Summer Vacation

Welcome to the first real day of summer vacation…well not for me as I am an adult and have a job, but for all the school children in my area, it’s eleven weeks of freedom!  This is both good and bad for a parent.  It’s good, as you don’t have all the: “Is your homework done?” “What do you want for lunch?  Are you buying or packing?”  “Is your activity bag ready for after school?” moments.  However now you have the: “I’m bored.”  “Can I …?”  “There’s nothing to eat in this house.” “No, go outside and play!” moments instead.  Not to mention that you still have activities such as summer dance, or tennis camps, or library events, or swimming lessons.  I love summer for the sunshine and the warm and the days of the smell of fresh grass and dirt.  I hate summer for all the stress and unscheduled days of anxiety.  Chaos is not my friend. 

The fact that I do not thrive in an unscheduled real world is quite strange for me, as I definitely thrive in a unscheduled novel writing atmosphere.  When an idea hits, I don’t sit down and outline it all out.  I sit down and start writing and figure out along the way where my characters want to go.  If I get stuck or have to do a bit of research, I stop and get done what needs done, then I go back to writing full speed ahead.  I like the chaos of writing.  I like being as surprised as the reader with regard to where the story goes and who dies and how it all ends.  I have said once or twice or fifty times, that if I sit down and figure out all the action and events that are to come, what’s the point of writing the story then?  I already know how it ends. 

In life though, my real world, bill paying, laundry doing life, I need the schedule.  I don’t want to be surprised.  I want to know where I am going, at what time and who I need to make sure is with me, along with how much money I am going to need.  Don’t get me wrong; I am still good with a bit of spontaneity.  Such as, I don’t pre-plan our vacations other than where we are going and where we are staying.  Other than that, the days are free to unfold, as they will.  Or free weekends.  I get up, shower and dress and wait to see what will happen.  However, in the every day scheme of things, yeah, I need the schedule.  Go figure.