This Post is Gonna be all Over the Place

‘Cause I can’t seem to find the time to put together anything focused and coherent. Where has this week gone? Whew! And has anyone seen my sunglasses?

Teen Angel registered for school yesterday. Yesterday! Her first day of classes is one week away. I can’t believe her summer vacation is already over. We kept saying we were going to do a little one day trip before school started, and now we’re almost out of time. The three of us are headed to the local water park tomorrow to have at least one day of funshine together. TA and BFF will likely slide down tall stuff while Hubby and I tube it in the lazy river. If I could just get that park to sell margaritas and put cup holders on their tubes, I’d be happy as a pig in mud.

I’m taking a day off of work next week to go shopping with TA for school clothes. I think we’ll head north about an hour to a university town, so we can cruise a “big campus” while we have the time. We need to start looking at some schools, so we can make some decisions soon about TA’s college plans. I know this year is going to fly, and before we know it she’ll be walking across the graduation stage. That means college applications, scholarship aps and all sorts of other paperwork will have to be filled out in the coming months, and it makes my head spin just thinking about it.

When she was gone on the mission trip last week, Hubby and I got our first taste of empty nest syndrome, and I’ll just go ahead and admit right now that it didn’t feel very good. I’m sure we’ll muddle through the real thing when the time comes, but we are NOT looking forward to her being gone all of the time. We’ll be excited for this next chapter in her life, but honestly, it’s gonna squeeze my heart like a box of Krispy Kreme’s. Oddly enough, she was homesick by the end of her week away from home. That’s never happened. Always before, she flitted out the door without a second thought and enjoyed whatever camp or trip she was taking. This time was different. She openly admitted that she missed her family, her bed and her friends. I think the significance of this year is starting to dawn on her, too.

The heat and humidity around here have just been miserable for weeks. The heat index rises past 100 degrees regularly, leading people to say things like, “It’s hotter than a $2 pistol,” “It’s hotter ‘n Guam” and my personal favorite, “I’m sweatin’ like a whore in Sunday school.” This has been the hottest, driest summer we’ve had in a long time, but I’m not complaining. All I have to do is close my eyes and think about the ice storm for a few seconds, and I suddenly decide that summer heat is not such a bad thing. It does make running in the middle of the day miserable, though. I already wake up at 5:30am, and I just can’t make myself get up any earlier to run before dawn. After work is out of the question because I’m busy trying to get everyone fed and supplied with clean clothes when I get home, so I’m stuck with running at lunch. Man, it’s brutal. I take walking breaks after each mile and listen to my body for cues that I’m getting too hot. I push on through the run, but my running is more like trotting right now, and most of the time I don’t even pay attention to my pace. I’d rather be slow than pass out in the street. And let’s just say some of my exercise clothes are going to have to be laid to rest after this season. You know it’s bad when you can smell yourself.

The same goes for Hubby. Some days he changes shorts and t-shirts as many as three times while doing yard work. Some of his shirts we’ve actually thrown away instead of washing because they were so sweat stained, and even the sports laundry soap couldn’t kill that funk. We’ve learned to buy the 5 for $10 t-shirts at Wal-greens each spring to keep him adequately supplied. It’s so hot around here that ANY clothing, not matter how skimpy or thin, seems hot. I think we could all go naked and no one would really care right now.

We are spending a fortune watering the yard and garden. Nothing like trying to keep new landscaping alive. So far, nothing but grass had died, and the tomato plants are producing like crazy. Everyone who comes near us gets a bag of tomatoes forced upon him (sorry Janjanmom) whether he wants it or not. One of these days I’ll get around to taking some pictures of the plants. One is thirteen feet tall!

Speaking of pictures, I took some engagement pictures last night for a young couple who are getting married in October. I haven’t had that much fun since the hogs ate my little sister. They were super sweet and just as cute as can be. Fortunately, they didn’t seem to mind when I asked them to do things like kiss in the middle of a downtown street or pose like a mannequin in a store window. If they don’t mind, I’ll post some pictures later. We’ll be doing bridal pictures at an historic home in one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods next month. I can’t wait. The homeowners have an antique baby grand piano, a Victorian sofa and joy of all joys, a claw foot bathtub. It makes me giddy just thinking about the photo ops.

I should sign off and get busy as I have clothes to wash and pictures to crop. However, I will leave you with this final quote from the late great Lew Grizzard, which seems appropriate for the heatwave:

"In the south there's a difference between 'Naked' and 'Nekkid.' 'Naked' means you don't have any clothes on. Nekkid' means you don't have any clothes on ... and you're up to somethin!"