Another airplane ride, another meet cute with the aisle seat boy and an empty middle seat. 😂 (I tend to have exceptional luck with getting empty middle seats or empty rows, apparently the system often shows them as claimed/occupied even though they're not, especially when I'm feeling antisocial at the time I buy my ticket/choose seats.) This one, Jake, had the most gorgeous gorgeous blue eyes. But when we stood up, he's not tall enough for my heightism, taller than me but only just a little bit taller than me. But dang he had the prettiest bright blue eyes. And a book to read. And drinks his coffee black. And could hold intelligent deep meaningful conversations, even with a strange girl he only just met. Still, though he wasn't as tall as I typically go for, he was tall enough I gave him my number and my name so he could find out how the rehoming a dog driving cross country alone story goes. (We both agreed we had no time while out in PAC Northwest for making other plans because of so many other humans we're juggling but I did give him some hiking recommendations for while he's out here.) I just wish he was taller. But that's a me problem, I'm a heightist and a guy has to be taller than me even in my heels for me to feel any strong physical attraction at all, and if he is but not enough, then it's there but not much if we're too close in height.

Aso, Rainier was out!!!! Beautifully clear out and visible!!! Which is great because Im driving the long way home and so won't have a flight out for a second look at my mountain from in the clouds. (That mountain and I have some wyrd karma, she likes to prove me wrong in my assumptions so I now try to be cautious what I say about her ever since the grizzly bear incident. Everybody was fine, bear just wanted to munch his pre hibernation salmon berries at the trailhead. But also, yeah, closer than anyone should be to a wild grizz. But still not quite as close as the time at Glacier where the ranger who happened to be right there as it came ambling over to say hi told everyone to stay perfectly still, no flash or reflective cameras/phones to spook it but if it came any closer whatsoever we all had to run fast as we could to the nearby shelters.)

I've been pretty well whirlwinded since getting here, everybody wants my full undivided attention all the time when I'm out here, lol. My first night here, there was literally a moment just minutes after putting the kids to bed and I was sat sitting on the floor petting Waffles through the baby gate when Chicken (the cat) climbs in my lap and Jon looked up from his tiki cocktail making and just started laughing goes, "Hunh, well that didn't take long for you to be reclaimed once the kids went to bed." Chicken has always been fond of me let's me pick her up hold her and goes to purring goo mode in my arms despite her general skittishness fear of stranger danger and I told Waffles that this time she will be leaving with me for a very long drive back to my home and she has hardly left my side. It is a little weird right now because Miche told me yesterday that I should act and behave as if Waffles is my dog allowed here on a visit but still has to obey house rules. Which feels like a recipe for disaster with a Virgo little sister who dislikes dogs, but we're muddling along and I'm doing my best to navigate it and to work with training Waffles and various positive reinforcement consistently.  

Also. My last couple visits happened to cross over school breaks Jack had so he's struggling a little with not feeling like he's getting as much one on one with me and that he's always having to share me with his sisters, but especially Monroe. Balance has been hard, especially because Monroe loves her pink tea (apple strudel herbal from Churchill's tea shop in Cincy) and so afternoon/evening tea making ceremony is our ritual thing she and I do every day but other than some reading time competitions or making sure to play tennis/badminton or soccer or basketball or throw the football with him while outside, Jack doesn't have anything like that with me. Of my entire stack of books, he has fixated on wanting to read the N. K. Jemisin duology The Dream blood which I packed to read, or at least the first book of it, so I'm thinking what I might do is read ahead when he's not here and then if the content doesn't seem questionable let him read chapters to discuss. But it's hard because contemporary female black scifi writer, and so there's a lot of sex and violence themes in her other writing I have read that I don't know if his parents would want him reading. He also really really wants to work with me to train Waffles roll over, and she's very good at belly baring for scritches so I think that's a better idea of something he and I can do together as a just us thing. It's just that a Virgo mom, a Taurus dad, a Scorpio eldest son, a Leo middle daughter, and a Gemini youngest daughter (turns 11 months next week) is a lot of opinions and egos and personalities in one household, lol. 

Tomorrow we have May the fourth Star Wars parade and laser light show plans for after the kids are done with school. Friday is Cinco de mayo, Saturdays are crazy because that's the day that Mo has gymnastics and Jack has soccer.  Also next week, my friend J (we met at a week long farm to table intensive program at Quillisaacut Farm that I attended with a group of Seattle Culinary Students after my grandma won an Organic Valley contest and was able to transfer it to me) wants to steal me on the 11 so I can meet their baby who is a couple months older than Elliot. My last visit, they got COVID and my visit before that they were pregnant and my sister was pregnant so we all chose excess of caution. But it means I haven't seen J in a couple years now.  And then on the 12, Cath Cath (my mum's high school best friend who is a bonus auntie godmother friend to me) will be back from her Portland trip and is going to steal me for the day to spend some time in Edmonds and for me to spend some quality time with her cat Morgan who is the sweetest cuddle love of purr ball with me and who I haven't seen since before Finn (Cathy's other, younger, cat) died last fall. Then Cath will bring me back here for dinner with my sister's family. Saturday the 13 we pick up the rental car and I'll take Waffles on some practice car ride errands and hikes between then and when the long drive begins on the 17..... 

O, and in addition to tiki cocktails from the book Jon got as a Christmas gift, our adults TV show this visit is Pinata Masters (actually called Dale Dale Dale) and it's a Mexican game show for pinata making. Also the French version of Nailed It -- though it's a little weird that I laugh before they get the joke because I'm laughing at the French and they have to wait on the subtitles.

Also already planted over 150 bulbs they bought for me to plant and finished 2 books. 

Ciao bye, it's almost time to find out what this morning's laugh a lot wakeup song is my 5mins warning for when the kids alarm light turns green and they get to leave their room to play until breakfast time which is when they descend upon my guest room in the office/craft room. (Yesterday morning was Disney's Tiki Room because I was singing that on Mon night while sitting on the floor with the dog and the cat in the time when the first of our tiki cocktails was being mixed. (They bought a Costco sized pineapple juice because they wanted pineapple juice and knew I was coming and had been wanting to play with the cocktails in the book.))