August

When I was a child growing up on Cape Cod, August was the best month. The temperatures were the warmest of the year, but not so hot that you had to stay inside to protect yourself from the heat and humidity (thank God, since we didn’t have central air back then!). August meant summer was in full swing and all the kids in my neighborhood, Merrywood, were golden brown and running barefoot from yard to yard. Since August was the height of the summer season, my dad, who was in the hotel business, was rarely home. When he did get a day off, we loaded the car for a day at the beach. And I mean a day! I’m not sure how much of this I actually remember or if it’s a collection of snippets from family photo albums and 8mm home movies.  Either way, the memories that float around in my mind are divine. August was a happy time.

Jumping ahead to my teens, which were spent in Naples Florida, suddenly August became another experience. First, August in South Florida is hot. So hot! My family usually took the first two weeks for vacation and got the hell out of the state. The second thing that began to chip away at my fondness for August was the fact that in Florida school started the third week of the month. Maybe it was the fourth week, I don’t know, but for a girl from the Northeast, who never went to school before Labor Day, it was tough. This back-to-school-in-August nuisance followed me until college and I begrudgingly got used to it – until it got obscene (more below).

Thirteen

Thirteen, a teenager. No longer a little boy, the toys are all but gone. You no longer call me “mommy,” I am no longer to call you Cammy. Holding hands is a thing of the past. You have a whole different set of “don’t” rules for your dad, who’s taking the terms of your growing up much harder than me.

You still have a ways to go, though! But that’s a whole other post. Since it’s your birthday, I will keep it light and sweet.

At thirteen, you still have an interest in Pokémon, which I don’t quite understand it. Fortunately, you have given up trying to make me understand. You have become quite the reader, which thrills me beyond words! Your favorite genre is Fantasy, and you’re more than halfway to your goal of 25 books this summer.

Writing, Random Thoughts

Lately I have been reading blogs again, and it brought me back to a happy time. I was so excited when I first started blogging. I had grandiose dreams. Of course I knew extraordinarily little and had no idea just how hard it would be, or how much passion and dedication and openness it would require. But still, I would wonder, what if… I miss it and I want to start again, but without any goals or expectations. To just write.

I’m not even sure if I still know how to use WordPress…

When I went back to work in an office four years ago, I thought it was temporary, a means to pay for the big 2016 road trip, which was extra in every way because it was also the summer Rich turned 50. I had planned multiple adventures and really needed the funds. I never planned to stop writing. But you know what they say about making life plans. I went from part-time to full time to quitting and then starting again part-time at another job and teaching and then back to full time. Four years later I find myself in a professional position that in some ways I was destined for – if I had stayed in the workforce after having Barrett & Hunter. It is a very long and complicated story about how I ended up where I am today, but the fact that I got to lean out for fifteen years, and still got here, well that’s kind of miraculous.