To Whom It May Concern:

The rain? Please make it stop. It’s late August, practically September, and lawns should be brown and crunchy. It helps that you don’t have to mow as often when you’re rushing around trying to pack every last fun thing into your summer. But this year? The lawn is green and lush. It’s not natural. It’s still growing, and still needs to be mowed.

The temperature? Sixty degrees is not late August weather. That’s October weather, when you want to bundle up in a sweater and thoughts turn to all things fall-ish. Late August weather should be in the 80s. Still warm enough to swim, to run around barefoot and to fool yourself into thinking the summer will last forever. And? I don’t care if it somehow snows in August. I refuse to wear a coat, just on general principle.

The calendar? How did it get to be the end of August? How did eight months go by without anyone noticing? How can I be done with vacation already? I’m lost without the planning and dreaming and checking and preparing. And I don’t really care that the new season of Lost, or Desperate Housewives, or (insert your show here) will be starting again soon. I don’t want to go back to commuting in the dark to and from work. It makes me feel like a vampire.

And for the love of all things holy, please someone tell me how C can be old enough to be starting kindergarten? She was just a baby and now she runs around and wants her ears pierced and knows who the Cheetah Girls are and sings the Baby Bottle Pop commercial incessantly. How and when did my baby turn into a kid?

WARNING - TMI BELOW!!

I know, you're thinking, Sue, how could you possibly put anything more revealing out on the internets?? Ha. You've been warned.

I probably have mentioned way back when that I have two brothers. I'm the oldest, J is 11 months and 3 weeks younger and S is 5 years younger. J and S work for the same giant corporation (in different places in the same state, so they're connected by their company e-mail). Growing up with brothers (or any siblings, I would imagine) means you have a different perspective on things. And having spent time growing up in the same house, you learn which buttons to push and who is sensitive about what.

And, growing up with siblings, at least in my case, means nothing is sacred. Nothing. J was up in a tree cutting branches for my dad two summers ago when he fell off the ladder. After we ascertained that his toes did wiggle and he knew what day it was and who was president, the harrassment started even before the paramedics arrived. "geez, J, you set the car alarm off when you fell!" "I've fallen, and can't get up!"....that kind of thing. I know, we share a strange sense of humor.

Anyway, when I get to the train station this morning I check my blackberry for the time. Seeing that little email icon in the corner, I scroll over to see who's sending what. There were a couple emails back and forth between both J and S, who also copied me.

J had been in for a little "procedure" on Monday. He and my SIL have two girls, almost 11 and 9, and decided that they were done. He actually volunteered for the following:

"Especially when Teresa the mid twenty something intern, who could have had a successful career as a model, introduces herself and says she'll be assisting. the first thought is tape, I wonder if they tape it down,
First he has you lay down, then he injects a local anesthetic and asks "do you feel that? oohhh never mind, your crying"
then he says he's going to make a small incision, ( any incision into that part of the body cannot be quantified" )
then he starts rooting around in there to find the two tubes, then he asks about the kids, what sports they like to play, how are they doing in school,
At that point it is very important to remind him that he's not cutting your hair, concentration is key as far as I'm concerned.
then you smell the burning flesh, aahhhhhhh what a lovely smell, kinda fishy,
then the titanium clips go on, so you clank when you walk,
that way everyone knows what you've had done,
then twenty to thirty minutes later you hobble out to the waiting area pay your co-pay and are sent on your way.
In some strange way I feel like I can relate to a dog being neutered"

I really hope the powers that be at work didn't pick today to monitor my email.

Tanned, Rested (?) and Ready

We're back!! Had an excellent time, wish we had another day to spend at Disney. C was so tired she fell asleep on the plane home, now she's all cranky and out of sorts. Early to bed tonight for sure.

We spent yesterday in the Magic Kingdom. The day started early with breakfast at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary Resort. Then we walked over to the Magic Kingdom and took advantage of the early opening for resort guests. We walked right in to Mickey's Philharmagic.....CHML was correct - it was AWESOME! From there we did Small World, Cinderella's Carousel, Peter Pan's Flight and decided to walk to Adventure Land.

There was a 30 minute wait for Splash Mountain at that point, so we got FastPasses and went on Pirates. Should say, we tried to go on Pirates. All I wanted out of the whole trip was to fantasize about Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow....and just as we got in sight of the boats for the ride, it broke down. They herded us out, so D went to the Hall of Presidents while C and I rode Aladdin's Magic Carpets and met the Genie and Jasmine.

Splash Mountain - yes, C was tall enough. And, as luck would have it, skipping though the line due to our fast passes (70 minute wait at that point for stand by), she and I got in the first row of the ride!! She loved it. I couldn't believe it - I thought that final drop looked straight down and she laughed the whole time!

We had an excellent time, but we're glad to be home. The last few weeks of summer will be savored, and hopefully enjoyed to the fullest. I think D and I both realize that while money will be tighter than usual, the best option will be for him to stay home for the next year. C won't be in after school care or any type of care during school vacations, so that will save us some money there. And it might be good for all of us to spend more time together. Although, check with me in a month or so, after he's gone through every room and cleaned out all the clutter.

Radio Silence

Your husband was just "asked to resign" from his job.

Where are you going?

DISNEY WORLD!

That's right. We leave tomorrow for Disney. Hopefully the "happiest place on earth" will help begin the healing process.

Besides, if you don't laugh about it, you cry and that's no fun. We should be ok, for the most part. And this will be good. He can be a SAHD for awhile and maybe we can reconnect as a family.

And, when life hands you lemons, look for the tequila and make margaritas, right?

More when we're back, I promise.

Daisy

Daisy came into our lives pre-2000. I was working in NYC, and a guy in the office had a golden retriever that he was going to bring to the shelter because she wasn’t “trainable” and barked a lot (if you’ve ever lived with a goldie, you know they’re slow to mature. She was only 8 months old!).

Upon hearing this, my mom couldn’t bear the thought of that puppy in a shelter where who knows what could happen. I told the guy (let’s call him Ted, because that was his name) that I would be more than happy to take the dog so he didn’t have to bring her to the shelter. Ted gave me instructions to his house on Long Island and on Saturday, D and I ventured over the Throgs’ Neck Bridge to get her.

This was pre-C, obviously. I was driving a beat up Saturn (my first brand new car ever, and learn from my mistake, please) and we were living in Westchester at the time. It was a short ride to Ted’s house, and we got Daisy and brought her to my parents’ house. As a puppy, she was full of energy and lively and jumping all over. My dog, Jamey (also a golden, short for Jameson, yes named for the whiskey) wasn’t happy about this development.

Jamey was older, maybe 8 or 9 at the time. Daisy lived with my parents a couple days when my mom realized that Jamey had stopped eating. Jamey was so upset at the appearance of Daisy that she stopped eating, and was moping around the house. This poor dog (Daisy) needed a home. My brother and sister in law and nieces said they would take her in.

Daisy became part of their family. She slept on my niece’s beds, watched out for them when they got home from school, and comforted them when they cried. Other than being overweight, she had never been really sick in her life.

Until this past weekend, when she couldn’t get up off the floor and had a nosebleed. My poor sister in law had to find an emergency vet who could come look at her. Somehow they got Daisy to the vet where at first things were hopeful. There were tests to run and x-rays taken and medications given and potential therapies to try. My nieces were upset, but hopeful.

Except on Sunday, when the vet went to get Daisy out of her cage, she collapsed and stopped breathing. She was resuscitated, and made comfortable. My brother, sister in law and nieces went to see her Sunday afternoon. She was brought out to them on a stretcher, and she tried to get up to lick their hands and go home with them.

After consulting with the vet, however, my brother was told she couldn’t recover from this. Her blood and platelet counts were dangerously low, and she was bleeding internally. A difficult decision had to be made. The kids and my sister in law kissed her good bye one last time.

Rest in peace, Daisy.

Remembrance

I can't do this. I still cry thinking about that day (I worked south of the Trade Center on 9/11), and knew a couple people who didn't survive that horrible day. But if anyone who reads wants to sign up for this, it is a great idea:

http://www.jamulian.com/db911/

As of this morning, there are still about 53% of the victims unassigned for blogging.

Vacations

I was actually up before C this morning. She was out late, having been in the musical being produced at the theatre D works at this weekend. She didn't get home until almost midnight (she fell asleep in the car on the way home, and stayed asleep until 8:30 am). I took a couple pictures with my new digital camera, and once I figure out how to download (upload?) them to the computer, there'll be a post about that.

But anyway, I was up earlier than she was, so decided to go for a walk. It was beautiful this morning - clear, cool, and sunny. It reminded me of the vacations my family would go on when we were young. My family didn't have a lot of money, my dad worked in a factory and my mom stayed home with us. Vacations were weekends at the beach house my grandparents owned, and a week in Vermont in August.

August in Vermont. It's amazing the difference a few hundred miles makes. The days were warm, but the nights very cool. And another difference was the quiet. Living in the suburbs, there were always cars driving by, and street lights, and people out late at night. In Vermont, there was none of that. Complete peace and quiet. Quick tip: never read Stephen King's Pet Sematary in Vermont. It just gets a little too creepy.

So, very quiet, and the stars...you have never seen so many stars! There's little ambient light (where we were at least) and at night the sky was just covered with stars. And every so often you would see a shooting star. Days were spent sightseeing - even into New Hampshire a few times. And sometimes the thunderstorms at night were incredible.

Where am I going with this? I guess sometimes I just worry that C is going to be spoiled with all the Disney we do/ will be doing, plus vacationing in Rhode Island, and all the other advantages she gets. That sometimes it might be nice to just go someplace where you have to make your own fun, where a trip to the store is an event. That even though we didn't have money for different trips when we were young, we still were able to have fun.

Quickie

Just back from a business trip. Technically I probably should have gone into work today, but unlike some people who I work with who shall remain nameless, I hardly ever take "travel time" (ie. leave mid day for wherever it is you're going without coming into work first). I looked at 98 files, had some business dinners/lunches, and finished up late yesterday. As I was on Long Island, I left at 6:15am to avoid the traffic and got home right as D and C were leaving. So C stayed home with me today.

We went to the hospital to get blood drawn (see my post from vacation - suspected tick bite). C was so brave! She didn't even cry, and she's never had blood drawn from her arm before. And the people doing the blood drawing were really awesome with her. It was over quickly, and we went to get a smoothie at Dunkin Donuts. Probably shouldn't reward things with food, but this is a special case, I think.

We're going to my dad's this afternoon to go swimming. The pool water will probably be warm, but at least it's something to do to get out of this heat. Honestly, I don't mind the heat. I prefer it to the snow and ice and cold of winter. I wish I could box some of this heat and sunshine up for Jan/Feb.

And the best thing is, after the potential severe thunderstorms this afternoon, tomorrow and this weekend the temp will still be in the high 80's!