Monday, May 29, 2006

Summer in the (not so) city

This weekend was hot Hot HOT! It’s funny because a lot of people who don’t live north of the Iowa border don’t realize how hot it really gets up here. I remember that I was one of those people. Until I spent a summer here with my grandma and it was hotter here than it was back in Virginia! And the humidity is horrendous! Heat I can take, but humidity + heat = one very crabby Glamour Girl. On Sunday it was 103 (F), without including the humidity. And where did I spend an hour and a half of my day? Cooped up inside a school gym with no air conditioning, that’s where. It sucked. It was hot and stagnant and the damn thing went on forever. And this is only a class of 75. I can’t imagine going to a graduation like this with 300 graduates. We all would have died.

Redneck Boy’s youngest brother graduated from high school, which is why I went to the stupid commencement ceremony in the first place. This is making Redneck Boy feel very, very old. Which in turn makes me feel old too—just not as old as he is. So Brother in Law’s open house/congratulatory thingie was on Saturday. Which meant that we were up there all night on Friday night helping clean up and prepare food. Then I was up there right away Saturday morning to help with more food. Needless to say, we were all a little graduation’ed out after Sunday afternoon.

Added into this mix is the remodeling project that will not end. My computer room is all ashamble right now. I’m looking forward to the end result, and had this graduation thing not gotten in our way (Not to mention that it was 800 frillion degrees outside), we would have had the room finished this weekend. I long for the days of eating at a dining room table, and having my own little haven where I can write and read and play stupid video games to my little heart’s content. But I’m NOT nagging. Because we all know that nagging never gets anyone anywhere. I’m just helping where I can and getting the hell out of the way when I can’t. And I’ve yet to walk into the plastic that is up to protect us from living in dust whilst the project is in process.

Today we decided to take a step away from it too. We did get a couple more sheets of sheetrock up this morning, but when we couldn’t see because of the sweat running down our faces, we decided it best to stop for the day and head to the lake. It isn’t a big lake (and it certainly isn’t the ocean), but it’s as close as we can get when gas is as expensive as it is. It turned out to be a beautiful day for lounging around on the beach. And I love watching my kids play in the water. I remember how much fun I used to have digging for sand crabs and making sand castles when I was little, and even though there are no sand crabs, I get quite a kick out of watching my kids with things that I used to love doing.

I am now exhausted. And sunburned. And really glad that I don’t have to go back to work until Wednesday.

2 comments:

Happy Hiker said...
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Happy Hiker said...

Hey, I got into to comment on your recent post!

I wish you luck on the home-improvement project. I got my garden done last week (thank God)~ before the heat hit. Where in the cities are you from? Just curious. Luckily gas isn't as expensive here as in other places. Really, the price is a lot worse than ours in most states. I noticed your big-headed statement in your profile. Any chance you are going to the Fiona Apple concert in Minneapolis on July 14th? My sister and I got kick-ass seats (2nd row on the balcony, which are better than front row floor at the Northrup.) We are also going to Pearl jam and Tom Petty on June 26th. What kind of music do you like?