Zzzzzzzz…Oh, sorry, you startled me.
Shaun and I finished packing at midnight, loaded the suitcases in the car, and set our alarms for 3 am. Lee-lee had already set hers for 2:59 am. Her inner Queen likes to be on top of things. We convinced the kids to go to bed at 9 pm. It’s amazing the results promising lots of sugar will produce.
I feel for Shaun, who will be in endless lines, checkpoints, seats, airplanes, new lines, new planes, new checkpoints on three hours of sleep with kids who got, maybe, four hours of sleep, tops, and are coming off a sugar crash.
I’ve already received two text messages from Lee Lee, both with the same message: when do we get there? Shaun must’ve heard that already 100 times (and have nodded off), or I wouldn’t be getting a text from Lee Lee. She’s not being teenager annoying. She’s trying to prepare herself, and she’s excited. I can picture Micah deep in a bloody battle on his PSP.
I’ll miss them.
One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand…
Okay, done missing them.
I’m going to ignore the total and complete disaster of the house. I’m wading through stuff that I didn’t even know we owned. (Why is there a tennis racket in the bathroom? The existential questions are endless.)
I’m going RIDING. A lot. Then I’m going to come home and eat something you microwave. Followed by something out of a bakery box. Then I’m going to sit. And listen. To nothing. Such a nice sound, nothing.
Ten days from now they’ll be back, and all heck will break loose. This will be the real beginning of summer, when we have the entire neighborhood over for…everything.
Honestly? Don’t tell them, but I really, really love it! In ten days I’ll be internally yelling Bring It On! and be thrilled to be finding things, directing traffic, bossing around, being bossed around, doing load after senseless load of laundry, and be semi-discretely available for emergency ice cream runs and token kid embarrassing.
Oh, and answering life’s pressing existential questions…
(I’m sure you’ll see them posted here in the summer. Love to hear what the existential questions are in your house!)
Life is good.
Gone Riding!
The Literary Horse 
I won’t tell them. I wish you enlightenment on horseback.
Jane,
May your alone time be all that you wish. Hey, dig reading about Sunshine, the experience you have shared about him have made me think twice (or more) when I think one of the herd is acting up.
There are 2 things not in my corner: 1) I’m very green in my journey with horses; 2) I’m very green AND a typical guy in my journey with horses, as in . . . “what aren’t you DOING WHAT I TELL YOU?!?! . . . &%$#@#*%& HORSES!!! . . . feed bucket tossed in their general direction . . . there . . . all better now. Seriously, I bust a gasket and it’s, well it’s pretty stupid.
Anyway, thanks. Surely enlightenment will come . . . maybe . . . I hope . . . pleasssseeeee???
~jon
*surely enlightenment will come..maybe…I hope.. pleasssseeee??*
The above sentence made me laugh, because it’s the last thing I think before I go to sleep every night, about *everything*.
Jon, Duuude! You are SO rocking in your corner, you have something many experienced horse people lack: they forget there’s lots of stuff they don’t know.
You get you don’t know and are open to learning. Clearly you are paying attention. You are way ahead of the game, even if you have your moments of !@#@$% frustration.
When horses don’t do what we tell them to do…ah…yes. The psychotherapy part of horses. If we’re open to relating to horses and seeing (oh ick) ourselves occasionally reflected back in an unflattering light (not that I know a THING about this) we will not be stuck forking over the big bucks for horses AND therapy at the same time. If we listen, most horses are pretty direct in their critiques of what, exactly, we are doing wrong RIGHT NOW and would we please knock it off! 😉
We can ride, groom and muck our way to enlightenment…one hoof stomped instep at a time.
Carrot, anyone?
Sounds perfectly normal to me.