Category Archives: Surviving Summer Funtimes

Strange Geese, Space Force’s Lost and Found, and Good ol’ Whatshisname

Creative non-fiction, Humor, Month in Review, Parenting, Surviving Summer Funtimes, Under 750, Writing, , , ,

…Or I Could’ve Just Taken the Week Off

A few weeks ago, I picked up my daughter from sports practice at a neighboring town’s park, which is very much like our town’s park, except with different geese. This is a public park, which means the public is allowed in. That is the problem with public parks.

I had to intervene when a pack tween twerps cheered on as one kid had another kid in a headlock. The second boy’s face was red, his eyes were streaming, and he was silent, which, if you know children, is a sure sign that something isn’t fun. Oh, hello, Trouble. There you are.

It was an easy read.

My “Hey!” stopped almost all of them.

One prepubescent Cobra Kai decided to test his standing with the gods and said to me, “Bro, this is none of your business.”

“Bro” is apparently a word that activates me like some sort of verbose sleeper agent. You can imagine how things went for all of them after that.

It was over quickly, but the kid in the headlock had enough time to walk away, which was really the main thing here.

No tween twerps were harmed in this interaction.

Joke’s on me, though (when isn’t it?) because little did I know that August was warming up in the corner, waiting to see if it could take my household two falls out of three.

All of that was once a Facebook post I left up for an hour before deleting, presumably to protect national security or because I pressed the wrong button. I tried to find it later (deleted posts, archived posts, etc.) but couldn’t. Alas, it’s gone, filed somewhere in the Cloud, or the shelf in Space Force’s Lost and Found where they store embarrassing mom anecdotes. I recreated it here, with slightly more effort than the 0.2 seconds I give most Facebook posts.

I had planned a proper post this week as I’ve been trying to post weekly, but then everyone in the house got sick. Like really sick, where after a few days you think you’re okay-ish then you lie down and wake up 5 hours later feeling groggy and not much better, if not a little worse.

Then I got sick. Which was technically covered under “everyone,” but I tend to assume “everyone” means “everyone else.” I usually avoid household contagion, possibly because I move through life in the equivalent of John Travolta’s bubble in that film. Except my bubble is made of grumpiness.

Here’s how I’m doing: for 5 minutes just now, I was trying to remember that actor’s name. Couldn’t retrieve “John Travolta” but pulled up “Vinnie Babarino” like a coin from behind your ear. I had to Google “Who played Vinnie Barbarino?” to complete a joke that, in retrospect, did not warrant the effort.

Everything’s fine.

Now we’re digging out, staggering toward the end of summer with what feels like 100% potential energy, in the physics sense, like we’re all little balls in a slingshot (Google Search: “What is that v-shaped thing made with sticks you pull back and shoot a ball out of?”)

Big Moves are on my to-do list, meaning working on building community and also giving myself ample space and big chunks of time to work on my novel.

I am mildly loath to get back to it all — the hustle and/or the bustle — because “big chunks of time to work on my writing” is an idea the universe finds particularly hilarious.

Also, can one be mildly loath? MAYBE. You know who could probably pull off being “mildly loath?” John Travolta, but only in his role in Pulp Fiction (Google Search: “What was that movie where the dude who played Vinnie Barbarino played a gangster” — which, incidentally, first pulled up Gotti, and that dude was not mildly anything.)

*EXTREME CARRIE BRADSHAW VOICEOVER* And just like that, this August was much like that tween headlock situation: too hot, too loud, the geese are unfamiliar, somebody’s turning red, and the only thing you can do is yell ‘Hey!’ and hope everyone walks away in one piece with a modicum of dignity.

Bro.

Hopefully, a new piece next week.

Anyway, please accept this in lieu of structural integrity this week:

Fourth

Parenting, Surviving Summer Funtimes,

These are my posts from a year ago. One in the morning, one later in the day.

We’re taking the day as it comes, as are a lot of families in this area. We may tiptoe into the day, sliding into and out of festivities. We may cannonball in. Who knows? The only certainty is that it’s humid and no one will be having a good hair day.

The heartbreak and fury are real. All I hope is that we’re not asked to move on or to “be strong/go back to normal or else the bad guys win” at a clip that doesn’t work for everyone.

Happy 4th, and I mean that. It used to be one of our favorite holidays because it’s intended to be for every American (although freedom is a complicated and often aspirational topic in this country and those conversations are also a welcome part of my experience.)

If the family wants, we’ll venture back to where we were evacuated from last year. We received a heads-up from family in Highland Park moments before our first responders shut down our town’s festivities. It was surreal.

We were evacuated out of “an abundance of caution.” Our trauma (?) was second-hand? Third-hand? American’d?

It was (un)avoidable, depending on your views on guns and kids and mass shootings and the American experience.

Tonight, per tradition, I’ll hang out with our dog during the fireworks and everyone else will go celebrate with family at our favorite picnic of the year. The dog will pant in my face or go sit in a closet and I’ll sit with him and it’s fine. Minus the dog breath. But if he doesn’t care about my morning breath, I can stand his all-day breath for this.

Complexity is a lovely part of the human experience. I usually love pulling on threads, holding culture and history up to the light, and looking into its prism.

This? Not so much. Not today.

For other communities, there are other days like this. December 14. May 24. February 14.

Every day on the calendar.

Homeward Bound Demented Demon Cheerleaders – July 2020 Month in Review

Gratitude, HerStories Project, McSweeney's, Month in Review, Pandemic, Parenting, Publications, Recommendations, Surviving Summer Funtimes, Writing, Writing process, Writing the first book

It’s a few days late for this month in review, but what does time even mean anymore? July is the weekend of summer. Even now, especially now, July feels etched in my memory both dabbed in watercolor, hazy and sprawling and drawn with Sharpie, angular and indelible.

July was a time of online camps for my kids, and of trying to find outdoor activities that don’t give me the heebie-jeebies or put me on high alert. It was a time for creative celebrations of July 4, long leisurely meals on the deck, and regularly going out to watch the sunset in all its glory. These all sound a lot better right now than they actually were at the time.

Like many of you, my greatest preoccupation in July was in making difficult decisions about the kids returning to school, and supporting the same decisions as they are made, wrenchingly and with absolutely no sense of ease, by my friends for their own children and/or for their own careers.

Continue reading Homeward Bound Demented Demon Cheerleaders – July 2020 Month in Review →