Done, done, done! ...and a meme

[magnetic_pole]

In the past nine days, I've finished my last week of classes, attended final reviews, flown across the country, attended a wedding, finished grading, and closed the books on the semester. Whew! Too much going on. Haven't travelled home yet, so the excitement's not quite over, but things should be a lot more relaxed from here on out.

A tiny meme to keep up my weekly posting habit, courtesy of splix. Note that I'm staying in the playroom of an old high school friend's house about 3000 miles from home, which should spice things up a bit.

5 Things You’ll Find in My Bag: Swimsuit (overly optimistic; they haven't started cleaning the pool for the summer months yet), about sixty final essays from students (my bag weighs a ton), a mother's day card that need to be posted tomorrow if it has any chance of timeliness, a new book, and a light sweater (which hasn't been sufficient for the cool days in the Bay Area)

5 Things You’ll Find in My Room: An unused treadmill; NFL logo sheets; Star War plush toys, including a soft and squishy X-wing fighter; bunk beds; an unused big screen tv

5 of My Favorite Things [about California]: 99 Ranch Market, See's Candy, fake Spanish architecture, fresh and beautiful fruits and veggies, SUNSHINE!

5 Things I’m Currently Into: toy cars, board books, reading out loud (can you tell our friends have twin toddlers?), upscale strip malls, sitting around outside. ETA: Sandals! How could I forget about sandals?

5 Things On My To-Do List: Relax, relax, relax, relax, relax. And reply to last week's comments, posts, and e-mail.

How's your May been so far, flist? Want to play along? Text box below.

<b>5 Things You’ll Find in My Bag: </b> <b>5 Things You’ll Find in My Room: </b> <b>5 of My Favorite Things: </b> <b>5 Things I’m Currently Into: </b> <b>5 Things On My To-Do List:</b>

Comments

[splix]

Congratulations on closing out the semester!!! :D :D :D

Okay, I missed the note and saw the NFL sheets and I was like "...really?" Then I went back and re-read. Ha!!

I love See's. Every once in a while I go there and get two orange creams and two vanilla creams. SO good.

We have one of those swanky strip malls! It's always super crowded, but they have a Lush and a MAC store so I wind up there once in a while.

Love those sandals!!

[magnetic_pole]

Hee! Even without having ever met me, you know those sheets are not my cup of tea. (They're not my high school friend's thing either--I think one of the grandmas bought them for the twins.)

Isn't See's lovely? I love the chocolate butter creams.

Are these new malls interesting? I spent my mid-twenties working for an urban planning advocacy group that was pushing for exactly this type of thing in lieu of strip malls and regular, enclosed malls, so it's odd to see that this is now the industry standard in certain areas. Glad to hear yours is crowded. This one wasn't, but it was also Wednesday morning. It bet it's different over the weekend.

Those sandals are so comfy, S! Not the most stylish, but perfect for 1) sad feet with planters' and 2) serious city walking. M.

[jesse_the_k]

Great meme.

I just stumbled on How to shop at 99 Ranch at YouTube and now I am so jealous of you! I'm just imagining what the tea aisle looks like.

Those are some nifty looking sandals. I must have sturdy closed toes (to open doors with) so I've got three pairs of shoes made by sandal companies (Teva, Chaco, Simple).

[magnetic_pole]

99 Ranch Market is great! i can't recommend it highly enough if you ever encounter one. Excellent greens, for one. Lots of different curries and sauces and frozen dumplings. *sigh* I think it's just in CA right now, but I wouldn't be surprised if they expanded to your part of the world soon. They're growing fast.

Ah! Yes, the closed toes are key. The Tevas have been very sturdy and very comfortable. I'll have to keep those other two companies in mind! M.

[kelly_chambliss]

"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."

A great Mark Twain line that he never actually said/wrote, but it sounds as if the sentiment is apt.

Congratulations on the end of the semester; I know that wonderful feeling well.

Those upscale strip malls are fun (though I rarely buy anything), but so odd for some parts of the country. I know they're all the current rage and that the old indoor malls are now totally passe, but the new ones just make no sense in, for instance, my home state, where 2/3 of the year is spent with ice, snow, and cold.

[magnetic_pole]

So true about San Francisco. We'd forgotten about how cold it gets in the East Bay, too--R didn't even bring a sweater. What were we thinking?!?

This is the best time of year, isn't it? I love these first weeks of summer. Congrats to you, too! Hope you're luxuriating in style during these first few days.

Good point about the bad weather. Hm... M.

[semielliptical]

I visited an upscale strip mall like that last summer and was kind of confused about what it was. It just didn't fit any of my expectations for a shopping area (indoor mall, strip mall, old-fashioned downtown). I guess I need to add a new category!

Yay for finishing the semester and sitting around outside! We're going to have another spell of cold weather but it *will* pass and then I will enjoy the brief period before it becomes too buggy to relax outside.

[magnetic_pole]

It's really different, isn't it? It's halfway between a mall and built-from-scratch downtown.

Hope your cold weather passes quickly! But not too quickly. You have intensely hot summers, don't you? I always feel during these last few cool-ish days in May that I need to appreciate the chill before we hit three months of hot and humid weather. Especially for jogging, which suddenly becomes exponentially more difficult for every degree over 85F or so. M.