After Springsteen

 While Sheri and I had a fabulous time at the concert, the evening ended on a somber note. Because we were had floor seats, it was extremely easy for us to exit the venue. We were among the first wave of concert goers to exit into the fresh air. My sister was about two people ahead of me in the crowd when I saw a woman get bumped and tumbled into a light pillar. She screamed in pain, which prompted me to immediately stop. 

I turned around and I saw her trying to get off the ground. I asked if she was okay, expecting the obligatory "No, I'm fine, thanks" before continuing the walk back to the hotel. Instead, she looked me with panicked eyes and said, "Yes. Please call 911. He is hurting me."

 Sh*t.  I hate confrontation, but I quickly realized that our night was going to get interesting. I screamed to my sister, "Sheri, this woman is hurt and needs help." She immediately came back, which was a blessing because this tall, bald, large drunk man was screaming at the bloodied woman and grabbing at her keys. 

She told him to leave. He wouldn't. I told him to leave. He wouldn't. Sheri told him to leave. The situation was quickly escalating. Despite the blood and the screaming, thousands of people streamed by us without offering to help. I think Sheri and I simultaneously realized we needed to figure this out together. 

With communication that comes from being sisters for life, I left to find the police while she led the lady to safety. The drunk man followed my sister and the lady back into the venue, screaming and demanding that she come back and that everything was fine. 

I'll be honest, it took me longer to locate security than it should have. And when I did find help, it took longer for me to convince them that they were needed than it should have. Regardless, when it was finally understood that they had a violent man stalking a woman outside of their bathroom, the cops converged.  

It turns out that the drunk dude was on probation, so he was quickly led away in cuffs (screaming obscenities.)  The woman was treated by medical and helped by the police. Sheri and I provided our contact information and our accounts of the incident before heading back towards our hotel.  

By the time everything was over, the venue had emptied and we had a relatively quiet walk back to the hotel.   While I'm glad that we were there to help, I'm dismayed that nobody else stepped up.  It makes me very sad.

Springsteen

 The Bruce Springsteen concert is one that I will never forget. 

My sister prefers to arrive at event venues with at least an hour to spare. Because I am an easy traveler, I was fine leaving the hotel early so that we could arrive at the concert with "enough time" for her to be able to get a t-shirt. The show started at 7:30 and we had purchased drinks, her t-shirts and found our seats by 6:05. 

We were up in the rafters, taking pictures from our vantage point of the stage and the arena. Needless to say we were excited! As we were getting comfortable for our 90 minute wait for the show, my sister was approached by a lovely young lady. She introduced herself as being with the tour, and offered to move our seats to the floor. 

Are you kidding me? Floor seats for Springsteen? Talk about an amazing opportunity. We gathered our items from our rafter seats and headed to our new floor seats. Wow. Just wow.

 

Celebration

 Happy Birthday to Me!  

This year's celebration, much like everything else, will be different. Usually I don't have anything planned other than preparing a nicer dinner than normal and baking a strawberry shortcake for dessert. This year I actually have fun plans for my birthday! After work I'm heading to Pittsburgh to connect with my sister at the Bruce Springsteen concert. I'm so excited!

I can't remember the last time I had true plans on my birthday. I suspect it was back when I was in college and we would collectively go to the bars to celebrate at each opportunity. Since I graduated into adulthood, my birthday celebrations have been held at home (sometimes at a local restaurant with only family) followed by cake at home. I know that I have not spent my birthday in a 'party' type atmosphere in nearly 3 decades, a trend that is both pathetic and in desperate need of being broken.  

I'm really looking forward to unwinding tonight! 

Summer Soon

 The school year is heading into the final countdown. By the end of this week, we will be into the single digits when counting down until summer vacation. I've never been one to countdown days in front of students because not every kiddo is excited about the weeks without school and the structure that it brings. While I keep the countdown private, I am so excited about summer vacation!

Are we doing anything spectacular? Hopefully, although nothing is planned. I would love to take Timmy to the beach for a few days in July, but we are unsure where because the cost of flying is simply too high. So we are looking at Virginia Beach for a few days but that is still tentative. Too much can change, and planning isn't fun with this many variables.

While summer vacation is on the horizon, it is not yet here. Today we are back to work and back to school. It is going to be hot, which means that my day is going to be a lot harder. Hopefully the heat will stay away until I'm done with my final student. 

Ready

 I've come to the conclusion that my body and mind struggle when my schedule fluctuates. Having a random Tuesday off continues to play tricks with my mind calendar. I was hoping that I would settle back into the routine and the rest of the week would flow smoothly. Instead I'm still feeling disjointed and overwhelmingly tired. 

I suppose much of my fatigue stems from the end of the year chaos. It's a crazy time of year in those halls!While teachers are busy packing up their rooms and collecting devices, the kids are nearly bouncing off the walls in anticipation of summer vacation. While I will miss most of my students, I'm ready for a vacation. 

Summer break is on the horizon but it is not yet here. At this point, I'm just waiting for Saturday so that I can try to sleep away this fog I'm living in. 

 

Sweetwater!

 Yesterday was wonky because it was election day in WV, closing all public offices and schools. Scott and I were left with an extremely rare day off in the middle of the week. Wanting to take full advantage of the opportunity, we logged Timmy out of school at noon (with his teacher's permission) and headed to Northern Virginia for lunch. We have all been missing Sweetwater Tavern, a local favorite, and were delighted that fate aligned for a road trip.

The food was as good as we remembered. The bill was considerably higher than our norm because we ordered all of our favorites. It was a fun treat and I'm glad that we went. It feels like it was an amazing kick off to summer vacation, with the glaring exception that everyone except for Robby are still in school for another several weeks.

It is hard getting up this morning and getting my head in the school game.  A solitary day off in the middle of week has messed up my entire schedule! I know that it won't take long to get my footing, but my goodness I do not want to put on real pants this morning.

Have a great day!

 

The Graduate

 After work on Friday I gassed up the car and headed to Indiana Pennsylvania. The drive was long only because I was tired, but I knew that I would be happy for the effort on Saturday morning. With my niece graduating promptly at 8:30 AM I knew that I wanted to tackle the lion share of the drive ahead of time. I pulled into the motel, an unsavory local rendezvous spot outside of town, and barricaded myself inside for the night. I went to bed early and woke up ready to watch my baby niece receive her degree!