Summer Vacation

I have never really liked summer. I always looked forward to time off school when I was a student and then later when I was a high school teacher. That lovely first day of summer vacation after the teaching year was quite nice. Now that I am no longer a public school teacher with set vacation time, I really don't like summer. I don't like the heat, and I don't like the pressure of having to do something that hasn't been planned for me. Now that I have teenagers, I hate that if they are lazy and do nothing with their summer, then it is my fault. I should encourage and do things with them and I should somehow make them do things so that others will not see that they are lazy and don't want to do anything. They are not the same, my kids, but they each have to be prodded when they are faced with a lot of free time.

We have trips planned, to Kansas and Cyprus, to visit family. We are going to spend two days in Amsterdam, too, on the way to Cyprus. That might be fun. Andreas has found a hotel and is planning the trip.

As I said, I don't like the heat; especially now that I am overweight, I don't like the clothes for summer and I hate how I look. I love traveling, but with the heat, people who I don't see often throughout the year see me only in my ugly summer clothes that show way too much skin and they are not excessively short or skimpy. Any amount of skin is too much I think.

And now summer vacation starts after Friday. The girls will be out of school. I'm working at UOP so I still have things to do. They, on the other hand, have a sea of free time at which they are now gazing out upon.