The Snap, Crackle and Pop of an Extra Long Weekend...

It's a very sticky 4th of July evening. The humidity is pressing close and the heat seems magnified by the close air.

At present, I'm sitting outside. Even though it's hot and humid, it's not altogether unpleasant and it seems right to write this outside. Occasionally, I'm hearing the odd pop of a firecracker. I don't know if there will be more fireworks later tonight or if my neighbours got them out of their systems over the weekend. All I know is that from Friday night through Sunday night, I had two alert dachshunds who were a little afraid of all the bangs and whizzes coming from local firework lighters.

It's been a nice weekend. Mother Monkeypants came down to stay and we had a very nice time. The wonderful thing about my mother is...well, she's my mother. We can do something or nothing and be very happy. We ended up doing some things but we also ended up just relaxing which I think is the best way to spend time with someone you love.

She left not too long ago and the house seems empty as it always does after a guest leaves. THe pups seem a little lost too. All weekend, they've had their choice of laps and attention and now they're back to just me.

It seems strange that we have to go back to work tomorrow. It makes sense, of course. It'd be greedy to expect more than a three day weekend but it seems so...anticlimactic to have a holiday and then...boom, right back to work. Yet it's the way of the world and so off tomorrow, to work I shall go.

On the plus side, it's only a four-day work week so I won't complain. It's only four more days until the next weekend. That's definitely not a bad trade off.

As I write, aside from the odd snap, crackle and pop of fireworks, the neighbourhood seems quiet. I think lots of people must be away for celebrations. My family sometimes has a gathering over the 4th even though, technically, as Brits, we're not exactly Independence Day celebrators. Yet, it's a good excuse to get everyone together.

This year, I had the luxury of having my mum come and stay and my siblings spent their holiday with their family. It's actually nice to spend a holiday like this in my own home as much as I like seeing everyone get together. It's been two years officially since I started to move into this house and I spent the long weekend painting my living room a shade of cranberry red. This weekend, I planted a tree, shopped, cooked and spent the time hanging out with my mother. I feel like I've come a long way.

The firework sounds are getting a little more constant and a little less sporadic. I think as darkness starts to fall, the sounds will intensify. My guess is that I will have two little dogs cowering inside, woofing at each crack and pop. I might stick my head out and see if I can see any fireworks but I haven't decided yet. It's been that kind of weekend where it's been nice to play things by ear and not have a firm plan. While it's nice to be organized, there's something to be said from being spontaneous and unplanned.

Whether or not I decide to look for fireworks tonight, I plan on relaxing and enjoying the last waning hours of a fun, extra-long weekend. I hope you, too, make/made the most of it.

Happy July 4th and happy Monday!

Lazy Days of Summer

Mondays can be nice, I think. They're especially nice when you don't have to work. Since it was Independence Day yesterday, we were lucky enough to get today off. It's a lovely feeling to know that it's a Monday morning and you don't have to get up. Extra long weekends are wonderful things. I only wish we could have them more frequently.

Still, it's best not to be greedy, especially when the past extra long weekend was so nice. It was a perfect 4th of July weekend, weatherwise. It was breezy and cool-ish on Saturday; tolerable, even in the sun. Sunday, being Independence Day itself, was very hot. The coolness faded, replaced by a warm, sultry breeze that was only slightly refreshing. Even though my family is British and thus really don't celebrate July 4th, we decided to do a traditional thing and have a family barbecue.

It was my dad's idea and so he was in charge of the grill. The thing with my dad is that I think he secretely likes to compete with mine and my mum's new love of cooking. Thus, instead of just having hot dogs and hamburgers, he decided to also make marinaded steak and salmon steaks. The salmon steaks were grilled in a sauce that was Asian-inspired. He put me in charge of potato salad and guacamole.

Mostly, the food turned out ok. The salmon, I admit, was not to my taste and I think we would have been better served to keep things a bit simpler because only half the food was ready at the same time. This meant my sister, the lone vegetarian in the family, didn't get her protein- the salmon- until long after the rest of the meat was ready and she'd had time to eat all the sides.

Still, for the most part, it wasn't bad. There were a few slight annoyances. For example, my mum and I spent quite a lot of time getting the patio furniture set up so that everyone had a place to sit on the deck which was very pleasant since it's under trees and always has a pleasant breeze. It didn't just entail moving the patio furniture but meant we had to get it out of the storage shed which has a door that doesn't open. After much effort, we got the door open wide enough to get the furniture out and set it up so that all 14 people who would be at the barbecue would have a nice outdoor place to sit and eat.

We tried to tell everyone that we'd be eating outside but, alas, for the most part, everyone wanted to stay in the air conditioned house. Thus, only my older brother's family, my mother and I sat outside. I get that it was cooler inside but it was a barbecue and, well, isn't the point of a barbecue to eat outside?

Nevertheless, it was a pretty pleasant evening. My mum and I cleaned up. We don't have the type of family where people say, "I'll clean up." No, everyone sort of just...left when it came time to clean up. They actually went to sit outside.

Yes, I groaned.

Still, it was a fun, very traditional July 4th for the "American" members of our family and it's the first time we've all been together since Christmas. It's nice to see how the children play together. It's also sort of interesting to watch them fight because it makes me look back on how my siblings and I must have acted when we were young. We were always bickering as siblings. We still bicker as adults but we no longer are able to scratch or bite one another the way little children seem to do so freely. Sometimes, I think that might be best- we'd get it out of our systems instead of silently sulking and harboring resentment for something that ends up being rather silly but seems significant enough at the time it upsets us. I do think my sister would look twice if I reached over and poked her repeatedly with a sharp pointy straw the way my nephew did to his older sister though.

I did end up watching fireworks with my sister and her husband and brother and his wife. I'm the lone unmarried in my family which bothers me at times but no so much at others. Thanks to the magical Off Mosquito Fan, I didn't get bit whereas my siblings did. Yes, I was a little smug about it.

The fireworks were pretty but never seem as exciting when you're watching them as you think they're going to be. It didn't help that we had a surprise rainstorm about ten minutes before the city fireworks were supposed to start and the rain came down hard and heavy enough to flood the streets for a few minutes.

In the end, it turned out to be a pretty good holiday, even though it was hot and humid. Today was also hot but it was one of those 'lazy hazy days of summer' where it was hard to find the energy to do anything but sit outside and enjoy the breeze. My mother and I made a point of sitting on the patio furniture that we dragged out yesterday.

All in all, it as a lovely long weekend. It also is lovely because it means it's a short work week this week and another weekend isn't too far away. It's supposed to be hot again but given that it is summer, that's not wholly unexpected. It's not really unwelcomed either, despite the fact that it's not always comfortable out there.

After all, what would summer be without a little heat?

Happy Tuesday!

From a Wendy House to a Real House...

It's a short week at work for many people this week, me included. I can't tell you how happy this makes me. I could use a long weekend. I need time to get things done and get organized. I keep waking up in a cold sweat, thinking of new things I have to do or have to get for the house.

I think I'm taking it all a little seriously and it's time to step back and realize that I'm never going to get the house perfect before I move in so I should just do what I can and shut up about it.

The sad thing is, aside from the house, there's not a whole lot going on this week. I'm not complaining. After last week's conference, it's nice that things are quiet. It's July the 4th this weekend. As a Brit, it's hard to get terribly excited about that. It makes me feel a little guilty because I've enjoyed the hospitality of living in the States for a long time now. However, there's still a tiny bit of me saying, "whatever!" This is not to say I don't enjoy fireworks, hot dogs, and corn on the cob which is pretty much July the 4th to me. Well, it's also in my mind as a holiday in which cakes are baked and are decorated by the U.S. flag made out of berries. Seriously, check out any Independence Day-themed baking/cooking/home magazine. Someone always has one of those cakes and how to make it in there.

Aside from cakes, fireworks and food, the holiday is just a nice day off, I think. It's a time to spend with family being lazy and doing the most summer-y things like swimming, playing baseball and camping. It's actually usually the time in which I would fly home from L.A. every year and spend a week with my family. It was often the first time I'd been home since Christmas and it was always hard to wrap my mind around seeing my parent's house and garden resplendent in summer flowers and trees instead of being barren and snow-covered as it had been when I'd left a few months before.

This year, I'm not going to be spending it with my family. I find that ironic that the first year I'm actually close enough to drive there, I'm not going to go. This is not to say I don't want to but it's just going to be the perfect time to paint my living room, get a lawnmower and do summer-y things around my house. I had a bit of a minor panic-attack yesterday when I realized that I only have two weekends before my furniture is to be moved in which also means I'll be moving in. That's not much time when you want it to look decent by the time things arrive.

I hate having those stress-attacks. They usually result in me calling my mother and taking it out on her. I did that last night and I feel horrible. I'm just so muddled about what I have to do and what I should be doing. Fortunately, upon my realization that it wasn't that bad, I managed to get hold of my stress. I think it came upon the fact that I went to make rice for dinner, only to realize that I had taken my rice tub to my new house and thus couldn't have rice. I realized then that my over-avid packing/transporting of boxes was under control. Probably too under control.

The bottom line is that I knew it was going to be a lot of work to move to my house, I just didn't realize quite how much work the place needed. Fortunately, I have two rooms that I don't need to paint and those rooms can store my boxes for now. I don't have to be unpacked before I officially move in. I have time for that.

I just hate getting overwhelmed but the older I get, the more that seems to be happening. I should be finding things easier, not harder. I suppose it's because I'm well and truly an adult now and the decisions I make are decisions for life. I hate being a grown-up at times like this. Part of me wants to revert back to being a child in which I had the luxury of picking-and-choosing what I did and relying on my parents to fill in the gaps that my choices left. Nowadays, I can't do that and occasionally I forget. Yet, ever onward I move forward and if it means my living room doesn't get painted immediately, so be it. I'm declaring this an Independence Day from stress and I'm going to attempt to not let the burden of being a homeowner overshadow the fact that I own a house and that's a cool thing.

When we were children in England, our classrooms would often have what we called Wendy Houses in the play corner. They were little tents or structures in which we would play house, pretending to cook dinner and doing all sorts of domestic stuff. Primarily the girls played there but occasionally boys would come in and try out the feel for domesticity. I think we all just assumed that one day, we'd have a house of our own and we wanted to practice.

Now, that experience seems quaint but hopeful. To look it at from that point of view means my dream came true. I have a house, not just a Wendy house. So that's the view I'm going to take and let the excitement seep in and not be drowned out by reality-tinted dread.

Of course, in true Monkeypants fashion, I truly used to like to spend my Wendy house time pretending the house was haunted and pretending it was a castle surrounded by a crocodile-filled moat rather than pretend to be making dinner. Now I look back, I realize I probably should have focused more on the domesticity element.

Oh well, at least there aren't any crocodiles at my house.

I hope.

Happy Wednesday.