April 29: Month in review

Here’s my review of April 2012.

Special days I celebrated this month and how:

• We did that belated anniversary celebration mini-vacation. Such fun.
• Victor was honored for 20 years of work at the hospital at their annual awards banquet. I played the proud wife one who was thankful for a regular paycheck.
• This weekend Victor’s with former classmates in Seattle for their 30th high school reunion. He was out until 1am last night, so either they were having a really great time together or he forgot where he was staying and drove around for hours crying about how old he is.
• There were lots of celebrations at school in April. The volunteer appreciation dinner was my favorite.
• It wasn’t for a special occasion, but it was definitely a special day when Sherilee came to Portland earlier this month. We caught up over shopping and lunch at Gustav’s—the only thing that would’ve made it better was more time. Possibly more fondue.
• Happy anniversary to Eric and Kim F’n Wick! Today marks one year since their royal wedding.

Gifts I gave and/or received this month:

• The kids got chocolate bunnies on Easter. The Easter Bunny has gotten really lazy.
• My dear friend Stephanie gave us a gift bag of goodies last week. We love her!

Books I read this month:

• The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Loved it.
• The Beginner’s Goodbye, by Anne Tyler. Better than her last few novels.
• Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir), by Jenny Lawson (The Bloggess). You’ll pee yourself.
• Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), by Mindy Kaling (Kelly on The Office). Meh.

Movies and TV shows worth mentioning:

• Jack and I saw Titanic on the 100th anniversary of the collision. We went over to Bridgeport to see it in IMAX and 3D, which made it better than I expected (doesn’t it seem like old movies that are reformatted into 3D are not usually improved all that much?). He’s been asking lots of questions ever since. Grandpa Curt would be proud—as far back as I can remember, Dad was fascinated with the ship; when it was finally found in 1985, he got me interested in it too.
• Is Smash the best thing on TV, or what?
• This past week’s Community is a must-see if you’re a Law & Order fan.
• Both the east- and west-coast live versions of 30 Rock were LOL-funny.

New recipes or restaurants I tried:

Nothing remarkable.

Special or unusual purchases I made:

Can’t think of any. Wait, does deliciously addictive hard pear cider count for “special or unusual”? If it does, then ignore my first answer.

This month’s disappointments:

• Reality is sinking in: my BFF is moving far, far away. If not for special drugs, I don’t know how I’d get through it.
• Not so much disappointing as sad, my grandma passed away on April 20.

My accomplishments:

I didn’t kill a single person. Month ain’t over yet, though.

Anything else noteworthy:

• Katie went to Outdoor School this past week. She sounded so much like me when she described the experience—she talked about the uncomfortable, smelly parts as much as the super-fun memory-making parts. My Outdoor School experience 30 years ago wasn’t a total suck-fest, but it wasn’t nonstop cool, either.
• I’ve been surprised at how many people aren’t familiar with the concept of Outdoor School—is this really just an Oregon thing???
• Last month I whined about the horrible weather. This month I have to show off the beautiful blooms in our front yard:

That’s it, doods.