School's Out

Today is the first day of summer vacation for Munchkin. Who is jealous? I know I am...that is by far the worst part about working. School always ended. Bad class? Bad teacher? Just getting sick of something? Every couple of months it ended you got some time off, and then it started up again. Work, on the other hand...goes on forever.

I know that this is rich coming from a girl who went well over her allotted 21 days off last year (a week in Mexico, a week in Florida, a week at the beach, a week in the hospital and a week in Chicago for my cousins wedding...plus random days here and there.) But you all get the point...school was made up of a series of finite periods of time surrounded by vacations, while work goes on for 40 straight years.

Anyway, I am sure all of the parents out there can identify with one minor inconvenience of children: what the fuck do you do with them when they don't have school to go to? It is a real pain in the ass. And I am used to her being at school until 5pm...so it's not like I even have regular day care arrangements beyond school that I can just scale up during the summer.

Fortunately, she is at an age where she can do lots of things. She has a couple of weeks of camp, and some school-related stuff. And she is going to Chicago for a week to visit her brother, and she is going to the beach for a week with me (and my father's family), a week with Big Sis and a week with her brother. And one of her friends' Moms (who happens to be SHR and Big Sis' cousin:-)) has a daughter in her class, and they hang out at their house a lot. They live in a town and a neighborhood with tons of kids, and can roam about more unsupervised there than they could in the city.

So it all gets patched together, but keeping them busy all summer is a task. Incidentally, I talked with Tinkerbelle for a bit last night (I was almost in the middle of having sex when the phone rang:-) I didn't relay that information, though...I had been waiting for the call, so I did answer the phone, which I would normally not do) and she is insanely jealous of Munchkin's school schedule. Her school runs another couple of weeks, and I believe she requested to transfer...

Seeing things through a new lense

I have kind of a sappy post today, one that I alluded to yesterday. This sort of stems form this weekend, from being around Big Sis and Smoking Hot Roommate as they kind of revisited a past life. All of Big Sis' London friends always knew SHR as the kid sister who came to visit, not necessarily as an adult.

I need to back up and cover some old ground. They are about 7 years apart in age...just far enough that they have always been at really different stages of their lives, but near enough to have been extremely close. They are sisters, but they are also best friends. I never remember a day when they didn't talk at length at least once, even when Big Sis was in London and SHR was in Arizona.

When SHR was about 7, their Mom got extremely sick, and about five years later, she died of Ovarian cancer. It was a long and very painful battle and left them both (Big Sis was 19, SHR was 12) without a mother. They had an adoring and loving Father (this is also part of the reason that they are both so incredibly close to him), but Big Sis did a lot of "Mom" things for SHR... (In this sense, there are parts of their relationship that are similar to mine and Munchkin's.)

When Big Sis got out of college, she took a job in London and moved. SHR went to visit almost every month throughout High School and then pretty regularly in college, too. So, to all of Big Sis' London friends, SHR was the kid sister that visited and tagged along with them. They knew them both when Big Sis was more "Mom" than she is now. I never knew them together until they were about 18 and 25...at which point the dynamic had changed.

So for me, this weekend was like seeing then 10 years ago, when both were struggling to adjust to a life without Mom, and they were settling into their roles as sisters. I just love the interaction...it is sort of hard to describe, but they are just so in tune with each other. It seems like they are always in each other's thoughts...Big Sis has an old habit of looking out for her little sister, and SHR has a natural tendency to want to ask permission and win the approval of Big Sis. There is an entire lifetime of love there, and it is a really beautiful thing to see.

They are both older now, both on the verge of being married and having their own families. And both have found it in their hearts to welcome two more pretend sisters into their lives:-) But they still have a very special bond, and nothing is going to break that.

They are still best friends.

They may not even know that they do this, and they may yell at me for telling...but sometimes they hold hands when they walk next to each other:-)

Kicking it with my orb

Back home safely, and the trip was AWESOME! London is such a cool place, even though the weather was kinda junky the whole time. I guess that is pretty standard fare over there. Despite that, I just love the vibe that the city gives off...it is a similar feel to New York (with shorter buildings:-))

We made great time on Friday, we all slept on the plane, and by the time we landed and got to the hotel we were rested and ready to go! We had time for a quick drink before we took off to meet Big Sis' friends for dinner. One quick observation...London is absurdly expensive. I think it is even worse than Manhattan...it seems like everything has almost the same price that it has in the US, only it is priced in pounds instead of dollars (the exchange rate is about $2/pound.)

One more observation: the food really is not very good. It amazes me that a massive, International city with that many travelers and visitors doesn't have better food. In four days, we didn't exactly get to every restaurant in the city, but I feel like there was an alarmingly mediocre consistency to it (and had heard this before we went.)

We didn't stay out terribly late on Friday because we were a little tired, as were most of her friends. Also, the people at dinner were a little older (a couple of her friends' parents that she knows well, etc.) so everyone was kind of tame. We went out for a little bit after dinner, but were back at the hotel at a pretty reasonable hour. (Oh...and I could write about four posts just about the hotel...)

Because we were in bed kinda early, we were up early, too. Big Sis and her friend went out to meet some other friends (it is hard to catch up with seven years worth of relationships in four days) and me and Smoking Hot Roommate did the tourist thing...which was awesome! They have so many cool things there! Westminster Abbey is gorgeous...I would be much more religious if I could go to church there:-P

The Tower of London was really cool, too. I would like to put in a word for the Crown Jewels as well...it is good to be Queen! If I was ever Queen, I would just sit around and kick it with my orb:-) The Tower Bridge is super cool, too...it almost looks fake because of the funky colors. Buckingham Palace...not so cool. Really it was pretty boring, and the changing of the guard is tedious and time-wasting;-)

This post is getting too long, and I don't want to bore you with silly details, so I will just highlight one funny thing. In Parliament Square, there are a bunch of statues. Oliver Cromwell, some other random British guys and...Abraham Lincoln. I sort of walked past it, then had to stop and go back and look. But yes, definitely honest Abe. I guess he is worthy of statues outside of his own country, which once again proves my point: Illinois rules!!!

OK, maybe a little more tomorrow, but for now I have work to do. And, I have a post to write about Big Sis and Smoking Hot Roommate, too, so we all have that to look forward to:-)

God Save the Queen

I'm super excited for the London trip. It will be a short trip and the real purpose is to hang out with Big Sis' friends and not to go sightseeing, but I would like to see some thing. I am hoping that on Saturday I can see Buckingham Palace, Big Ben (look kids...), Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London. I think I can get all that into one day, so long as I have my super special, Smoking Hot Tourguide:-)

Munchkin is a little bit irritated that she is not invited...:-). She said "I dunno what the big deal is. You take me to bars here all the time, what is the problem with going to bars there?" I have to admit, she brings up a pretty good point. Well, too bad, you're still not invited:-P Next month's US version of the same party has a built in Friday night event that Munchkin can attend so that she can feel like she is part of it. You can't leave the bridesmaids out of the party, after all...

We are leaving the house at...gulp...3:45am tomorrow. Yikes. Hopefully I can get right to bed after dinner tonight (chicken finger Thursday...yay!!!) and get a decent nights sleep. Munchkin has to get herself ready for school tomorrow morning and one of her friend's (and her Mom) is coming by to get her on the way. Papa Bear is picking her up after school and has her all weekend... I am not totally sure what they have planned, but they always have fun together. There is a summer-beginning pool party for adults and kids at one of her friends' houses Saturday (the friends father is actually someone we do some work with, so Papa Bear was already invited on his own. Now they can be dates:-))

On a similar note, that lucky little bitch only has four days of school left. After next Wednesday, she is off until Labor Day. Man, I miss summer vacation...

Anyway, that is about it:-) Unless I post later on today, I will be gone until Monday. I will try and publish comments if I get a chance, but I can't promise anything...so they may sit for a few days. Hope everyone enjoys the long weekend!

Do they test for steroids in Little League?

I have that stupid fucking Amy Winehouse song in my head about not going to rehab. It's driving me crazy and I need to get it out. This is worse than when I had Pink's "I'm coming out" stuck in my head for like a month...

Anyway...on to much more important things. Smoking Hot Roommate and I went over to watch Munchkin's baseball game last night. It was a really nice night...a touch on the chilly side, but perfect to sit there in a sweatshirt and watch the game. And Munchkin hit a home run! Right over the fence!

She's awesome:-) My cute little slugger:-) She was SOOOO excited about it...only two of the boys on her team have hit balls over the fence this year, and she was completely stoked to join the Home Run Club.

After that we met up with The Boy for ice cream, and then he came back to our place and stayed over. Who watched Idol? Do we have any thoughts? I am pissed that Melinda lost...both finalists are good, and both are deserving of being where they are...but neither deserved to make it over Melinda. I guess I am rooting for Blake because he is kinda weird...but I lost a lot of interest last week.