I’m trying to climb out of my book binge. Never easy. I, of course, read the new Harry Potter, but more on that later. Most of my reading material had been in the magazine form because articles and short fiction fit so well into the short snippets of time that I have between fishing foreign objects from my one-year-old’s mouth and fielding my five-year-old’s cryptic questions (“Did we park the wrong way or the right way? …er, right?). The New Yorker Summer Fiction issue was exceptional this year, especially Wildwood by Junot Diaz. I also got turned on to Breece D’J Pancake this summer and I’ve enjoyed his short fiction. I’m still trying to dig my teeth into Irving’s newest, but time is running out. It’s a library book for one and my open season on reading time is limited. I hate spinning my wheels. Lolly Winton’s new novel Happiness Not Included was a really good read. Her characters were all so sympathetic that the ending was both inevitable and a surprise. Not simple to pull off.

Then there’s J.K. Rowling and her epic story. I had so much fun reading the Harry Potter books. Rowling reminded me why I want to write: I love stories. What an amazing accomplishment to weave a tale that captures the entire world. Incredible. I’d like to read it again now that I know what happens in the end. Maybe I won’t read so compulsively next time. I also got a list of books from my professor for fall semester, (I know, boo! It’s semester break, right?) Problem is, I know absolutely nothing about Medieval Epic and Romance literature. I only recently learned to spell Medieval. I won’t be able to focus on the writing and revising we’ll do in class if I’m completely ignorant of the literature.

If there’s one thing that signals the end of summer, it’s the trading of novels for textbooks. We’re off to Spokane, WA to help my Grandma celebrate her 90th birthday for ten days in August and even though we have a month of summer left, so much of it’s already booked (add a trip to New York and camping to the Spokane vacation.) I hate to see summer go, but now that I live in Virginia I’ve learned a new appreciation for fall – at least the mosquitoes are dead.

Finally, summer semester is over. Can I get a hallelujah?

I have lots of projects I want to get done between now and the end of August when Fall semester starts, most of them writing related. I’d like to make this blog weekly instead of monthly/sporadic. I intended to use the blog as a view into the writing and revision process, but other than the one short short story I worked on, everything else it too long to expect anyone to read (twice!) so I decided to switch formats to a column-type post once a week. This week’s topic is: Why I don’t do well in crowds.

I bring this up because the family spent Saturday at an amusement park—crowd hell. It was Jeremy’s office family day at Busch Gardens, a nice enough park if you enjoy lines. We waited in line to park, to get through the gate, to go to the bathroom, to get food, to get on rides, and when you consider the crowds, we basically waited in line to walk down the paths. We had with us both Alex and Greta and we brought along Alex’s buddy Drew. The five-year-olds were in heaven. Greta—not so much. She had to spend the entire day moving from one container to the other.

As much as I wanted to leave at certain points of the day, there were other moments that were very cool and reminded me that I too once looked forward to my dad’s work-sponsored amusement park day even though, to keep track of all seven of their children, my parents made us all wear the same retarded t-shirt and despite the embarrassment, I mean effort, they always had to fetch one of their children from the lost kid room near the entrance. One minute I’m wearing the shirt of shame and the next I’m dressing my son and daughter in the brightest tie-dye shirts they own.

This year we took Alex on his first “big” ride. He had been asking all day to go on a ride that went “fast” and we finally found one that if we messed up his hair and he stood up as tall as possible, he could just meet the height requirement. It happened to be the magic carpet-type ride, one of my favorites. Drew said no, then yes, then no, he wasn’t quite ready so it was just Alex and me. We laughed the entire ride and as soon as we got off he said, “Let’s go again!” This time, Drew decided if Alex had fun, then maybe he would too. Jeremy got to go this time while I let Greta stretch her chubby legs using her stroller as a walker. When they got off the ride this time Alex again said, “Let’s go again!” Drew said, “No fanks.” I guess it wasn’t his cup of tea after all but we were very impressed that he’d give it a shot even though he was obviously pretty nervous about it.

Anyway, after that we stopped by a fast food joint for some horrible service and even worse food (but at least it didn’t cost us $100) and headed home to the sweet sounds of Greta screaming in the back seat.

The good news is Jeremy took the opportunity to upgrade our free passes to season tickets so we get to repeat the experience as often as we want! I suggested next time we leave the kids at home and have a roller coaster riding date night on a Monday when the crowds are thin and I can ride all the rides I want because the magic carpet ride reminded me why I used to love amusement parks so much: roller coasters!