Saturday, April 23, 2011
Kingwood, TX
5.5 miles

Since the train does not leave til Sunday, I got an extra day to fill up in Kingwood! Candy and I started the day with a bike ride.

(I took this picture of Candy behind me while I was riding. I’m still working on this skill.)

Kingwood was built as a planned community with walkable businesses and schools. It has networks of greenbelts and trails circling the neighborhoods and golf courses, through woods and along Lake Houston. It was a busy morning on the path, especially for joggers and dog walkers. Noticeably, nobody’s dog barked at or chased us on the bikes. Suburban dogs must be more used to being around people.

It hadn’t gotten very hot yet, which was lovely. Along Lake Houston, it was surprisingly windy, with gusts that pushed us around.

Me with Lake Houston in the background.

Notice the white caps on the lake.

There were also a ton of squirrels running around the trails.

As we wound around the neighborhoods, I realized I just cannot get over how huge the houses are. Even the big houses in suburban San Diego areas are lucky if they’re half the size of these houses. As far as I can remember, they even dwarf the houses in Covered Bridge and Red Barn Road in Crystal Lake. I guess there is just that much more space in Texas!

After riding, Candy and I went back to the Y. By the way, this Y still has a chapel and religious-themed quotes on the walls. More yoga! This was an Ashtanga class taught partly by Connie, who I met yesterday, and partly by Dory, who seemed to be perhaps a student teacher. A few times, Dory got nervous and forgot what came next in the sequence, which I never would have noticed if she hadn’t said anything. It was still great, but I can’t quite figure out how some Ashtanga classes, like Troy Lucero’s in Seattle, are the most strenuous thing you can imagine, while others, following basically the same sequence, are not.

Also, both today and yesterday, other students from class came up to me and told me they noticed a few things I did really well, which is a nice compliment, but feels a little weird that everyone’s looking at the new person in class. I guess I look around at the rest of the class, too, but I try not to. But I am also pretty excited about my jump throughs, because I’ve only been able to do them since this winter. I hope it makes people feel better when I tell them it took me over ten years of yoga to be able to do them.

After yoga, we met Bill and Nany and the girls at La Madeline for lunch.

If Souplantation were a French cafe with a slightly more confusing ordering strategy and better bread, this would be it. It was tasty, and the company was great. Ally, who is in Kindergarten, told me all about her Easter plans and her upcoming field trip to the zoo, and a previous trip to a petting zoo. She talks with her hands, and is very specific about describing things spatially. You can see her picturing closets and animal enclosures, for example, in her mind, and figuring out the best way to get them across clearly. Also, she has a very expressive face.

Posing.

Explaining.

The other night, Lexi, a third grader, told me about her upcoming state testing week. Though she was nervous about the tests, it was balanced out by some benefits, such as no homework, parties, and treats. She explained thoroughly about the passages they read, the strategies they are supposed to use, the goals she is to reach, and the subjects that are not taught when they are focusing on the tests. She described how she had extra math tutoring, and the way she could tell she was behind other students. She explained how the social studies Weekly Reader magazine was often about interesting topics, but the 20 questions they had to answer afterwards ruined it for her.

A third grader this self aware and reflective about what is going on in school, who can communicate this so clearly, is a deep, logical, evidence-based thinker, and none of this will be reflected by a standardized test.

Pretty awesome kids in this family, I’d say. (Though I do have to mention that later in the evening Candy and I spent some time going through old photo albums, which was so great! But we also confirmed that my brother Ben was the cutest child ever!)

After lunch, Candy and I went for pedicures, which happened to coordinate with my sister Katie having a spa day at home in Illinois! Neither Candy nor I are regular toenail doers, but this was a fun treat, and amazingly thorough. Our feet were soaked with scented salts. We had cooling peppermint mud on our calves, wrapped with warm towels.

We had paraffin wax treatments for our feet, and we even had orange slices between our toes!

This was all in addition to the regular old scrubbing, scraping, massaging, and painting.

Also, Shawn, who worked on my feet, said I was the toughest person he knew, when he heard about my trip. At least I’ll have shiny purple toenails now as I’m peddling along. They remind me of Jamie and Benjamin in Seattle! Hopefully I’ll get to fly someone soon with my beautiful new feet, too.

Nancy and Bill Jr. took us all out to Fuddruckers, one of Bill Sr.’s favorites, for Candy and Bill’s anniversary. Unfortunately, Bill Sr. wasn’t feeling very well, so he didn’t eat. At least there was a Florida game on TV! The last time I was at a Fuddruckers was in junior high on Sanibel Island. They seem to have expanded their menu since then. I don’t remember the boar, buffalo, and ostrich burgers from that time, or even their gooey cheese sauce, for which they are apparently famous, though their grilled onions do stand out in my mind.

We ate the ice cream cake when we got home! Yum!

Happy Anniversary!

Candy says that if I want to look for a job in Houston, I can stay with them! It’s wonderful to know I have such a great family and so many resources available to me. But I still am not ready for doing even much thinking at all about my next job, and I am so lucky that I don’t have to at this time.

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