My current listed location for the IM program at work is “A San Fermín venimos… o no” (To Saint Fermin we come… or not).
All the people I’m supposed to be helping are on vacation, so why am I not in Sanfermines? Or wherever, just not here :p. So my plans for this week include:
reading
writing these two manuals I’ll be leaving behind for my coworkers who are supposed to take over helping the vacationers
watching movies
reading some more
exercising around the office
eating lunch
more reading
more writing
did I mention I have this sort of plasticky strip you can use to exercise? And walls, and nobody walks in front of my office like, ever…
listening to music
if I’m feeling particularly daring, without headphones
Specific plans for tomorrow include painting my nails, today I buffed them.
I never want to be a kid again and I’m always surprised so many people express nostalgia. Yeah, I may not have every moment to myself, but it’s MY life now! When I was a kid someone else controlled every waking moment of my life. Plus we moved so much I never had any long term friends. It was fun enough, but being an adult is so much better! It helps that I don’t have any kids of my own so my responsibilities to others are fairly minimal.
Summer was a lot better when I didn’t live in a stupid hot area.
Today’s plans involve arguing with the public transit system over a double charge for my monthly pass. I don’t think it was intentional (probably just a processing system hiccup), but I still have to deal with bureaucracy to get my money back for the “extra”. Currently awaiting phone call to let me know how this is going to be handled. Also need to run a load of laundry, do some shopping, and make sure I have lunch material for tomorrow. Yay.
Odd little note: last night, at one point, I picked up Allie (my cat, for those who don’t know) to hug her, and apparently she didn’t want to be hugged. I swear I heard her say, in English, “put me down”.
I’ll write it off to one of those YMMV things. Personally I would never want to be an adult again. We got to roam around several counties without any real supervision. And while at a certain age we knew we were poor, it was always made pretty clear that it wasn’t our problem. When we did bring in some meat for the table (usually more fish to be honest) it was appreciated but it wasn’t expected. We were also lucky that when we did earn a few bucks, outside of what went away towards college the rest was ours. We were really just free to be kids in a way kids today will never know. From taking a homemade raft down the Susquehanna to riding in the back of station wagons so we could play board games along the way.
Now I usually have a boss to answer to, a wife to be responsible to/with/for to some degree, a bank to be paid now and then, crap like water heaters to break, friends to expect me to drop everything at a moments notice to help them out, clubs that want me to run for office, election polls to work in the spring and fall, vehicle inspections, gas line inspections, and my damn newspaper didn’t arrive again so I’m going to have to give them yet another call and wait in voice-mail-Hell as usual -------- I got 20 times the number of people with control over me now than I had at age 10. Even with the drunk relatives, shit living conditions and abusive mother, I’d try it again in a second.
Most days. But there are those where I would side more with you as well.
Summers when I was a kid were a mixed bag of work and play.
On the work side, we truck farmed some acreage next to my paternal grandparents, so at least one day a week, we were out there planting, hoeing, weeding and picking various veggies. We also cut grass (ours as part of our chores, others for hire) when we got old enough. A few days every summer, we went to our maternal grandparents’, along with a bunch of other cousins and aunts to butcher chickens. We’d put in around four hours with age appropriate jobs (think plucking, etc) then play Tarzan in the haymow or ride minibikes in the back pasture.
For the play part, there were days spent at the trailer at the lake, swimming, fishing, exploring and playing king of the hill with the other kids, riding our bikes around our small town, to our godparents’ house on one lake, out to our paternal grandparents’ seven miles away or a couple of miles up to another lake (yes, I grew up where the glaciers left holes ), going to Girl Scout camp and taking part in our town’s big parade. We also went to King’s Island or Cedar Point shortly before school would start.
No way, man. OK, so my childhood was probably severely more regimented than you guys - I didn’t wander around counties, or go fishing, but I still had plenty of fun. But now if I want I can have ice cream for dinner. I can plan anything I want this weekend. It’s MY money and if I want to waste it I can. And I’d say at least 50% of the people with control over your life are people you cede it to.
I mean, just out of your list:
I don’t drop anything out of my life for friends unless it is a real emergency, and I don’t expect them to do the same
I refuse to be president of any club
don’t work in election polls
And besides, I like most of the parts of being an adult, even the responsibilities. Nope, wouldn’t trade it for anything!
Speaking of which, I think I am going to sign up for kayaking course! Another thing I couldn’t do when I was a kid just because I was a kid!
My parents thought that national parks were educational. So every summer, they’d pick one, and we’d play connect the dots, staying at various relatives’ homes on the way to that year’s park. One of my Grandmas kept up a regular correspondence with a lot of her cousins, who had spread out a bit and who talked about their kids, who had also spread some.
Then when a set of them came to visit Disneyland, we’d see them again. We were thirty miles away from Anaheim, so we weren’t right next door, but if you were coming from Oregon or Montana or New Mexico, it was a good place to stay for a few days. In the pre-internet days, we could also loan maps of the Magic Kingdom and give them any tickets left over from our last trip.
Some years my Dad or one of my Uncles would be working somewhere that provided employees with Magic Kingdom cards. You could buy tickets at a small discount with one of those, and at some point you started getting Key Tickets, which you could use on any ride, rather than the A - E tickets that everyone else got. Of course to use the MK card, the employee and their kids would be forced to come along, but we were willing to make that kind of sacrifice for relatives.
Howdy Y’all! I accomplished renewin’ twuck’s tag today. Go Me! Plus we et N.O.L. at the [del]hog trough[/del] buffet place in da burg. Today is National Fried Chikin Day (at least I think it is) so in honor we et fried chikin.
OYKW is at his place so I am sans adult supervision. I might go wild and have an Arnold Palmer. Anything goes!
{{{gigity}}}
I spent a lot of time as a kid on a farm owned by an aunt and uncle. Acres and acres for us to roam and a crystal clear ice cold creek just down the road from the farm. We would take sodas (and when we were a little older and got rid of the little ones beer) and put 'em in the creek. In just a little while they would be ice cold! Fun times!
I don’t know what’s up with Taz, but that little ass keeps opening the pantry. The first time, I thought he was asking for more kibbles (meaning the feeder was empty) but it was full, so that wasn’t it. I finally got fed up with yelling at him and closing the door yet again, so I moved a chair in front of it.
Stoopit cat.
The clean dishes are put away. We’re having tuna and broccoli and I don’t know what else for supper. Or maybe cabbage instead of broccoli. Beyond that, I have no plans.
Some of you posters’ responses, plus my own memories, make me long for another time, when people could roam the countryside without worrying about goddamn ticks.
Or maybe ticks were always there, but they weren’t here in Canada until recently, at least not disease-transmitting ones.
Something novel happened to me today: an old friend from my very first adult job came out to me today. I was supposed to see her for a couple of minutes last Wednesday, and she missed because of a medical appointment. She said, “oh, by the way, I got married…” and it was to another woman. I told her I was happy for her, genuinely.
The funny part is/was that if you know her as I do, you wouldn’t be surprised if she was gay, straight, or down the middle.
Summers as a kid were pretty lazy. We rode our bikes, roller skated in the street, played kick ball, whatever kid games. Unless it was too hot, then we’d play board games or with our Barbie dolls in the shade. Some of my friends had a pool so we’d go swimming.
We were always outside, always barefoot, time didn’t exist.
That is what I think I miss the most about childhood summers, you never had to watch the clock because there was nothing you had to do.
Sometimes we’d go to one of the local beaches, it was something like $2 for a carload of people. There were also big extended family picnics at the park.
It seems like life was slower back then and there was a lot of extended family time together. Then as my mother and aunts started working all that stopped.
Vacations were always going to WV to stay with various family members.
I’ve not accomplished very much today. I went to get some minor work done on Polly Subaru but Meineke was slam-packed busy so I made an appointment for tomorrow afternoon. All I need is to have the control arm on the front windshield wipers replaced and the check engine light looked at. Then I went by the grocery store to make pick up some tp and make **swampy **proud. While I was there I remembered that it’s Detailed AGM’s birthday and he has to work, so I got some fudge for him and dropped it off at irk which was right across the street. Then I went to the library.
Here ends my accomplishments for the day.
Oh, I took a nap as well! But that didn’t really accomplish anything.
My computer’s been working for a week solid. Dare I try to play Skyrim and really test the system?
), going to Girl Scout camp and taking part in our town’s big parade. We also went to King’s Island or Cedar Point shortly before school would start.
Plus we et N.O.L. at the [del]hog trough[/del] buffet place in da burg. Today is National Fried Chikin Day (at least I think it is) so in honor we et fried chikin.
