Playing Hooky…

I’m not a big believer in playing hooky…mostly I try to keep Maya in school on school days, and do our vacationing on vacation days.  If we end up going on a vacation to visit family during the school year, the school gives Maya an ‘Independent Study’ assignment, and she works on that while we’re gone.  The reason for my strictness on this has nothing, or very little, to do with my Puritan ancestors and their work ethics, and more to do with money.  I was on the school board at Maya’s school, and I know how much each absence costs the school.  If kids are sick, or out for a funeral, or having fun, it’s all the same, and it all costs money.  Approximately $20K last year, if I remember correctly.  That’s pretty much how much our fund-raising committee worked so hard to bring in over the course of the year.  So, if people keep their kids in school whenever they’re not sick, the school will be much better off.

However…yesterday, due to circumstances I won’t bore you with here and now, 3/4 of the upper elementary students were out of town.  Actually, Wednesday, Thursday, and today as well.  There is a teacher still there working with the 1/4 that are left, but this is one of the few times when Maya might miss a day without getting behind.  Coincidentally, I received an invitation in the mail, as a supporter of our local PBS station, to attend ‘members day’ at the SF Museum of Modern Art, where they have an exhibit on Picasso and his influences on American Artists.  Well, Maya’s class has been studying Picasso, so I thought it might be fun to go, and yesterday was the only day when PBS supporters could go for free.  So, we went.

It was lovely, though I confess that the museum was a bit too warm and too crowded for our taste.  She did get to see some Picassos in real life, though, which was worth the trip right there, because she had been wanting to do that.  After we left the museum, we decided to go have lunch at San Francisco’s oldest restaurant, the Tadich Grill, which has been in operation in one form or another since 1849.  Pretty cool.  I had cioppino, and Maya had split pea soup, and it was all around lovely.  Pretty pricey, though, so if you’re thinking of going, bring some money along.  We were planning on going to have some chocolate cake after, and we were trying to figure out the best place to do so that would include a great view.  But, our tummies wouldn’t help us out, we were too full, so we blew off the cake and came home, avoiding the crush of humanity that descends upon BART after 3pm.

Overall, I’m giving our day 2 thumbs up, with the only improvement being a less crowded, less overheated museum, and maybe some cake in there somewhere as well. 😉

Happy Friday!