Small Town U.S.A.

This weekend is Labor Day. The last official barb-e-que weekend of Summer. It's funny, the older I get the less exciting Summer becomes. This summer, between work and 2nd-job hunting and hanging with my hunny and squeezing in time to see my friends, 3 months of hot weather just disappeared. I didn't even go swimming. I'm actually relieved that rain will be coming soon simply because of all the stupid fires we've been having this year. Twelve fires. Mother nature has let us down.

When I was a teenager, every new summer was an adventure. No one expected anything of me, volunteer summer jobs seemed like less work and more of a time to visit with co-workers and talk about everything that we had done the previous weekend. It was a time for flings, summer camps, short lived hobbies, weddings, road trips, local festivities and something new every weekend. When the summer ended at the County Fair on Labor Day weekend, it was like putting a dog to sleep. Everyone was devastated. And therefor September was awful being saddled with schoolwork once more and October was spent trying to figure out how to make the next summer even more epic.

That makes it sound as though my friends and I had no life. In fact, we actually did some cool stuff. Went on road trips at age 16 with my friends over Thanksgiving break (no idea what our folks were thinking, letting us take off like that.) we did some awesome photography together, played in the snow, swam in the creek in the middle of winter, we went horseback riding, we carpooled to the next County over because they had a shopping mall and we didn't. We spent our weekends singing in coffee shops and going out together. It wasn't a bad life, just a small town life. School. Work. Weekends. Repeat.

Now of course, those years are long gone. The only time I'll ever be close to those days again will probably be when my own teenage children get the summer bug and spend their days out with their friends. Then I'll feel really old. Now work is just a year long cycle, dates happen a few times a month and responsibility often gets in the way. Not bad problems to have, just adult problems. Too old to let my hair down, too young to get any respect. I'm at that funky middle age where I finally know what I want out of life -and now I need to figure out what the hell I'm supposed to do on a day to day basis to get to that "rest of my life part". No college, remember? They don't write a manual on how to live your life without a degree. I get to write it by myself!

My Fiance' is making fun of the word "Blog." and we're debating who came up with the word. I must go and win this battle now. Good day!

Love,
Alice