Today is a glorious day in the PNW. Blue, cloudless sky, birds chirping, sun shining as only the sun shines in our drizzly state. It's a day with nothing on the calendar (shocker!) and full of promise. We can do something fun! We can go places! We have the whole, luxuriant day ahead of us, just waiting to be seized!
But........I have teenagers. And they're still sleeping. Well, one of them is. The other showed his face briefly around 11 a.m. saying something about how it was "too early to get up." What? It's almost lunch time! I've already scrolled through my entire Facebook feed - twice - eaten a big bowl of Lucky Charms, read all my email, researched vacations, hotel reservations, joining AAA, and signed up for a trial of Amazon Prime. I also did two loads of laundry and hand-washed two shirts. And I didn't wake up till 9 a.m!
I guess the closer you are to the grave, the more you want to make the most out of every day. Because I work for the school district, this is my summer vacation, too. And, like any kid dreading "back to school," I, too, am dreading the return to work. The alarm clock. The lunch packing. The errand-running after I get off work and the endless driving kids to and from things. Thinking about what to make for dinner and actually having to DO something about it by a certain time. Lamenting that I cannot just go out of town or on a spontaneous trip because I now have to be accountable to a job M-F. Yeah, I know, I'm lucky I have the summers off. And I do appreciate it, which is why I want to make the most of it.
We've had a pretty good summer so far. But I have not done so many things I wished I had. Here is a short list: photographed the sunset (last summer I did this on so many nights it became a ritual - this summer, not at all!), waded in the river (just because), gone camping (not once! But we are going over Labor Day. To a campground about twenty minutes from home and we're in the last available spot that was open so it's the farthest from the lake, but STILL. We're going camping!), spent the whole day at the lake/beach (we've gone only once or twice this whole summer!), cooked s'mores over the fire pit in the backyard (I think we've only lit the fire pit once this summer), spent a day in downtown Seattle visiting the Market and riding the Great Wheel, taken a ferry ride somewhere, had a BBQ (last time we used the BBQ it caught on fire!).
Still, we have lots of time left. Well, two weeks. And next week I already have to go back to work a couple of days. But there's always September, which, around here, is just like summer, only with work and school thrown in.
Despite all that, I still don't get how my kids can sleep in half the day and "waste" a beautiful (rare) sunny day. Sure, I could do all these things by myself, but where's the fun in that? I want to take the kids with me, watch them frolic on the beach, hike in the woods, paddle the kayaks, have some friends over. But they're not little any more. Only two of them are currently home - heck, one of them lives on her own now and I'm still wondering where she is half the time, and expecting her to walk in the door. What am I going to do when they're all grown and gone? I better have a grandkid or two by then. No pressure, kids!
So, instead of frolicking in the perfect day outside, I'm sitting in my jammies, blogging at 11:24 a.m. I should just relish in the fact that today we don't have anywhere to be or anything to do. What a treat. I can seize this day! Even if it's from a lounge chair on the deck with a cold drink in my hand and nothing to do but read magazines. Ah, summer!
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