Summertime Blues

Summers bore me.

It's one of those things I've come to realize later in life. I'm just not an outdoorsy kind of woman. Don't like the heat. Don't like laying out in the sun. Don't even like swimming very much nowadays. I prefer to hear the hum of the air conditioner over the hum of the pool pump.

I have a 17 year old here in the house who is also bored but I don't think this is my problem any longer. At this age, she should be fending for herself a little more -- whether it's making plans with friends (instead of waiting for them to do it) or driving. As I've recounted already, she doesn't have her license so she's at the mercy of whoever can drive her to wherever she wants to go. And, frankly, I'm pretty much finished with taking her places just for fun. At some point, she needs to take the wheel and drive. Until then, she can go with me when I need to go somewhere but, otherwise, sorry. I already have a mother who depends on me in the same way (and who also expects everyone else to do the entertaining) and it's just getting to be a little too much. Those sandwich(generation) slices are getting thinner and thinner.

I don't even want to leave the house to go to the bookstore -- now that's really admitting something because, normally, I can spend hours browsing through books and be happy as a clam. But it's so hot outside -- 93 degrees at the moment -- and it's only June.

Also, according to said 17 year old, we have no food in the house. Well, I can tell you right now that we could probably survive for a couple of weeks -- except for milk -- on what is stashed in the pantry or freezer. However, some of it actually has to be cooked and, heaven forbid, if you have to eat the same thing for two days. Again, if she could drive...

But I don't want to belabor that point -- or do I? Anyway, it's not one of those "my life is miserable" kind of things but it sure would make things easier on everybody.

So, here we are. Summertime. It's hot and we're bored already. Well, no, I'm not really bored because I've been writing and editing -- and reading -- and those are my favorite things to do.

So, how long until school starts back and she can get a school lunch?