Life, Lifting and Loss of My Father

The photo above is my mother, Earleene on the left, My father, Frank in the center and my mother's younger sister (my aunt), Joyce, on the right when they were very young.

My mother died from cancer in 2009 and my father died of Leukemia on Sunday, July 14, 2013. Joyce is still here, kicking in Las Vegas, I spoke with her today actually.

If you have followed my blog over the years you know all about my mom and my friend Emily, who died from cancer only last year. I feel I have had way too many close encounters with cancer and death, and the loss of loved ones. 

I also had a bout with skin cancer a month ago, below you can see my chest after the cream treatment caused it to flare up. The side effects were so strong they ended up surgically removing it. I have a nice scar now the size of a lopsided quarter on the center of my chest to remind me to wear my sunscreen.

I am fine, it's actually my second cancer experience, and I have my whole body checked every six months for more. 

Needless to say, the last several months have been a bit stressful for me and my family. My father learned about his leukemia in February, he emailed me when I was vacationing in Mexico.  He endured several months of chemo again (it was his 3rd form of cancer in just as many years), and finally he decided he was done with the blood and platelet transfusions. 

My brother flew in from Europe (where he lives) and my sisters and I all cared for him, taking turns doing all of the things one needs to do. Joyce was there almost round the clock.

Here I am, in MyRedRocket (my convertible BMW), eating chocolate as I drive to my father's, he lived down the coast about 3 1/2 hours away (according to him, but none of us ever made it there that quickly).

I got out at Starbucks in King City, only to find chocolate melted on the butt of my light gray yoga pants, and chocolate on my face.....

I joined another gym at my father's place, in a city 13 miles away. In my opinion, nothing should stop you from training and my Dad would have felt the same way. 

Above I am posing at In Shape City in Santa Maria, California. I think I was a bit of a novelty to them, a new gal sauntering in, buff to the max, acting like she owns the place. I was greeted the very first day. A big guy comes in and introduces himself, shaking my hand. "You are in great shape!" he said, "You have all the guys back there talking about you." I thanked him and laughed, and explained I would be around for the next month or so.

I enjoyed my new gym immensely! I spent a lot of time there, Dad slept most of the day and mornings were quiet.

I brought a great deal of my own food, but since my brother, Derek wanted to train and learn to eat the "Kristy way", we did shopping and food prep together. He ended up losing 9 pounds I believe and will go home looking lean as can be!

I did some extra cardio everyday as most of the time at Dad's I was sitting and not particularly active. In Shape had something called a Jacob's Ladder that I loved, it was the most difficult form of cardio I have ever done. Take a look below!

After intervals for 14 minutes. Of course this was leg day too and I had done heavy squats and lunges previously. 

It's important to remember that we need to take care of ourselves when faced with a FUBAR. Do you know what that means? Many people use the acronyms SNAFU and FUBAR and have no idea what they mean. Less common but just as fun are TARFU and BOHICA. It's military speak (Dad was a marine ) -

Fucked

Up 

Beyond

All

Recognition

I go  into "I'm gonna train and no one can stop me" mode when something like this happens and I get lean and mean. Many others revert to old bad habits, alcohol, drugs, smoking, over eating. Not me, I want to take care of myself.

Below is Dad's duffel bag, moldy smelling but I love it! I found it in his closet as I cleaned out his clothes.

I found these great big silky shorts, I don't recall ever seeing him in these! 

Here is my brother, Derek (left) and my son, Cooper at dinner at Jocko's in Nipomo. Three nights after Dad's death, after we had cleared out much of the house, we all went to dinner to celebrate his life, relax and unwind. Death is a very stressful event. I felt like I had been holding my breath for weeks. I enjoyed a gin Gibson; one drink and I was dizzy.

I am at my home gym, Gold's Campbell here. I came home from Dad's a few times, but was too exhausted and stressed to go to work. I was on Family Medical Leave and missed a month of work. It's OK, my staff are very well crossed trained, very capable and I kept up with emails.

I continued my quest for legs, big, muscular legs and you can see that I am getting there. Two months after my last competition I am up 8 pounds and still lean, I am quite pleased with how my physique is coming along. David keeps looking at me saying "Your legs look great!" and he isn't into all this bodybuilding stuff at all! 

I am doing fine, while losing a loved one is never easy, Dad had us laughing until the end. Well, honestly at times we wanted to strangle him, but then we would huddle in the kitchen, comply with his crazy demands and get on with the care he needed, and appreciated even at his grumpiest moments.

Sometimes I looked at the morphine and the lorazepam and considered taking it myself! But I didn't, it was my way of vocalizing the stress I was feeling.

David and Cooper were very patient, holding down the fort at home and taking care of things I had to have done. Roy was amazing, changing my training schedule at the drop of a hat to accommodate me with my weird schedule in between cities for the last month. 

Sakura sent my father a card for father's day that made both he and I cry, the words were sincere and loving. 

Friday, I was at home, I trained with Roy and then David and I went to lunch. I had a glass of champagne and some wonderful (non-dietetic) food. 

I take Derek to the airport on Sunday, he will return home and to his studies in Paris. I go back to work on Monday and catch up to a month's worth of 'stuff". My sister, Karen also goes back on Monday, she too took a month off to care for Dad. 

Then on Thursday, Cooper and David will move Cooper back to Chico, into his new apartment and I lose another loved one, but hopefully I will see him frequently. 

it's been rough, it's been difficult, it's been stressful and tiring. But I never gave up, never, I am not a quitter. I love life and death is part of life, a very difficult transition, but one we must all come to terms with.

I will miss Dad, but every time I use a microwave I will think of him (it's an inside story that only his caregivers will know), and I still have his striped socks to wear when I go back to finish clearing out his home before the house is sold. 

I will also remember how he marveled at my passion and told me many, many times how proud he was of me and my accomplishments.  I have saved all the emails where he would reply to all my blogs, he read every single one. 

Oh, and the meaning of the other "military slang acronyms"? Check them out HERE! 

Feed Me Fit

Food makes you feel good doesn't it?  Food is one of the greatest needs for all humans; according to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, so that we can reach a higher state, if you do not have food you really cannot even think about doing anything else. Food just makes you feel good inside and out. If we are just talking basics needs, you don't need much, Prison Loaf will do (yes I made it).

But we all want more, we want healthy food that is easy and quick to prepare and that tastes great. It's not all that easy for some people though. Then for those of us who want to get lean and ripped, or even just lean, it's a whole different ballgame.

You need to eat the right foods, healthy choices, feed the magnificent machine called "your body" what it needs to function properly. That doesn’t mean bland and boring food and it doesn’t mean the same old thing over and over.

Maggie Shih of Feed Me Fit spent two hours in my kitchen on Sunday and made three very simple, healthy and incredibly tasty dishes. Dishes that I can make, you can make, and everyone would eat and not know how healthy they were, seriously. I wrote about her previously, you should read that post first if you have not yet read it.

No salt was used, very little oil (olive oil spray) and no refined starches.

We met in the same way I meet so many people, I emailed a complete stranger! That’s how I have made connections with so many wonderful people in my life, and how I even found my favorite vacation destination in Mexico- 16 years ago, Hacienda Eden (I still go back every year).

I was searching for a gift for Roy, his birthday is coming up and cooking lessons might be in order! Maggie is a Certified Fitness Chef. She spends most of her time at her customer’s homes preparing food, typically in advance so they can pop it in the refrigerator or the freezer, or both. She will even shop for the food too if that’s requested. In addition, she offers cooking classes for individuals or small groups for those who want to learn to do it on their own.

Maggie knew I am prepping for a competition so my food had to be light and low calorie, but she wanted to show me some other dishes too, so we had a range of things on Sunday.

She pulled up in her car and toted all her things effortlessly into my kitchen and made herself right at home, she was comfortable in the kitchen, I could tell. I have a big kitchen, actually my favorite room in the house and there is lots of room to move around.

She started with an egg dish "egg in a ring" and it was so simple yet wonderful; I cannot believe I never thought of it! 

Yellow bell pepper, egg and seasonings (no salt) and a few slices of avocado. 

We asked David to be a taster and he ate half (I ate the other).

Next Maggie moved on to a staple on my diet, tilapia. I eat tilapia almost every day; it is a mild, firm white fish, inexpensive and plentiful. It takes on the flavors of anything you season or cook it with, so it is versatile. Most tilapia is farmed; you will not find "wild" tilapia around here. I caution you to check the origin of your tilapia and try to only buy that farmed in the USA, with South America being a second choice. Tilapia raised in Taiwan and China will be raised in water where there is no lead control, the groundwater is polluted and the fish are too. (Did you know that’s why we started selling unleaded gasoline? The lead in the gas was causing birth defects in our children! They don’t worry about the lead in China unfortunately); in addition, the feed used and the cleanliness of the pens are questionable in these countries, your health is not worth the few cents savings the cheap and muddy tasting fish you will be eating. If you buy it at a market where it is laid out on a tray and not in a package, just ask where it is from, by law they must have tags showing the origin of all fish.

The dilled tilapia was moist and flavorful, I get so used to baking a big tray of it that I forget that my healthy food can also be wonderfully flavorful and moist, if I just put a few more minutes into it. Maggie served kale on the side, seasoned with garlic powder, yum! Here again I caution you about the origin of your kale, it is #11 on the top 15 fruits and vegetables that have extreme pesticide usage- meaning that it is one of the foods you MUST buy organic!

David bravely took a bit of the tilapia, he isn’t a fan at all, but he actually liked it. 

After Maggie left we talked and he said "No offense, but her food just doesn’t taste like your bland diet food, I mean it has flavor."….right, well it did and he was right, but when I am cranking out my food, in between working a full time job, training 7 days a week, and most of them twice a day, it does take a bit of the "joy" out of cooking and trying to make it all more palatable. I eat for fuel right now. I am a machine!

The last dish was stupendous, but not something I would eat on a competition diet. Off the diet- sure I would, so now I just had a few bites and left the rest to David. I took half of it to Roy too; he had it for dinner on Monday night!

A smoky bacon loaded sweet potato! A paleo dish (for those who follow that diet), that can be enjoyed by anyone. 

The "chili" was made with bacon, ground turkey, and vegetables. I am not a real bacon fan, I have a hard time moving past the copious amounts of fat in it, but this was good, really good! Maggie said you can easily cut most of the fat out too!

David tried the loaded potato, and he tried it again. He loved it. It was time for me to eat, and I had several bites of the dishes Maggie cooked, but I am lean and ready early, so I can stand some extra calories right now, in fact I dropped too low and panicked a bit, so I was ready for a full meal.

As she packed up and I walked her to the car, she said "eat the tilapia!" I ate the whole thing and the kale (I love kale and eat it several times a week).

I came in to find that David had devoured the potato and topping…almost, he didn’t eat all the sweet potato and since I needed some starch, I ate it!

I packaged up the rest of the "chili" that was in the pot and set half aside for David and the other half to take to Roy.

I left the house right after Maggie did, so I could head back to Gold’s Gym, I was off for round two of cardio and posing. When I came home, I would start cooking my food, more tilapia, sweet potatoes, chicken and vegetables.

I know first hand, that when people start a new fitness regime, the area that causes them the most stress, and will usually make them fall short of reaching their goal, is the food prep. They usually have no idea what to prepare, how to prepare it, how to make it taste good and they usually don't have the hours and hours it takes every week to do it. I spend several hours a couple times a week just making my food since I eat 6 times a day! 

You cannot out-train a bad diet. 

When I returned home for the gym, there was a house full of guests, all sitting in the backyard having wine and pizza (a Sunday ritual around here now), Virginia came into the kitchen and said David was raving about "some egg McMuffin with no muffin". He told her how good it was and didn’t taste anything like "Kristy’s diet food"…..hmmm I think he was talking about the "egg in a ring"

Contact Maggie at Feed Me Fit if you are interested in food prep or cooking classes, she says some people get a group of friends together at their home, and they all split the cost of the cooking class. Then, if you like, she can prepare meals for a week or so just until you get an idea of proportion and dishes and then she sets you free to experiment on your own.

She also has a Facebook Page where you can stay connected, learn about special events and check out her dishes. 

All opinions expressed are mine alone. I have not received remuneration for this post or content. 

Homemade Almond Butter

A couple weeks ago I made homemade cashew butter, today it's almond butter. I should have started with peanut butter as the ingredients are the least expensive!  I have learned quite a bit and still have some experimentation to do, but it's fun.

The jar above is for Roy, I THINK he likes eating my experiments, at least he never complains. David and Cooper are not into nut butters much, so they barely tried this one for me.

I started out with roasted, unsalted almonds from Whole Foods and salt. I wanted salt as the nut butters I like are all roasted and have salt. No oil!!! 

Something I learned from the cashew butter is make it in batches, using 3 cups of nuts at a time, otherwise it's too much for the Vitamix to handle and you risk overheating the motor.

3 cups of nuts in the Vitamix and I added 2 teaspoons of salt (this turned out to be too much). I used the tamper from the start and turned the Vitamix on, then moved the dial immediately to 10 and then the power over-ride and just kept tamping it all down until it was smooth.

As I said, it was too much salt so I made another batch with no salt, then I mixed them both together by hand in a bowl. I ended up using 6 cups almonds and 2 teaspoons salt, I think I would cut the salt in half next time.

The finished product! I think next time I would make it this way: 3 cups roasted almonds and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Then if I wanted more, I could mix it in by hand. 

Almond butter is very expensive, and the roasted almonds are not a great expense. It took me longer to clean the mixer out than it did to make it all, so I will definitely be making my own from now on. 

A hint for cleaning out the mixer, just add hot water and dish soap then turn the mixer on high and it will clean itself, just rinse it well.

Chicken Molé (GiryaGirl)

When I am not prepping for a competition, which has now been 7 months, the longest period of “off season” time in years, I will stick to a clean and healthy diet 90% of the time. I will also allow myself treats like going out to eat cheeseburgers and fries (probably my favorites), some wine, some chocolate and lots of nut butters. 

I’m not a junk food junkie and never have been, so I don’t miss pizza (in fact there are very few commercial pizza’s I even like), I make my own excellent thin pizza (now David is going to want some, he can live off it), nor do I miss chips and cookies. I think a big part of it is that I do think about what goes in my body and I see what it does, I react very quickly to foods. I work hard to look good so when I see the negative effects, It really makes an impression on me.

I am a firm believer in whole foods, although I completely understand the benefits of a whey shake and simple carbs after training and take advantage of the anabolic effects. 

Diet foods, fat free foods and packaged foods modified to be lighter and less caloric are not often on my table. Cheese; yes, as it’s made with part skim milk, but that’s really it.  I will eat some fabulous foods in the off season but I still adhere to my schedule of several small meals, always a protein source (I eat fattier off season), always ample vegetables and only some starches in a couple of those meals.

I find that so many people lack imagination and think that they must stick to the tried and true, boring and bland diets. Like: Mexican is so fattening. Well, if you eat the flour tortillas, the re fried beans and all the cheese and loads of guacamole yes, it is. But you can make grilled vegetables and beef, chicken or fish and combine it with two 100% corn tortillas and have a very, very healthy and balanced meal. Top it with all the fresh salsa you want and a small amount of avocado and it's great.

So…..recently I was reading GiryaGirl.com, a site I enjoy quite a bit. Adrienne posted a healthy chicken Molé recipe made in the slow cooker. You know I love chocolate, and I love spices so, Molé has always been on my list of favorites. This had "Kristy" written all over it.

I decided to make the entire batch, 4 pounds of chicken because I would eat it for lunch, and freeze a bit for later. I used a whole chicken (light and dark) but would typically use only breast meat if really watching calories. 

I changed the method of preparation only because I have a VitaMix and it is made to process large amounts of whole foods, so I dumped all the Mole ingredients (everything but the chicken) right into that, pulsed it till smooth and ever so slightly chunky and voila, Molé sauce!  (I cannot express how much I love my VitaMix).

You can find the recipe on Adrienne’s site GiryaGirl.com and I have also included a link to a word document at the bottom of this post so that you can easily print it out if you like.

The plate at the top is my dinner. It is two pieces of chicken slathered in rich, spicy sauce  along with broccoli and avocado. Below is David's, he has no broccoli but a Mexican Curtido (pickled cabbage) that he made; along with some brown rice. I totally forgot to add chopped cilantro to it and it bummed me out because I love cilantro! Don't skip it!!

First step was roughly chopping the ingredients, so I put it all into the Vitamix and then pulsed and pureed it to a nice consistency (this is before pureeing). 

Then I got out my behemoth of a slow cooker. I really need to come up with a name for this thing, it's huge! 

The whole, cut up chicken went in, bones but NO SKIN! 

I poured in the sauce. I chose to keep it slightly chunky, it's all personal preference,  so blend it  more if you want it silky and smooth.

Mixed it well with the chicken to ensure the sauce thoroughly coats all the chicken.

I set it on low and let it cook for 7 hours. It looks stunning doesn't it? The guys were sitting in the living room watching James Bond....Cooper was home for the Thanksgiving break. I called into them "Hey, come try my Molé!" 

They acquiesce because they are always being asked to try my diet foods and they are troopers. They are also quite familiar with my saying:

"If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy"

So they both walked in, very un enthusiastically and took their little bowls and forks I offered.

And they tasted.

"This is GREAT!!!" Cooper says. He asks for more. "Wow!" says David. "Good. Really, really good!"

They ask if we are having it for dinner and I explain  "no, it's for me, for my lunches".  

Cooper asks if I will make it when he comes home for the Christmas break, and David wants it before then. I end up eating it once for one dinner with David. Cooper has gone back to school with half of it and David has eaten the remainder for his lunches.

I am excited. Something healthy, delicious, SLOW COOKED, easy and did I say Molé?

Here is a link to a Word document so you can easily print it out. 

Homemade Roasted Cashew Butter

I love nut butters, love them! Cashew butter is great but it's best roasted, and most of them at the store are raw, what's the deal? Same with almond butter, roasted and salted is oh so much better! 

The good stuff will set you back a pretty penny, that's for sure. The last jar of cashew butter I bought was $14.00. And, these days you cannot even trust anyone who makes it! Have you heard about the Sunland peanut butter recall? Sunland makes several different brands of peanut butter, in fact, I was eating one of the recalled butters! The latest report suggests that they even knew that they were shipping tainted products! 

Sundland manufactured many different brands and products, not just nut butters, in fact, here is a list of over 100 products that they had to recall.  I was ill from it myself, for two weeks I was not feeling up to my usual perky self, (I won't go into details, use your imagination here) but things just weren't right. I would eat a tablespoon of peanut butter every few days in a shake, and it was one of the recalled ones! It was the Trader Joe's Valencia Peanuts with Flax Seeds. 

David came home from shopping one day back in September and casually said "no peanut butter. They recalled yours" and left it at that. I ran to check the open container in the fridge and it was one of the bad ones....I started to feel better shortly after chucking it in the trash can.

I digress. I was chatting with my friend Ada Chan on Facebook and she said she made her own peanut butter, so I thought I would make my own cashew butter. Do you recall that I bought a Vitamix from the auction when Dave Draper's old gym in Santa Cruz closed? I have the espresso machine and grinder too, a veritable espresso and smoothie bar right in my own kitchen! I will flex when I make it for you too if you ask!

I got the roasted and salted nuts at Trader Joe's (hoping they were not tainted). I am sure you can get them cheaper at Costco, but I'm not a member there. Into my Vitamix they went, with nothing else. 

I followed the directions, turned on variable speed with the tamper in the center, then up to high speed and listened for the change in the sounds. From a low chug chug to a high speed whir, immediately turn it off or the machine could over heat.

Here is a short video of some unknown male making honey roasted peanut butter, but you can see how the tamper works, it's indispensable for this. 

Here is my finished cashew nut butter! I made a lot, I am bringing some to Roy on Wednesday, he loves roasted nut butters too. David is very good about trying everything I make but nut butters just don't thrill him like they do me and Roy.

Yum, yum! Gotta lick the tamper! Don't worry- I thoroughly washed it afterward. 

Oh, then I went down to Body Exotic and got my nose pierced. It was a day off and seemed like a good time to do it! Thank goodness Daniel was there, he did the last three (I did the other three myself) and I feel more comfortable with him. We had a good chuckle as we chatted about which jewelry to select and the pros and cons of each. I got the most expensive item they sold, but it's also the best, set in prongs, designed small and flush and it's secured inside, I cannot remove it or lose it, I have to go have Daniel take it out if I need to remove it.

Back home and here is one jar of roasted cashew nut butter. Next I am making roasted almond butter. And maybe some macadamia, I have several cans of roasted and salted ones that were given to me as a gift.

I just need to make sure I ration it out!

Empty Nest

I left my son, Cooper at Chico State University on Tuesday, August 21, it is 210 miles away. I am a tough cookie, a hard-ass, weight lifting, big food eating, truck tire flipping, chalk dipping woman. And I was not prepared for the pain of this experience.

Cooper is our only child, and therefore has spent quite a bit of time with us. We were never the parents who did things and left their kid with a sitter - he never had a sitter! He was enjoying his first meal at Chez Panisse at the age of 6 weeks, he went everywhere with us.

We drove up to Chico in a rented SUV, we needed a bigger car for his belongings and I have to stretch out due to the hamstring and hip flexor issues I am having. We drove up the night before and went out to a wonderful dinner at the Red Tavern. Cooper thoroughly enjoyed his pork belly, I didn't have the heart to tell him that the dining commons in the dorms would not be serving that....but I think he knew.

We had conversations about things that were "unfinished business" from before. Like why I moved out of the house when I was only 17 and still in high school. He said he knew I had done that, but never knew why.

David loves his food and wine! And spending time with his two favorite people. Below is the stunning menu, if you ever go to Chico, definitely stop by the Red Tavern!

I had prawns wrapped in bacon! I told Cooper that I left not because I didn't get along with my mother, but because there were things I had to do, and there were rules. If you know me, you know that I have this belief that "rules" don't really apply to me, they never have. I feel they are "guidelines", but at the young age of 17, I didn't feel that, I felt they were an albatross around my neck.

I left home because I wanted freedom to do the things I HAD to do. I finished school, I was rebellious, not stupid. I found it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. The bills, the landlords, the rent, the shopping, connecting P.G. & E., telephone (no cell phones then), garbage, water...

I had chocolate soufflé for dessert. it was great!

I raised Cooper with all of my experiences in mind. I wanted to give him the freedom he craved, and the guidance he needed, I think David and I did a good job. We have a very good relationship with him, we all enjoy spending time together. 

I had my own breakfast at the hotel- chicken breast, sweet potato and green beans. 

Cooper had a roommate from his high school all arranged, it was great that it worked out as well as it did. But the pain, the pain...

I lived through handing him over to a team of doctors for emergency surgery when he was only 3 weeks old, when he lost so much weight he weighed only 4.5 pounds due to pyloric stenosis; luckily my doctor, the one I still see to this day was able to diagnose it and called the hospital and sent us right over.

Cooper and I spent four nights in the hospital. They didn't let me hold him because he was not allowed food, and he could smell the breast milk as I came close. I sat and slept on the chair by the bed, only leaving to go fill the hospital freezer with my milk.

Then he broke his arm snow boarding with friends. The call "Mom, morphine is great!" is not something you want to hear from your 12 year old!

Or when he suffered a compound fracture of his right index finger playing lacrosse only a year ago, he still has nerve damage and probably always will.

The girlfriend who dumped him after receiving the beautiful Tiffany necklace he painstakingly saved for and gave her for Christmas.

His wisdom teeth being pulled only this month! Neither one of us responds well to Vicodin, so he was on percocet for a week. 

The greatest pain is the feeling of needing and loving someone so much, yet they no longer need you.  

Oh, I know it is perfectly natural and healthy for him to leave, to grow up and go on his own, but I wasn't prepared for this, not at all. 

Below is his roommate, Andrew and his mother Mary.

And he didn't take much with him, his room is still full, it looks like he still lives there, but it's quite...very quiet. 

David on the left and Andrew's father, Dave on the right!

His lacrosse gear made the trip, he hopes to play for Chico, he's good.....I cannot wait to hear if he made the team soon.

He realized there wasn't much room, but Mary and I helped the boys unloft the beds to make it more comfortable, then "decorated" as much as they would allow us to.

Important stuff: Cup-noodle, sriracha sauce.

I made the bed and he said it would be the last time that happened! hmmm....he HAS to wash his sheets at some point I hope!

We all went out to a last lunch at the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. They always have a great steak salad on the menu, the boys all had steaks and fries.

My boys...looks like one is crying.

He let me give him one last big kiss on the cheek. I don't remember him getting so tall, I was on my tip toes!

In the car, on the long and very quiet drive home, I ate my meal. Shrimp, broccoli and green beans.

I sent this to him, I am friends with all of the Chico State organizations, so I can try to be involved a little. He said this sounded awesome. I saw the pictures the following day, looks like all the freshmen attended!

A "Taking your kid to college survival kit" from David's assistant principal. Red wine, Symphony chocolate, tissues, a big pen, stationary..

David and I have both wandered in and out of Cooper's room, looking and touching things we had thought were so important to him, yet he left them all behind. I just booked my room for the parents BBQ on October 6. Apparently there is a huge event in Chico that weekend, so the only place with a room left was what David and Cooper call the "Chico Crack Hotel", but  it's within walking distance, and I will only be sleeping there anyway, I will spend the morning in the gym- Chico Sport Club!

I have thrown myself into my training, seems I have nothing else in life that I need to do right now. It's going to be a long, difficult adjustment for me, I hope Cooper adjusts better.