Good Things

I love it when things just fall into place. I hope I'm not jinxing myself by putting this out there but everything seems to be going right this week. I love it! Good thing #1: Yesterday I went to visit my grandma in the hospital (not good that she's in the hospital but good I was able to visit). Jerry didn't want to go and I was worried about leaving him alone, but Warren was able to leave work early so it all worked out! Even better, it turned out that one of my very best friends, Jeff, was working near the hospital, so we were able to meet for dinner which was great because 1) I hadn't seen him in ages and 2) it enabled me to avoid rush hour traffic. In addition to seeing Jeff yesterday, I'm having lunch with one of my favorite people in all of Los Angeles (my friend Lisa) today and another friend from college is coming to visit next week--and he's spending the night so I'll get two whole days of fun! All of a sudden I have a wealth of friends around me! Will someone please remind me that I have friends next time I start whining about being lonely?

Other good things are happening too. Jerry's new Japanese tutor is terrific. Before he started with her I explained that I really just want him to have fun with the language and be comfortable speaking it. I suggested using some Japanese manga and Jerry's Japanese version of the newest Pokemon game for the DS as learning tools. She totally got it. Yesterday when I came to pick him up from his lesson they had been playing Uno in Japanese. She made him a cheat sheet with Japanese phrases like "I don't have," "What color?" and "I won!" She's great. And Jerry really likes her husband, too--it turns out they play some of the same online games.

Other good unschooling news: Jerry made up a new game called "Creative Spelling." We try to come up with the most bizarre spellings possible of different words. It's fun and educational...After all, you've got to be able to spell the word right if you want to be sure to spell it wrong!

But wait--I'm not done with the good news yet! The Jane Austen Ball is this weekend!! Yippee!! I love the Jane Austen Ball!! It's the only time I get to skip around a room with a bunch of other grown people without looking like a complete lunatic. Actually, I guess I still look like a lunatic but so does everyone else so, there you go. It's more like refined lunacy, though. See for yourself. This is from the 2006 ball:Then of course, I have my sister's homecoming to look forward to. She and her family arrive in San Francisco on Monday and then (joy of joys!) the inauguration is Tuesday!! Woo hoo!! I can't stop with the exclamation marks! It's just too exciting!!!!!!