Reflections of a Weekend....

I'm having trouble waking up today; my commute to work was one of those drives that seems like it takes forever. My mind feels sluggish; I'm hoping the cup of coffee I currently smell will wake me up a little otherwise it's going to be a very slow Monday.

It would be hard for it not to be a slow Monday. The weekend, as always, flew by. It was a really fun and busy weekend for me. I spent most of the time with my mother. We went to the farmer's market, to garage sales, to the grocery store, walking around the garden...they're all my favourite things to do with mum. Better yet, as I knew she would, she put me straight about my writing and helped me come up with an idea.

More importantly, she reminded me how to come up with ideas. Lately, I've been trying too hard. When I first started to write, I used to just sit down and wait for the words to creep up on me and leak out of me onto the computer screen. I felt as though I were just a filter for the characters waiting to be discovered. Lately, I feel as though I've been holding on too tightly, trying to push my characters and make them something they're not. It's taken the joy out of the writing because I'm holding myself to a ridiculously high standard which I'm not even sure I'm capable of reaching.

So, instead of doing that, I'm going to just...write. I have my idea now; it's going to have the elements of darkness I can't quite shed in my writing because I just find them so fascinating. Yet it'll also be different because I think it's time I did something new.

Aside from talk about my writing and spend time with my mother, I did get to see my sister, my niece and my brother-in-law. That's always fun. My niece is three and very much a princess. She even has the tiara. I was fortunate enough to be generously loaned her other tiara and so I spent the duration of my time with her adorned not only with my lovely purple crown but also an array of purple jewelry. My niece wore all pink; she's very much into pink. It was a lot of fun.

The thing I like most about weekends like the one I just had are the fact that they truly are weekends. I get to escape from everything that's routine, everything I do by rote on a daily basis and just...relax. I get to escape from work; there's no reason to really talk about it much with my family and there's not much to do on weekends so it really does feel like a mini holiday. I also got to escape from the Super Rapid Growing Lawn that exists at my house.

I've discovered my hlawn is abnormal. While all the other houses on the street seem to have nice normal lawns, mine seems to grow exponentially by the day. One day, I cut it so it's about an inch long, within three days, it's back to the length it was before I cut it. It's the most baffling thing. I'm thinking this autumn, I shall invest some free time in making some rather nice flower beds and planting some trees where the lawn currently resides. Anything to eliminate some of the grass. I keep hoping for one of those seemingly mythical teenage boys to walk by so I can get him to cut my grass for a low fee. This is what all my friends tell me to do: Find a neighbour kid to cut it.

The thing is, the neighbour kids all seem to be about seven or eight. I'm not so sure I really want one of them cutting my grass. The mower might be a bit tricky and, also, I'd worry about that whole child-labour thing. I have contemplated getting a lawn chair and sitting out on my street, waiting for a teenager to pass by so I can get him to cut my grass but I'm not sure it works like that. Though sitting out on my drive, watching the neighbourhood activity, does seem like the thing to do. In the evening, the older folk often pull out their lawn chairs and settle themselves down on their front stoops, watching the street's activity. The interesting thing is that they sit in pairs, husband and wife, just watching, side by side. They don't face one another as though having a conversation, they clearly are set up to be pure spectators.

I suppose it's definitely more interesting than television sometimes though so far, I haven't really seem much happen on the street. Cars drive by and people mow their lawns but that's about the extent of it.

Then again, perhaps if I did sit out, I'd figure out what the spectator-activity was really all about. Perhaps every now and again, a flock of teenage boys who love nothing more than to cut grass pass by and everyone in the neighbourhood gets to grab one to have their own personal lawn mowing boy.

I'm not so sure though. The most I ever see is a very active old man running by in spandex and a sweat band. That's one of those things I'm not sure I'd want to see too often though he does seem to do it daily. It's the spandex...it's just one of those sights that kind of stays with you.

So, my grass continues to grow and I continually wonder how to get one of those personal lawn-mowing boys. In the meantime, I'll do my own mowing. And try to time it so I don't see Mr. Spandex jogging by.

Happy Monday.