Putting the Un in Fun

Why is having fun sometimes so much work? Saturday was a perfect example of this for me. I wake up around 9:30 and I’m already running late. Saturday mornings are my favorite and it’s hard to get me motivated to do much other than drink coffee and read. I usually move from the bed to my chair, where I curl up in it sideways and tuck my fleece throw around my feet. I can sit there for a couple of hours like a cat, content.

But today, for the 2nd Saturday in a row, this is impossible. I throw on scrubby clothes and head to the office to help decorate for the party that night. I am grumpy. I must be out of the office by noon in order to get my costume ready. I usually plan a little more in advance, but my in-laws were in town and I’m running behind. I go as fast as I can, completing the tasks assigned to me. I finish at 1:30 and head to the closest 2nd hand store. Everything seems so overpriced and not just right. I’m fading. My stomach is empty and my spirit is dampened.

I decide to just go by our local community theatre to see if they are still renting costumes so I can take the easy way out. Alas, they are closed because of a show. Bummer. I call reliable Bgirl to get me back on the right path. Help! She does her best to get me there and criticizes how cheap I am about used clothing. $7 for a dress? Just buy it! No, I say, I can do better as I see Darth Vader riding by on a motorcycle. I just need the umph.

And I find it. 50% off all items. Sweet! I find a shirt, skirt, puffy coat, purse, and poncho all for $8.75. I’m back in the saddle again. Next challenge: braces. My idea is beads and wire. So I’m off to the bead shop. The awesome girls there hook me up for $2 with exactly what I’m looking for. Yay!

I grab some food and check my list. Glasses, dental adhesive, black hair spray, grocery store. I’m almost running at this point when I hit the drugstore, Goodwill, and get all supplies for my harvest party the next day. Gracious! But, everything seems to be perfect. I found wax for braces, which will be a great accent. Score!

I’m home in enough time to pop in the shower, dry my hair, eat some spaghetti that J lovingly made for me out of fear that I wouldn’t eat dinner, and I’m in full costume mode. The skirt- not a size 6. Not even close. I grab one out of the closet and call it good. The black hair spray- a nightmare dripping all over the bathroom. The poncho- smallest head hole known to man. Lastly, the braces- dental adhesive isn’t sticking to my teeth. This whole outfit is ruined without them. I’m frustrated and my upper lip is quivering from trying to stay out of the way. I’m sweating. Ruined! Ruined!

J comes in to see my progress because we are late. He messes with the wax and discovers that it sticks to his teeth. My hero! I squish the wax on, press the wire and beads to it and we fly out of the house. I’m looking good. Hideous, really, but awesome.

I arrive at the party and everyone I see starts laughing at me. Success! I’m exhausted…

Spinning

Remember when you were a kid on that schoolyard contraption that you push, running in a circle and then hop on, trying to avoid smacking your shins on the edge? You ran as fast as you could in the dirt groove with the cold, metal pole in your hands as you give it your all. Then you dove on, laying flat to feel the out-of-control sensation as blood rushed to your head. Everything around you was a blur, but yet you were smiling, giddy, laughing. I would hang my head off the edge, so that I was also seeing everything upside-down. This would also sometimes lead to a sick feeling in my stomach, but it was my favorite thing to do at recess.

As an adult, I have periods of time that give me this same feeling. Everything's going so fast, it's such a blur. Can I hold on? When will it stop spinning? Most of the time this occurs from just before Halloween and doesn’t stop until Christmas. Most of the stuff is good: hockey starts, I prepare costumes that I love, decorate the house, carve pumpkins, buy gifts, eat, eat, eat, prepare for snow, fun things.

It’s the time of my life, and the craziest, most stressful, fastest-paced blur of event to event. Parties, dinners, games, all inter-mingled with regular life. Right now I’m in that sick-in-the-stomach feeling stage. I’m trying to hold on, maintain control, when really I should throw my head back and enjoy the whirl.

If you catch me whispering to myself, this is what I’m saying:

Let go.
Let go.
Let go.

Autumn Leaves

Autumn leaves
Drift by my window
Autumn leaves
Of red and gold
I see your lips
The summer kisses
The sunburned hand
I used to hold

As fall is by far my favorite season, so is Autumn Leaves my favorite jazz standard. It’s a heart-wrenching song of lost love, but in the fall it doesn’t make me sad; it just makes me reminisce. Summer is over. The heat, shorts, flip flops, sweet veggies. Gone. Happily, I now don long sleeves, long pants, boots, a light jacket. And smile. Walking through the falling leaves, hearing their crunch underfoot. Seeing the golden fields of grass, the green of summer fading into brilliant colors, then drab. I am in love.

People often talk about loving spring, finally a break from the snow and cold. But me, I only think of spring as wet, yucky, unpredictable. As Van Morrison says, “when I hear that robin sing, well I know it must be coming on spring, oo-we, we’re starting a new life”. I feel restless, ready for something new. In the fall, however, I revel in where I am today. Everything is more charming, smells better, tastes better.

Halloween is my all-time favorite holiday. It brings out my inner kid (always just under the surface anyway). Getting dressed up in costume is always a kick for me. It’s my one (or three) day a year that I get to be someone else and no one questions my sanity.

I find I even crave certain albums. I search my stacks of cds, finding Neil Young’s Harvest Moon, Rufus Wainwright’s Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk, Oingo Boingo, Combustible Edison.

So, welcome back autumn! So happy to see you!