The Kid and I had a fun weekend. We were very relaxed and lazy, and it was glorious.
I have found more and more that since my return from Planet Vacation, I have had a much more calm view of things. I'm a lot more willing to let stuff go and just kind of rearrange as needed. I know I go on about the whole vacation thing, I mean people go on vacation all the time right? They don't all come back with revelations about themselves, do they? I'll shut up about it soon (probably) but for now I'm kind of enjoying riding the wave of "eh, whatever - let's go for a drive" that has appeared as my new attitude about life. I'd like to keep it, actually. It's awesome!
Saturday morning we slept in a little bit, and I tried to contain my shock at the revelation that my Child appears to have gotten herself her first boyfriend. I don't entirely approve of him, but she said yes to his offer of a date because "he's funny". It's a good start. I told her to be sure not to let him talk her into anything stupid, but like I told TR, I have to trust that I've taught her well enough that she'll make good decisions.
I also told her not to agree to hold any sort of anything for him unless she has first visually verified that there are no police cars anywhere.
"Is this from personal experience?" she asked, illustrating that I've told too many tales of my misspent youth. If I can't be a good example, I can at least be a horrible warning, right? (In truth, it was a friend, but I had to run with said friend, and it was awful and a pain in the ass.)
After running the gamut of "OH MY GOD MY BABY" and "Do I want my kid dating a boy who listens to Insane Clown Posse?" (only for the music, she assures me, and not for any of the "juggalo" nonsense), I woke The Kid, gave her my lecture, made her pancakes and took her to the school fundraiser she had signed up to work.
Then I went home and watched a Karen Black movie while crocheting a bikini because the Kraft Krazy senses the Christmas Kraft Krazy approaching and must be vented somehow or else about 10 afghans will get started and I'll be a wreck. Know your strengths, I always say, but more importantly know your limits.
After picking up Child from the very boring fundraiser (ask me later about how disappointed I am with the whole Leadership Academy thing), she asked me "can we go to the craft fair?".
Old Me would have been able to find a million errands that had to be run (I need a new shower head and a furnace filter, among other things), would have gone on and on about laundry and vacuuming, but New Me (See? I had a point.) thought for a moment and decided sure, why not.
I did a few craft fairs way back when, after learning how to make wire-wrapped jewelry. I was very proud of what I made, it really was nice stuff, but what I found out is that craft fairs are horrible for vendors. You shell out many dollars for a booth you have to set up and stock, and then you sit and hope that people will do more than just touch all your stuff and rearrange your displays. They rarely do, and unless you have extraordinary luck, you will not only be one of 10 other vendors selling exactly the same thing, you'll probably be right next to them, because rare is the event coordinator that stops to consider the idea of variety. It's frustrating, and discouraging, and I decided after the 3rd one that I was going to stick to being an attendee. I just don't have the patience to sell my wares, and frankly because of it I ended up losing interest in jewelry making.
I don't even enjoy going to craft fairs anymore, really, because I feel for the poor crafters stuck behind their huge displays of fake flower arrangements and stuffed animals made from socks and Hobby Lobby fabric. I know their pain. I also have this really awful tendency to look at stuff and mentally figure out how to make it myself.
I'm a terrible person.
I did have fun with The Kid picking through the bargain bin at the card making stuff booth; we found some supplies for making our Christmas cards this year on the cheap and learned some new things, like did you know you can use a wood-burning tool on contact paper and make stick-on stencils for glass-etching? NOW YOU DO.
After that we headed home and were shocked (SHOCKED!) to see it was already 5PM! My shoulder was hurting, so I gave in and ordered pizza, which was pretty good - I had them overcook it, so the cheese was brown and perfect, and they included a deliciously fresh salad. I talked TR through a good chunk of Kansas, and The Kid played an awesome new online game, a sort of animal themed "university" where you earn degrees in various subjects by learning new things (and this is why I don't worry about her - that's her kind of fun). A little bit of Pushing Daisies on Netflix (a great show!) and it was off to bed for both of us.
Sunday, at about 8:30 AM, The Kid woke up with a craving.
"It's Sunday," she said.
"Dur," said I.
"It's before 10 AM..." she coaxed.
Silence from me. I knew what she wanted... I just like to make her work for it. So mean.
"And?"
"Can we? Pleeeeeease?"
See, there's this restaurant, Aunt Alice's. It's a diner, the kind I've always loved and the only one around, really, at least in Longmont. It's totally un-updated with a counter and old booths and the same waitresses who have worked there for eons and have regulars they greet by name.
Sunday mornings, they make German Pancakes which are awesome & cheap, and a quick calculation in my brain told me we could afford it. (I may have mentioned their German Pancakes before, but who knows. This is post #348, can you believe it?)
But here's the thing...
Old Me would have made us get dressed, maybe thrown a load of laundry in first, vacuumed or something, and generally screwed around being obsessive about stuff for an hour. After all that, Old Me probably would have managed to rationalize herself out of spending the whopping $15 it would take to have a nice morning's breakfast with her Kid and ended up making eggs instead.
New Me said "can we wear our sweatpants, do you think?" and we were off in 5 minutes flat. Lucille's I would have nixed as too pricey, but a couple of pancakes seemed pretty do-able. Life is for living!
After breakfast, it being a gorgeous Fall morning, we decided rather than go home and hole up until it was time for Derby, we'd take a drive into Lyons and go to the quilt shop. It was closed, alas, but we had fun anyway, driving around and looking at little tucked-away houses. The views from some of them are amazing, but I imagine it sucks after a heavy snow.
On the way back, we noticed a pumpkin patch. Did Old Me take over and say "we don't need pumpkins, wait for next week," and drive by? Nope. New Me said "Awesome!" and pulled in. We walked a corn maze, stared at some really bored-looking goats, and picked out 4 perfect pumpkins, plus a few little ones.
I really like New Me a lot better. She's way more fun.
The afternoon was nice... I took The Kid to practice, and after grabbing our tickets for her BIG DEBUT this Saturday (I'm so excited for her!), I headed over to see TR. It had been a long time since leaving Florida (he was still there awhile, then in Nashville with his brother), and I was glad to see him! He was a bit cross-eyed, having only returned at 4AM after the rest of his very long drive through Kansas and points East, but glad to see me too, and I was able to relieve him of several bags of Disney goodness that were clogging his floor...my how those things multiplied!
The Kid loved her Mickey ears... I love mine too! TR got them for me after I left for home, because he's awesome like that. Mine are blue and sparkly, and have fireworks on the ears, and The Kid's are more traditional...black with gold stitching. We both agree we have the best ones.
She also loved her giant Eeyore (I saved it for last) and her awesome Japanese swag (Totoro cards and flip-flop-socks that are as she put it "like mittens for your feet!") and various other goodies.
I had fun going through everything, and realizing that although I remember being seriously hot the day I got my Germany beer stein, it's only in the vaguest of ways. What I really recall is how delightfully cold the beer was, the talk about German Christmas glass with the nice kid in the ornament shop, how much I laughed at the players getting slayed by the Chilean Ham, and how much fun I had with TR. That's why we get souvenirs, ya know? It might appear to just be a plastic beer stein with a Disney logo on it, but for me it's a fantastic memory.
After a dinner of almost-not-burnt brats and boiled potatoes with butter (oh yes), I settled down to some math homework, The Kid went to bed (we're trying a closed door now, since the cats are a nuisance, cute though they may be) and that was that.
It was lovely and relaxed weekend, and I didn't worry about anything, and you know what? I still got my laundry and cleaning done. Just... later.
And the world didn't explode or ANYTHING!
Today's a beautiful day, and I have no complaints.
I hope you have a lovely Monday!
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