summer break – Teachers Have Lives Too!

05/30/201905/30/2019 Erika S. outfits

It’s here! It’s finally here!

Ahhhh, summer vacation. It’s finally here! Well, kinda. I have graduation tonight and then one more day tomorrow, which will be a celebration meeting and check out. It’s here!!!

This summer B and I will be sticking around Denver for most of the time. I’m really looking forward to getting in a lot of gardening time combined with some mountain biking near town, and of course loads of just chill time. We have a couple out of town weddings, our annual canoe/camp trip, and then we will try to take a road trip about Colorado. Every summer I have to remind myself that B doesn’t get a summer vacation like I do (sucks), so he will probably spend more time at the co-working space than usual.

Finals ended last week, so this week I’ve been cleaning up my room and packing stuff up. I’ve been in weekend dressing mode ever since then, and it’s been glorious. Getting ready in the morning has been so fast! Jeans (the same ones everyday practically), a t-shirt, a sweatshirt type cover, and all set. And who needs makeup on these days? (Just kidding, I do. At least a tiny bit!)

These are the same Banana Republic jeans from before, and I’ve been living in them. The ~~Patagucci~~ Patagonia sweater thing is from a sale they had back in February. I really like the old school label, it’s mostly made of recycled wool (Patagonia is so good at sustainable fashion) and it’s fleecy on the inside so therefore not itchy at all. It is still available on their site! This almost never happens since I only buy things on sale and by the time I get around to posting about them, it’s all sold out. I’m not generally a Patagonia fan, as their clothes always seem like they are made for more petite women. Tops (on me at least) tend to appear too short and boxy in the body and with too short sleeves. But I love their environmental stance, and I like a lot of what they make. Soon I’ll be packing away these fleecy things though because the weather is warming up here! Happy summer everyone!

pullover: patagonia – tshirt: sf giants mlb ? – jeans: banana republic – shoes: adidas

07/28/201707/28/2017 Erika S. fun stuffs, trips

The Summer Reset – 11 Mile Canyon

I picked up fly fishing this year with a hand me down rod from B, and some learner’s camaraderie from Rachael. I’ve been out fishing about 10 times now, and I have yet to catch a single fish. Obviously I still have a lot to learn – maybe my knots are too big, maybe my line is too short, maybe my cast is too rough, or just maybe, fish are too damn smart to be fooled by my tricks. Regardless of my luck/lack of skill, it’s darn lovely to be out in the middle of a river, relatively alone, and listening to the sound of water. Even more exciting are the small little adrenaline rushes you get when you see fish smell your fly only to promptly ignore it and eat a bug mere inches away from your fly. One day, fishies, one day.

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A couple weeks ago, Rachael and I took a quick little one nighter camping trip to 11 Mile Canyon with the intent to catch heaps of fish to cook over the camp fire. But then, there was a fire ban in effect. And then, it rained on us almost all evening and night. At one point, huddled under a tree in our raincoats, we debated giving up and driving the 2 hours back to Denver. Thankfully the rain let up long enough for us to cook a meal, drink some beers, and play a few rounds of Bananagrams. Lastly, neither of us caught a fish. Rachael got 2 hits though, so there’s that. It was still an enjoyable 2 days, and we got some lovely views even at the crowded campground.

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Until next time, fishies….

08/11/201408/11/2014 Erika S. fun stuffs, trips

Since You’ve Been Gone

Or, since I’ve been gone.

I’ve let this blog drop for the past 8 months for a few reasons:

I fell into a sartorial rut
I ran out of things to say (or so I thought)
B and I decided to make (yet another) life change by moving to Denver, CO
I got busy (but not really, it was more laziness than anything)

I’m still struggling with #1 and #2, but slightly less so now. My climate has changed and more significantly, my mode of transportation has changed. We bought a car, so I no longer have to schlep it through snow/sleet and for that matter walk very much at all to/from school. My Fitbit has had depressingly low numbers since we moved. I no longer have to worry about new shoes giving me blisters after walking miles or how hot/cold I will be on the walk to the subway. I can wear whatever I want now, thanks to the fancy A/C and heated seats in the new ride. It’s borderline bougie. In addition, I’m starting at a new school here in Denver. That means new all of the things: classes, students, standards, curriculum (the district curriculum tells you to teach from a textbook – that’s practically a dirty word where I come from), BBC (blackboard configuration), buzz words, rules, etc. I will have heaps to talk about. I’m entering my 6th year of teaching high school science in public schools. I’m just going to go ahead and pat myself on the back for making it past the legendary “50% gone by 5 years” mark. Do I feel like an experienced teacher? Nope. Not even close.

So what has happened since I’ve been gone? If you follow me on Instagram, none of this is news to you.

I went to the Dominican Republic over winter break with a couple of awesome friends.

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I went to Puerto Rico over spring break with yet another awesome friend. Most amazing tropical beach vacation ever.

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Hung out with my niece and went with my sister to the White House Correspondent’s Dinner pre-parties again.

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B and I packed up, said goodbye (with a bit of tears) to my crew kids at Leaders, bid farewell to Brooklyn and moved to Denver. We’ve been here for a month so far, more on Denver to come.

07/31/201307/31/2013 Erika S. fun stuffs, trips

The first half of summer…the best bits

I woke up this morning (as in… noon. It’s SUMMER and I can sleep in like a sloth if I want) to a string of notifications from WordPress about new followers – 5 new readers! It’s summer (as if we all need a reminder) so I’ve been seriously lazying it up these past couple of weeks. My lack of productivity is getting to the point of embarrassment, so I figured I needed to kick myself in the butt to start getting some things done. Only fun stuff though, I haven’t hit boredom rock bottom quite yet. First up, a revisit to the world of blogging: to get my brain somewhat moving again and to spew my life out onto the interwebs. Next up, a short backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail, a road trip to Savannah with fellow teacher Grace and learning a bit of code with help from CodeAcadamy/Treehouse/Codeschool and B. By the time that’s all done, it will be time to put my sloth-ish tendencies on the back burner and gear up for the new school year (and back to teacher outfits).

As proof that teachers do indeed have lives outside of the classroom (and for some internal validation that I haven’t completely disappeared into the couch with the Game of Thrones books), here are a few highlights of the summer thus far.

1) A pair of Aussie visitors, aka B’s mom (also a teacher!) and Peter! They came all the way out to Brooklyn just to hang with us for a week. They were fresh off a vintage Bentley car rally through the west coast and Montana (for real) and flew over to the east coast on their way back home to Perth. We took them on a modified tour of NYC (they’ve seen it all before) and spent a lot of time just chatting it up. I loved them and it was especially cool to hear B’s mom talk about teaching in Perth. B had the job of deflecting all comments/hints about marriage or grandchildren.

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2) The real vacation, aka Costa Rica – B and I shelled out the big bucks for a trip to Costa Rica. 11 days, three towns and a lot of advice from Lonley Planet took us hiking, white water rafting, surfing, ziplining and left us with sunburns. Totally worth it, even with the sting of the high prices.