A Rationalization on Bastille Day
So this idea that I have been writing a book for 10 years is making me feel sort of ashamed. What have I been doing with my life? Late night rationalizations produced a semi-answer:
In these last ten years I got three kids through high school, driver’s ed, orchestra, music lessons, plays, various camps, some international. Saw that all three got into college, and one into more than one, helped in almost every single move. Even got one college graduate out of it.
Went through major home renovation, and still appeared on the Oprah show.
In that time my mother had breast cancer, mastectomy and chemo, followed the next year by heart bypass surgery, with subsequent pacemaker surgery, then two hospitalizations for heart failure due to afib. My father got diagnosed and mistreated for Parkinsons, hospitalized, home health cared. Then we moved the parents into assisted living and then two additional independent living apartments. I went to 85% of all their doctor appointments, physical therapy appointments. In the meantime I suffered from whooping cough that lasted 6 months and broke 7 ribs, had 3 sinus surgeries and two years of antibiotics, steriods and anosmia, countless doctor visits and internet hours. Went through my husband’s heart catheterization and subsequent mania about treatment and diet and exercise.
Still I planned trips to Italy, Hawaii, Paris, South America including Macchu Picchu, not to mention countless business trips to California, Chicago, Cinci, D.C. as well as family vacations each year, mostly to the lake, but once a whirlwind to NYC complete with Broadway tickets. It seems pitiful to count my job as the sole procurer of tickets to any and all concerts and events, but we go to ten times as many as any other family I know.
Of course I've all but forgotten to mention spending the last year preparing and putting on the best wedding anyone can remember, along with self-catered engagement party, and bridal shower. It also bears pointing out that I've cooked almost every major holiday dinner for anywhere from 15 to 28 for the last fifteen years, including an annual 4th of July fireworks show (with a much larger guest list) that has only been suspended twice, Goddammit.
So I am looking forward to a long break. Time to hunker down at the keyboard. Burn the calendars. Funny I just realized that today is Bastille Day! The revolution awaits. Guilliotine the phone cords. Damn the torpedos. Only a few thousand more words to go.
In these last ten years I got three kids through high school, driver’s ed, orchestra, music lessons, plays, various camps, some international. Saw that all three got into college, and one into more than one, helped in almost every single move. Even got one college graduate out of it.
Went through major home renovation, and still appeared on the Oprah show.
In that time my mother had breast cancer, mastectomy and chemo, followed the next year by heart bypass surgery, with subsequent pacemaker surgery, then two hospitalizations for heart failure due to afib. My father got diagnosed and mistreated for Parkinsons, hospitalized, home health cared. Then we moved the parents into assisted living and then two additional independent living apartments. I went to 85% of all their doctor appointments, physical therapy appointments. In the meantime I suffered from whooping cough that lasted 6 months and broke 7 ribs, had 3 sinus surgeries and two years of antibiotics, steriods and anosmia, countless doctor visits and internet hours. Went through my husband’s heart catheterization and subsequent mania about treatment and diet and exercise.
Still I planned trips to Italy, Hawaii, Paris, South America including Macchu Picchu, not to mention countless business trips to California, Chicago, Cinci, D.C. as well as family vacations each year, mostly to the lake, but once a whirlwind to NYC complete with Broadway tickets. It seems pitiful to count my job as the sole procurer of tickets to any and all concerts and events, but we go to ten times as many as any other family I know.
Of course I've all but forgotten to mention spending the last year preparing and putting on the best wedding anyone can remember, along with self-catered engagement party, and bridal shower. It also bears pointing out that I've cooked almost every major holiday dinner for anywhere from 15 to 28 for the last fifteen years, including an annual 4th of July fireworks show (with a much larger guest list) that has only been suspended twice, Goddammit.
So I am looking forward to a long break. Time to hunker down at the keyboard. Burn the calendars. Funny I just realized that today is Bastille Day! The revolution awaits. Guilliotine the phone cords. Damn the torpedos. Only a few thousand more words to go.