Summer. Finally!

Wow.


You have continued to write to me nearly every day for the past two weeks with no response, whatsoever, and I notice you've also been dilligent writing in other places. I salute you. You are not only a dedicated writer, but a true friend.


And here I am...actually wanting to call and hear your voice instead but also feeling a need to get back to this page. My house is terribly (if temporarily) quiet this morning and it's early (for me) so as much as I have an overflowing to-do list in preparation for my trip, I feel like taking some time to sit here.


School's out, my parents have come and gone, JJ's on vacation, literally :-), the garden is mostly planted and now just pure eye candy, M's room is officially converted into a playroom for the kids and JJ's room is now a true big kid's room; there's not much left for me to do, right at this minute. Since I have spent the better part of the past six months reverse-nesting, as I call it, all of the closets are cleaned and organized, the Goodwill put me on their board of directors and I've got a whole new appreciation for simplicity. My garden/cleaning therapy was helpful in more ways than one - now everything is done and I can sit back and enjoy my summer, instead of waking up each morning to the same list of projects that were supposed to get done last summer. And the summer before that.


Arizona ~

What a great trip! (This is the waterfall on the back patio at night, when the temp only dropped to around 85 or so.) We didn't do much, but that was the plan. My parents' home is beautiful and is quite conducive to staying put, whether on the patio or in the front courtyard, or curled up on the couch, in the AC, watching a movie or cooking in the expansive kitchen. We did, however, make a day trip to Scottsdale which ended up being a slight disappointment. Of course, none of us knew the area, so we weren't well prepared for sight seeing; still, the town was less than memorable and the only thing worth the hour-long trip was the humongous Fashion Mall: a gazillion square miles of high-end retail and food. It was fun though, don't get me wrong. We had a great breakfast on the patio of a little bistro in old town, then wandered a bit until we gave in to the commercial tourist trap and Tiffany. We spent most of the day in there, with me winning the who-can-spend-the-most-money award. I did that without buying the rings at Tiffany, too. Which I wanted. A lot.


Somewhere around 5:30 we decided we were going to go get matching tattoos. We had talked about it all day - what a frighteningly stereotypical girl's weekend thing to do. But we didn't go through with it in the end, once we found out that we couldn't go in the water for two weeks and we still had a full pool day left! Forget being cool and hip at 45, I'd rather have my sun. Besides, what's a little gecko going to morph into as my body continues to sag into old age?


The rest of the weekend we sat around. Literally. The patio table, the living room, the kitchen...drank a ton but ate well. S is kind of a salad goddess, so we turned her loose after a trip to the local grocery store (which turned out to be upscale awesome). Nothing in the world beats a good salad, a fresh baguette, a chunk of brie and a good bottle of wine between girlfriends. Nothing. We read a lot of magazines, watched a couple of serious crybaby movies, slept late and/or napped every day, lounged by the pool and enjoyed, mostly, the cool and unusual wildlife and foliage with which we aren't familiar up here in the PNW. The back of the house is on the first tee of the golf course, so there is a huge expanse of dirt and grass to enjoy. Each day we discovered some new plant (fan cactus - too cool) or animal (roadrunner, no lie) and acted like kids in the zoo with our binoculars and camera. One night, we kept hearing this weird ch-ch-ch sound and K and I were speculating on whether it was a rattlesnake or a scorpion or the Loch Ness Monster, for all we knew. S had gone to bed, but we were still on the patio drinking (imagine that). Finally, she crawled up into the water fountain to see if she could find it, whatever it was (like it was going to pop its head out and say "hi!" to her). She got down and we resigned ourselves to possible death by unknown creature in the night (but, oh well, pass the wine, my glass is empty.) At some point we figured out that it was the sprinkler hitting the back of the fountain. Honestly. Ch-ch-ch. Never occurred to us how regularly we heard the sound.
And I shall let K tell you the golf cart story in person, as I'm sure it will be way funnier than if I try to recount it here. I can't wait to go back. I loved the weather (even though it was unseasonably cool while we were there) and I loved the house.


Mom & Dad's Visit ~


I guess we've learned that four days is the perfect visit length for my folks. We actually had a fabulous time; we dinked around shopping and eating and whatever. I ran my 5K on Saturday morning, to which they did not bother to show up, but no matter, J, K and C were there as JJ and I ran our first race. JJ ran it in 29 minutes and ran probably 7/10 of the way. I came in at 44 minutes (I was just shooting for under an hour!!) so he left me in the dust. He placed 6th in his age category, which I didn't think was too bad for a kid who hadn't trained at all. As for me, what an amazing experience. I ran about 2 of the 3 miles total (never thought that was possible) and crossing that finish line was a feeling I can't describe. What a sense of accomplishment!
All I wanted to do was do it; in the beginning I thought: I don't care if I win or place or even run the whole thing, I just want to start this 12-week program and see it through to the end. I just want to finish. And I did, which feels pretty f***in' cool. And the fact that my husband, daughter and good friend came out at 8:00 in the morning to cheer me on makes me feel unbelievably loved and blessed.


Saturday night we had the big Summer Tapas party, which was really a variation on the theme of Tapas, as in, not really Tapas at all. Still, it was a blast. We'll have to tell you all about our cooking adventures when you get here. My folks loved it and kept telling us how much fun they had, so all was well.


Monday I got them off to the airport, with JJ in tow, around 10am. He couldn't have been more excited than if he was going to the moon, sporting his backwards baseball cap and sunglasses, his little Nike backpack and his gecko necklace - God, when did he become a person? He's all Mr. Cool these days, Mr. All Grown Up. I already miss him, terribly. But I've talked to him on the phone, and he and Grandad are having the time of their lives on their roadtrip to Arizona. God bless my father, for all his quirks and issues: the gifts he is leaving for my boys are priceless.

Today I am babysitting my niece and nephew (because I'm nice, not because I wanted to) and we're going to see Up! I have a few packing things to finish and then a mani-pedi at 2:00, after which I plan to sit on the deck and drink iced coffee and finish my book. (The Time Traveler's Wife - love it!) At 6:00 we're headed over to T&S's for barbecued fajitas and a little good-bye cheer with K (R's out of town), then we're out of here at 8:00 tomorrow morning.


I'll be around today, like I said, although G and AJ are due here any minute now. I will try to call you after I get home from the salon if all goes as planned.


Congratulations on yet another year down, Ms. K. I don't know how you do it, but millions of parents and kids out there are so grateful that you do.


See you in a month!!
Love you,
A