Life's Update - the Short Version

Some events in life are not conducive to blogging. As much as I'd love to publicly process, and regularly publish "Gah - can you believe it?" and "Where am I, the twilight zone?!" posts, alas - I cannot. And I suppose I could just not mention that there are things going on that I'm not ready to share, but as my sister recently put it, I wear my emotions on my sleeve. But I guess I can talk a bit about what we've been up to. That's harmless enough, isn't it? And you can watch for hints about the side of craziness. It'll be fun - like Where's Waldo but instead, Find the Unbloggable Back-Story!

We just returned from Washington DC...

where we toured the Bureau of Engraving and Printing,

several Monuments,

the Capitol, the Holocaust Museum, the Spy Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Air and Space Museum, the Art Museum, museum museum museum museum (cue side ache), and also

Arlington Cemetary,

several Smithsonian museums, more museums museums museums museums (cue sore feet)

and the White House, where no cameras, strollers, backpacks, purses, water bottles, belts, excessive jewelry, guns, knives, scud missiles, WMDs, babies, arms, ears, or underwear were allowed due to heightened anal rentention security. (cue ohhellyeah Obama won) (Just kidding on the babies thing.)

Jonathan's favorite tour?


ESPN Zone.

We also squeezed in visits to one cousin (forgot to take a photo),

one new unschooling friend,

one old unschooling friend,

and one soon-to-be step-sister. *<--- ahem <----*

The trip was organized for homeschoolers by a homeschooling mom from North Carolina. This essentially means someone else planned the entire trip and I wrote a check. Hello Christmas-come-early.

We didn't know anyone on the trip, but that was ok. We were there to see the sights, not socialize. Some folks, you could tell, were hoping to make new friends on the trip. Like the family who seemed nice enough and then told us how Hitler strengthened Germany's economy by bringing new jobs. (Like, say, sewing stars for Jews? Manning the crematoriums? Guarding concentration camp borders? Jobs like that?) And like the family who seemed nice enough and then told us that lightning struck in Sacramento for the first time in years because California enacted gay marriage and even, *gasp*, now allows boys and girls to use the same restrooms.

After that I began using unschooling as a shield - "Hi, we're unschoolers!" became my new opening line of choice (cue uncomfortable looks of horror and polite exits) - and we were left blissfully alone.

It was a wonderful, tiring, exciting trip. Brady's favorite part?

Not the subway.

In other news, we....

Other things that've been consuming my every waking moment going on, well....

That's it, folks - all the news that's fit to print.