And just like that… it’s been two weeks since my last post!
It’s that time of year, right? On the one hand, the lazy days of Summer have started. On the other, there’s so damn much going on I’m not sure where lazy fits in. Final projects, end of school parties, sleepovers, dance recitals and pre-K graduations, you catch my drift.
So yeah – school’s out! OK, wait. can we talk about this? Today is JUNE 01. The kids, at least the ones down here in the South, have already been out of school a week. The way the school year has changed is mind-boggling.
When I was a kid, we started school the week before Labor Day. I remember it well because the Catholic schools started before everyone else, who started the Tuesday after Labor Day. When you’re ten, starting five days before everyone else might as well be starting five weeks before everyone else. The point is, we started school when Summer was actually OVER.
We went to school until late December. Yeah, we got off for Thanksgiving, and probably an in-service day or two. We didn’t have Fall Break. We got two weeks off at Christmas, and went back a few days into January. We did get Spring Break, but there was no additional Winter Break (isn’t that what the two weeks in December are?!).
And then we always got out around June 10 (this was when it was fun to be at Catholic school because we did get out before everyone else!) at which point Summer was not yet brutally hot- but definitely pool-worthy.
Isn’t that what you all did? And isn’t that what still happens in the NorthEast?
I have no idea how over the years the calendar has morphed into what we have now.
Which is to start school the second week in August, and get out before Memorial Day. WHAT? No one ever seems to be able to explain the reasoning behind this bizarro calendar. For a while I thought maybe the powers that be were trying to trick us into that whole year-round calendar thing, but that trend seems to have just died (and honestly, I’m quite ok with that).
When I started this post, I didn’t really have a specific topic or point to prattle on about, I just wanted to post because I hadn’t in a while.
But now I’m super curious about school schedules in other parts of the country (clearly I’ve got the SouthEast and the NorthEast covered). So do tell. Comment on what it is like where you live. Even BETTER! Comment on why we have this start in August end in May nightmare here in the South.
Most of my posts revolve around the hilarity/insanity of my day-to-day life, which generally means I have endless topics from which to choose. But when these rare periods of normalcy come about, my fingers freeze on the keyboard.
So in lieu of a goofy tale, I took to FaceBook to hunt down topic ideas.
oh my.
Have you MET my friends and family? #ohwait
Samples of suggested topics:
Eggs. Yes. Eggs.
not shockingly, I’m related by blood to the owner of that idea
Weird Coworkers & Duck-Billed Platypus
chances are good that the latter idea suggested by a coworker
Red Sox/Yankees
all kinds of fun with this one, from Sox and Yankees fans alike #JeterIsDone; #BothTeamsSuckRightNow
Air Travel
I feel like that is an invitation for either seriously Bad Karma or for a Delta Mobster to come track me down and end my days
The effects of wine AND how to eat clean
I am a living oxymoron
Bigly.
all.the.words (do we laugh or do we run away in horror?!)
Mothers Day
I got to a one-day reprieve from poop-scooping! (thank you Bill!) #DontTellHimIToldYouGuys
Multiple suggestions from friends that I have known for 25+ years
first off this is a miracle since none of us are past the age of 23
we’d probably all lose our jobs and kids if I told any tales of our Memphis Days
but just for fun I made the picture shared on FB the featured image.. I bet a lot of you guys came to read when you saw that little gem!
I really want to blog – because we had a MOM SLUMBER PARTY – how fun is that?! – but y’all, the sun is out. And if you have spent even a hot minute in East Tennessee lately, you’d know the sun has made only rare appearances.
So as much as I’d love to tell you all about Mom Slumber Party shenanigans, well, I’m going to sit out in the sun and do nothing.
OK actually – we heard that song the other day in the car with Mini!! I don’t think she was all that impressed, but I sang along in the front seat anyway. And yes, I still know every word. I own my love for cheesy pop music. (Somewhere in New Jersey, Rick Hankey is having heart palpitations that he is related to me).
Wanna know what I did again?
I registered. For St. Jude Marathon. Again.
Just like I have the last couple of years, and for various reasons (either nagging injury or just plain lack of discipline/training on my part) I’ve bailed. But not this year. I think for the first time in a long time, my head is in the right place as far as nutrition and fitness. And the other day a memory popped up on FB that was from my last full marathon in 2014 – oh Lord THAT is a story in itself. Remind me to tell y’all later.
So, I’m signed up at Silver Fundraising Level ($1500). You can be sure I’ll be bugging you for at least $10. I know I know 150 people willing to give me ten bucks right?! Bill is considering the half. One of my BFF’s from growing up is also doing the full. I’ve got seven months to train, and get stronger. I know there’s a certain tall blond coach out there talking to herself in her head saying “and faster! you gotta get faster!” .. we’ll see if that part comes to fruition.
So enough about me. This race isn’t about me. It is about St. Jude. And about kids. And about Memphis. And what that hospital does for kids & their families, and the impact that hospital has on that town. I’m not sure I’ll be able to do it justice with words on a blog, but give me a few days and I’ll take a stab at it.
In the meantime, all of you out there are the ones who have to help hold me accountable. Don’t let me bail.
How about a quick review of yesterday? Because, fourtwenty.
Woke up to more rain, so any fascinating plans of yard mowing were out the window.
Moving on to the next task, taking the pup down to UT for Physical Therapy. Because, yes, we’re THAT family. Husband alerts wife that the most direct route for the 15mile journey – Interstate 40 – is a complete parking lot. NOOOO. Because anyone who lives in our part of town knows that if the interstate is a parking lot, the only other two options for heading East will ALSO be parking lots. Thus, what should have been 45 minutes round trip became an hour and a half. For perspective, I could have been more than halfway to Nashville in that span of time.
When Finn and I did finally make it down to UT, it quickly became apparent the leash had been left sitting on the kitchen table. NOOOO. Dog mom sits in parking spot – already a half hour late – contemplating whether to leave dog in car, and go get a leash from vet, knowing chances are high I’d come back to a trashed car and traumatized dog, or of waddling in with dog while attempting to just hold on to his harness. Dog mom went with option 2, and she looked incredibly cool trying to control Finn while not falling down. (and yes grammar trolls, I’m going back and forth between 1st and 3rd person for the sheer fun of it).
I finally make it back home, only to realize it is already 9:40. I was supposed to be on site for a board meeting at noon, but knowing I have a call that will take me until 11, and that it takes me FOREVER to get ready (even in dressy activewear!), it is clear I have to bail on attending said meeting in person.
As I sit dialed into my noon call, the doorbell rings. I’m at my desk with a giant blue towel wrapped around my head. Do I ignore doorbell, even though I know it’s the guy coming to give an estimate on the deck? He’s EARLY. Thirty minutes early, and husband is not yet home. As I try to explain to the deck guy from beneath my large blue headpiece that I’m on a call and my husband will be home shortly and I’m sorry I can’t help him, all the while my fellow board members are chattering from my phone, it occurs to me just how genius the mute button is.
The next thing I know it is time to go get Eileen. The house is a wreck, laundry everywhere, dog tumbleweeds, all that good stuff. In my head I’m stressing out because can I manage to get Eileen, take her to the dentist, then go pick up Finn, and make it home before midnight?
Funny how that works. As I was pulling into school, developing my logistics plan in my head, I decide to listen to the voicemail the dentist had left me the day before as an appointment reminder. I’m listening to this message at 2:52pm. And she mentions Eileen’s 3pm appointment. Wait. No. It’s at 3:30. I have it written down and it is on two electronic calendars as 3:30. So I call to ask forgiveness and is it ok if we get there by 3:15.
Not so much. You see, much like airlines, the dentist has patients overbooked. I’m sure this is due to the amount of air-headed people like myself that forget, late cancel, and whatever else comes along. So, in the end, I reschedule. My latest tattoo is the time and date of said rescheduled appointment. But honestly, in this case, it was good, since I knew we still had to go get the dog and back home. And even better, this time I had the least safely tucked away in my purse!
Ok, dog reclaimed. In car heading back home. I offer Starbucks to Eileen, mainly because I need an afternoon pick me up (and Sarah T. if you’re reading this, I got ice coffee with almond milk!). Eileen does a back flip while in the back seat because OMG CAN SHE GET THE UNICORN DRINK? I had heard inklings of this drink, so I was not at all surprised by her request.
Y’ALL. OMG. This drink! Ok, so we go to SBX in Bearden. They’re sold out. SOLD OUT? Huh? Ok, no biggie. Since we kind of have free time, I offer to take Eileen to the SBX in Turkey Creek, which of course results in a 2nd backseat back flip. While en route, I realize we need to run home first to help our neighbor with something, but promise we’ll go back out. (anyone who knows me knows that this is NOT my norm, but for whatever reason, I’m feeling generous). So even though it is smack in the middle of 5pm traffic, we head back out to Turkey Creek (for those of you not familiar with Turkey Creek, it is 2mile strip of retail and traffic hell).
The first thing that should have tipped me off was the empty drive through. Was this the apocolypse? Have you EVER seen an empty drive-through at a SBX? We roll up, and you guessed it, they’re sold out. I’m floored.
Woman in speaker: we’re completely sold out! I’m sorry! But, if you go to the SBX inside of Target, they still have the stuff to make the drink!
Me: Oh ok! Do you know how much longer the drink will be around?
Woman in Speaker: Well we think until 4/23, but that could cha…
DIFFERENT (angry) woman in speaker: SBX Corporate has SO dropped the ball on this! They tell us nothing and didn’t send us enough supplies!
At that point I’m so baffled that two women are coming out of the speaker I don’t really process the rant about corporate. How’d they DO that?
So yes, off we go to the SBX inside of Target. Where there is a line. The two tweens and their mom in front of us – getting the Unicorn. The two 16/17ish BOYS behind us, getting the Unicorn. The woman in her early 20s, getting the Unicorn. And all of us had been sent to Target by the SBX with angry speaker woman. (so this makes me wonder if the stores hate each other and play tricks on each other. like maybe the other store HAD all the stuff for Unicorns but didn’t want to have to keep making them, so they just send everyone to the Target one?)
We finally had success. We could rest easy. Of course as I opened my instagram account to share with the world this fascinating drink, my feed was full of tweens and unicorn drinks! SBX must be rolling in pink dollars today.
The best part of the day though, it was our anniversary! Five years and I haven’t driven Bill insane (yet). So after all the shenanigans… we went out for dinner and drinks. We ran into some friends and got to catch up with them, and then we just got to hang out and be us. Wine, beer, sports and food. I don’t think there’s a more perfect way for the two of us to have spent that five year mark.
but wait.. there’s more…
You didn’t think the day’s adventures were over just because we made it to dinner did you!? We got home to find black pieces of plastic all over the floor – let me remind you this was after two days of camp and/or PT for the pups! – what in the world? A glasses case. Of course. because what dog isn’t attracted to a glasses case. Where in the world did Finn get it? And what did I just step on? Oh, well of COURSE, the glasses themselves. Minus a lens and half the frame.
check out my Nana Kay & Grandpa Nunzio
But don’t fret. I found the glass. No stomach linings were harmed during this post.
Adventures In Active Wear 