Dear Mr.Baseball God Guy

I am seriously beginning to think that baseball season is delaying the onset of a Fall around here. Not global warming. Baseball. When is this season OVER already? The droning voice. The grody mouthpieces they sling in and out of the mouth with the tongue. The painstaking batting rituals. I can't take it anymore. And maybe, coming from Chicago and all, I am soooo over it since neither of our teams made it to the play-offs or whatever the heck they are called. I know- ultimately it's the World Series 750 or something or other. But I want football to start.
And after spending the weekend in the Wisconsin Northwoods, I am feeling pretty tough. (Well, sort of tough. Not exactly tough enough to sport my Bear's t-shirt deep in Packer land. I took it off after I brushed my teeth but before I walked outside.) And those baseball guys are just lame to me now.
But anyway- I like what football season means. Chili. Sunday papers. Cozy sweatshirts and oddly enough.. baseball hats with football logos. Jeans and relaxing Sunday afternoons.
Here in the midwest, I have always lived under the assumption that school was "off" for the summer so the kids could help on the farm. And you could plant AND harvest the crops in the interim of the school break. Meaning when school started back up, it was cool out. Or at least not HOT.
But not now!
There are still 70 plus degree days. I am scouring my closet for short sleeved Fall shades of summer style shirts. I am staring out the window dreaming of the beach while finishing up the first quarter of school, and it's October! I am unable to wear any Bear's clothes because they are dark and long-sleeved and it's hot. There are no cozy Football Sundays because we have our sliding doors open and I hear the airplanes. There is no chili because I would still rather be eating ice cream.
So please, Mr. Baseball God. Make it end soon. Leave me and my Fall weather and my coolish football season alone.
Thanks very much.

What? NO SCHOOL??

I am supposed to be sleeping in right now. School has been canceled due to the fact that most of my district has declared a state of emergency. Flooding. From the rain. The rain that has been disrupting my life since Friday night when we spent an hour and a half in the car to drive two miles, then turned around and came home, never making it even close to our destination.
Billy was called out to work at six in the morning on Saturday, and then my exciting plans for the day were henceforth canceled.
It started off okay. The warm and cozy "flooded in" feeling. An excuse to go nowhere and spend time at home doing those things that get neglected here and there.
I have baked cookies, taken a luxurous bath, done all the laundry, planned the meals for the week, cleaned the house, read three books ( yes, three ) watched two movies, including Legally Blonde 2 ( for about the tenth time), and I loved every second of it, caught up on some excruciating G's to Gents, but I can't resist, wedding present shopped via the internet, gone to the two stores in my area that I can safely get too, Dominick's and Target, and even completed the US Constitution Studyguide I plan on giving my students today. Well, as of now, tomorrow.
Since school was canceled.
Among the texts and phone calls I received from my co-workers, extolling their excitement, I must admit I was,... annoyed.
I am bored out of my mind. My husband has been gone all weekend, working away, so the most human contact I have had was via the check out girl and my elderly neighbor who bitched me out for not putting in a new sump pump earlier in the year- like he told me, too. He's so not getting any cookies.
And I know I should be grateful for the day off, but I am pretty much caught up on lounging and cleaning. I am feeling antsy. My eyes are darting around my house, just waiting for a speck of dest to land so I may attack it with my weapon, a paper towel. My feet are searching for an excuse to walk from one room to another- giving my overly-lounged butt a reason to move a little bit. My ears are listening for the phone to ring, or at least a neighbor outside I can pounce on and force to talk to me.
And even though it's not even Fall here, I might just tackle my closet. Figure out what goes and stays, put away the gladiator sandals and bust out the wool. So tomorrow when I go back to work I will be sweating my ass off in a turtleneck and and knee-highs.
Either that or start on the "picture project"... photos commemorating the last five years of my life that currently lay in boxes, bags, and piles... begging to be organized into: well, that's where the project falls flat. I get stumped on how to group them.
And what are you supposed to do with the little photos you get in Christmas cards and birth announcements and update letters? It's terrible to think of what a friend might say upon seeing their little Johnny's precious face a foot deep in coffee grounds and Dove Bar wrappers. Trashing the photo is not trashing them, is it?
I digress.
I just hope we have school tomorrow.

The Rain

My husband and I were supposed to go out to Naperville last night to see Jen and the kids. Orignially we were going to babysit, but because my nephew isn't feeling good, Jen came home and we were just going to visit. They live a few suburbs away and it takes about 30 minutes to drive there on a good day and up to an hour in the height of traffic.
Yesterday while at work, it started to rain. Again. I began to ponder how two days before when it was raining it took me thirty minutes to make a ten minute drive and the roads were flooding. Then I thought about our drive and I allowed the teeniest bit of reservation to fall over me. I envisioned hours in the car... sitting in bumper to bumper traffic. With my husband, who does not take kindly to such things. And then me, not taking kindly to such things either. And I thought- we are going to get into a fight. For sure.
So I quickly e-mailed Jen and suggested we might have to call the whole thing off.
Fast forward to the last half hour of my school day.
I peered out the window of my basement classroom and saw the streaming rain. The ground was saturated with water. The drops were landing on puddles an inch deep. My reservation meter went sky high and spilled over into doubt and hovered near stupid.
I texted my husband and suggested we hold off and reschedule our visit. But with manly determination he wanted to go ahead with it. He said he'd pick us up some coffees and it will take an hour but it will be fine.
Reservations went away. I began to believe again and became enthusiastic. Determined! I was dying to see the kids and catch up with Jen.
After a quick change of clothes and a mail check, we made it out of our lot in record time. And then it was like time stood still. Because our car sure did.
We sat in bumper to bumper traffic going ZERO miles an hour with an ocassional mocking spurt of five for good measure. Within thirty minutes, we were not even close to getting out of our town. We were still within one mile of our house. I was halfway through my new US Weekly. I looked up and saw that we were still trying to get onto a main road. It was at this point when after a darling conversation between my husband and myself ( note: this is sarcasm, I SAID we don't take kindly to such things ) that this mission was aborting.
I would say we then turned the car around and went home. And one might say that based on our travel route- BUT it took us another twenty minutes to get to the corner and turn the car and then another 25 minutes to get 'er on home again. At which point we stopped at the Dominicks on the corner and picked up a six pack- throwing out our coffees on the way in.
We quickly settled into our normal kitchen posts. Popped open some beers and looked at the clock. With awe we calculated the last hour and a half of our lives. It was a relief to be out of the car. We suddenly had so much more to talk about. I would venture to say relaxation kicked in.
And now today I am in the same boat. I have a Weight Watchers meeting as well as some errands and ultimately a trip to the city to visit one of my best and favorite friends and her two little wee ones.
But my husband, being a Water Department employee, just got called out to work for some emergency flooding issues. He called on his way in to warn me that he was having trouble making it due to road closings. The normal route was not going to work and while on the phone he said he wasn't sure he was going to make it through this flooded road... Silence from his end of the line. "Okay, I made it, " he sighed.
Five years ago I would have tackled this with a warrior like attitude. Desire superceding caution every time. But I am getting old.