Summer is racing by while we're too lazy to watch it go.
Jean is working at the eleven day long Summerfest and has learned the double-whammy of the gainfully employed. You work and you earn money to have fun with, but you are too tired to have fun. If you don't work, you have no money for fun, but you have plenty of energy and time for fun. She's at the festival grounds everyday working in a Greek restaurant and lending the place an air of authenticity with her long dark hair and mediterranean complextion. Her Irish great grandfather and Austrian great grandmother would be proud of the girl! She's managed to muster energy to see Elvis Costello one night and Psychedelic Furs another night and hopes to take in The Bangles and Aqualung's shows on Sunday.
Parker is enjoying his last summer of having a job being something for older people to have. Summers have changed for 14 year olds. His brothers used to play ball and heave water balloons at each other, but Parker and his friends have DVD's and computers to socialize around and he's underfoot from late day until early morning. Yes, he's pursuing his vampire habits again, if not actually sucking the blood from my neck, then using his awake all night habits to drain the energy out of me. He needs to keep me alive enough to drive his cronies around and extract cash from ATM's though, so don't worry about me.
My two eldest are set in lives that require some, but not a lot of maternal interest. I'm learning to keep my polite distance while still being vitally interested in the things they want me to be interested in. I've not seen Eric's apartment yet, but will when I exile Parker for a visit there. Mack wholeheartedly hates his job, but continues slogging away at it. I admire his fortitude.
My nieces and nephews spend one weekend a month with me, an investment that I hope will mean that their mother will be able to hold herself together for a nice long time. Their weekend here starts on Saturday and Parker and I have been trying to come up with activities that are neither lame nor will break the bank. We're still negotiating.
We will certainly do two things. One will be a visit to Rose who misses the children. They lived with her for nearly a year and she wishes they would stay in closer touch, but they are just youngsters, you know.
The other thing on the schedule is a stint at the Humane Society for Tilly and me. Those cats need human visitors and the dogs need to stretch their legs and sniff air that reminds them that the world is not entirely contained in the neat building that houses the shelter.
And as for me? Well, I'm spending money in a way that is very unusual and tells me that something is up. I finally figured it out today as I bought speakers for my iPod. I hadn't intended to do so and I was really surprised that I'd spend money on something like that. I thought I'd better figure out the reason I'm running amok, walletwise.
And the reason? I'm not really in control of how I spend my time, so I am having an economic tantrum. We all know how tantrums end up, don't we?
Yes, it's going to be an interesting August this year.
