What I Did on my Summer Vacation

Since school has started and none of my children will be writing the traditional "What I did last summer" back-to-school essay, I thought I would do one myself. I know that this seems incredibly self-indulgent, but isn’t that what blogs are all about – all about me!! So this is what I did:

1. In May, we went to Rachel’s law school graduation in Moscow, Idaho. It is hard to believe that I am actually old enough to have a child old enough to be a lawyer!! It was an exciting time. Aunty Kate (Kathleen Lewis – my sister) joined us for the festivities. We are so proud of her. Rachel that is. We are proud of Aunty Kate also, but for other reasons.

2. In June, school was over and I drove Kathleen (Sykes, not Lewis) back and forth to the Ballet West Summer Intensive at the University of Utah and to driver’s dread, ‘er ed. She got her license on July 26.

3. In June, I also went to the funeral of my friend, Sandra Jones. Her dear daughters are always in my heart.

4. In July, Bob, Sarah, Stacy and I went to Sun Valley for the Bar Conference. This is actually my favorite vacation spot. It is relaxing; everybody can do what they want, and I can just sit and read. We have been doing this since 1985. We used to bring a sitter so I could also get some rest while the kids swam and played. Bob gets to play tennis and go on bike rides and we go to movies.
5. We tore out a deck in the backyard and now have a wonderful cement patio with a table and chairs and flower pots and more grass. My favorite time of day is in the evening when I can sit outside and enjoy the cooler temperatures.

6. Saw a bunch of movies – Transformers ***, Ratatouille ****, Hair Spray ****, 1408***, Harry Potter 5****, 35 minutes of I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (we walked out; it was offensive on so many levels)------, the last half of Sicko (we had to watch something after we walked out of Chuck and Larry) * ½, Ocean’s 13 ***, Rescue Dawn ****, Spider Man 3 **, The Simpsons **.

7. Read some books – Harry Potter of course, Nora Robert’s High Noon (very formulaic, I knew what was going to happen, but I just kept on reading). I tried to read Burr for my book group, but Gore Vidal’s characters tend to spend too much time with ladies of ill-repute. Oh my gosh, I think this is it. I am ashamed of myself. I am reading Twilight just to see what all the fuss is about. I am a little embarrassed to be seen reading a book that proudly proclaims itself to be on "the Teen People Hot List."

8. Bob and Kathleen and I took a small road trip to Goblin Valley. It was one of those trips when you just get in the car and see where the road takes you. As a child, Goblin Valley always seemed a little scary. As an adult, it is just too cool.

Anyway, that is what I did for my Summer Vacation.

Taxi No More

This is Kathleen on her first day
of school with her new Car!!

Today, for the first time in 20 years, I did not have to take anyone to school. Since I am not driving, I felt obligated to get up and do the good mom thing and actually make breakfast for my family. This might be a near first, also. Kathleen got waffles and Otto (the rotten Rottweiler) got the rest.

I was not sure what to do with/for myself with all the extra time, so I celebrated by getting my eyebrows waxed. They threw in those little goat hairs on my chin and upper lip just for good measure. It seems that about the time men start losing their hair, we start growing more and because our eyesight has dimmed somewhat over the last 10 years, we can’t see it. You know it is time to do something when your child reaches across the dinner table and yanks a hair out of your upper lip about the length of an eyelash!! When you have hair ripped out by the roots in large chunks, the surrounding skin loses all feeling. I have been walking around with the top of my face feeling like I have just been through a Botox jamboree. Never actually having had Botox, I just have to guess that this is what it feels like. Afterword, with the colored brow gel, I came home looking like Betty Davis or Joan Crawford. Time for a good scrubbing.

This afternoon, I have been looking at my watch, wondering when to get Kathleen from school. Then I realized a) I don’t have a watch – only pieces of watches – I just call time 467-8463; and b) Kathleen can drive herself. So Taxi4umom is now taxinomore. I wonder if that email address is available?

Mom's Taxi!

Years ago, in the dark ages, when we first signed up with AOL for internet access (you remember – dial-up, slow, busy signals, etc.), I was able to get taxi4u for my e-mail address. I thought I was so clever. None of the kids drove and my days consisted of drop off, drop off, drop off, pick up, pick up, pick up, go home. – in that order. Kathleen actually grew up in a child safety seat. Her first words were "get in the car!" and "I’d like a large Diet Coke, please". Well, my credit card expired and AOL dropped us, so I signed up for taxi4u on a free Hotmail account, but could never remember the password. So sitting out there in a cyber grave yard somewhere is an e-mail account jam packed with old unanswered mail. I then had to come up with a new name and all the good taxi names were taken (even some of the bad ones). Finally, I was able to use taxi4umom@hotmail.com.

Today is the end of an era. Kathleen, my youngest child, has her driver’s license and a new car. I will never be taxi4umom again. I am actually shedding a small tear or two as I am jumping for joy. I have grumbled about this for years and yet am feeling a little bit of empty-nest syndrome. This morning, however, I found that mom is still needed. We were going to make a little dry run down to West High so Kathleen knew what the traffic was like when she would be going to school. Lo and behold, her car would not start. She had left the lights on all night. We have had this car less than 24 hours and it already has a dead battery. In her defense, all the other cars have a twilight sensor, so we never actually have to turn the lights off or on. Anyway we had a short lesson on how to jump start a car.

Kathleen is going to be a very good driver. She is attentive and can’t drive with her friends until January. And I haven’t seen her since 10:00 this morning. She is off driving somewhere.
I am keeping the taxi4umom@hotmail.com address. Sort of like a mental scrapbook.