Monthly Archives: August 2016

Gettysburg Farm RV Resort

08 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by in Bartleby, Pets, Randomness, Zelda

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I can tell already that the campgrounds are going to blend together. Less than two weeks and I was struggling this morning to remember which one had the concrete pads, cracked and broken, with grass springing up in the ridges, and which one was like parking in a field. A nice field. With a lovely walk for the dogs. (Ans: St. John’s RV in St. Augustine for the first; Bass Lake in Dillon, North Carolina for the second.)

I don’t think I’ll forget today’s campground soon, though. There are goats! Lots and lots of baby goats, wandering around the driveway like they own the place. As, in fact, they might do. It’s a first-come, first-served campground, so after I picked my site, I wandered back up to the front to turn in a card with my site number on it. I brought the dogs, both because they needed the walk and because, like apparently a lot of campgrounds, one is not supposed to leave pets unattended. (I suspect I’m going to have to break that rule upon occasion, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.) We were headed back when we startled a little white and brown goat that had been browsing in the bushes by the mini-golf course. It bounced away like a Superball, surprising both dogs. Z looked mystified, but B was all set to charge after it.

B has been seriously rambunctious lately. It’s quite a surprise. I expected him to tolerate traveling while Z would like it, but Z’s been anxious while B’s energy level has skyrocketed. At my brother’s house, he was playing, chewing on a blanket that wasn’t his, mouthing my hands… not at all the “hide in closets” puppy that he used to be. Serenity has a screen door that I suspected would be no deterrent to Zelda if she saw a squirrel, but Bartleby was actually the one who barreled right through it — and for no other reason than that he thought it was time to be outside! He wasn’t chasing anything and he didn’t need to be walked, he just didn’t feel like being in the van so shoved his way out the door.

Or maybe he wanted to check out the campsite. I chose a spot that looks onto the water, and instead of pulling in or backing in, I parallel parked Serenity, so that she’s alongside the water. Well, I didn’t literally parallel-park. There was plenty of room, so I just pulled in as if I was parallel-parking. You can see the view from my window on instagram (because I am having trouble uploading files to wordpress.) Having trouble taking photos, too — my phone stopped letting me save photos, which is possibly the universe telling me that I shouldn’t bother? But it’s hard to resist the temptation.

So I’m going to be here for a week. It’s my first test of real life in Serenity. I’ve been living in her for two weeks already, but it doesn’t feel like it at all. It’s been two weeks of driving and learning and visiting family. I’ve felt busy and on the go. This is my chance to slow down, take some deep breaths, and get back to work. I wish I could say that the weeks in which I’ve not been writing have been inspiring me, the words piling up like water behind a log jam, but alas, such is not the case. I suspect I’m going to be off to a slow start. Still, better slow than not at all.

Bad Moms

04 Thursday Aug 2016

Posted by in Movies, Personal, Reviews

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I’m having a very summer vacation few days in Pennsylvania. Part of me wants to get on with my life, to get a schedule organized, to impose a structure on my days that includes writing and yoga and meditating and… I don’t know. Getting my act together, maybe?

The other part of me wants to savor the time I have with my niece and nephew while they are the age that they are. I know, from my (ha-ha) vast perspective as the mom of a 20-year-old that time with kids goes by much too quickly and never comes back again. A couple hours at the park, or playing video games, or doing jigsaw puzzles, is not time that I can have later when I’ve finished a book or gotten into better shape or even meditated my way into peacefulness.

That said, it also feels like typical vacation time, where you’ve got a plan and yet putting the plan into action and coordinating all the people who are involved somehow requires an hour where no one did anything in particular, but there was lots of movement around the house, of finding sunglasses and last trips to the bathroom and questioning whether we should bring snacks and so on. I feel like I should be making more productive use of those little windows of time. Or maybe just being more productive in general.

Last night, I went with my sister-in-law and a group of her friends to the movies to see Bad Moms. Wow. The theater was packed. With moms. Seriously, a Wednesday night in the middle of summer, and it was close to full and almost everyone in the place was a woman between the ages of 25-55. Women apparently want to go to the movies with their friends. Who knew?

The movie itself was sort of obvious, somewhat predictable, a little too obsessed with alcohol, crude enough to make my eyes go wide at times, and laugh-out-loud funny. It was definitely enjoyable, with some serious wish fulfillment fantasy and a feel-good message shining through the shock value.

At the end, M & her friends were talking about which of the moms they most related to. Sadly, I was pretty sure I’d be one of the PTA moms — the women with the need to do it right, to get it perfect, to have everything just so. In fact, ha, I did do my time as president of the PTA when R was young, thus proving my suspicion. But the message of the movie really is about relaxing and accepting that no one is perfect and that perfection is an unattainable goal. It’s a nice message to contemplate on this sunny summer Thursday while I debate whether today is the day that I get my act together or whether I’m going to go play video games with my niece instead.

Tomorrow is a nice day to get my act together, don’t you think?

Walking in a cloud

01 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by in Randomness, RV, Serenity, Travel, Zelda

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Sitting in a parking lot outside the vets. Both dogs are inside, getting looked at. Poor Z was pretty frantic about being left, but B, it turns out, had a goopy ear, which inspired me to ask to have Z’s ears checked, too. And of course they’ll give her an exam, so if her stomach stuff is anything feverish, we’ll find out about it. (Given the circumstances, I’m really not worried that it’s anything more serious. Well, that’s not true. I’m worried, but only in the way that I know it’s probably not a bomb, despite my predilection for worrying about such things.)

This morning’s walk took place in something between a mist and a drizzle. I could hear the rain in the trees, but it felt like a cool damp breeze on my skin. Pretty much like walking in a cloud, I suppose, but a cloud at a temperature that felt lovely, not too warm, not too cold. I walked both dogs around the “block”, so to speak. Is it a loop in a campground? But when we got back to Serenity, Z didn’t want to go inside, so I left B and took her on something more like a hike. We walked up the road and up some more, past campers and trailers and sites more like summer homes than temporary habitations, up and up, and then found a trail through the woods that led back to the front of the campground.

It was exactly like my daydream of a week ago. Except for the bugs and the sticks that kept getting in my shoes and the drizzle. But the joy and the sense of freedom and adventure, those were exactly right.

At the entrance to the campground, we found the enclosed dog park with agility equipment inside. I took Z in and tried to get her to play on the agility equipment, the tunnel, the low fence for jumping, the ramp and slide. I always kind of thought she might love agility games. Ha. She did not understand why I would want her to take the indirect routes and wouldn’t go on a single one of the objects. I’m sure I could get her to do it if I kept her on a leash and gave her treats, but letting her run around off-leash and sniff all the corners made her happy, so I didn’t bother. Maybe later.