These past few months in school have been brutal.

Our principal and secretary resigned, two people who made coming to work enjoyable. Their love of life will be missed greatly.

My grade partner is moving to another school. Another person who makes work enjoyable. Her filter is kind of broken, and we get each other’s teaching style. She will be missed by many here.

My class has been “meh” regarding engagement, attitude, and overall behavior. I’ve tried a number of things but just cannot reach them like I want at this point of the school year.

Iowa’s legislative session has been awful, and I don’t even need to mention how awful the chaos at the national level has been.

So, when my college roommate’s wife asked if we wanted to come up and celebrate his birthday last week, yes was the correct response.

So Friday afternoon, we made the trek to the Twin Cities for a much-needed visit. We saw them in Red Wing during their music festival, so twice in two months is pretty rare! They are two of the most genuine people we know, and I wish we lived closer to each other. Kevin and I roomed together for four years in college between dorms and apartments, so we’ve seen each other at our best and worst moments. He got remarried to a beautiful person whom we’ve enjoyed getting to know. They work very well together, and we are so happy for the two of them.

Anyway, Friday night we went to the 318 Cafe in Excelsior, about a 20-minute drive from Kevin and Lisa’s place. This place has amazing flatbread and that alone made the night. It was delicious! However, the music that was played by Billy Johnson was nothing short of amazing. A real character on stage, his songs just made the night complete.

Saturday, we pub crawled, which is what 50-something people do anymore, I swear. We ended up at 6 different breweries around their place, nothing more than 20 minutes from home base. Before I get the side eye about things, Lisa was a driver as she’s not a big beer fan. I’m not going to list them all (I can find them if you are interested), but just know that there is a thriving culture of good beer in the Twin Cities right now, and I’m all for it. The different vibes from each brewery were almost as much fun as the different beers they served. A couple were “yuppyish,” giving off the polo shirt vibe, which was fine. Another had a little grime on the floor and gave a slightly heavier vibe (the Judas Priest in the background had no influence!).

As we got up Sunday, a little tired, but happy, it was nice to just be. I’ve written about this before, going to Iowa City, how we can just sluff off our teacher persona and just be a couple. Kevin and Lisa are the same way. They accept us for who we are, no judgment, no raised eyebrows, because they’ve dealt with their fair share of life themselves.

We gave our goodbyes and made plans to see each other during the summer.

Sometimes, we need those simply to ease our souls and allow ourselves to just be. I felt no guilt about NOT doing school work over the weekend. I felt no guilt about NOT checking emails. We needed this and it felt just right.

Oh, and happy birthday, Kev! 🙂