I feel like such crap warmed over. Last night I fell asleep on the couch at 5pm, and couldn't drag myself out of bed till 7pm, even though we'd gotten plenty of sleep the night before. Even now I'm exhausted -- I feel like I can go right back to bed and sleep till tomorrow morning. But I don't want to waste my last days of vacation...
Summer's almost over, folks. I always rather dreaded summer vacations when I was younger. I didn't have many friends near enough to my house to play with them when school was out, and I had issues with the various people that kept an eye on us kids when we were smaller. I basically read all summer -- books make great friends.
I do have some good summer memories... Michele used to work at Six Flags Great America back when she was 15, and she took me to the park one day. I remember walking across the hot asphalt parking lot and hearing Poison's "Unskinny Bop" blasting from the park. She took me on all sorts of rides that day -- from the Iron Wolf (stand-up roller coaster) to the Rebel Yell (a wooden coaster). That was the last time I rode more than one coaster -- I don't like them. We also got a caricature made of the two of us, which I still have somewhere. The guy that drew it gave us a discount even though he wasn't supposed to because my sister is such a hottie. :o)
Another summer I spent entirely with my best friend at the time, Ken. His middle name was James, and for some reason I always called him KenJ. He lived near me, and even though his parents worked all the time, I still went over to his house every day (I wasn't supposed to go to a boy's house when his parents weren't home). We were something like twelve at the time... We had such a good time, either playing outside next to the lake, or playing on this ancient Atari system that he had hooked up to a tv, or playing what we called 18-card standard Uno. You start with 18 cards. Why 18?? I have NO clue. But it made for a VERY interesting game. Sometimes I just sat in his basement workshop while he fiddled around with various electronics -- Ken definitely had a gift for that. He taught me all sorts of things, about boards and capacitors and stuff like that. Ken was a very bright boy -- I don't really know where he is now, but I could find out, if I ever wanted to...
A lot of summers I spent with my mother. That was pretty cool because my mother is so laid-back, in comparison to my father and stepmom. I had to go to a babysitter's house when Momma had to go to work, but when she was home we'd have a great time together. When I got older and she was living in the condo, we'd go down to the beach and lay out in the sun. She always laughed at me because I'd bring a book with me to read. When I was in college, she moved out to Chesapeake, the first time in my life that she no longer lived in Ocean View, and we spent an entire summer together. I had a part time job at a fabric store, but the rest of the time we did things. Like going to the thrift store (there is no joy greater than a thrift store!), going to Food Lion for groceries, or just running errands with Momma. I was thankful for that summer because I finally got close to my mother -- because my parents had gotten divorced when I was very small, I didn't really get to know my mother. I only saw her on vacations, for a week or two or maybe three. Now I am much closer to her, and I'm very grateful for that.
Give your mother a hug today... or if she's in another state or city, drop her an email, an e-card, a phone call... Just tell her you love her. I'll be seeing my mother today!