15 June 2012

Tonight I went to a Reno Aces game with my younger daughter. The last time we went, we parked out on the street somewhere and walked in. This time I missed what was the last parking space on that street, and as I drove closer, there were weren't anymore, so we parked in the parking garage. A group of people from church went, so we all sat together in section 102, which is always pretty fun. I walked around the stadium, trying to do the 3 laps for a mile, but I found other people I knew from church, so I stopped and talked to them all. The Aces won, then we watched the fireworks.

After it was over, the girl and I went out and played in the big grassy area near the entrance. People were throwing balls and running, and one boy was riding a bike. I figured that it would take a long time to get out of the parking garage, so we just hung out there for awhile, until some of the lights were turned off.

Leaving the garage, we drove out on second street, crossed over the Truckee and took High street down to Ryland. Once I got in the vicinity of Art Museum and Arlington, I feel like I'm in the Reno I know. It's funny how the downtown part can seem almost foreign. Even driving up Virginia to midtown is a different experience. This got me thinking about how there are so many people here, working on really building up some of these parts of town to make them well populated business areas that draw a lot of people. I like that we do that, yet I don't know what the answer is for the concrete ghost towns we have now, that used to be thriving shopping centers.

Recycled Records could have stayed where it was, in my opinion. I hope their new location helps their business, but I actually liked going to their old location because it was easy to park, Swensen's is there, and I didn't feel like I was going to drive over bicyclists and pedestrians just trying to slowly make my way down the road. There is almost nothing left where Swensen's is now--the hair cutting places, the big furniture stores, the Mervyn's are all gone.

Parklane Mall was torn down supposedly to be revitalized or rebuilt, but that never happened. It's fenced off to keep people out, which has had the effect of turning it into a seagull refuge. Maybe the owners should think about putting a pond in, and just giving the whole thing over to the birds. Heidi's, which was on Virginia and not really a part of Parklane, got torn down as part of it all, since their property was owned by the same people. And now that cute restaurant is gone, and I'm sure their business has suffered as a result, because the only location in Reno is now way south where Denny's used to be.

All of this reminds me that we've driven up to so many restaurants only to find they had gone out of business: Jeremiah's, Austin's, the little restaurant where Extreme Pizza is now, Bajios, Tahoe Burger, Sezmu (and Bec's Custard before that), Cheeseburger Island Style (and Friday's before that), Washoe Flats Steakhouse, Batch Cupcakery. But the Freighthouse District, which is where the Aces Ballpark is located, and the fairly new CommRow District seem to be doing well.

6 June 2012

Today was the last day of school for the girls. I woke up this morning at 5 am, then started thinking about things and all that regretful nostalgia that seems to attack me at night. I finally fell back asleep, then had dreams where people kept ignoring me or stealing my stuff, and I finally had to get mean before people would pay any attention to me. I woke up as my older daughter was leaving for school. The younger one was already up, but I guess needed something, so she was sitting outside the door, causing it to bounce against the jamb, or something. Normally the dog does that. In the middle of my getting dressed routine, the older girl texted me from school (I guess she had opportunity on the last day to do this), to tell me she forgot to turn in her check for geometry camp. I had to run the check up there at around 7:45, and I was able to talk to her Algebra teacher. I found out that she got 59/60 correct on her CBE, which was a 98%. That made me very happy for the rest of the day.

The weather has been chilly the last couple of days. On Monday in the second grade class, there was a walking field trip to a park a mile away. I signed up to bring pizza, so I walked down to Godfather's once we got to the park. But the cold front moved in, bringing terrible wind. The kids walked back to school wrapped in their picnic blankets, and I ended up getting stuck at the back of the line with the 3 slowest girls, and my daughter who was slightly ahead, but kept lagging, waiting for us. Tuesday was field day, but it was cold! I ended up helping the librarian out with her event, the wet sponge toss. The girl was not looking forward to field day, but when I saw her there, she said she was having fun.

Today the middle school let out at 11 am, so I didn't really have time to do much of anything other than run around and buy some teacher gifts. I went to Napa-Sonoma, Barnes & Noble and Raley's. Then I picked up the older girl and we came home where I prepared a lunch for the younger one; we both went to the school and all had a picnic lunch together out on the front lawn of the school. Finally they were able to eat outside again because the temperature got up into the mid-60's by lunch time, and it was quite nice in the sun.

I'm always rather sad on the last day of school, and yet happy and excited too. Then I feel like we can do many things, there is so much promise at the beginning. There are so many languages to learn, stories to write, things we can do! I bought a leather bound copy of the complete works of Shakespeare today at Barnes & Noble while I was buying a gift card for the teacher. I wanted to thumb through it and read different things, specifically the sonnets. Then I thought it might be fun to write a sonnet, but when I mentioned it to the older girl, she did not agree. I asked her for some ideas, and she said love or death--isn't that all sonnets talk about? Oh, I'm sure we could find something funnier.

I walked the dog tonight, and again I notice how nice the peaches and cherries are looking. I only wish we had a fruit tree. The birds are already getting the cherries, so I plucked one from the tree I passed, and ate it, and it was pretty good.