Ooops; forgot to do my Saturday A to Z post. You’ll get W and X today!

Anyway, Friday was…good and not. As noted in my previous post, no one seemed to be in a good mood. Oldest didn’t go to school because it was prom day and we let Isaac stay as well. Ash stayed home from work. But it turned around, thankfully. Ash changed our Accountant 2 time to 1 pm instead of at night. And this all worked out because when we got home, Elliot and his girlfriend were here, getting ready, and I got pictures, just like I wanted. That was what set me off; when he switched, I was worried about timing.

It sounds like they had a lot of fun. He met her parents for the first time; they’re apparently really strict but I think the meeting went over well and they seemed to like him, which is good. We let them do their thing and he was actually home by about 11:30!

By the time we got out of the movie, Ash wasn’t angry anymore, even though he didn’t like said movie and that was disappointing. Can’t remember what all we did that night; think we just watched movies. All this mental gymnastics wears me out!

Saturday morning I woke up and wanted to get on the bike right away but I waited, which kind of put off things. Instead, Dakota and I went to Target for a birthday gift for her friend, then Publix for lunch. I made a lasagna sauce while prepping other things for our steak/potatoes/corn lunch that day. In and around there I did squeeze my 20 miler in. Lots of work! Nice to be able to do that all though; no lie. We watched a couple movies in the afternoon: Days of Heaven, a Terrance Malick film that was…ok. Then Sing Street, which was actually really good. In the evening, Dakota had a birthday party up the road so I took her then the three of us (Elliot was at work) played a game called 5 Minute Dungeon, which we hadn’t played since early Covid, I think. It’s a collaborative monster-beating card game. Pretty fun!

Sunday I knew was going to be reserved for house-cleaning and biking. I’d already made my lasagna so I could just pop it in the oven. I did laundry and tidied up, because last week, our neighbor and I got to texting and decided to set a time to catch up. After lunch, she and her husband came over and we sat and chatted for longer than I figured they’d stay! They’re really fun, even though they’re basically close to my parents’ age!

After they left I made the questionable choice of going up to our favorite neighborhood Mexican place. Did I need it? No. Did I have fun? Yes! The two younger kids came with then we came home and played Wits and Wagers. It was a nice balanced this weekend of family time. No complaints.

Except now I have to face all the other things in life: finally registering for RAGBRAI, taking the pool cover off and accepting how much getting it clean will cost, grading final things in most classes, etc. It’s a lot and my brain hurts but I’ll get there!

Since I totally lost track of things Friday, I was unable to write my Saturday post ahead of time. Also, I don’t blog on the weekends. Anyway:

W is for Wistfulness

I can’t say I’m exactly thankful for this but at the same time, kind of. I am a dreamer and I often yearn and long for this…feeling. Maybe it’s one of nostalgia or stability or a fun time that ripples in a dream-like tone somewhere in the depths of my brain. I don’t know how better to explain it than…wistfulness. I think that is what always compelled me to write, though I hardly ever find myself writing fiction anymore. I used to though and the feeling of being wistful was the quality I associated with that drive I felt to put pen to paper (or, you know, cursor to screen) and create. Without it, I’d be sorely lacking in creativity.

X is for eXcitement

OK, I know that’s cheating. But who isn’t thankful for excitement? As I said in my post today, the balance between the “have-tos” and the “fun” IS exciting. I love being able to work hard all week and play on the weekends. To me, that’s as exciting as being an adult can get, you know? There are moments when you get to do something that is purely useless in terms of productivity. But they do still happen when you get older. I feel like we think of excitement as something kids feel on Christmas morning or how a teenager feels when he rides a roller coaster. But for adults, that feeling is hard and harder to come by so when things do excite me, I am thankful.