September Milestones

I turned 42.

That’s actually not very exciting. It was a nice day, but nothing special. Mike took me out to breakfast, we opened gifts after Michaela was done at school, and then we divided and conquered — Mike and Michaela to her Scouts meeting and me to the parent-teacher foundation meeting. Very middle age.

Mike and I celebrated our wedding anniversary.

Lucky #13. We didn’t really do anything special.

We hit the one-year anniversary of my mom’s death.

Which was… okay? I worked, so it’s not like I spent the whole day being sad. In some ways, it feels like she died yesterday and in other ways, it feels like forever. My dad and brother aren’t really inclined to do thinks as a family, so we observed the occasion separately.

We finished Route 66!

Well, kind of. Technically, Route 66 goes from Chicago to Santa Monica. This summer we started in western Missouri, so haven’t done Illinois or eastern/central Missouri. We stopped the route in Barstow (CA) and drove home, planning to do the San Bernardino-to-Santa Monica part in the car (because who wants to drive through LA traffic towing a 30-foot-long Airstream?).

This month, we made it happen. Michaela had a day off school so we made a long weekend of it. It was lovely. We went through Claremont (where I went to college) and visited some of my old haunts. We stayed on the beach in Venice. We walked our feet off in Santa Monica. Definitely my favorite milestone this month.