Summer Vacation!

Summer Vacation...the stay-at-home-mom's nemesis

June 17th. The official first day of summer vacation.

Summer Vacation, 1977. Summer Vacation; what a beautiful time of year! Remember how we would begin dreaming of Summer Vacation in January (right after we stopped dreaming about Christmas)? Remember how we would yearn for Summer Vacation by March and be desperate for Summer Vacation by May? Like really desperate? We'd look out the windows of our classrooms while sweating our prepubescent butts off and fantasize about swimming in a friend's pool or going to the beach, or lounging in our tv room with the window air-condition blasting at "maximum high". We'd long for the piercing sound of the last bell of the school year to peel out and announce our long-awaited freedom. Yes, yes, I remember it well.

Summer Vacation, 2011. Summer Vacation already?! Seriously?? Weren't they just home for a week in the Spring? I'm not ready to entertain them for 12 weeks! I'm good for four, maybe five weeks then I'm going to have to either come up with some new material or start a loop and hope they don't realize it. They're young, they'll be thrilled with the repetition, right?

You know if it weren't for the mind numbing fear of their boredom, I'd be more excited about being with them for three Summer months. Really! I do miss them during the year when our daily interaction consists of nagging them to get dressed and eat their breakfast to nagging them to finish their homework to nagging them to go to sleep so they can wake up for school in the morning. I look forward to the occasionally lazy morning and living our days without a strict schedule. I like the fact that they're as happy with swimming in a pool as they are about going to the beach or, sometimes, sitting in the air-conditioned family room watching something completely un-educational on television. It's all okay; it's Summer Vacation!

I can't say I look forward to Summer Vacation these days the way I did when I was 12, but I have to admit that I don't dread it either. The older they get, the more I realize my time is limited with them. With them actually wanting to hang out with me and be satisfied with play-doh or bike rides or the water slide in the backyard...most of the time.

Look, I realize that by early August, "I'm bored" will be the phrase of the day and by late July I'll be rolling my eyes so much I'll be tripping left and right over my own feet, but for now, I have to will my optimism high though my itinerary is short and try hard to meet this challenge head-on! The biggest challenge will be NOT referring to it as a challenge!

It's all good, as they say. It'll all work out. Besides, if I remember correctly from 1977, Summer is over in the blink of an eye. Even I can handle that!

~Eileen Cassidy Bishop *

Just Out of Reach

Does anyone else look out the window in the morning while carefully chugging their first cup of coffee while the kids are eating their Cocoa Puffs (one at a time) and waffle and sniping at one another or giggling uncontrollably and NOT eating said Puffs and waffle and think, "When? When will Spring weather allow me to open the windows or better yet, sit outside with my face turned up toward the sun?" Am I the only one who wonders this? Clearly I'm not. All I have to do is sign on to Facebook and listen to rapture over the sunshine or laments over the cold rain or, dear God, SNOW, and realize that.

It's coming. I know it is. It has to. We just need to be patient. How's everybody with patience? Good? Yeah, me either! But what choice do we have? We could bitch and complain and yell at our kids or flip people off on the road or walk around with a sneer on our face and just wait. Or...we could put on a thick sweater, warm coat and gloves and head outside and pretend! Why not? Why can't we do all the things we do in warmer weather in not-so warmer weather? Why can't we ride our bikes? Why can't we play monkey-in-the-middle or soccer in the front yard? Within two minutes we'll be peeling off scarves and unzipping coats working up a good old-fashioned play-like-you're-six years old sweat.

So just do it. Do it if you've got a couple of kids laying around but do it even if you don't! Go work on your boat...Summer's right around the corner. Work on your tan (you think the sun won't tint you in March?) Make a little fire in your fire pit and roast a couple of marshmallows; within a couple of months it'll be too hot to even contemplate that!

It's coming. Spring. Summer. Fireflies. Sweating. Sunburn. Mosquitoes. See? Nothing's perfect; it just seems that way when it's only inches from reach!

~Eileen Cassidy Bishop 3/29/11

Good-bye

I lost someone very dear to me a few days ago. My uncle died suddenly and although he was over 80, not in a million years, when my mom called, did I expect this news. Even as I write this I'm fighting back utter sadness.

I think my sadness is not only because of his death, but because of a collection of things. Eight months ago, I had two wonderful uncles, my Aunt had a husband and a brother, and my mom had two brothers. Maybe it's the finality of it all; other than my brothers, there are no men left from my childhood. My own father passed almost 28 years ago. The second generation of the Gans Clan has no fathers...my uncle was the last. Farewell to the first generation's testosterone, you did well!! Thanks to you and a good Irish Catholic upbringing, there are about a billion of us running around!! I can certainly take some solace from that.

Maybe I'm this upset because I know the older I get the older the adults from my childhood get and I morn for not only the people I've already lost, but for the someday loss of those still living. I try not to dwell on it, but at times like these, I just can't help it. Whenever I mention this to my mother, that I worry about her dying, she always has the same response: "What do you want Eileen? I can't live forever! Heck, I don't want to!!"

But they all can, can't they? They can live on in the funny and wonderful stories we'll tell at family get-togethers and Christmas and Thanksgiving Dinners. We'll tell them with smiles on our faces and a warmth in our hearts.

So thanks for letting me babble. I've convinced myself that we are all, in fact, going to live forever! As long as the testosterone holds out and babies keep being made, we'll all live on in hearts and minds. Some of our stories will become legends and wives tales simply because some of them are so silly, strange, sad, or sweet that they can't have happened. The stories will change slightly over the years, most likely, like the telephone game we played as children but the bones will never change.

So I'll take comfort in knowing that while we're down here, they're up there, laughing and smiling as much as we do and when we leave this world and go to the next, they'll be waiting with outstretched arms to give us the hugs we've missed for so long.

So good-bye, Uncle Gene. I hope the golf courses are well-groomed up there and that your every shot is long and straight!!