Summer 2016: Day 102

I'm not declaring summer over yet, but the school break part of it ends in the morning. The boys are back in school in about nine hours after another long yet fast, busy yet glorious summer.

There weren't too many last-day-of-summer urgencies today. Both boys are still a little worn out from the trip. Michael had a basketball workout this morning; Ben hung out with his best friend. We watched the Olympics and "The Simpsons." I took Ben and Popcorn for a little hike to the H Rock to watch the sunset, and Ben met a new friend -- a 10-year-old girl named Cathy, but whom he called Christina when he said goodbye (that's going to get him in big trouble someday ...). We Skyped with my dad, and the boys went to bed soon afterward. I'm out on the porch after watching some classic music videos I had DVRd.

Though I'm sad to see summer come to an end, I'm craving the return to a routine. I reset my job, pretty much my life, right at the end of the school year, and then never seemed to get as organized as I hoped as the summer set in and the nuttiness abounded. I want to begin seriously cruising with the new role at work. I want to start working out again. I want to track my meals and start losing the weight that I had lost and put back on over the past 20 months. I want to find time for the other things -- board games, writing, organization -- that in the happy chaos of summer (and the malaise before that) I couldn't delineate.

And, in what is a familiar theme for me, I want the next school year to go slower. Last year was such a blur because it felt like I was in survival mode, trying to get from one day to the next, one co-op shift at school to the next, one week to the next, and one month to the next intact. I've been sleeping like such a baby since the reset; it's almost like my body is recovering from the stressful winter. Now to take that one step further.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Summer, Day 8

Today was Memorial Day, and as far as Memorial Days go, this one seemed somewhat anticlimactic. The sun came out after three less-than-stellar days, perhaps preventing the weekend from being a total bust. I worked late last night but was awake earlier than I wanted to be this morning. I fell back asleep and woke up around 10:30 to a thumping sound outside. Michael, Lori and my father-in-law got the rest of the sand in the base of the new basketball hoop, and Michael and his friend from across the street were shooting around. This was Lori's parents' last day in Utah, so we treated them to The Cheesecake Factory at the new City Creek mall downtown. I had the macaroni and cheese burger and most of a piece of Oreo cheesecake (no matter how much I pushed on my sons -- they wanted to share Lori's banana cream cheesecake). The boys and I wandered City Creek a little and came home. The afternoon wasn't much more eventful. Michael and I took Popcorn to the park for about
Read more

Vacation finale

Image
As expected, the last three days of vacation were much less eventful than the first 12. This happens every year -- we get back from Wisconsin for at least one day before leaving for Utah, and it's just wind-down time. And that's OK -- going nonstop for two weeks isn't easy, especially with kids. And vacation is supposed to be a time to relax, and for the past three days, that's what we did. The past few days weren't that relaxing, however. Monday, we met my mom, who is in Chicago this week, for lunch and then to Old Orchard Mall. That night, we met some friends at the new Superdawg (my favorite Chicago hot dog restaurant) in Wheeling. Tuesday, after pondering going downtown, we ended up just seeing the Smurfs movie with my dad. Last night, we went to dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant here in Edgebrook. Wednesday was mostly devoted to getting ready for our return trip Thursday morning. The heat and thunderstorms finally subsided -- this might have been the m
Read more

Nine days after the solstice

Image
The summer solstice was nine days ago, but I'm only now getting around to writing my annual reflection that is supposed to be created on the first day of summer. Nine days ago, I was frenetically trying to finish up work and get ready for a road trip to Denver, where Benji was competing in a swim meet. We got back Monday afternoon, but I was too exhausted to come up to my usual spot in Donner Park. The last three nights were overcast (though the skies cleared a little too late to embark on my quest last night), spoiling the goal of watching the sunset. So, nine days later, I'm finally here. And now that I am, I'm not totally sure what to write about. To say the last year has been a blur would be cliche, and I don't think it's gone faster than any other past year. But I've been struggling to wrap my head around the current summer and, thus, what's really on my mind. I could write about how we're a year away of having two kids in college and being sort of
Read more