Mermama: August 2007

Monday, August 27, 2007

Summer's End

Just got back from almost five weeks in Vermont. This is such a sentimental time of year for me. Bittersweet...I love the onset of autumn, but everything about leaving Vermont, about starting school again, about the inevitable end of summer makes me feel melancholy.

Vermont was wonderful, as always. The first two weeks belonged to me and the girls. Swimming every day, long hikes through the woods, pancakes for breakfast and reading half the night. I wrote over a hundred pages. And I even wrote a children's story (a story within the novel), that I think might be good enough to stand on its own. Patrick came to visit right after my parents arrived, and the visit got increasingly more busy, which was also fine. Lots of family visits. A night in Burlington, and my visit to Bread Loaf, which (though short) was everything I expected. It's like summer camp for writers. I wish I could go for the whole conference sometime. I met some wonderful people there, got some work done, and then took a beautiful ride back to the Northeast Kingdom through a part of the state I had never seen before. I took over seven hundred pictures, and wound up with a handful I'll use in my show in November.

Now, we're back. And today I took Kicky to her first day of kindergarten. I was surprised by how emotional I got...I could barely keep it together long enough to get back to my car. Kicky, on the other hand, was fabulous...calm, cool, collected. I also appeared to be the only one feeling so completely overcome by things.

School starts for me next week: three sections of 81 (back to back no less). I also become official chauffeur next week: ballet lesson, gymnastics. Oh God, I'm a mom.

Any way, here are some pictures...