Summer is over, and I am a bit blue about it. I was privileged to enjoy a lazy week off with the children, which was restorative, but for two reasons that vacay mojo has not extended into my everyday worklife in the way I’d hoped. First, everyone got a stomach bug right there at the end of the break. This has happened multiple times, almost to the point where I expect it – the Professor and I come home from an exceedingly rare night or two off from kid duty (this happens maybe twice a year, at best) feeling fresh and ready to take on the routine once more. Only instead of the routine, we are faced with a nightmare back-to-work-and-also-stay-up-all-night-with-puking-child scenario. On this particular occasion of Vacation-Ruination, we had to juggle taking days off work as each child took on the stomach bug in turn (instead of all at once). Thus did the vomitous illness spread itself out over almost a full week, a full week that included rinsing pukey sheets in the tub and then baling out the vomit-water when the damn bathtub drain got clogged with dog hair; sprinkling baking soda over mattresses and vacuuming it up; cleaning up a waterfall of grossness off the bunk-bed ladder (our oldest missed the bowl by at least a foot, and I don’t know how); scrubbing it out of rugs and clothes and comforters and, ultimately, the washing machine. Handling that mess + back-to-school week (with all its various “Meet the Teacher” nights and last minute school-item purchases) + back-to-work after a week off was chaos. CHA. OS. The Professor and I had appeared to escape unscathed, until he went down with the bug a full week later. It could be me next – I’m still not in the clear.
I’m also blue for other, non-bloggable reasons. There is no juicy secret here – just general malaise about various issues that I prefer to keep on the D.L. (not family, not husband, not children, not illness). There are minor but real problems I’m eager to solve, but I feel paralyzed and unable to solve them. I’ve been working on solutions for about 6 months, with no real progress. It’s a drain to morale. I need to bounce back. This book (mentioned previously in this space) is actually motivating me – the heroine of this thriller is, to put it brutally, unkillable. She’s my inspiration. I need to be more unkillable. I’m down, but not out.
I hate writing foot-draggy, vague, crummy posts, but sometimes you have to get it out there to break the writer’s block barrier. The autumn slant to the August light outside is a harbinger of the shorter days to come – another reason for mild panic, as I know how I get in the height of the season of short winter days. The Professor is about to start his weekly out-of-state commute again.
I have a sister-wedding and a sister-baby (two different sisters, FYI) to look forward to, and I’m excited about those things. Football season is on its way. I want to write about the week off, and the tons of nothing that we did (plus one big something – a 13.6 mile hike on the Appalachian Trail!), and the friends we saw. I have snippets and drafts here and there – I’ll put them together. I miss my space here. I’ll be back soon.
I miss your space here, too, and the snippets and drafts teasers sound interesting.
Good luck with the malaise inducer!