Day in the Life of an Idiot

 I got up early this morning to take the car in for its check-up. We are T-2 days for launch. I just got the call and they are going to do their best to fix our air-conditioning. They already did an oil change and are replacing and rotating tires, and giving me new front brakes. The bill will be hefty and Shawn won't like it, but the car will definitely be road worthy after that. 

One of the reasons I picked this particular auto place--besides the recommendations from friends, of course--was because it's on a fairly easy bus/train line from me. Unfortunately, the bus runs straight down Snelling (out-of-town friends, just think major thoroughfare.) Normally, this makes the trip fast.  But, I kind of forgot that today is the first day of the Great Minnesota Super Spreader, aka the State Fair, which is right on Snelling.  The bus crawled almost as much as my skin, as I watched all those maskless people amassing. You can feel free to yell at me about how outdoor events are safer, but I will remind you that they could literally track the explosion of cases from Sturgis. And, like Sturgis, the main event might be outdoors, but there are going to be indoorish places to buy beer and food and I don't know? Are the craft barns open? I did see a giant pumpkin being delivered, so I can only imagine so.

A big enough viral load and we all get overwhelmed....

I mean, can I point fingers? Only if I remember that most of them are pointing back at me. We are choosing to travel across the country to deliver our child to a university. At least Wesleyan is requiring proof of vaccination and masks indoors. I have no idea how that works in a dorm, but I presume you just kind of have to have your floormates as a pod. I don't know. That's the crazy, risky part. We are trying to mitigate what we can. I'm grateful a booster is coming. And, selfishly, even though Mason is lucky enough to be one of those people who did FINE with distance learning, I would like him to have the in-person experience, particularly at the university level. 

The other thing that has me stressed is our eldest cat, Ms. Piggy. She's 21. Until a couple of days ago, however, you really would not know it. She's had the Katherine Hepburn head shake going on for some time, so you'd know she was OLD, but she could hop up and move around like a kitten. In the last couple of days, she's been having a lot of trouble moving.  She's still eating and drinking like a champ. She's been trying to make it to the box, but last night she just let loose on the floor next to the box right during dinner. We have a piddle pad? But, it's clear her hips are just not up to even the shallowest jump right now. 

We have cat sitter coming to live-in while we're away, which makes me feel somewhat better. This person has cared for Piggy before, but I am going to need to write an addendum pre-absolving the cat sitter of any guilt should Piggy pass while we're away. I mean, she's a tough old lady? But, did I mention that she's TWENTY-ONE??

Yeah. 

Mason is mostly packed. I feel pretty good about the amount he's bringing. Shawn joined the Wesleyan parents Facebook page and there are people trying to send PALLETTES of stuff. We also watched our across the street neighbor load up a U-Haul for his kid. We're going to have a stuffed trunk? But, that seems reasonable in comparison, I think. I mentioned that he's getting a single, so that's kind of nice. He can decorate however he wants. 

His best local friend showed up last night in her car and they went off for ice cream together. She's going to Seattle, and him to Middletown,. Connecticut. They're going to be an entire country apart. 

On the other hand, this is the big moment that parenting is all about as far as I'm concerned. His own life begins! I have to be honest, I have jettisoned a lot of my memories of high school. I had one friend that I still sometimes miss, but I attempted to visit her at her college during one of my breaks and... it was awful, partly because I came head to head with the fact that I had a massive crush on her and the fact that she was in a serious relationship with a guy just about broke me. I came out only a few months later. She ghosted me after that... and that was probably actually a reasonable response in retrospect. I was deeply hurt at the time, of course. She never goes back to high school reunions and neither do I. I mean, I went back to my five year? Mostly because I'm an asshole and wanted to come out to everyone. I brought Shawn. People didn't recognize me with my hair short and with no make-up. It was actually kind of fun. No regrets. 

So, I mean, for me, the friends I made in college were the ones that lasted? 

I hope its the same with Mason.

Or, at least, Tate looks like an Idiot on Twitter. I swear, I figure out how to post and then I end up somehow sending things out in duplicate, all with misspelled words (yes, I know, I'm terrible here too, but I already say I'm an idiot in the title of this LJ.)

So, how are you?

We had a lovely weekend, partially due to our good friends the Murphys (seanmmurphy, who took Mason to the Minnesota State Fair yesterday so we didn't have to. Yes, I'm one of those crumugeons who hates the State Fair. Let me explain. I grew up on county fairs. You know, the kinds that roll into a large park and set up a midway on grass and briefly transform the ordinary into something magical. Yes, the south side of LaCrosse had permanent buildings and such for Oktoberfest, but I perferred the northside's Copeland Park. And I'm the same way with the State Fair. I like all the things about the State Fair: the bad food, the people watching, the weird seed art, 4-H buildings, and jam and pie contests, etc. But, I can't take the paved streets reflecting heat, the zillions (hardly an exaggeration) of bodies all crowded together, the noise, and the smells (and I don't mean of the weird food, but the humanity.) If I took Mason, all he'd hear is the complaining. Luckily, the solution was to let Sean and his wife, Katherine, take the little guy for the time of his life. And they did. He ate all sorts of things on a stick. He got to go on the "kidway" (the carnival rides for the smaller ones) and do and enjoy all the things with people who *love* the fair.

Meanwhile, Shawn and I got to have a long, slow Sunday morning, the likes of which we haven't had since Mason was born. We read the newspaper, I drank coffee and we munched on Cinnamon rolls courtesy of Breadsmiths. Then we went to an estate sale and picked up a number of useless, cheap curios... because we could. We wandered, meandered, and generally lazed through the morning. It was quite lovely.

Mason was quite pooped after the fair and spent the afternoon reading (his version of a nap), while Shawn and I made fresh salsa from the tomatoes from our CSA share. Mom, if you're reading this: I ate tomatoes. Raw. And liked it. Try not to faint.

Our salsa is good, but not quite the recipie we were shooting for. We're going to have to keep experimenting until we get the amount of spices that make that "taste" we want. But it was fun to have tried it, and, as I said, it's certainly a good first attempt.

In the evening, we grilled out, despite the chilly weather. Can I confess something? For me, this has been one of the best summers on record temperature wise. I love the cooler weather. I'm sorry for YOUR tomatoes and basil and all the plants that love heat, but, man, it's been great sleeping weather.

Speaking of which, I had the strangest dream last night. And another one where I actually remember dreaming in color. Predomenant color? PINK. Anyway, the dream involved a house in... Africa? Asia? Where we had to close a lot of gates to keep all wild animals off the property (weird mix: coyotes, mountain lions, and...er, monkeys,) and then once inside the estate, I was showing off my collection of masks to my guests. I got the sense that I was a thief of some kind, perhaps this house didn't REALLY belong to me, but many of the masks I had stolen from museums. In particular, under the floorboards, I had two ancient Egyptian "death masks" like the famous one of King Tut, only these belonged to some queen and her consort. I kept telling everyone, "for godssake, don't put them ON!" And, of course, someone did... and the mummies came to life and then it devolved into your standard nightmare, although as I told Shawn this morning, what was weird about it was that even in the dream I got the sense that if I just got out of the way, the mummies wouldn't hurt me. They had their own agenda. But whenever the queen used her magic something pink would appear.

Strange. And left me with those random images floating through my head this morning. Do you have dreams that do that?

Anyway, Mason is ready to do something. I should go!