Dear Dr. Babooner,
Summer has just begun and I feel like its already over.
The rain has been constant and the mosquitos have been huge. I’ve been working like crazy at my job and spending the rest of my time cutting up trees knocked over by the violent storms we’ve been having. Plus, I had to eat the entire contents of my freezer in one afternoon last weekend because the power went out. I still feel dangerously overstuffed and on the verge of exploding, I can’t sleep and I think I gained 40 pounds in spite of all the physical activity.
What’s worse, I made a bet with my sister-in-law that the Supreme Court would uphold the Defense of Marriage Act, and now that I’ve lost I’ll have to pay her by watching every minute and taking detailed notes on every episode in her boxed-set collection of Season 3 of Glee.
I haven’t done any of the enjoyable warm weather stuff I said I was going to do back in February when I was dreaming about right now, and I can feel the time slipping away.
This might be the worst summer ever.
Dr. Babooner, I know my attitude stinks and I’m focusing on all the wrong things. How can I deal with my frustration, guilt and regret, and still have a good summer in the (almost no) time that remains?
Sincerely,
Fallen Behind
I told Fallen she should resist the temptation to grade her summer. Once you establish a set of expectations you become too much like the stock market – everything is measured against what you thought would happen rather than what actually does happen, and you become tiresome to other people who are not in on the secret reasons for your suffering.
In Summertime, adding any project to your “to-do” list should require Congressional Action – that’s the only way to keep your schedule clear.
And you should never, ever make political bets with anyone. Especially not a relative. But if you have to wager with punishment by “Glee,” choose Season One, which was much better than Season Three.
But that’s just one opinion. What do YOU think, Dr. Babooner.
Trail Baboon 
maybe you could filabuster the summer. ill bet that would make it seem a lot longer. the wendy davis summer reading list and discussions of glee seasons may not be germain but they are a way to put time on hold and slow things down
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I like the Wendy Davis reading list–she is someone I can support. Where do I find a copy of said reading list?
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i think it starts with the planned parenthood budget spreadsheet
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She was recently interviewed following her heroic filibuster and asked if she might run for governor of Texas. To my delight, she said that she’s considering it! The problem is that, in less than two hours after the SCOTUS ruling which gutted the Voting Rights Act, the Texas right wingers were already implementing photo ID and drawing up new district lines to defeat any Democrat who dares run. In fact, Davis would have lost the last time around had it not been for the DOJ declaring the redistricting map illegal.
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When I get tired of all the chores that I have to do, I stage a short filibuster by
taking time off to do a sudoku.
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Good morning. I know what you are talking about FB. I will be spending my summer getting my house ready to sell and getting ready to move. That will keep me way too busy. I wish I could come up with a plan that would make summer more fun for me as well as you.
I did have a glimmer of hope that the summer would not go too badly the other day when some of the work on getting things ready to move went well. Do some dieting. Watch some of those episodes of Glee. If you make some progress on taking off some weight and getting your viewing of Glee done, you might see some light at the end of the tunnel.
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Exercise while you watch those Glee episodes. Dig up one of those old mini-cassette recorders and make verbal notes while you watch for S-i-L. As for the rest of summer – there’s plenty of time. It’s just June. Seems like it’s always mid-July before I really get into the swing of summer. I get a few fun weeks in before the humidity of August does me in – and really, a few good trips to the lake or pool to swim, a handful of times out on the bike, some evenings sitting out with friends and neighbors enjoying the evening breeze while you sip a cool beverage, that’s all you need to feel like you have done “summer” things. Trying to fit too much in makes summer too stressful and un-summer-like. If you find that you are reaching that point of Too Much To Do With Not Enough Time – stop. Fill a glass with ice and your preferred summer beverage (or pour a glass of water to chase something more “adult” that comes in a glass bottle), sit down. Close your eyes. Sip. Breathe. Sip. Breathe. Listen to the birds. Listen for the neighbor kids’ shouts and giggles. Sip. Breathe. Repeat until you are over your urge to overschedule yourself.
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I love the way you think.
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Me, too.
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I always suffer from “too many project” summers. I can only figure it’s a throwback to when we were kids and had the whole summer free; now we have this vestigal memory of more time during the summer months so we load them up with vacations and projects. Unfortunately if you still have to work full time, you don’t acually have more time to do any of said projects. This summer’s project, getting Teenager ready for college, is a little better than some summers, but still stressful!
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My teenager is currently in a “help me but let me do it myself” mode. She and best friend have been saving money for months so they can go to Winnipeg for a whole week at the end of July.. That will seem like an eternity to the two worrying mothers back home.
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My teenager realized a couple of days ago that this and next summer are his last before he will need to (and be able to) get a “real” job.
I’m letting him stay up as late as he wants to and then sleep in the same.
I’m hoping that compensates for no “real” vacation.
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“Real” is in the eye of the beholder. Staying up late and sleeping in seems like a great vacation to me.
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I know I would love it 🙂
What can I say, he has a new kitten rampaging through his Lego scenarios, and unlimited library card and free access to all the food he can scrounge up. How much more can a kid ask for?
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It seems to me that you have far too great of expectations for summer. You are experiencing the effects of putting all your leisure eggs in one basket, and expecting summer to be something it cannot possibly be-one long happy time with no clouds or unpleasantness. I suggest you .become a vegetable gardener with a huge garden plot, and then work at putting all the food up for the winter, preserving the garden bounties, making jams, etc., and by the time that summer is over and the last cuke has been pickled, you will be really happy to see the snow fall. You need to start enjoying yourself no matter what the season.
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I do have to say that the summer so far has been good for straw bale gardening. I’m going to have to lengthen my bean poles over the weekend… the tendrils have made it to the top of the current poles already!
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this one is good for defeat of DOMA day as well:
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You gotta love that line: “Are you comin’ or are you ain’t?”
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Perfect, Holly! I love this song, would give anything to sing it with a chorus. Found the music online…
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This will sound idiotically simple. Whenever I fall into a trap of feeling bad because of failed expectations, I just change the movie playing in my head. Are you depressed because you expected more of the summer than you got? Well, let go of those expectations. If they make you feel bad they are not healthy.
I remember a speech by Don Freeman, a Minnesotan who became the Secretary of Agriculture. The speech was as much of a snooze as most agriculture speeches are, but he startled me with the statement that “a year of normal weather comes along about once every five years.” What? How can that be? Isn’t normal normal? Well, no. Think about it. Some years are wet and some are dry. Some are cold and some are hot. Some start hot but turn cold, and so forth. Few people notice this, but farmers do. If summer is normal winter is likely to be abnormal. A truly “normal” year happens once in five years. At best.
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Testing something; wordpress is being difficult today and not letting me post.
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OK, fine, be that way wordpress. I was saying I prefered season 1 over 3.
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Steve, I agree; normal weather is considered unusual when it happens. Since I’m on the college schedule and therefore ‘unemployed’ (and broke) for the summer, most of my big summer projects end up waiting until September and then it’s a matter of cramming them in before snowfall.
Summer is all about keeping up with the lawn mowing. Which is what I’m out to do. Again.
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Mowing is on my list for tonight as well!
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You’re not being picked on, Ben. WordPress is being pissy this AM.
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By the way, today’s Strib lists 47 new foods to be served at the State Fair. One that was mentioned: mini-doughnut ice cream!
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i think i may try some of that. woo hoo
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gee, I wonder who was cleaver enough to think that one up 😉
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Could only be a baboon!
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Yep, FB, all the hype fools us into thinking there will be more time for everything in the summer, when all there really is, is more daylight. More daylight gives us the illusion that we can do more, and it is true that we can do more things that require daylight! But any time you add in more stuff, you have to subtract from somewhere else.
Thanks for giving us a forum for complaints, FB. I too am owly this week, about the damp basement. We escaped without trees or limbs down, and we certainly won’t have to water the gardens for a while. But all the rugs I had down in the basement (so I could be barefoot down there) are being dried out, and I can see the ugly, cracked cement floor. Blleeaaaggghhh.
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Dear Fallen Behind,
Getting things done and being productive are overrated. Enjoying life is important, too. Don’t be afraid to seize the moment and throw out your to-do list once in a while so you can enjoy the rare days of beautiful weather or hang out with friends or read a book.
Sincerely,
She Who Is Never Done with Her To-Do List and has stopped caring
P.S. I should have emptied out my freezer last weekend, too, but my gas stove requires electricity to ignite, so all I could do was polish off the homemade coffee ice cream before it melted. Next time, buy some ice to put in the freezer, eat the ice cream and stop there.
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I agree; season 1 was better.
I’m curious, though – what would S-i-L have had to do if DOMA had been upheld?
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Between the dog hair that have overtaken the inside of our house, and the evermore prolific weeds in the garden, it seems like I’m using every waking hour when it’s not raining either vacuuming or pulling weeds. Despite this, the hair and the weeds are gaining ground. I have never been a fastidious house cleaner, and my garden has always had lots of volunteer plants where I didn’t want them, but this is ridiculous. It’s almost July and I have had my zero gravity chair out only twice! I don’t even have time to write a to-do list. One the bright side, two of my climbing roses are in profuse bloom, absolutely gorgeous, and small new potatoes are available at the Farmers’ Market.
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I can totally relate, PJ. I have a Sheltie (= lots of hair) AND a cat with medium-long hair. Sometimes when I come in the back door, I don’t even want to wipe my shoes on the mat because all I would be doing is adding animal hair to the dirt on my shoes. And the weeds around here – wowzer! I am not very tall (okay, okay, I am short) but some of those weeds are as tall as I am. But the William Baffin rose – which amazes me every year with the number of roses on it – is beyond belief this year. There is a rather large shrub rose, too, which looked pretty good until one of the honeysuckles (another plant that is astounding me with its blooms) fell on top of it last week. The trellis that held it up broke and I haven’t dealt with it yet, but I’m pretty sure the rose bush will survive fine even if it doesn’t have any roses left on it this year.
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I really can’t recall a summer that began so late as this one. We went from a prolonged winter into a monsoon and suddenly into the depths of what would normally be seen as “summer”. Due to this strange weather pattern, two things I’ve always done weeks before now have gone by the way: tanning and planting annuals in my window boxes. Now, it feels like it’s too late – why bother? The one enjoyment I do get though is using my tiny lawn tractor every few days to whip around and mow my 2/3 acre. This inspiration always hits after one goblet of boxed White Zin, too, and the second serving is my reward 🙂
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Oh Cb, the annuals are dirt cheap right now, and they’re growing like weeds, plant those window boxes, you have another four months to enjoy them.
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That anonymous blue doily is me.
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The summer doesn’t seem too late to me – it seems about right. Of course, I can remember one summer (much further north than Mpls, but still in Minnesota) where in the shady area behind the house, there were patches of snow at the base of the trees until later in the summer than it is now. I know it’s hard to grow things like tomatoes and basil in a climate like that, but, boy, do I miss that summer coolness that was a normal part of summer.
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