Summer ‘vacation’ is so different as a working parent! Ugh, 3 months to find something for the kids to do each week, 3 months of slight guilt that they aren’t getting any lazy time at home, 3 months of wondering why the heck summer day camps run from 9am to 3pm . . . When will school come back??
Anyhow, the boys have a good mix of camps this year. Some arts, some sports, some church, a couple of vacation weeks. Since the camp day is so short, they don’t seem too tired out. The Prof (who does drop off and pick up) generally is, though. Tired out, I mean!
This week, I did a little volunteering for a gun violence prevention group I’m involved with. We had an event on June 2, a nationwide day of recognition for gun violence prevention. It’s the birthday of Hadiya Pendleton, the young teenager who performed with her dance troupe at Obama’s inauguration and was shot as a bystander in Chicago just one week later. Turns out it was also the birthday of this young man, whose sister came to our event, and told me he was shot to death on her street a few years ago. And it was the day of the funeral of another New Orleanian whose name I didn’t catch, but who died young from a gun, and whose cousin came straight from that funeral to our event and asked how he could help. We gave these people, and others, some resources to connect with other gun violence survivors (no need for advocacy attached, these are simply support groups for the families and friends of the 30,000 Americans killed each year by a gun, as well as the thousands of others who are themselves shot but survive). We signed numerous folks up to volunteer. And, in typical New Orleans fashion, we drank beer, ate food, shopped in outdoor tents, and listened to a band. It was heartening to see such a crowd.
I left this event somewhat early to go home and guest teach a class in employment law online, through the local university. It was not too stressful, and I had a sudden feeling of “I kind of know what I’m doing now . . .”
The short week kind of dragged, as they tend to do (the psychology of a post-holiday weekend is weird), and then we got to Friday. We took the boys to an Irish pub in the city for dinner. Live Irish music, bangers and mash for me and a full Irish breakfast for the hubs, plus plenty of good Irish beer on draught and rain on the streetcars outside our windows – it felt very Irish (except for the streetcars). The boys were well-behaved, even Craig (who is a Monster Toddler right now, generally). The owner of this pub is actually Irish, and wanted to create a space where adults can socialize while their kids play nearby, like they do in many pubs in Britain. I loved it – we’ll be back.
Now it’s Saturday morning, and raining. No pool today, or zoo, and the aquarium is sure to be packed. Hmmmm. We’ll find something to do, me and these boys, while the Prof takes a short road trip to pick up our new car (at last). Always something to do in the city of festivals. Happy weekend, all.