The Dog Days of Summer are Rippin’ Me a New One

21 Jul 2010 2 Comments

by Gina McCune in Uncategorized

 

Let’s pretend for a minute that one day a woman from Georgia moves to Colorado with all her cute little southern eccentricities.  This chick is instantly engaging in far too many conversations about where she’s from, since her accent is about as subtle as a brick in the face.  She regales new friends and neighbors with stories of the South she left behind.  She misses southern food (aka – anything fried!), longs for the beach, only thinks of skiing as something you do behind a boat, and LIVES for summer!  Winters in Colorado drive this woman to hibernation as well as endless baking.  This girl dreams of hanging with the kids without a care in the world…

Now flash forward a few years.  Did you know horizons can be broadened without any realization of the party involved??  Me either.  Well, I understood that was possible for other people…people that live asleep at the wheel.  So imagine my surprise, being that sweet, genteel (yeah, right!) woman from Georgia, waking to the realization that I CAN”T WAIT for summer to be over!  Yeah, I said it.  The kids are driving me crazy, it’s too hot (I can’t believe I just wrote that), and I need to get back to work!  If I have to spend another day at the pool, I’m going to poke my eyes out.  I realize that I’ll get very little sympathy from anyone who’s working through this sizzling summer forced to wear “office attire” while daydreaming about slathering sunscreen on exposed portions of the body…but SO WHAT!  I can barely take it anymore.

Hopefully, someone can relate to what I’m saying here.  At forty, I understand that I need something just for me.  Going back to school opened the proverbial floodgates of possibilities for me.  Granted, I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, but I’m loving the journey of discovery that’ll hopefully guide me to figuring it out.  Plus, if I have to referee one more argument about whose turn it is to have remote control control, I’m gonna hurt somebody!

Basically, I don’t think I’m stay-home mom material.  I’m an Aries for God’s sake not that we’re all created equally, but I do feel there might be certain shreds of truth to astrology.  Althought some Aries friends of mine adapt swimmingly to the summers of swimming, it’s not that easy for me anymore.  In an attempt to drive home my point, here’s a short list of people in history born within a week of my birthday: Lenin, Hitler, Queen Elizabeth the II, Catherine the Great, Shakespeare, Jack Nicholson, Picasso, Joan Miro, and Barbara Streisand.  No, I’m not planning world domination…although the thought has crossed my mind.  I’m just trying to stress the level of stress that I feel for the need to DO something.  I understand the importance of being a terrific parent and raising children that will be valid, contributing members of society.  I get it and feel that’s happening.  But, I need more!  Am I selfish?  Am I completely and totally out-of-bounds on this one?  Hopefully not, since that’s honestly the feeling. 

So.  As I relegate myself to another month of being at the utter beck and call of a 9 & 10 yr. old, I daydream of getting back into classes, accepting work projects, and self-sabotaging designated writing time.  AHHH, the good ole days.

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