan at Tower only to find it was closed! The red carpet was laid out for the premier of Lady Bird written and directed by Greta Gerwig.
Greta was part of the River City Theatre crowd I loyally performed with in middle school and high school. I get a little jealous of her because not only did she date the gay boy I had a crush on, but she became best friends with my best friend when my best friend and I went to different high schools and got caught up in those crowds, and then she goes and shows up in movies (which is something I wanted to do professionally). The movie isn’t officially out yet, but I’m curious to see what her perspective was about growing up in Sacramento.
I’ve gotten an offer letter from Carnival Cruise lines and I’m working on getting all the steps completed to get on a ship. One of those steps is to pass a medical exam where to be considered healthy my BMI needs to be below 30. When I first got this news I felt many things, but I’ve decided to use it as motivation to lose the 20 lbs I’ve been trying to lose as I gained them while feeding my stress of working at the Art Institute with wine and pizza. So now I’m hanging out in Sacramento trying to release some extra weight without feeling deprived or going on a crash diet. I’m walking all over town with Sonny and making the most of my time off before I go back to work again.